Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I think so!
Left-Benny Anderson, Front-Frida Lyngstad, Back-Agnetha Faltskog, Right-Bjorn Ulvaeus
The reason ABBA still rules is because they had a gift for song hooks and melody that hasn't been matched since. It helps that Frida and Agnetha were great singers (not just pop singers, but singers in any genre) and unlike so many American singers, they don't ham it up by over-singing (i.e. enunciating every vowel in a one syllable word -I remember a re-make where the singer cycled through O-U-E-I-A while singing the word "I" in "I Will Survive").
ABBA was the most popular band of all time - in terms of global popularity - they were more popular than the Beatles, especially in Australia. Their fashion sense was dictated by the times - the 70's.
If you look at any successful rock band from the 70's, you will see equally bizarre fashion. So I'm not sure why the reference, "cheesy" is being used.
They had more hits, than any other group (again - in the world, not U.S.), which is why they will always be adored. Their music was extremely complicated, with layers and layers of vocals, singing in what they thought was appropriate English. It wasn't and it didn't matter. They made their point through music. They were geniuses at transferring their emotion directly through their music. Plus - they had that elusive 70's sexual energy. When you listened to their music, you felt like the 2 couples had just finished having make-up sex with each other and were still angry. No other band has been able to do that - not even close.
The most infectious aspect of their style (of music and clothing) is that they were FUN, even while being serious.
They are legendary!
I liked early ABBA -- "Waterloo". It was all downhill from there.
As far Swedish bands go, I'll take the one-hit wonders, Blue Swede, with its "Ooga Chaka" version of B.J. Thomas's "Hooked on a Feeling", or Golden Earing and "Radar Love" over any other ABBA pablum.
As for the musical philistine slamming Bob Dylan's earlier material, you probably think all of Woody Guthrie's oeuvre suck too. No wonder your love of ABBA has no bounds. Bob Dylan has more talent in his long-dessicated foreskin than ABBA has in its collective body.
People, you wanna like a sucky group and see a sucky movie? Fine, but don't try defending your bad taste to the discerning among us.
So why are YOU here?
Yes; I know Mr Keith claims to be a Democrat and has scurried to say how much he doesn't agree with the Iraq War once it started becoming unpopular--but he couldn't wait to bash the Dixie Chicks once they voiced their disapproval of Bush. I guess Keith believes in freedom of speech as long as it's his. Me, I never thought of boots in asses as being the American Way--more the Nazi leather bar way. But if he's done a grand mea culpa--then maybe McClown should have a Hank Williams Jr. song. After all, Jr. did write a song praising Bush and Cheney; I suppose he can write one about McPain.
He is the dancing queen,
What a ham; mutton dressed as lamb!
Peter Paul: loved your scenario!
They're "spiritual and sexual." "Innocent and sophisticated." Which must also mean that they're canny and naive, retro and forward-looking, imitative and sui generis, stunning and lethargic, ordinary and sublime. . . . They are all things to all people, the band of bands, the one and only, pop without end, amen.
A friend refers to ABBA's lyrics as 'brain cleanser.' If you ever have some other voice stuck repeating in your head, you start singing ABBA and then the other stuff leaves. Of course, then you 're stuck with ABBA, and might be for years.
The resurgence of ABBA, "stuff white people like," and, hell, Garrison Keillor has to mean Obama is going to win the Presidency with his vacuous feel-good sparkly vanilla speeches. This election is about white people forgetting what bastards they truly are. Enough with the torture, already, they don't even want to think about it. Just tell us how to get W's voice out of our heads!
Give us the brain cleanser!
There was something in the air that night
The starssss so bright, Obama
They were shining down for you and me
For liberty
Obama
I am really tired of the enclave of pseudo-highbrows that inabits this site, and constantly sniffs how their tastes and insights supersede all others. Since the rest of us can't measure up, we are either "lowbrows", low class or some other lower form of the food chain.
ABBA's music is my third favorite after the Beatles, and Simon and Garfunkel. Often listen to it while lounging on the beaches in the W. Indies. "Cheesy"? Says who? Some nimrod who thinks s/he is god's gift to musical adjudication?
Same with that odious piece of trash-garbage that most of us thought was abominable, but which the snooty pseudo-highbrows bragged about "gettiing" - while most of us (including Obama) found it decidedly unfunny.
What the pseudo-highbrows of Salon really need is a thorough butt-kicking, tol knock the snot (and pseudo sense of superiority) out of their miserable, officious little hides.
Same with that odious piece of trash-garbage
I refer to that 'New Yorker' cartoon, of course, praised as "satire" by the pseudo-highbrows, who merely showed they lack normal brain cells if any at all.
American music has several roots.
The two biggest are European Folk Music and African Music.
The merging of the two over the last century is what gave us our modern pop music which has spread worldwide.
While our melodic pop music style has spread worldwide, our style of Afro-European melodies HAVE NOT replaced the original roots of music where it has become part of the scene. It has only added to what's already there.
ABBA's songs are a classic example of "pure" European melodies being turned into modern pop songs of that era.
Though millenia old, Europeans have NOT tired of the melodies they created in the forgotten past.
ABBA is/was so popular in Europe, because so much of ABBA's music consists of the ancient European Folk Melodies reiterated as modern pop songs of a certain era.
Most fans of world music from Europe would be loathe to realize that in the music they think so "different and original" is laced with ABBA like melodies. Arranged though differently it's not easy to spot.
To our American ears, more familiar with the Afro-European melodic fusion, the rather unadulterated European melodies of ABBA sound cheesy.
MOST IRONICALLY....
We also often find the pure African melodies just as cheesy.
While most people have heard the fantastic, catchy song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" few know it is a rather pure example of an African Folk Melody.
And just like ABBA, most people find that song cheesy, and JUST as overwhelmingly appealing as ABBA. It was #1 more than once on the billboard top 100.
It's rare that we hear pure African melodies though. Most of what we hear is a fusion between the two with the occassional European pop song here and there. (Even Delta Blues is a fusion.)
In truth ABBA is NOT cheesy from the historical perspective, something we Americans are blind too, nor is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as an example of an African Folk Melody, cheesy.
They are classic examples of the musical soul of the people..
Though I guess if one sees our American musical foundation as the offspring of European and African musical "parents" it makes sense to think of them as "cheesy."
Children often think of their parents that way. ;-)
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
