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The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover
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About This Book
Through exclusive interviews and over a decade of deep research, renowned music journalist Jan Gradvall explores the secrets to ABBA's success. There has never been a group like ABBA. More than half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA still make people the world over dance and sing their hearts out. In 2013, when the band had not been interviewed for over thirty years, Jan Gradvall was granted unique access to them for the next decade and the result is The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover. Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad all share their personal stories, their thoughts and their opinions about ABBA's music more openly than ever before. Weaving in and out of their story, well-known international music critic Jan Gradvall reveals the context in which their unique sound developed and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the globalization of pop culture. From their earliest hits in Sweden like "People Need Love" and "Ring, Ring" to their chart-topping international hits like "Dancing Queen," "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" and "Mama Mia!" to ABBA Voyage – their first album in forty years – and the two-million-ticket-selling eponymous concert-experience in London, it is undeniable that, in the history of pop culture and music, there has never been a group like ABBA. With remarkable intimacy, Gradvall's sensational book brings readers closer than ever to one of the world's most notoriously private groups.
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Reviews
"Gradvall, an award-winning Swedish music journalist and author, and an ardent ABBA fan, brings contagious enthusiasm to this written tribute, drawing on research and years of close journalistic work with the group ..."
"The best chapter in The Story of ABBA contextualizes [the band's] choice...to sing in english ...."
"It is perhaps this closeness to the source that restricts his literary approach; in many chapters there is an abundance of explanation and fact, such as a history of the 'raggare' youth cult or the influence of ABBA's songs in Vietnam, which detract from the band's core story, their internal dynamics and emotions and frustrations that were surely present in the studio or on tour."
"There's a lot about Abba's notoriously painstaking process in the studio, but not a great deal of critical scrutiny aimed at their output ..."
"But the story is leavened by Gradvall's personal observations of how influential the group was in their native country."
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