ABBA

ABBA (1972?1983) was a Swedish pop music group. They remain the most successful Swedish music act and were one of the most popular groups in the world. Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information) which could make them the second most successful band of all time after The Beatles.

Rise and fall

By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. They built Polar Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in Stockholm which was used by several other successful bands (Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door was recorded there). The single "Summer Night City", their last Swedish number one, stopped just short of topping the UK charts but set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with the album Voulez-Vous. This release marked the beginning of ABBA's decline in popularity in Europe but gained them considerably more attention in the US. The hits still came: "Does Your Mother Know", "Voulez-Vous", "Chiquitita" and "I Have a Dream" all charted but with Punk and New Wave firming their grip in the UK many felt ABBA were sounding somewhat dated.

Related Topics:
1978 - Stockholm - Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door - Summer Night City - Disco - Voulez-Vous - Punk - New Wave

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In 1979 ABBA toured the US and Canada, playing to huge audiences, but the breakthrough there was perhaps too little, too late. 1980's Super Trouper achieved respectable sales but to fans and critics alike it sounded as if the group's creativity was winding down. Even so, the title track along with "The Winner Takes It All" both topped the UK charts. Super Trouper and The Visitors (1981) (their final studio album) show songwriting maturity and depths of feeling lacking from their earlier recordings. The Visitors' title track referes to secret meetings held against the approval of Communist governments in Soviet satellite states and other tracks address topics like aging, loss of innocence, a parent watching her child grow up and so on. They had left Euro-style light weight pop behind in their wake but the melodies were still catchy.

Related Topics:
1979 - 1980 - Super Trouper - The Visitors - 1981

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Although now regarded as a group in decline, ABBA still drew huge audiences into the early 1980s and might have gone on indefinitely if it not for the band's personal turmoils: The two married couples had been drifting apart for years. Songs like "The Winner Takes It All" and "One Of Us" gave glimpses of personal issues ABBA's members were facing. Over time it became unsustainable and the band split in 1983. That summer Björn and Benny put two unreleased songs ("The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack") onto a double album called The Singles-The First Ten Years. "The Day Before You Came" was the last song ABBA ever recorded together, though many compilations, re-releases and a live album were later put out by record companies.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1983

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