I Love ABBA (the Band), I Hate ABBA (the Business)

I have to tell you that I do love ABBA when it comes to their music and ABBA is one of the staples in my music collection. I mean, they do not have just one or two hits that I really do enjoy (like Steve Perry) but they produce a lot of songs that evoke certain emotions and feelings that a few others do. This makes ABBA a very vital piece of my music collection, without them, it would not truly be “my” music collection. However, I do have to say that even though I am a new ABBA fan with quite a bit of enthusiasm, it is quite tapered by the reality of the words and actions of the members of ABBA. While ABBA has made significant contributions to music and have provided timeless pieces that will last throughout the years, the actions of ABBA and their corporate sponsours, Universal Music Group, leave me cold.

Here is one of the main reasons why I am a fan of the music – the lyrics speak to me and for someone like me, lyrics really do matter. Even though I do know that the people in the Mamma Mia movie and a few cover bands (like A-Teens and Bjorn Again) add a remix to the music that makes it sound much better to me. In addition, I started to really hear the music of ABBA before I made my journey to Thailand for my sex reassignment surgery and started to enjoy it. I remember that my mentor had a custom CD with Super Trouper on it and I used to listen to that on repeat all the time before I went to Thailand and for a couple of weeks after that. Once I got back to Denver, before I set up house and was living out of a hotel room (it’s quite the feat, I will tell you), I watched Mamma Mia three times in a week and I have to say that I fell in love with the movie. I mean, Jesus fucking Christ, where the hell can you find a romantic guy like Sam Carmichael that is about my age? Plus, the expatriate in me loved it simply because it was set in Greece and not in the United States.

It seems as though ABBA is making a successful living off of their content, that they no longer choose to produce. True, this is a very good thing for some people and I myself am making some money from content I wrote in less than happy times (not as substantial as the people from ABBA but still a small amount), but not if you behave badly with it. One of the members of ABBA, Bjorn Ulvaeus, has chosen to side with the RIAA about file sharing so that the RIAA can continue it’s reign of greed. There used to be a massive ABBA discussion group online, known as ABBAMail that was shut down due to frustrations caused by the group and Universal Music of Sweden and to me, that just sounds so bloody scary. I mean, if you are going to turn on your fans, I am afraid that outside of the BDSM crowd, you are not going to make much in the way of fans. If someone were to set up a fanlisting for my website or for myself, I would not be too mad – I would actually want to know about it and link to it. Furthermore, if you are going to support the renunciation of freedom of speech, removal of consumer rights and continuity of an industry of greed, I am afraid that I am going to have to say no. I refuse to purchase any additional ABBA merchandise simply because I have ALL of their songs on my computer, the Mamma Mia movie on my MythTV and removable hard disc and do not feel like too much of a fan to even contemplate purchasing other stuff.

If you walk into my apartment, you will not see any ABBA posters up on the walls and it is unlikely that you will hear only ABBA music playing in my iTunes library and this is not just for my dearest Samara’s benefit. Yes, the tracks are there and I do play them when I need to hear those songs but I can tell you that I am far from a super-fan. I love the music but I am afraid that is all I love about ABBA simply because that is all I *can* love about ABBA. There are other artists which I listen to and now, these are just songs with powerful words that I do need to enjoy at times, but statistically, I am not too into ABBA (although, statistics are not everything and I will let you know that I am not too thrilled with SoundTEMP, simply because they are just a group that creates music for video games). I do have their music and their movie and I do watch the movie or play an ABBA song every now and then (pretty much on a daily basis) but I am more apt to listen to Alanis Morrisette, Evanescence, Linkin Park, Madonna, A-Teens, Jewel, Shawn Colvin, Indigo Girls or something else entirely depending on my mood and how shitty of a day I have had. So ABBA, Thank You for the Music but I do have to say that you need to act a little bit better towards your fans.

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