ABBA Watch Out | REACTION

[@alejandrosantanaborquez917]

In '74 ABBA's career is still beginning... This song (very rocky...) shows that they are still looking for their own style and sound... Already with the album 'Arrival', they are beginning to consolidate themselves on that path. BEST ⭐ POP ⭐ BAND ⭐ EVER! ❤️🅰️🅱️🅱️🅰️ Greetings ❤ from Chile 🇨🇱🤗👍

[@christianoazzuro6711]

Abba's diverse juke box .

[@evedavey2475]

YEAH MORE ABBA ❤❤❤❤ KEEP GOING ❤❤❤❤

[@GrimlyFandango]

this is like a lot of the glam rock that was going around at the time, never heard it but enjoyed it

[@mark-be9mq]

ABBA I'd never heard. Cool.

[@rasvanniekerk6297]

Keep going down the ABBA rabbit hole. You might just start falling for them. Thanks for the more positive reaction to the Best 👌 Pop 🎉 Band ❤ Ever 🌟

[@HaleysTusk]

At the time, I'd say the biggest 'star' in ABBA was Bjorn, then Bennie. At 18, Agnetha (the Blonde) was an up and coming singer/songwriter and Frida (the Brunette) was singing Jazz. Bjorn and Bennie were the main song writers of their separate bands. When they met, they decided to write together, inspired by Lennon & mcCartney. Bjorn dated then married Agnetha, Bennie and Frida got together. Their 'George Martin' is engineer Michael Tretow who helped develop the "ABBA Sound" Stig Anderson was instrumental in ABBA's trajectory. They were also extremely popular in Australia. Their only US #1 was Dancing Queen, I think Fernando got to #2

[@christianoazzuro6711]

'DQ"#1,/'Take a chance on me" Billboard US #3,/'Waterloo" #6 , /"The Winner,,,"#8,/"Fernando" no1 (adult contemporary-#13 Billboard hot 100/"'Name of the Game"#12/"'Knowing me Knowing You" #14 and plenty US top 20-top 40.Yet all these were no1 in the metropolis of pop the UK.

[@lo_souza]

Europop was considered pop music for people to dance to (silly dance-pop made by Europeans), it’s usually producer-driven music. ABBA (Benny & Bjorn) wrote and produced ALL of their songs. The term Europop was used to dismiss ABBA, because they were dominating all the charts in the world. In the UK alone, ABBA had 20 TOP 10 singles in 8 years and the best-selling albums of the following years: 1976 (#01), 1977 (#01 & #09), 1978 (#03), 1979 (#05), 1980 (#01), and also in 1999 (#04) and 2021 (#03). Americans really hated ABBA with a passion (ABBA were considered the Enemy), they feared that Swedish POP could contaminate their music, but the joke was on them, eventually, Max Martin (also Swedish) would become the most successful producer and the second most successful songwriter in US Billboard history. (he wrote and produced songs for Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Kate Perry, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and many more) ✌️

[@christianoazzuro6711]

Good points. ABBA were honest saying they were mainly pop.Especially after 1975.Didn't pretend being rock or something else.Pop ain't less serious or dirty as rock medias tried to convince us.'Take it or leave it".We took it.If others rightfully didn't , that's smth we shouldn't mind.They simply didn't like pop i guess.But the Swedes were writing and recording 'the kind of music they liked themselves listening to".What's more honest than that?

[@HaleysTusk]

IMO Americans didn’t “get” ABBA’s music because Bjorn & Bennie didn’t have their musical roots in blues & soul that their British & American counterparts were influenced by. That’s why, by comparison, Anglo-fans thought ABBA music was too ‘poppy’/happy

[@christianoazzuro6711]

@@HaleysTusk True.Different culture.Yet the rest of us did.

[@HaleysTusk]

@@christianoazzuro6711 I saw a documentary where ABBA’s representative in the US (for Atlantic Records?) talk about how he tried to convince Stig Andersen, ABBA’s manager, that to have a #1 song in the US, you have to constantly tour. ABBA had gotten to the point they had basically ‘conquered’ most of the world (even Japan) & weren’t incentivized to tour letting their music videos do the promoting for them, so Stig replied, you get us a #1 song THEN we will tour the US. That basically illustrated a main difference between the US & European music industries… Also, it was traveling all those miles in the US, away from their children (then hitting terrifying turbulence) that ended up beginning Agnetha’s phobia of flying, which obviously cut down their willingness to tour outside of Europe (They were also HUGE in Australia)

[@christianoazzuro6711]

@@HaleysTusk When ‘serious’ music critics(mainly UK/US) slagged them off we fans fought back in support and bought their records like crazy.i.e.in the ‘70s Australia had a population of around 14 millions.1975 ’ABBA’ album sold around 600K (that’s 2 times platinum in the UK)ARRIVAL sold nearly a million and ‘The Best of “ 1975 over 1,2m.copies not to mention the huge Soviet Union market where they got paid in oil commodities for record sales. They managed an estimated 400 m.records.Not bad for non Anglosaxon outsiders who invaded a hostile music status quo

[@Tom-ek7hc]

I thought I would request these three songs just as context as to where Abba started. This is by no means amazing, but I think makes the evolution of their sound more interesting. Anyway... I requested Knowing me, Knowing you next to please the Abba fan club.

[@HaleysTusk]

@@Tom-ek7hc now That’s a great ABBA song… a little schmaltzy but a great song nonetheless the less ✌🏻

[@mightyV444]

Ah! Okay. Thank you for explaining, Tom! 🙂

[@mark-be9mq]

I like that/this perspective. Get exposure where they begin to get perspective on the rest. I appreciate it, never heard this one. TY Thomas

[@mattleppard1970]

Makes sense 😊

[@mattleppard1970]

Sounds a bit like The Sweet to me 😊

[@HaleysTusk]

Ugh, Thomas isn’t doing ABBA any favors. Remember, these are English as a 2nd language (only Bjorn, the guitar player, who was fluent in English) and they were fans of The Beatles/Beach Boys, big fans of singer/songwriters, but they lacked the blues/soul core musical upbringing of their British/American counterparts, so their music is going to lack that musical root essential element in so much of the rock music at the time. Bjorn’s band before ABBA was the Hootenany Singers, Swedish folk singers. Benny, keyboardist, used a lot of Nordic, accordion, oom pah pah type music. Then again, the Beatles sang VERY simplistic songs when they started too, so ABBA should be given a little break for the simplicity of their songs if not for their lyrics. The true weapon in ABBA’s holster is the blending of their two lead singers that ended up becoming the “ABBA sound). I’m hoping Thomas’ final ABBA pick does their legacy justice (please let it NOT be, “I Do, I Do, I Do” 🤞🏻

[@antonymugford6863]

Voulez Vous, The Winner Takes it All

[@ono1dij]

And now you got to listen "The Name of The Game" and "The Visitors" and blow your mind

[@HaleysTusk]

The Name of The Game is my favorite ABBA song

[@ono1dij]

@@HaleysTusk And mine too!!!!!!!!!

[@kennethmckinney2532]

Gotta be honest, I'll stick with the hits whenever I hear them somewhere. They remind me of days gone by. The Winner Takes It All is the best I ever heard from them...

[@robshaw2639]

Lol. There are moments where I’m thinking B-52s

[@christianoazzuro6711]

Btw The closest B-52s went near the Abba sound was 'Topaz".Love it.

[@jonasdahlin8670]

Sweet The Ballroom Blitz Glam Rock

[@richierich398]

Me watching Justin reacting to ABBA was not on my bingo card this year. I’m here because ABBA was my brother‘s favorite band. He just had the greatest hits album though so I’m familiar with those. I guess Europop is pop music from Europe? Lol. Yeah this song is a pass for me.