The ABCs of ABBA
Tom Westin Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
While ABBA were on top of the world for a few short years, their success wasnot to last forever, and in 1982 the group parted ways--the result,some said, of the divorces of Bjorn and Agnetha in 1979 and Benny and Frida in 1981.
Though the four continued to perform together after the breakups, their music changed from upbeat tunes with universal themes to songs about their personal relationships. 1981's sentimental "One of Us,"about the breakup of Agnetha and Bjorn, seemed to be asking too much of listeners, and after ABBA's last TV appearance in 1982, band members went their separate ways.
For a while, fans waited in vain for a reunion, and while some diehards continued to hope against hope, others outgrew their disco clothes and the fast-fading 1970s and moved on.
Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the individual members of ABBA pursued solo musical and acting projects, and Benny and Bjorn gained more fame by directing and writing songs for musicals.
The band never completely disappeared from the pop culture radar screen, however. The 1993 Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, featuring Guy Pierce as an ABBA-obsessed drag queen, paid homage to the group as a relic of 1970s kitsch. In 2000, Sweden issued the world's first ABBA stamp.
Musically, however, perhaps the group's most enduring legacy is its 1977 No.1 hit "Dancing Queen," which can still be heard any nightof the week at some dance clubs in Roppongi, Tokyo, and at "retro" events worldwide.
DJ Nabe, who spins 1970s "dance classics" once a month at Disco Brother--an event held at Roppongi's Velfarre--says it is still a runaway favourite. Nabe, who plays at least one ABBA song a night, saysthat while such classics have remained popular for the past 18 years or so, their popularity goes in cycles. Currently, he says, this cycle is at a peak.
Sensing the arrival of this peak, a Japanese company reportedly offered Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anna-Frid over 1 billion yen in the mid-1990s if they would once again don the flashy ABBA gear and embark on a final world tour. The offer was turned down.
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Passing the torch
This came as a heavy blow to fans worldwide. "It's my dream (for ABBA to reunite)," chuckled Tsuneo Takeuchi, 38, head of the Official ABBA Fan Club Japan, "but in reality, this isn't likely to happen."
Takeuchi, a marketing executive who prefers the moniker "Mr. T," discovered the joys of ABBA early on, although the road he took was sometimes rough. As a middle school student in the 1970s, he was teased by his peers, who were into KISS and Aerosmith, for listening to a band they considered "childish" and "for girls." Yet he refused to betray what was to become the love of his life.
When ABBA played at Tokyo's Budokan in 1980, however, the young Mr. T could not attend. "I was in the midst of studying for high school entrance exams, and couldn't go," he said. "I figured I could see them the next time they came to Japan."
That day never came.
As if to make up for his missed opportunity, Takeuchi, a man whose wedding reception was enlivened by an ABBA soundtrack (his wife, though not originally an ABBA fan, "learned to like them"), has dedicated great swaths of his spare time to spreading the word about the band he so admires.
In 2000, Takeuchi, a marketing and public relations specialist by day, decided the time was right to reestablish a Japanese branch of the Official ABBA Fan Club after a hiatus of 16 years.
Since then, he has seen a resurgence in the band's popularity in Japan. In January and February 2001, TBS broadcast SOS (Strawberry on Shortcake), a 10-week-long drama targeting teenagers and featuring an ABBA soundtrack.
This paved the way for Universal Music's compilation album SOS--The Best of ABBA, which sold 700,000 copies in Japan.
Mr. T has kept himself busy promoting ABBA culture in Japan, writing tributes and articles, spinning tunes at last year's ABBA Night, also heldat Velfarre, and working with the media to promote Mamma Mia!
Takeuchi knows many Japanese are affected by the economic recession, but thinks he knows what they need to get their groove back.
"ABBA songs could be a cure for Japan's problems," he said. "They have a certain healing power. People listen to them and relax."
For relaxing on cold, recessionary, winter nights, he especially recommends the group's seventh album, Super Trouper.
As for his future plans, however, Takeuchi dreams of someday taking his message of "how wonderful the group is" to the country's younger generation, teaching danceable ABBA melodies to preschool and kindergarten students to get them interested in English.
Thanks to ABBAMAILer George Bourdaniotis, Japan
