Sweden

I was reading a book yesterday for my degree as part of the course 'Media and Music' and it suggested that Sweden was 'punching above its weight' in terms of musical success...it led me to think that other than the almost complete US/British domination of our charts nowadays, in the last 12 months we have had

Robyn
Axwell
Basshunter
Peter Bjorn & John

as well as BWO having minor success and Alphabeat surely destined for big things

as well as

Abba
Roxette
The Cardigans
Ace Of Base
Alcazar
Eric Prydz

all having huge hits in the UK in the past...I completely agree with this book about Sweden's influence on pop music for such a small and seemingly insignificant country " border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

QUOTE(gooddelta @ Jan 12 2008, 09:30 AM)

I was reading a book yesterday for my degree as part of the course 'Media and Music' and it suggested that Sweden was 'punching above its weight' in terms of musical success...it led me to think that other than the almost complete US/British domination of our charts nowadays, in the last 12 months we have had

Robyn
Axwell
Basshunter
Peter Bjorn & John

as well as BWO having minor success and Alphabeat surely destined for big things

as well as

Abba
Roxette
The Cardigans
Ace Of Base
Alcazar

all having huge hits in the UK in the past...I completely agree with this book about Sweden's influence on pop music for such a small and seemingly insignificant country " border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

insignificant?!?!? its not Canada we're talking aboout here *

and shouldnt that be written as pop.music to make it blatently clear we're talking about popular music and not just teenbop - tweeny bubblegum (tho you gotta remember that loads of Swedish Indie is very very twee - but obv the concept is different) as people might get the wrong idea with some indie acts, but yeah Basshunter - total cheesy pop - worked well in Pete Waterman's World Of (cheesy) Pop as on a compilation with Cascada - so crossovered!!!

but why have you forgotten *Nsync, Dr Alban, Backstreet Boys, Britney, 5ive, P!nk et al - you should have mentioned Cherion, Maratone (Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Rami, Andreas Carlsson) etc as their funk infused europop and eurodance were so important to 1990s popular music not just pop-music (tween - tiger beat) - even more imporatant than Brother Beyond is to artistic singer-songwriter types

btw Alphabeat are Dansk - tho i would expect there to be Swedish producers involved as Ace Of Base were signed to Mega Records in Kobenhagen/Copenhagen - and are not that bubblegum pop - and could be seen as a bit disappointing if you were expecting Aqua or Daze or Toy-Box and something sounding a bit more indiepop than cheese (like early B-52s mixed with Alterted Images) came out - tho obv things seep into the mainsteam.

and this is a...

Disco Extravaganza!!!


*note: loads of my family are Canuck so no complaints there from Canadian readers tho i'll leave any BNL jokes out now - tho suppose to be loads in Sweden but i've never seen any

QUOTE(gooddelta @ Jan 12 2008, 09:30 AM)

I was reading a book yesterday for my degree as part of the course 'Media and Music' and it suggested that Sweden was 'punching above its weight' in terms of musical success...it led me to think that other than the almost complete US/British domination of our charts nowadays, in the last 12 months we have had

Robyn
Axwell
Basshunter
Peter Bjorn & John

as well as BWO having minor success and Alphabeat surely destined for big things

as well as

Abba
Roxette
The Cardigans
Ace Of Base
Alcazar
Eric Prydz

all having huge hits in the UK in the past...I completely agree with this book about Sweden's influence on pop music for such a small and seemingly insignificant country " border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

Hmmmm... From what you named their im a big fan of Robyn, Peter Bjorn and John and BWO. I liked Axwell's single but I havn't heard anything else from them. Alphabeat i've heard about but not heard any of their singles as yet.. Basshunter is awful.

I suppose that Sweeden does make some good Pop music (of which i'm not usually a fan)...

QUOTE(Jonny @ Jan 12 2008, 01:32 PM)

Alphabeat i've heard about but not heard any of their singles as yet..

I suppose that Sweeden does make some good Pop music (of which i'm not usually a fan)...

but Alphabeat are Danish (very important to Danes)

QUOTE(tigerboy @ Jan 12 2008, 01:34 PM)

but Alphabeat are Danish (very important to Danes)

my mistake

Sweden are also expected to do well at Eurovision every year because of the (usually) high quality of their entries and the extremely high quality of their selection process Melodifestivalen

QUOTE(tigerboy @ Jan 12 2008, 01:28 PM)

insignificant?!?!? its not Canada we're talking aboout here *

and shouldnt that be written as pop.music to make it blatently clear we're talking about popular music and not just teenbop - tweeny bubblegum (tho you gotta remember that loads of Swedish Indie is very very twee - but obv the concept is different) as people might get the wrong idea with some indie acts, but yeah Basshunter - total cheesy pop - worked well in Pete Waterman's World Of (cheesy) Pop as on a compilation with Cascada - so crossovered!!!

but why have you forgotten *Nsync, Dr Alban, Backstreet Boys, Britney, 5ive, P!nk et al - you should have mentioned Cherion, Maratone (Denniz PoP, Max Martin, Rami, Andreas Carlsson) etc as their funk infused europop and eurodance were so important to 1990s popular music not just pop-music (tween - tiger beat) - even more imporatant than Brother Beyond is to artistic singer-songwriter types

btw Alphabeat are Dansk - tho i would expect there to be Swedish producers involved as Ace Of Base were signed to Mega Records in Kobenhagen/Copenhagen - and are not that bubblegum pop - and could be seen as a bit disappointing if you were expecting Aqua or Daze or Toy-Box and something sounding a bit more indiepop than cheese (like early B-52s mixed with Alterted Images) came out - tho obv things seep into the mainsteam.

and this is a...

Disco Extravaganza!!!
*note: loads of my family are Canuck so no complaints there from Canadian readers tho i'll leave any BNL jokes out now - tho suppose to be loads in Sweden but i've never seen any

Canada has given us such legends as Bryan Adams and Nickelback uke2:" border="0" alt="sick2.gif" />

on a brighter note they have given us Nelly Furtado and Sarah McLachlan

I forgot how much influence Swedish (and other Scandanavian) songwriters had on the manufactured pop music scene of the late 90's and early 00's

I always remember Denmark for the immense levels of cheese they have given us over the years:

Aqua
Infernal
Cartoons
Whigfield
Little Trees
DJ Aligator Project
Safri Duo
Toy-Box
Creamy

and their more respectable offerings

Junior Senior
Lazy-B

Sweden had better send a good pop Eurovision song this year. They were most lacklustre last year and they damn well need to show what amazing pop they can find this year!

I actually really liked The Ark but it was admittedly not to their usual amazing standard...I've liked all of their entries for Eurovision so far this decade apart from 2000 and 2005...

2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 were particular high points

Don't forget Europe, Eagle-Eye Cherry, and... Meja?

As tigerboy said, there are some amazing indiepop artists out of Sweden these days. My favs are The Knife, The Sounds. I'm From Barcelona is among the oddest pop bands in the world

What with IKEA and Volvo and H&M delivering Swedish fashion, style and innovation to the masses, I'd agree that it has a huge influence on pop culture relative to its small size.