Swedish Pop Music

My relation to music

Music has always been a part of my life. I have played instruments, listen to, and enjoyed music of all kinds. During my upbringing in 2nd grade, I played the recorder, which was obligatory for everyone that wanted to move on to another instrument in 3rd grade. I then moved on to play the violin for several years, in high school I choose to play the flute for a year, and then I decided that school was not for me at that point and became a high school drop-out (which is a story for another episode) and my musical career was over. 

My four younger brothers played trumpet, clarinet, and guitar. All of these were after-school activities within the municipal music school. In regular school, I have had music education as a subject during all my years, and every school I have attended has had an active school choir. 

I wish I could play some samples of the music and artists I will talk about in this episode, but since that is not going to happen I have created a list of links at the end of this so you can find them for yourself on YouTube. 

Listening to music has likewise been an important part of my life. In the early 70s, this was mostly done on radio. We had a radio show called “Tio i Top” (ten in the top) where you listened to the top ten and 5 upcoming songs. During several of these Saturdays, I was part of the “jury” that was randomly selected, you got a card sent to you where you replied if you were interested to participate or not, you sent it back with your phone number, and after the show was broadcasted, they called you on the phone to get your votes. 

Concerts were another way of enjoying music, and one of my very early memories was at the age of 14 when one of Sweden’s most popular groups at that time, The Hep Stars, was playing at our youth center. One of the members was later to become one of the most famous Swedish pop artists, Benny Anderson, as he was one-fourth of ABBA. 

I also remember listening to Bob Marley at Gröna Lund in Stockholm in 1977. As a 19-year-old girl who just had become a high school dropout, and started to work and make her own money this was a time when I felt like an independent adult for the first time. 

The Swedish music scene

Sweden is the world’s third-largest music exporter, just behind the US and the UK. Over the past decades, Sweden has been cultivating future songwriters, producers, musicians, and DJs. The so-called Swedish Music “Miracle” is the years between 1990-2003 when Swedish musicians made it firm on the US Billboard.

The world is looking to Swedish songwriters and producers, for music that works well on mainstream radio, playlists, and pop charts. 

If the only Swedish band or musician you can name is ABBA, you have a surprise coming. Over the past several decades, Sweden has been quietly cultivating future songwriters, producers, musicians, and DJs—particularly in the realm of pop and electronic dance music.

Sweden is a music machine. Almost all Swedes speak English as at least a second language. Combine that with the generous government support of after-school music programs, plus subsidies for professional music endeavors, and you have a booming Swedish music industry.

When pop band ABBA hit it big on the worldwide stage in the 1970s and early 1980s, the group provided a role model for the country’s youth. The so-called “Swedish Music Miracle,” or the years between 1990-2003, saw Swedish musicians make strong inroads on the US Billboard Hot 100 and dance charts.

Then, with the melding of technology and music in the new millennium, much of the Swedish contribution moved behind the scenes to songwriting, music production, and DJing. What is for sure is that the unassuming Scandinavian country has grown into a powerhouse of musical talent. Learn what Swedish musicians have made it big in America and what they’re famous for.

Swedish songwriters and producers are immensely popular. The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, One Direction, Maroon 5, Pink, Britney Spears, Madonna, Ellie Goulding, Jonas Brothers – these are just some of the international pop acts who have collaborated with Swedes. Stockholm and Los Angeles are two of the capitals in international pop today. 

Why?

There are many things that help explain Sweden’s large role in the music industry despite its small population. Lately, the growing importance of the Swedish streaming platform Spotify has also helped promote Swedish music abroad.

Another explanation for the phenomenon is the strong music interest in Sweden, with the highest number of choirs per capita in the world – 15 percent of Swedes sing in choirs.

Music schools and government support

Part of the answer is education. The importance of municipal music and art schools to their development and the free availability of technical equipment at adult education colleges.

The Swedish government has offered high-quality music education for nearly all of its citizens in subsidized after-school programs since the 1940s. Schools provide genre-specific training in pop, rock, classical, and most recently mixing and recording, and also allow students to rent any instrument they please for a small fee.

So for example music at primary school, over nine years, should be taught for at least 230 hours. From the 7th to the 9th year of compulsory school, students may choose to join classes with a special emphasis on music. Besides continuing their general education, they will also receive lessons in singing and playing instruments, ensemble playing, and music theory.
Sweden has a well-developed system of municipal music and art schools. In 2006 as many as 282 Swedish municipalities had such schools, and only eight municipalities are without one. 

The Swedish government supports musicians through the Swedish Arts Council. The council funds those in the early stages of their careers by allocating grants to performing arts every year. 

Digital technology

Another reason is Sweden’s early advances in digital technology, something that has fostered many ground-breaking musical innovations. Spotify is headquartered in Stockholm. Berlin-based Soundcloud was created by Swedes, who still run it today. Swedish programmers helped build Apple Music. (The notorious PirateBay hailed from Stockholm too.)

International outlook

Yet another factor is the small size of the Swedish market, which drives internationalization. Being able to speak at least one foreign language is almost a prerequisite. Unlike many European countries, Sweden doesn’t dub English-language TV series and movies. This means Swedes hear English spoken on a daily basis. Swedes are also among the most avid travelers on the planet.

Swedes love music competitions

Melodifestivalen and Eurovision are taken very seriously in Sweden. Melodifestivalen is the annual song competition that determines who will represent Sweden in the Eurovision contest and each year gathers roughly 4 million national viewers. Swedes are clearly very good at picking a winner too: Sweden has produced six Eurovision winners starting with ABBA in 1974 and is second only to Ireland in terms of Eurovision winners.

Some famous artists

ABBA

The powerhouse pop group ABBA was Sweden’s most successful musical group ever, and they are honored in America’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group was comprised of two married—and subsequently divorced—couples:

Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus

Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad

(Technically, Lyngstad was born in Norway, but the other members are Swedish through and through.)

They first began to work together in 1969. They were originally known as Festfolk (meaning “party people”), thereafter performing under the name of Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, before settling on the more memorable term, ABBA. The band’s name is derived from each member’s first initials.

After winning the 1974 Eurovision song contest with “Waterloo,” the Swedish pop group catapulted to worldwide fame and enjoyed consistent success throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the early 1980s until the group disbanded in 1982. 

While ABBA landed only one single, “Dancing Queen,” atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, they made a significant impact on the sound of mainstream Top 40’s music in the era. 

“Waterloo” (1974)

“Mamma Mia” (1975)

“Dancing Queen” (1976)

ABBA remains one of the most successful musical acts in history. A 2008 major motion picture, Mamma Mia!, features the Swedish supergroup’s hits, thus introducing a new generation to the magic of their sound.

Today, in London England, you can see a very different concert called ABBA Voyage, which is a concert where avatars, nicknamed ABBAtars, appear as digital versions of Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid.

Roxette

Two friends, Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, began performing together as the Swedish pop duo, Roxette, in 1986. They quickly found success in their native country. Roxette became global chart setters shortly after an American exchange student studying in Sweden heard their song, “The Look” and purchased the 1988 album Look Sharp!, bringing it back to the States to share with an American DJ.

Roxette had hots like 

“The Look” (1989)

“Listen to Your Heart” (1989)

“It Must Have Been Love” (1990)

“It Must Have Been Love,” appeared on the soundtrack of the major motion picture Pretty Woman (1990). Roxette is Sweden’s second-best-selling music act after ABBA.

Europe

If you are a sports enthusiast, you may have heard “The Final Countdown,” in many stadiums. But did you know that “The Final Countdown” is the signature song for the Swedish band Europe, formed in 1979?

The group was originally named Force until 1982 when the girlfriend of lead singer Joey Tempest entered the band in a national talent search contest and they successfully competed against 4,000 other bands. At the last moment, the group changed its name to Europe, then won the competition as well as a recording contract. Over the next several years, Europe landed the following rock and glam metal songs on the Top 40 chart of the US Billboard Hot 100 list:

“The Final Countdown” (1986)

“Carrie” (1987)

“Superstitious” (1988)

After taking a hiatus in 1992, the band reassembled on New Year’s Night 1999 for one show. In 2015, GEICO featured the band and their hit, “The Final Countdown.” in their commercials.

Ace of Base

Swedish pop band Ace of Base prides itself as one of the first internationally popular bands to have heavily incorporated technology in their music. Formed in 1990, the group grew out of a school project. In their heyday, the band’s lineup consisted of three siblings–Jonas Berggren, Malin “Linn” Berggren, and Jenny Berggren–plus their friend, Ulf Ekberg. 

Pop songs by Ace of Base charted well globally through the 1990s, including in the United States where several of them were Top 10 hits. Songs that reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 included:

“All That She Wants” (1992)

“The Sign” (1993)

“Don’t Turn Around” (1994)

Swedish House Mafia

The future of electronic dance music (EDM) received a big boost when three solo DJs joined forces in 2008 to create the progressive house supergroup Swedish House Mafia. Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso had known one another as children and collaborated under various aliases. When they found themselves booked at the same event as another Swedish DJ, Axel Hedfors (known as Axwell), the trio decided to collaborate creatively under the name Swedish House Mafia. Although a fourth Swedish DJ, Eric Prydz, was briefly also a member, he quickly bowed out because he was too much of a self-described “control freak.”

From 2008-2013, Swedish House Mafia released EDM music and remixes that filled the club scene across the globe, including in the US. The group landed only one hit on the Top 40 chart of the mainstream US Billboard Hot 100, “Don’t You Worry Child” (featuring John Martin) in 2012. Other hits have been

Miami 2 Ibiza (2010)

Greyhound (2012)

Swedish House Mafia went on hiatus in 2013 and members pursued their own projects. The group reunited in 2018.

Avicci

Swedish electronic dance artist Tim Bergling was known as Avicii. He also performed under the names Tom Hangs and Tim Berg. 

Avicii was a songwriter, record producer, musician, and prolific remixer who is credited as being one of the most influential forces behind the rise of EDM in early 2010s popular music. He began making music at age 16. Although Avicii enjoyed music, as a teen the Swede didn’t play any instrument particularly well. However, when he discovered house music and what he could musically create with computers, his career quickly took root. Examples of his hits include, “Wake Me Up” (2013) and “Hey Brother” (2013). 

Avicii collaborated with a wide range of artists across multiple genres, including Madonna, Chris Martin, Lenny Kravitz, Gavin DeGraw, and Wyclef Jean. He was also nominated for Grammy Awards and earned up to $500,000 per gig (money that he often donated to charity).

In 2016, the stressed and overworked artist retired from the breakneck pressures of touring. He suffered from acute pancreatitis and underwent subsequent surgeries for his gallbladder and appendix. Additionally, he had been facing years of escalating mental health concerns: depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Then, in 2018, Avicii died from self-inflicted wounds from a broken wine bottle. He was only 28 years old.

Max Martin

Karl Martin Sandberg is known professionally as Max Martin, a Swedish record producer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s making a string of hit singles such as Britney Spears’s “…Baby One More Time” (1998), the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” (1999), Céline Dion’s “That’s the Way It Is” (1999) and NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” (2000).

Martin has written or co-written 25 Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs, most of which he has also produced or co-produced, including Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” (2008) and “Roar” (2013), Maroon 5’s “One More Night” (2012), Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” (2014), and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” (2019) and “Save Your Tears” (2020). 

Martin is the songwriter with the third-most number-one singles on the chart, behind only Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

He became a household name in Sweden when he was awarded the prestigious Polar Music Prize in 2016.

Final Thoughts

Music has always been a way to connect people, a way of expression, and an outlet. I am still fascinated by the fact that a small country like Sweden has succeeded so well in the music industry, and hope you found this as interesting as I did.
I wish I could have played some of the music I talked about in this episode, but I would never want to infringe on copyright laws, and instead, I have provided you with links to as many music videos possible from the artists I have talked about in this episode. I hope you will enjoy them. 

Video Links

The Hep Stars Sunny Girl

Bob Marley Gröna Lund, Stockholm, Sweden 1977

ABBA Waterloo

Roxette The Look

Europe The Final Countdown

Ace of Base The Sign

Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin – Don’t You Worry Child

Avicci Wake Me Up

Max Martin Britney Spears Baby One More Time

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Here you can find the links to all photos that I have used, and the Creative Commons license for all of them.