Sunday, December 23, 2012

Dancing Queen from ABBA and the Swedish Music Scene

By Martin Reynolds


If there's one tune that would identify Sweden it would have to be Dancing Queen - ABBA. ABBA like a renowned travel and leisure host and chef might identify is one of Sweden's most widely used trade. With all due value to the music group and its associates, Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, I will have to agree with that affirmation not really because the band has become so commercial but merely because the band has described the country as well as its culture. These have created Sweden recognizable across the world thanks to ABBA's songs.

The band is one of he most popular groups in the 70's and has redefined an era with their music. There dance inducing songs and electronic rich melody has influenced many of the artists today and their songs has even inspired a musical which was also released as a full length feature film.

Before ABBA, Benny Anderson was a member of the Hep Stars, which at that time was dubbed as Sweden's Beatles. They cover many popular pop and rock songs during the time. At the age of 18 he is already writing songs and releasing hit singles for his band. The group first met in Sweden when the two couples decided to go to Cyprus. What began as an impromptu jam at the beach turned into a full performance for the United Nations soldiers stationed in the island. This was the beginning of a very memorable career for the four singers. On November 1, 1970 Festfolk was born which was the predecessor for ABBA. Their work together was on an album called Lycka, which was originally just collaboration between Anderson, and Ulvaeus but Lyngstad and Faltskog added the backup vocals on many of the tracks. Their first record together was a song about a salvation army soldier called "Hej, gamle man" The quartet continued working and touring together and has slowly becoming very famous as a group.

In 1972, the group finally broke through as a quartet. They introduced their very first hit, People Need Love and the women from the group loved matched popularity with the guys playing various guitars and vocals. The track achieved number 17 in the Swedish chart, which is sufficient to be able to encourage the group to carry on playing as one. It has also been the first single that was released by the group to attain the US charts. However, despite of that achievement, the group does not have a genuine title yet.

In 1973, the group was basically generally known as ABBA. The group finally got their very best year in 1976 when they released the album finest hits, this despite of the fact they only have six established UK and US hits. The album nonetheless actually peaked in numerous International charts and provided ABBA their best years. It included a brand new single Fernando, which provided ABBA some new followers. Even so, Dancing Queen - ABBA remained the bands only US number 1 hit in the US. In spite of that, ABBA's popularity should not be questioned, as their music continue to be a hit among many people today.




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