Although ABBA is loved for their catchy tunes and flashy outfits, there was a time in their career when they were criticized for it.
IN ABBA: THROUGH TIME, documentary about the Swedish band that premiered on Saturday, May 11, the band opens up about the backlash they faced while trying to make a name for themselves after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
“ABBA were considered total outsiders. A lot [the press] he seemed to turn the band on,” the narrator says, adding that they would call the band “cute.”
“When I first saw ABBA, you know, I have to admit, I wasn’t sold on the fashion at the time. It was a little creepy to see the clothes they were all wearing,” adds Judd Lander of Epic Records. “I think it was the clothes that made them look a bit cheeky.”
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For the band, the eccentric outfits were just a fun tactic to get noticed – but they quickly realized the plan backfired.
“They didn’t take us seriously. I think it was because we wore such strange clothes,” says Björn Ulvaeus, 79, in the documentary.
He continues: “We thought we needed to be more outrageous than anyone else to be seen, and then we thought it was great fun. There was never any plan that this was going to be our image. Kitsch. We really suffered from it.”
Then, apart from the clothes, ABBA faced a backlash from people in Sweden who accused them of “selling out”.
ABBA in February 1974.
Olle Lindeborg/AFP via Getty
“Everybody thought ABBA was just a manager who decided, ‘Let’s take two good-looking women, two skilled musicians, put them together and make a hit group just doing this for money,'” says Ingmarie Halling, who is their hair and makeup artist. .
“There were protests. People marched in the streets,” says Leif Schulman, a journalist. “The band has been accused of selling out and having no more soul than a can of tin herring.”
Although the band understood that criticism comes with the territory — it wasn’t easy, though.
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“Many times it was very exhausting,” says Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 78. – I felt very overwhelmed.
Benny Andersson, 77, adds. “A lot of people think there’s a formula or a calculation behind it. There isn’t. It’s just that Bjorn and I write the music we enjoy the most.”
In 1982, the band broke up after both couples divorced: first Agnetha Fältski and Ulvaeus, then Lyngstad and Andersson. Forty years later, the band reunited to release a studio album called Voyage and made a rare red carpet appearance together for the premiere of their virtual concert series.
ABBA: THROUGH TIME, which explores the journey of love, struggle, fame and epic songs that is ABBA, is out now on The CW.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education