The charts were thick with smooth R&B and New Jack Swing influences.
The #5 song of 1997 was . A power ballad so dramatic, so soaked in string sections and vocal runs, that it felt like a Broadway death scene. It was the last gasp of the "adult contemporary" diva before Britney Spears and boy bands bulldozed the landscape in 1998. top 20 songs 1997
At #13 was . The song that introduced "zig-a-zig-ah" to the English language. It was chaos: shouting, laughing, a rap break from Mel B, and a key change that felt like a sugar explosion. Record labels had spent years trying to manufacture girl groups. The Spice Girls accidentally did it while being openly rude to their managers. The charts were thick with smooth R&B and