Why Sweden is so damn good at Pop Music

[@MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish]

Thanks for watching! Here's more you might like: ▪ The Myth behind the Beatles Crosswalk: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6erk32YipuofcUsi=UqVONrvar4Ed8gR6 ▪ How Sweden switched to Right-Hand-Traffic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKvSen9rmN6sa7csi=tbAIK50E7IMyxwuR ▪ Exploring Astrid Lindgren's Hometown in Sweden: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5m4i5-NmZytirssi=fAAcv0hCIdMfIyUf

[@fransz9812]

Im swedish and I didnt now this lore of sweeden😂😂

[@Algabatz]

Not to mention Swedish world wide famous hard rock and metal bands: Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen, Candlemass, Bathory, Ice Age, Entombed, At the Gates, Refused, Clawfinger, Dark Tranquility, In Flames, Meshuggah, Arch Enemy, Hammerfall, Opeth, Ghost, Amon Amarth, Sabaton and Watain.

[@erikbongnilsson246]

speaking of hard rock.. I don't know if you are from Sweden or not, but I was so pissed the other year when Sweden had a great hard rock song competing for Eurovision, but instead it was voted down like a piece of shit, when in my opinion it was absolutely one of the best contenders.. The song Runaways with Eclips kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYPLdIqqm9SVrZY Sometimes it feels like there is a pact or something to make sure not to vote the bests songs but rather to send something to make sure we DON'T win, because we just can't afford to host Eurovision in Sweden to often lol

[@Carloshache]

I'm Swedish and all those are absolutely horrible.

[@Algabatz]

@@Carloshache 😂 Du kanske är mer en Vikingarna-pojke?

[@ingenip]

Evergray

[@Algabatz]

@@ingenip Indeed, loved them live!

[@nomusician4737]

As a Swedish musician and producer this documentary warms my heart. My take is that the two biggest reasons by far is the music schools and maybe even more or folk music history. You can hear traces from those melodies in virtually every single billboard top 100 written or co-written by a swede. Those melodies are so deeply rooted in our culture that most people don't realise it until they start looking for it. About Abba it is worth noting that Benny is very prolific in the Swedish folk music scene as well and play the accordion at all the big folk music festivals. Language and internationalism is of course super important, but to me is to be able get the music on the world stage, not how it sounds.

[@TheUffeess]

Du ger ett svar till en tysk. Hur ska han förstå?

[@juanitooctavio9023]

The main reason for our musical success, is free municipal music school. 🎸🎹🎤🎶

[@mrpetit2]

As a journalist you have excellent documenatry skills. Your channel deserves way more subscribers/views. I've been following your channel since your first video about that border dispute (I'm dutch😅), and your content is very diverse, yet always interesting due to the storyline you give it. That video about the swedish lhd-rhd switch was also very good.

[@SievertSchreiber]

Same, also got recommended the Eems/Dollard border dispute video.

[@ahha6304]

Your content is getting better everytime Matzi, keep up the good work!

[@davewatson7004]

Great video Matthias, however ABBA didn't win Melodifestivalen with Ring Ring. They were 3rd with it in 1973 when Agnetha was heavily pregnant.

[@JBobjork]

Yes, I was going to comment this too. If they won then Abba would have been in ESC already in 1972.

[@MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish]

You‘re right - sorry for that.

[@tinovanderzwanphonocave544]

one artist from Sweden is often forgotten on the international stage but he was Sweden's Elvis! I'm referring to Cornelis Vreeswijk like me he was born in the netherlands and his family emigrated to Sweden where at a point he became a big name in music although he would become Sweden's superstar only after his death in 1987 Cornelis had a rockstar life so he died young at age 50 if you talk about Cornelis on the streets of anywhere in Sweden everyone knows him. I had a very close contact online with his son Jack Vreeswijk a Swedish rockstar in his own right he could write Duch so we had fun together. jack died early last year also quite young at age 59, during the Swedish big freeze a week back I was worried about his family so I contacted them and I'm glad they are fine.

[@cheeseparis1]

Thanks! Loved your video, makes me want to go back to Stockholm! It's a beautiful city and I enjoyed an amazing Parsifal at the opera house, they have great singers there too.

[@bookswiper]

Great video great finish thank you for this super content

[@alen7480]

ABBA's Spanish is also really good. It is crazy how good they sound in Spanish. Actually I thought they were a Spanish speaking group, because so many songs are titled like "Fernando" and "Chiquitita". Other songs, like Gimme Gimme Gimme love after midnight actually make more sense in Spanish than the rather awkward English Grammar (in Spanish the meaning is not "after midnight" but "give me love tonight", but fits better the rhythm structure when sung in Spanish).

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Crazy to not mention the TV show Så ska det låta. I agree with your take and the things you brought up, it all makes sense. Great video.

[@mlouahdi]

I appreciate the effort in this video, thank you

[@simke123]

Thank you for the video.

[@4rkang31]

As you mentioned, English is not *deine Mutterspache*, but "chord" in English is pronounced more like: "Kord". I am also learning Deutsch, so I thought I'd show off some of my vocabulary.

[@MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish]

Haha, yeah. That's exactly what I was talking about. 😛

[@rogink]

I was thinking - his pronunciation is excellent - until that point! Matthias' enunciation is very clear and precise, always enjoyable to listen to.

[@birgittae9046]

Thanks Matthias this was a very interesting and informative video! Well done! 🙋‍♀️🎶🎶

[@danfarrik]

Fantastic video. Thank you. And to think that you didn’t even touch the heavy metal scene, where Sweden has had an equally unproportional impact on the world.

[@viktorberg5921]

Viele lieben Dank für das großartige Video!

[@gregorjorg]

I love your videos and I hope you make a lot more. You present interesting things with good details and great visuals. Also, you did several in Scandinavia, so I'm happy :) Just one thing... it's pronounced Kords and not chords ;)

[@jocke1972]

Max Martin actually produced/wrote all the great pop songs from the 90s, 00s, 10s and the 20s….

[@novineux1246]

You should've mentioned epidemic sound as well. Swedes have tried to get around copyright by creating a company that creates music you can use in youtube videos for example.

[@erik....]

I played drums in school but unfortunately I wasn't a great fit as I'm quite shy. I wish they would have taken personality into account as well then the swedish music wonder could have been even bigger. Well, I guess that, or given me more support and lessons on how to play in front of a crowd.

[@alandoriah]

Lets face it- short and clear: The Education System of Sweden ( Denmark, Finland and Norway as well) is the key. It is one of the best worldwide. It starts with those kind of things in the early years of a person ...

[@jijadelmais]

I live in Sweden and yes, the one thing that enjoy most is MUSIC. Like I discovered here that Per Gessle, the masculine side of Roxette, has his own band and career here with a bunch of hits, its amazing. And that tv show you mention "Så mycket bättre" is the reason why music makes people come together beyond the generational factor, the amount of talent displayed in that tv show is absolutely outstanding ❤❤

[@rosamannen]

Ring Ring was in Melodifestivalen 1973 and it didn't win. It came third.

[@vulduv]

Fun facts about Avicii Arena. (Also known as "globen" ("The globe" in english) by locals.(Because it's a globe shape.(And very prominent.(The local metro station shares the name too.)))) It's the world's largest spherical building last time I checked. And as in an actual building, that you can stand in and be protected from the elements, and that can support the weight of over a dozen thousand spectators. Not """building""" as in a shell made from bilboards surrounding a squar-ish building that's a fraction of the size. It's a spherical building, not a sphere and a building. It's also part of the world's largest scale model of the solar system. With the arena representing the sun. And the scale model overall is almost as big as Sweden itself. Which should put into perspective how huge the solar system is and the distances between the planets.

[@mylearningcurvezone9485]

The show Så Mycket Bättre is a good example on why Sweden is doing so well across the globe when it comes to trendsetting....Swedes are for the most part very intutive in their workforce. They like to contribute and learn from others. We are smart that way. The show Så Mycket Bättre originates from France if I am not mistaken, and like many other shows, we tend to take it on, and maximize our budget on that very thing. Thus the output becomes a fresh take on the matter and we tend to recreate the genre, and make it our own product, that looks great and sound great. Swedes have throughout history for the most part had an eye for upcomming trends, and has therefor quickly after evaluating the trends consitency, taken it and made it their own pretty much.

[@erikbongnilsson246]

Congratulations! Very impressive for a relatively new channel to pump out such a high quality piece of video, I really enjoyed it! I never comment on videos, and if I do it's only because I want to add some "fun facts" to other people watching or to answer other comments. I have nothing to add this time other to express my admiration when noticing that this video was produced by a channel with 10 000 subscriber.. Dear I say you might be the Max Martin of future youtube ;) well done, and good luck in the coming 2024 Eurovision song contest! What's your opinion of Germany's contribution this year? I haven't heard any others than our Swedish contribution, and I can say I feel it sucks this year and we absolutely did not vote forward the of songs

[@TJ_Travels1]

Thoroughly enjoyed ❤

[@SievertSchreiber]

Boten Anna was a nice surprise!

[@mikaelowe8430]

avicii was more famous then basshunter

[@_loss_]

@@mikaelowe8430 ok?

[@Red_Skies]

Interesting!

[@user-bm6fb5qv4x]

And honestly... If you want to know about Swedish Melancholia. Listen to Kent. I think though they are the best band the world has ever produced.

[@TheUffeess]

Nice to see a German value Swedish music. It is all about two things, culture and the opportunity to practice music. Then Swedes are independent and determined. And if you have more music than just "ompa ompa", it's good...

[@simonlundkvist3476]

good video!

[@VanillalifeMC-dq4pg]

Many people on Reddit say that Sweden is a terable country, but Even when crimes are high there, why Sweden still ranks a bit high in terms of good quality of life, low crime rate, good public transportation, and other, if you look at the rankings, Sweden is still kinda highcompared to other countries globally ?

[@Fibonacci64]

Good analysis. I guess Dr. Alban was big in Germany? Not many people talking about him here in Sweden, except as a joke. Same goes for other artists mentioned.

[@valle2601]

The school system is great for music. when you are 16 you start "highschool" until you are 19, so 3 years. And there you can choose different art lines, Like music, theatre, painting and stuff. There your teachers are well educated and often very experienced musicians. After those 3 years there are a few different paths you can take to either study to become a music teacher or to get in to the buissnes. Also I went to a kindergarten that had music in the name. Then a 0 to 6th grade school where we had music projects all the time and music being a mandatory subject. Then my 7 to 9th grade had a theatre every year where you could choose to act, play music wich, music also being a mandatory subject there. So basicly everyone legally has to try music for 10 years.

[@michaelpettersson4919]

The Avichi is an artifical name that would probably confuse people if you use. For the people it is Globen (The Globe).

[@handle_unknown]

We are also quite collectivist, not in the socialist sense (anymore), but we have strong funding and appreciation for small interest-groups, such as local groups interested in making music!

[@marcush5042]

Avicii was not a classmate of Alesso... He was classmate with Otto Knows and Oliver Ingrosso who is cousin with Sebastian Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia.

[@Carloshache]

Wow... very good analysis from an outsiders perspective. Even though there's some great Swedish pop magic from time to time, the Swedish music business has been criticized alot of being just a very effective commercial money machine which produces a lot of bland mediocre "too perfect" pop stuff and too many one-hit-wonders. This is why alot of Eurovision fans has turned on Swedish-written songs. They are boring. Swedish music is much wider than this pop music and since the 1960's counterculture, there's been a huge alternative scene, with countless genres, which is a big factor in the success story. Many of these Swedish bands started out jamming in the their schools replokal (rehearsal space) on school instruments after school, as there was not much to do in the countless small towns across the sparsely populated country. Many Swedes also got to try their hands in broadcasting as a Swedish law "Närradiolagen" provides every municipality with a local radio station which basically everyone has the right to transmit from, which is why Sweden has countless college radio stations. Things like that definitely provided infrastructure and talent to a big music business. And that's also a thing Swedes are pretty good at: business.

[@EritroRL]

Sweden is also one of the best country when it comes to EDM/Electronic music production

[@sethsparkaspark4374]

Sweden also got a lot of successfull music software companys. Toontrack, XLN Audio and Propellerhead, just to mention a few. But i believe Germany still dominate the music software market. You, for instance, got Ableton, Native Instruments and Steinberg (Cubase). Although I believe Steinberg is owned by a japanese company these days.

[@Frahamen]

Don't forget Lil' Pitchy

[@Reznor1983]

6:33 So why did you first imply that Martin only made hits in the 90’s?

[@nikhum322]

Well. Matthias, I must say that you have figured it out. We produce a lot of music here in Sweden, and for the reasons you mention a lot of it is succesful but no one seems to knoe why. So I hope that in your next video, You share the results of your investigations and answer the question in the title to this one.

Ring Ring came third in Melodifestivalen :)

[@MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish]

You‘re absolutely right - sorry for the mistake.

[@rosamannen]

and it was not in 1972.

[@koolholio]

Interesting opinion, did you visit the grave?

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

That's a news to me haha Only Swedish musicians I can think of are ABBA and Basshunter

[@mikaelowe8430]

then you have missed naming loads more that are just as famous as those

[@danvernier198]

These answers probably all contribute but they're all very focused on the music industry specifically while the trend hold rue for pretty much all creative production, such as your own job as a youtuber, there are more of those as well, it's not even limited to just cultural creative work but extends to engineering and science too. The trend going beyond music can't be be explained by these answers. Another contributing factor could be found in the economic, social and hierarchic structure. Showing status and "keeping up with the joneses" if frowned upon while falling behind in career or economy is pretty harmless. The lack of social pressure to perform in the socioeconomic hierarchy of Sweden leaves individuals adrift to pursue random interests which allows them to be creative. It is a culture that considers the person who spends a lot of money on an expensive vehicle to show off more suspect than the person who revives the mechanical music genre on KZbin by spending his time building an absurd ball machine.

[@ThePussukka]

Chord is pronounced "khord" and not "tshord" btw

[@user-hg1vh3mq9u]

The author of the video, first study the information about the performers and producers well, and then tell others. Dennis did not produce all the Ace of Base songs from the first album "Happy Nation" in 1992, he produced only one song, "All That She Wants", from this album. And in general, he produced only 6 songs from Ace of Base for all time: "All That She Wants", "The Sign", "Beautiful Life", "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry", "Lucky Love", "Blooming 18". And you showed the Ace of Base album cover in a 1998 video called "Flowers". Denniz PoP has nothing to do with this album, because, unfortunately, he had died by that time.

[@kkantu8246]

i love germans and especially you!

[@jusebacho]

Is ironic, they make a cool pop music but are in the top of the lonely and sad countries too

[@Reznor1983]

Wow, you couldn’t be more wrong! 😂 Google Sweden happiness index. Sweden is one of the happiest.

[@sweco92]

🇸🇪💪🏻

[@Gsoda35]

Japanese pop music is also quite good. have a look.

[@mikaelowe8430]

no its not its absolutely crap you really have bad taste in music the only countries that make good pop music is sweden, usa and england with sweden being the number 1 cause sweden has made all pop music from the early 70s untill today that is playing on the radio and on tv channels like mtv cause all pop songs are made by swedish songwriters and producers like max martin,shellback,redone, andreas carlsson and several other swedish songwriters and producers that work with these 4 guys 1. Sweden 2. usa 3. england

[@Gsoda35]

@@mikaelowe8430 that would be true to those who think so. you sure are limiting yourself then. I enjoy it a lot.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

@@mikaelowe8430 Hahaha. J-pop is huge and one of my favorite genres.

[@leathebarbie]

@@mikaelowe8430and Japan makes better pop music thank Korea

[@darkmatter6714]

Can you make a video about why the British are even better at pop music?

[@user-bm6fb5qv4x]

Amazing! But you should have mentioned Kent. The most loved band in Sweden even more than ABBA. Only fault from their side was they did not sing in English. Otherwise they would have been like the Beatles. All my friends in the US were obsessed by Kent.

[@alvdansen7172]

The fact that Kent chose to sing in swedish is why they are loved, they are the band in swedish that swedes love to listen to, swedes usually don't listen to music in sweden if it's in swedish. Kent even in swedish were loved outside Sweden and Sweden can be proud of that.

[@mikaelowe8430]

there is also a rock band called takida and europe that is very good to and they are also from sweden

[@mikaelowe8430]

this line you said The most loved band in Sweden even more than ABBA is abosulutely wrong and incorrect cause kent was NOT loved more then abba cause it was the other way around abba was the most loved band in sweden and in the hole world do you understand that?

[@rogink]

You mentioned controversy over Spotify's royalty payments, but many people think they are responsible for the death of music. Where are the big artists from the last 15-20 years? OK, you have a lot of solo performers like Taylor Swift, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Beyonce. But would Beyonce have started on her own today instead of with Destiny's Child? And the big bands from pre-2000 are still going strong - e.g. U2, Stones. So yes, Sweden has blessed us with some fantastic pop music, but I wonder if they will still export music as streaming grows.

[@Sorenzo]

Chord is pronounced "kord"

[@mrsonor1090]

Your facts are wrong, about Swemix, Denniz Pop and Cherion studio. If you got so much wrong at the start, I'm sure you got more wrong later but I couldn't watch anymore. Bye

[@_loss_]

What was he wrong about? I can't point out anything he was wrong about regarding the studio perhaps maybe some continually error, but that's such a small inconsequential detail.

[@applemos6714]

Explain what’s wrong and provided sources supporting your argument. Don’t just say it’s wrong.

[@EDM_IDss]

Swede is Europen Korea

[@eswarjuri]

Dein Englisch ist ja echt besser als du denkst, aber „Tschords“ statt „Kords“ schmerzt als jemand, der selbst Musik macht, schon echt sehr! 😂

[@agostinodublino1387]

wow, I didn't knew Sweden were responsible of all that cr*ppy music! Damn... 😅 I recently discovered you channel and I find it quite interesting. What is disappointing is how you diligently aggregate all these informations and names and data ...in a frankly boring sequence, for example: "this is the museum bla bla, the ticket is 19 euros.". AND? did you find it's overpriced? Is it honest? How much time did you spent inside? Did you enjoyed the visit, there were many people, how was the shop, if there was one? Is it easy to reach for a tourist? You see, like you do it looks like a Rechnungsführer compiling every cold info one after another without any bit of personal point of view or unexpected humor. Take it like a constructive critic. Your channel would become from average to very interesting if you were a little more like MRNBD and if you do more videos in English about Germany, which is very misunderstood by Americans, Italians and so on, but they don't understand a single German word so they keep languish in the ignorance. There are still many prejudices, and even toward Berlin from a German but non-Berliner point of view. Thank you