Abba's Image and Why American Critics So Hated Them

(first line should say: "...but at the time, American audiences weren't so sure -- and their critics were vicious.")

and I'm sure their disinclination to sing like Negroes reassures the Europopuli.

this was more true of the average american rock fan of 1976, not the euros tho..... i mean, how many records did Boston sell in 1976, just to cite one non-"negro" sounding mega-selling stadium act of the day.

That quote is truly appalling.

and that the white bread aspect of Abba and the American rise of disco offered an easy target for feigning some (horribly misguided) sense of racial superiority.

i can't quite parse this

A bit jumbled, perhaps -- the point being that with disco positing this sense of racial harmony, Americans may have felt more comfortable asserting how very diverse they were.

I am assuming he is saying something about how ABBA being very white + disco being very mixed = our dumb pop is better than your dumb pop (nb the only ABBA song I have ever heard is "Dancing Queen")

(xpost)

"and I'm sure their disinclination to sing like Negroes reassures the Europopuli"

and people actually respect this guy?

to be fair, it did reassure eurohongroes

I have loved Abba since I was 6, and still do. However, any attempt to critically evaluate them, positively or negatively, is necessarily an exercise in obtusely contrarian wankitude.

And why is that?

>I'm sure their disinclination to sing like Negroes reassures the Europopuli

This has been another episode of "Everyone's A Racist But Bob Christgau." Tune in next week for more enlightenment with a sledgehammer!

so who was the first to go "OMG! ABBA IS TEH GEEEEENIUS!"? seems like i've lived with that assessment a lot longer than the disposable euromuzak opinion.

Pop music in itself is never enough artistically. What makes ABBA hold up artistically is their brilliant use of pre-rock influences. Tin Pan Alley etc.

ah ok, you mean "misguided sense of superior racial harmony" or something therabouts.

Yes. Exactly.

Pop music in itself is never enough artistically. What makes ABBA hold up artistically is their brilliant use of pre-rock influences. Tin Pan Alley etc.

Geir -- shame on you. Obv., it's their superior tunefulness and craftsmanship. If anyone knew that...

so who was the first to go "OMG! ABBA IS TEH GEEEEENIUS!"?

Possibly here?

http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=1963

http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=5277

greg did love the power pop.

Really underrated critic. Very knowledgeable in general.

I never got Xgau's disgust. He loved disco and android-pop!

so who was the first to go "OMG! ABBA IS TEH GEEEEENIUS!"? seems like i've lived with that assessment a lot longer than the disposable euromuzak opinion.

Declan MacManus.

Early on, it was very easy to get distracted by their fashion sense. I think it may have obscured their songwriting prowess. Early on, they were very bright and happy-clappy with their image, and it made some of us think of them as much more disposable than they really were. I think also that Chris Carter on TG was one of the very first underground types to insist on the genius of ABBA, which was certainly a wake-up call for me.

Don't forget the lazy journalism of the late seventies: "see, The Clash and Pistols are SUPPOSED to overthrow this smiley-smiley pantsuited Scandinavian pap and return us to real rock values."

Really underrated critic. Very knowledgeable in general.

And well-written. Really impressive organizations of thoughts.

wasn't lester bangs mad keen on them as well?

so there ya go. people in the 70's were calling them godz. maybe not most american critics though. who are notorious funhaterz.

not like the fun-loving bunch in throbbing gristle!

Public being right non-shockah.

throbbing gristle made me seek out martin denny records in the 80's. they knew what was up.

I always wondered if Lester's Abba t-shirt in that one picture was intended semi-ironically.

Obv., it's their superior tunefulness and craftsmanship.

In which the use of pre-rock influences was a very important key part.

Well, it obv wasn't just American critics who hate(d) Abba, but a lot of other Americans as well (my parents and their siblings for example). I think it was easy to use them as scapegoats for every soulless, pre-packaged pop band that stood against whatever gritty, substantial music was supposed to have been born in the 60s. Their songs were accused of being "inoffensive", but clearly not in the way that actually means some people weren't offended. I think haters could look at Abba and say, "this is a band who has nothing to do with my real life and in fact seems to be doing a lot to hide what real life is all about. Not only that, they're flaunting their riches and tacky, expensive style!"

All of which is to say that most of Abba hate (like a lot of other music hate) comes down to politics and ideologies, at least as much as the music itself. I mean, I've never read an Abba hate review that bags on their song structures or harmonic modulations.

Being a European who's heard Abba from the radio since his childhood, I've been always stunned by the choice of the editors of the book 'SPIN Alternative Music Guide', who thought Abba were 'alternative'. Perhaps the main reason of this Abba-hating was the simple fact that Abba were Europeans, non-English but very successful, nothing else.

see, The Clash and Pistols are SUPPOSED to overthrow this smiley-smiley pantsuited

Clash loved ABBA too; Johnny Green's book has, among a few other refs, an anecdote about band and roadies going to a club on tour and appalling the euro-punk crowd that was following them by rushing the dancefloor when ABBA came on.

Kudos to Jon L. for pointing me to the vidoes on the box set thread -- it's fascinating to follow how they progressed. One can see why the jingle criticisms persisted a bit when you look at these. The early ones ("Knowing Me, Knowing You," "S.O.S.") trade mightily on the couples' chemistry with one another, presenting this very posh image of marital bliss, as they sit around laughing and dining together, playing in fields and so forth.

"The Winner Takes It All" is the turning point, apparently, where it shows Benny, Bjorn and Frida all enjoying themselves while Agnetha looks sad and alone at the same table, watching intently as the piano is being played. By the last few ("Under Attack"), they're all just sort of standing near each other, walking in parallel -- very coldly and professionally. "The Day Before You Came" in particular is exceptional -- almost Bergmann-esque and instead of a visualization of the lyrics, they're the perfect compliment.

They're all on YouTube...

Clash loved ABBA too; Johnny Green's book has, among a few other refs, an anecdote about band and roadies going to a club on tour and appalling the euro-punk crowd that was following them by rushing the dancefloor when ABBA came on

Yeah, obviously my remark didn't include the punk bands themselves. Also, it's a well-known story that Elvis Costello used "Waterloo" as inpiration for "Oliver's Army."

How come no one in the USA likes Sparks?

I've never read an Abba hate review that bags on their song structures or harmonic modulations.

Not ABBA in general, but several critics hate songs such as "Thank You For The Music", "Chiquitita" and "Fernando" for the fact that musically they have just as much in common with Broadway/Westend musicals as they have with R&B.

abba is buffeting a mean hangover right now. god bless

freshman year in college I didn't have too many records and mostly listened to the radio. my roomate was an engineering student and nice guy who wasn't into music that much. so we'd take turns picking the station for study-background music, I'd go with the freeky campus 10 watt station and he chose not one of the heavy Detroit AOR outlets but a soft rock station that played ABBA. (wait there's a point to this!)

anyway I'll always remember the first ABBA song I ever heard "Fernando" in the fall of 1976. this song haunted me, between the narrative lyrics and those superclean voices and blandly accented English it sounded really strange to my midwestern ears, kinda alien in the outer-space sense. ABBA always seemed "interesting" in terms of production, etc, and the bizarre bordering on non sequitir lyrics just added to the fun. By the early 80s when I began writing about music, it was already pretty hip to appreciate on ABBA and not in a campy way, either.

Muzak mesmerizing in its modality

does this er mean anything?

Don't forget the lazy journalism of the late seventies: "see, The Clash and Pistols are SUPPOSED to overthrow this smiley-smiley pantsuited Scandinavian pap and return us to real rock values."

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 July 2007 22:49 (Yesterday) Link

This is strange, as it's thought now that The Clash and Sex Pistols were, if anything fighting against overly "serious" un-fun stuff like Pink Floyd, which is what American critics liked!

god, i need to tell my friend who is Christgau's niece that her uncle is a shitbag, yet again.

anyway, i think that anyone who watches ABBA's music videos could never hate them. the bearded guy ALWAYS has this expression on his face that's like, "lol, we are pwning you with this ridiculous pap."

i love ABBA and always have. fuck the haterz.

i love ABBA and always have.

Me too, but twenty years ago, I kept this to myself. What's easily accepted has changed since then. I don't just think it's American critics who had a problem with them. I can't point to examples in particular, but I grew up with the idea that Abba we're rubbish 'tat from the charts'.

Also, it's a well-known story that Elvis Costello used "Waterloo" as inpiration for "Oliver's Army."
otm

Muzak mesmerizing in its modality

does this er mean anything?
A veiled Joyce reference? Or just some nattering nabob stuff.

I have another question, that we may already have another thread regarding:
When did this whole notion that anything that was popular and aspired to be popular was already not-real and therefor artistically worthless? The early rockers all the way through the Beatles ("to the toppermost of the poppermost!") and Stones were unabashed in their pursuit of popularity. It seems that in the 70s or maybe the late 60s their was this idea that wanting to be successful was inherently wrong and not what any serious artist would try to do.

Sentence alert - Change first sentence to:
When did this whole notion come about that anything that aspired to be popular was already not-real and therefor artistically worthless?

the bearded guy ALWAYS has this expression on his face that's like, "lol, we are pwning you with this ridiculous pap."

Was there really something calculated or ironic about Abba? I think those guys came from the tradition of playing in '60s pop-rock bands and I wonder if Abba was actually their genuine creative expression.

look at his appearance in this one, which is proof that Swedish acid must have been great.

Eagle

and at the piano in this one, he's almost winking:
Super Trouper

finally, the calculated irony of this video makes me die. i mean, it is SO brilliantly funny.

Take a Chance on Me

obviously, i've spent a lot of time looking at ABBA videos. there's almost nothing that puts me in a better mood.

Very knowledgeable in general.

Aside from believing Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll, Part II" was "reggae", that is.

Ha--"making everybody else from Peter Frampton to the Runaways look incredibly lame." Some accomplishment, eh?
http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=5277

Oh, everyone had this opinion and that. I was impressed recently reading his pieces in the first RS Illustrated History of Rock and Roll.

"Also, it's a well-known story that Elvis Costello used "Waterloo" as inpiration for "Oliver's Army.""

the track and the album, yeh. "Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)"
is a specific contender too.