Ah, ABBA, my Swedish friends.
Why wasn’t this foursome as massive in the stars and stripes as they were in Europe and Australia? It really comes down to a few reasons. The first is that they preferred to write and record in Stockholm. Well, it didn't have to be Stockholm, it could have been Malmo. Band member Benny Anderson said that they would only tour the U.S. if they were the headliners. The Scandinavians didn't yet earn that honor, so they had a door slammed in their face.
They were not initially viewed in the United States as anything more than a fad band. That's right, “serious” music fans did not consider the stars of ABBA to be legit. After all, they didn't scratch and claw and receive bruised knuckles on their way to the top; instead, they won the Eurovision contest to gain notoriety. That's a cheat code to many Americans if they've ever seen one.
So, what music did they produce? They produced music that disco heads would love, as well as power ballads and tunes with classical influences. It's like, how do we market these people to a specific audience? Focus, people!
Lack of media presence. They weren't on American teen magazines and the rock press was a hindrance to the group gathering a target audience that they could latch on to.
The late 1970s was just not having disco anymore and wanted folk and hard rock music. I don't care, people can say what they want, but Dancing Queen is still my jam even if it has been played nonstop.
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