From the archive: everything to the biggest pop band ever.
A band comes from the pop development country of Sweden at the beginning of the seventies, which is impossible to take culturally enlightened people seriously. But soon it becomes clear that your songs will never be able to forget the world again. The Swedish group ABBA existed for just ten years – from 1972 to 1982. But this time was enough to enter history as one of the most successful popacts.
But what does this word actually stand for: “success”? Abba sold an insanely many records and still do this today. Your music runs every day in almost every corner of the earth on the radio. With “Mamma Mia!” Since 1999 there has been a so-called “Jukebox” musical with its biggest hits, which celebrates its premiere every few months in a new theater and attracts coaches from coaches. And in every new generation, young people crush themselves hopelessly into their music. Success means presence.
Looking back at the 1970s, we can even speak of omnip presence in the case of ABBA. Because if the 39 hits of the 39 hits from their two compilations “Gold – Greatest Hits” (1992) and “More Abba Gold – more Abba Hits” (1993), the impression that they belonged to them was all of their own. (If you want, then rinse your ears with preparations from the sex pistols, new! Or Led Zeppelin to revise this impression. That helps. For the time being.)
Abba and pop for masses
Even if the mass taste has a bad reputation, it is striking that among the artists and bands that are among the world’s most successful acts (Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are at the forefront). This also applies to ABBA. Not only in the “Anything Goes” of the pop music that has been sworn in by countless retrowaves has prevailed that this quartet has produced popware of outstanding quality.
At the latest since the first large, albeit with an ironic undertone, we know in the early 1990s: They created catchy tunes for eternity, whose special artistry and melodious radiance last for years, almost like Brian Wilson’s “Teenage Symphonies to God ”, Phil Spectors magnificent scree avalanches and the elegant Evergreens Burt Bacharachs. (Which, by the way, was exactly what the two upstairs Björn and Benny had put in their heads when they made serious from 1968 with their community composition crafts.)
Everything was reef and sound and these bell bright voices. “Ring Ring – Why Don’t You Give Me a Call?” Clearly: The guy had to be deaf!
But let’s not forget: When Abba still lived and worked, they were the enemy. The enemy of the skirt, whether wide -legged, academic or trashy. The enemy of the claim and the enlightenment. The enemy of the rebellious, of which with the subordinated gestures such as those who actually tried to establish a counterculture in pop culture. And Abba were a fairly powerful enemy.