entertainment

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus urges reforms to pay songwriters their due

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By Maggy DONALDSON

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Umm... Dancing Queen is iconic and annoying, I will say that. Is it a work of art like Stairway to Heaven or Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? No.

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Yes *@Gaijinland 7:00am * We also miss the days of the complete ‘album experience’: the cover art, their liner notes and photos, the commentary from the ‘musicians’, etc

“Streaming "has hugely impacted the kind of songs and their structure," he said. "When (ABBA's) Benny Andersson and I wrote albums, we wrote albums." -

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Music will remain about arts. People will pay if they like it.

My own money has been going only to artists that deserve it.

Problem, you also pay taxes that international orfanizztion decide for you who to pay.

Streaming make it more transparent anyway.

Yes I totally agree with lean back/forward idea differentiation. I did not know that but that makes the difference between active/passive action of decision.

Music industry should be a hobby, not a monthly paid salary outside physical forms.

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Umm... Dancing Queen is iconic and annoying, I will say that. Is it a work of art like Stairway to Heaven or Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? No.

Dancing Queen is close to pop perfection - brilliantly crafted.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Stairway to Heaven are a bit pretentious for my liking, particularly the operatic nonsense in the former and the silly lyrics of the latter.

I preferred Tie your mother down and Custard Pie from those bands.

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JimizoToday  12:28 pm JST

Umm... Dancing Queen is iconic and annoying, I will say that. Is it a work of art like Stairway to Heaven or Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody? No.

Dancing Queen is close to pop perfection - brilliantly crafted.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Stairway to Heaven are a bit pretentious for my liking, particularly the operatic nonsense in the former and the silly lyrics of the latter.

I preferred Tie your mother down and Custard Pie from those bands.

We all have our preferences. Radio overkill spoils everything. 'Dancing Queen' is a good song but 'On and On and On' is my fave ABBA hit. As for Queen it's 'Radio Ga-Ga' which accurately describes radio today and for LZ it's the 'Immigrant Song' which tells us a history lesson contrary to the Christopher Columbus bullcrap they shove on us in school.

Pop perfection? Phil Collins, Prince, Paul McCartney have made 'something for everyone'.

Work of art - try some Pink Floyd, U2, Roxy Music, RUSH, Prince. Others.

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Streaming "has hugely impacted the kind of songs and their structure," he said. "When (ABBA's) Benny Andersson and I wrote albums, we wrote albums."

Hands up everyone who thinks ABBA were an albums band. Do they have a definitive one which fans ask them to play in its entirety at concerts? Like Tapestry or After the Gold Rush? The only album I bet most of their fans listen to is "Best of ABBA". How many of their album tracks made it into the ABBA musical?

My parents bought a house and raised a family in 1970s on an electrician's salary, and you can't do that any more. Times are hard for a lot more people than songwriters. It's catchy, but I don't think there should be champagne on tap for ever simply for writing "soo-pah-pah, troo-pah-pah".

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He’s right. Parasitic tech companies who couldn’t give a crap about music/taxis/education/books/food/[fill in the value creating blank] trying to monopolize demand and exploit supply for their own greedy billionaire ambitions.

They insidiously infect the space between the consumer and producer by offering the products for massive discounts (which the seller/creative pays btw) to make consumers addicted to their “killer apps” and cheap offerings. It’s the same playbook as food giants use to exploit farmers.

Wake up people. Buy direct.

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 It's catchy, but I don't think there should be champagne on tap for ever simply for writing "soo-pah-pah, troo-pah-pah".

That SURE beats the crap outta 'My humps, my humps, my humps' or 'Willyoutellmewhadyouwantwhatyoureallyreallywandonchatellmewhachoowantwhachooreallyreallywant' or '(gibberish spouted from a moron out like somebody put a gun to his/her head) yaaaay, macarena! Ahhh!' any day of the week.

Besides, ABBA are Swedish. You try to write lyrics in a language so exotically different from your own. Swedish uses the Scandinavian alphabet, not the Roman.

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