The Future X: Can Simon Fuller's TikTok band recreate the Spice Girls' magic?

The Future X (L-R): Luke Brown, Drew Venegas, Tray Taylor, Angie Green, Sasha Marie, Maci Wood and Jayna Hughes

The man behind the Spice Girls and S Club 7 has launched his latest pop group with the help of TikTok.

Simon Fuller, who also created Pop Idol and American Idol, held auditions on the app over the last year to create a seven-piece band called The Future X.

Despite the global search, all of the members hail from America and Canada, led by singers Angie Green, Luke Brown, and Maci Wood.

Their debut single, This Kind Of Love, is due next month on Columbia Records.

Why is this happening on TikTok?

TikTok has increasingly become an essential tool for the music industry, launching the careers of global stars like Lil Nas X and Doja Cat, creating viral hits out of sea shanties and resurrecting classic songs such as Boney M's Rasputin and Fleetwood Mac's Dreams.

Two weeks ago, former American Idol contestant Lauren Spencer-Smith broke into the UK top five with Fingers Crossed, a song she released without a record label, thanks to its popularity on the video sharing app.

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Fuller is betting that TikTok's influence can propel his latest group to fame.

Its members already have a combined 4.4 million followers on their individual accounts - although the majority of those come from dancer Tray Taylor, who went viral in 2019 after posting a video about failing to complete his homework.

Taylor, who hails from Louisiana, has already been posting behind-the-scenes snippets of The Future X on his account from the group's shared home in Malibu, building up early buzz for the project.

The line-up is completed by dancers Drew Venegas, Sasha Marie and Jayna Hughes, who have significantly fewer followers... for now.

At the time of writing, some of the band's audition videos - including those of singers Angie Green and Maci Wood (both of whom performed original compositions) - can still be viewed online.

According to a press release, fans will be able to watch "every stage of the group's creative and personal journey" on TikTok, as they record new music and prepare for a tour with Fuller's other band, Now United, in March.

How will TikTok users react?

But there are question marks over how users will react to the platform being used to promote what is, to all intents and purposes, a manufactured pop group.

Users tend to cluster around videos with a personal touch, and music that captures unfiltered emotions, rather than the slick, produced pop of The Future X's first single.

"The more raw and the less polished [a song is] on Tik Tok, the better, because it feels more native to the platform," Andreea Gleeson, CEO of TuneCore - a company that helps musicians launch their music on TikTok - told me last week.

That said, BTS, whose music doesn't adhere to those rules, have amassed 45 million followers on the platform, so there is a precedent for fans flocking to a 14-legged pop phenomenon - as long as the songs are right.

Simon Fuller (centre) managed the Spice Girls during their ascent to fame, and teamed up with them again for 2019's reunion tour

Perhaps more problematic is The Future X's brand partnership with e.l.f. Cosmetics, which makes a prominent appearance in the press release announcing their formation.

One of the band's first TikTok posts is a tie-in with the make-up company, offering fans the chance to become a make-up artist for The Future X.

Even before the band's official launch, the contest had been seeded with pre-prepared TikTok videos from beauty bloggers like Seth O'Brien, Sassy Massy and Neil Shibata.

It hardly seems organic - but Fuller has long been an advocate of brand partnerships, using the marketing might of companies like Pepsi, Benetton and Faberge to promote (and fund) the Spice Girls in the 1990s.

His partnership with TikTok will undoubtedly boost The Future X's fortunes, too.

Although the app's main "For You" page chooses videos algorithmically - serving up content based on the sorts of things you've watched in the past - TikTok's music team can curate the music that's suggested on the "Sounds" page.

"We are able to present songs and almost recommend the songs for creation," TiKTok's head of music, Ole Obermann, told me during a panel at the WebSummit in Lisbon last year.

"But after that, it's up to the creators and the community to decide what happens."

Has anyone done this before?

Fuller's other group Now United - also known as NU - have achieved popularity in South America

Fuller's other big pop project, Now United, might provide an indication of how The Future X will fare.

Created in 2017, the group consists of 18 members, each representing a different country and nationality from around the world.

Fuller, rather chillingly, billed them as "the first group to offer open access to their music and lives in real time".

In the last five years, the band have released a staggering 57 singles, none of which has troubled the charts, while documenting their career in an ongoing YouTube series, which has attracted almost 8 million subscribers.

Although they've deliberately avoided signing a record deal, their Spotify statistics are relatively healthy, with 655,000 monthly listeners, placing them amongst the top 10,000 acts on the streaming service. Meanwhile, the music videos for singles like Na Na Na and Summer In The City have each been watched more than 100m times - mainly in Latin America.

In 2019, they performed at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics and, the following year, their single Come Together was nominated for an MTV Award.

However, they are not the cultural or musical force that the Spice Girls were, nor have they had the impact of Fuller's many other clients, including Annie Lennox, Amy Winehouse, the Beckhams and Carrie Underwood.

In a press release, the mogul said he was "thrilled" at the formation of The Future X, saying they combined "everything that is exciting about contemporary young artists: Authenticity, confidence, empowerment and a unique balance between extraordinary dancers and iconic singers".

Their future (x) is in your hands.