ABBA - why did they split up?

in your opinion.

I know you're talking about my comments because they are never popular with super fans.

There is ZERO evidence that Frida and Agnetha were close friends at the end of Abba. ZERO. there are videos where they smile and joke. THESE ARE VIDEOS. They're possibly faking it all for the camera, and only super fans who cant stand the idea of them not being close friends, use videos as "evidence".

There is almost ZERO evidence that they were not... except for the distinct possibility that they rarely saw each other ever again.

Some of this could be attributed to Frida not living in Sweden and Agnetha not wanting to travel... but that certainly wouldnt have stopped Frida from travelling to visit... and she apparently never did.

Nobody is saying they hated each other.

I'm suggesting there was undoubtedly a lot of friction happening between the band members at the end. Benny and Bjorn were still tight but everybody else... the girls probably werent real thrilled with their ex husbands, in particular Frida... and I'm suspecting the competitive jealousy they both admitted to, was reaching uncomfortable friction levels at the end, as well.

This wont ring true if you're a super abba fan, I understand that.

However, that does NOT discount the possibility of me being right.

 

I do have to agree with that.

Abba seemed to be moving in a synthi-pop direction of sorts, and I never liked that sound. Most of the things recorded in their last year, 1982, not my thing.

I didnt even like half of the Visitors, but thats just my subjective opinion.

 

I think you mentioned you were speculating upthread, and I respected that you said that. I was only saying there is so much one can read about them, so speculating isn't really necessary for anyone really interested. They were friends and that is well documented. I can't imagine them hanging out together all those years, all the time (especially in a stressful atmosphere like a recording studio, where the guys were perfectionists). They must have had some nasty days, but in real life they were friends though Agnetha retreated to her estate after they broke up and did not venture out much for a long time. She even forgot most of her english. But her getting reclusive and not seeing Frida wasn't about them not being friends. She just felt she needed a complete reset. She hated touring. That being said, I'm sure some of your observations must have happened as they are only human of course!

 

I think they were part of the leaders in what they were doing in the 70's, but as the 80's came in I think it flipped the other way and they were quickly sounding dated. I love The Visitors as the overall sound was getting more and more mature, but I'm a sucker for slick pop and I was certainly in the minority. It would take some time for me to get used to the major change to the production of music in the 80's, but I eventually got on board. I'm going to guess you were far ahead of me as far as adapting, based on your response to The Visitors. I know it did not sell well in the US and ended up as a cutout. Sad! I don't know how it fared in other countries.

 

again, thats speculation on your part.

You cant accuse others of speculation thats untrue, and then proceed with your own speculations.

Wait, you just did that.

I think they were friends on some level at the end. I never suggested like in that book, that they hated each other.

I do SUSPECT their friendship was strained, enough to where they seldom saw each other afterwards.

You have nothing to suggest this could not be true.. except statements they made to the press, and those are often hiding the truth for a persons own private reasons.

I'll go even farther and say that I SUSPECT at least one of them agreed to the "lets take a break" thing, but secretly never planned on getting back together... and all comments in the press were simply nice things to say. Thats speculation too.

I dont know Abba, I've never met them.

Grain of salt and all that.

 

Mmm, this is beginning to sound suspiciously like a Beatles thread...

 

...except that two members of the band were really attractive.

 

HA!

actually there are considerable similarities to the way both bands ended. In some ways. Bad consequences of fan mania. Personality frictions. Some say the Beatles ended when John and Paul got a divorce ;-)

Chris, you read the Bright Lights book. What struck me is how unique their success story was, I mean, how they got started, how they broke out of Sweden and climbed to the top of the charts worldwide.

All this without a recording contract, or use of a studio, in either Britain or America. All homegrown from, at the time, nowhereville in the music world... Sweden.

I cant think of another band in the 70s like that. I mean a self-contained European band with no input or label or studio assistance from Britain or America... except as distributors. I'm sure I'm wrong, but I cant think of one. Golden Earring, they were big in the states.. but they had a recording contract with Track records... I think.

 

Interesting.

They were fluffy sounded in the 70's where they were popular but not huge.
Back in the day (late 70's-early 80's), most of the Abba albums I sold were to young girls, women, and middle-aged men.
Later on in the late 80's, I knew a couple of Abba collectors (both women in their late 20's) who would pay a king's ransom for original 70's Swedish Polar LP's and singles.

 

Man, you shall feel sorry for this remark.

 

I recently got a few ABBA records, given to me as part of a larger collection. They are quite good.

 

Yes of course, but I was thinking more on the level of fandom.
I hope we are not going to go down the imaginary conversations between certain members on a particular day in 1977 route, and start psycho analysing what a split second freeze frame from a video tells us about their relationships route.

 

The thing I didn't really know before reading it was how experienced they were before ABBA, that they had already been there and done that. None of them were still wet behind the ears, typical naifs ready to be chewed up by the industry.

They were, to some extent, a "supergroup."

 

Quite good?
High praise indeed...

 

They were new when I was learning audio engineering, and ABBA and The Carpenters were two bands that, no matter what your personal musical taste, you had to hear - their recordings were a model of excellent engineering.

 

Yes you are right. The strange thing is historically Sweden has always had a strange relationship with Abba. I have loads of Swedish friends from the early 90's up until now, and none of them are that much of a fan, despite being huge music fans.
I think maybe the feeling was always they overshadowed everything else Swedish, a bit like U2 in Ireland maybe.

 

They have been reissuing pre ABBA vinyl lately, but of course it isn't sung in english so I stopped after an early Frida album. I'm sure the experience gave them a nice jump start as even their first ABBA album has some decent material.

 

When I saw this pop back up, I thought it was finally confirmed that Yoko broke up the singing Swedes.

 

I really don't see the point of all this speculation.

 

thats exactly what hooked me on them. Somebody gave me a stack of CDs and said, "listen to this on headphones". The first one I tried was Supertrouper, and honestly, it was more or less a revelation. Some of the best recordings of the 70s. I'm not saying THE BEST but very very good. They really knew what they were doing.

 

For some reason, every time I pass this thread, I start hearing Tammy Wynette sing "Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today."