No one mentions the fact that we all grew up with a municipal music school where talented kids got a really good music and dance education. That was the ground for the Swedish music wonder that WAS our second largest export. And of course the politicians save money in first hand to cut down on culture and schools… so those days are gone.
Yes, thats how it was. We used to encourage ALL talented kids from all corners of the society and all different talents including school work. Then we thrived. Now we do the same as everywhere else. Only privileged kids get the opportunity. Sad!
There is a parallell in IT/internetn/compuiters in the 'Home-PC-reform' enabling anyone to early on purchase a PC at very reasonable price thanks to tax deduction. So what...? So Spotify, so Skype, so Pirate Bay, so 'is this thing not from Silicon Valley?'
When I went to school it was mandatory to go to music school for an hour every week during normal school hours. Learned to play the recorder and the guitar. Unfortunately that is not the case any more
In Sweden we have ABF. Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund, (ABF) translates to Workers’ Educational Association and is the largest study association in Sweden. Through them young kids (and adults) can form a band and for a really small fee, get accses to a rehearsal-place, instruments, a studio and a teacher who showes you how to play. Thats why every small town in Sweden has alot of bands. Especially punk and metal-bands. They never mention that when they talk about "the Swedish music wonder". That's how I learned how to play and I greatful that I had that as a young kid.
Yep,true story brother.When I grew up in a small town Sweden,there were options for the kids that wasn't into sports.Music was as available as sports were for teens without athlete ambitions.The punkrock scene etc in the 80's was amazing and it just kept growing.I live in the US nowadays but this is just one of the countless amazing things we can contribute to that "evil socialist" country I grew up in.😋
I also would want to lift the youth centers that often has a "music room" with instruments and at times a full out rehersal-place/studio. I know several bands/musicians that started more seriously in that setting with the encuragement of the staff at the youth center.
A little fun story, in 2007 i met a guy at a party that I started talking to (unfortnutely I don't remember his name) but he said that he was working for a small firm in stockholm that was putting music legally online and he explained that they were trying to get ads so that they could expand. He wondered if I wanted to try it. I did and at that time they only had a couple hundred songs and pretty much all of them were in swedish. That was Spotify so I have playlists that are soon 17 years old.
Some claim that it's because of the free of charge Music Schools that works in tandem with regular Schools. Very many children learns to play at least one instrument from around age 10. Some say it's because of the rich music tradition, but I'm not sure. Many other countries also have that.
In the beginning of 2023, Sweden passed UK and is now only behind the US in music export. "Take this with a grain of salt, the fact is not confirmed..."
A few things why we are big on pop music are. 1: Work life balance. 2: Cold winters rainy autumns, so spend a lot of time at home. 3: Music tradition. 4: Music school, it doesn't cost much and is a school children and young people can go to after school. Many children may have a sport or a cultural activity they do once or more a week, music school is the most common among these cultural activities. 5: ABF (a certain explanation is required, ABF stands for the workers' education association), through these you can apply for grants to start an association, for example a music association. 6: Our welfare system, which allows you to resign from a job, bet on your music career and if it doesn't work out, you won't end up on the street. But you can get money until you find a new job. This means that more people dare to bet on creative professions, or for that matter start their own company. 7: Another thing is our child focus, we sing a lot for children, for example. Many of the melodies that are then written for children's lyrics are then used in pop music. If a child can clap along to a song that doesn't have such a developed feel for rytems, then everyone can clap along. It will be those melodies that settle on the brain. Max Martin is an expert in this. This is, for example, why Jazz will never as big as pop, because it is advanced rhythms that require you to have heard a lot of music and have a developed sense of rhythm. You can compare it a bit with all appreciating a coca cola, but you have to learn to appreciate a whisky. 8: We are quite good at English (which is the language of music)
@@jimimaru So you have ABF in other countries? And the music school (yes, of course they exist in many other countries, but look at what it costs in many other countries, only the children of the rich can afford to go to such)
Often forgotten. In famous Swedish successful music is all of the other genre's. Like rock/metal, jazz, classical, choir, and Synth music etc. Music is like a religion in Sweden. Its a big part in education, scools, upbringing of people in general. Its often music, sports, or computers or a combination thats a big part in many Swedes life allready from an early age. Then add that we learn English from 6 years of age. We dont have dubbed tv so we are allways "feeded" with English. And on Internet Swedes are known to allways been on the forefront. Both in content and and the general computer knowledge in people. So we also fill ourselves with a lot of music and impressions from all over the world. Then we have a lot of churches who contribute a lot with different music activities. Both learning instruments, sing in choirs etc. We are also one or maybe "the" most choir singing countries in the world. In schools we are offerd to learn a instrument. Often begins with piano or flute. I begun with flute and öater played the trombone. And after that what become my life love have been singin in choirs until som years ago. Thru our free education system we have many different ways of learn music. So summoning up we have a lot of chances and choices if we want to follow professional or amateur Level music just for fun. But its also something deep within our folksoul that makes every Swede compared to many other europeans, highly musical in general. Even some non Swedes even think the Swedish language has a singin tone in it. Just as Norwegian.. Love ure reactions All the best from Stockholm Sweden/ Jonny
Thanks for a great reaction! 👍 I really think you should watch "Flat Pack Pop: Sweden’s Music Miracle" to learn more about the Cheiron studio. It will be worth the watch. 12:17 No, we always write from biggest to smallest (YYYY-MM-DD or YYMMDD) or sometimes smallest to biggest (DD-MM-YYYY) - so month is always in the middle. Most arenas in Sweden is named after the company who sponsor it, The Avicii Arena is actuallly called that because several foundations are paying for it to highlight the mental health of young people.
That both Spotify and the Pirate bay (and many other IT-related things) comes from Sweden is because most of us had avcess to computers and the internet very early. The government had special funding programs for home computers in the late nineties that brought computers to the families that did not have them yet. (And quite many did. I think people bought them via their jobs earlier) We also systematically brought internet to all of Sweden. I have had broadband since 2001 or something.
So Benny and Björn were not aspiring, they were popstars in Sweden by the mid 60s, so was Agnetha and Frida. Agnetha also wrote her own songs. They first became couples in the late 60s and started to sing together around 1970, then it all developed in to what we know. And they were first called Fästfolket and then Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida, then ABBA.
I watched a documentary about the Swedish music wonder and learned that 1964 we got our first song on Billboard hot 100; "Sole, Sole, Sole" with Siw Malmkvist. She was not number one though, our first one was "Hooked on a feeling" with Blue Swede and then "Dancing Queen" with ABBA, Roxette with "The Look", "Listen to your heart", "It must have been love" (it was in the movie "Pretty Woman"), "Joyride" and Ace of Base with "The Sign". Quite an impressive musical journey Sweden has taken, starting with just translating other famous songs to Swedish in the beginning, to now creating music worldwide. 😊 #proud 😉
Don’t forget, thousands of swedes are singing in choirs, children-, church-, gospel-, senior- and many moore kinds of choirs. Sweden really is a singing nation. 🎼🎶🎶🎶🎶🇸🇪
Thats the understatement of the year. Sweden and Finland are pretty much spearheading the genre. Have been for decades. The UK ranks pretty high as well but mostly off of legacy. Unlike Sweden and Finland, the UKs metal generally lives of lingering glory of their massive bands from the 70s and 80s
It's crazy. Max Martin and RedOne has basically created the whole pop music scene for 30 years now. If a song isn't written or produced by any of them it's by someone trying to do it like them. Amazing!
Music lessons at school in Britain were hitting triangles and blowing into a recorder. And the going through composers of centuries ago. Music lessons in Sweden are making your own beats, playing lots of different instruments, rapping and song writing. Though none of my kids have any idea how to read sheet music!
We had lots of youth recreation centers and music studie cirkels in sweden, you could learn how to play instruments or singing all for FREE so lots of band started,
Another interesting fact about The Pirate Bay (and Napster) is that it pioneered a new way to use Internet, called Peer-to-peer, which is the foundation of today's streaming services like Netflix and TH-cam, and communication application like Skype, Whatsapp etc
Besides the public music school, higher education is also free so if you have an interest in music you have a very good opportunity to educate yourself.
We started really early. The most spread Swedish song ever was written already in the 1850's and one of our first superstars were engaged in the US by P.T. Barnum.
About the song "Wish you were here", that is mentioned; it's written by Teijo Agélii-Leskelä and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin. I know 'cause I worked with Teijo, recording his songs. 😊
I think it's the way we talk. Some say it sounds like we are singing when we are talking and the fact that we have a lot of music in school from an early age. That is how i got into singing and playing instruments. Music is in our culture and soul.
I think the tradition ofheavy use of melodies and very often a noticeable touch of melancholy predates ABBA but their huge sucessinternationally as well as their high quality really set a high standard to live up to for the artist that came after they called it quits in the beginning of the 80s. Heavy Metal dominated throughout the 80s in Sweden, and international efforts and successes where in those genres. Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen where the major international sucess stories until Roxette became huge in the late 80s and early 90s. And after that the Swedish pop world domination of the 90s began at Cheiron Studios, etc. From then until now a huge number of pop hits internationally have been written by old swedish metal/hårdrock musicians turned songwriters. Max Martin is the biggest such example of 80s rocker that went on to dominate international pop production and songwriting, while Jonas Åkerlund 80s metalhead went on to become the most in demand/sucessful music video director/producer in the 90s and 00's. All these bands such as ABBA, Roxette and the countless 90s hits from Sweden all set a high bar of quality future artists had or should meet to really stand out and get attention, this is a reason behind Sweden's music export sucess that often isn't focused on enough or at all. Refusal to prioritize quantity over quality has been universal here more or less, too. There's also been plenty of musicians that have worked as music teachers at high schools etc outside of their music careers or after those careers ended. I've heard so many songwriters for bands i like from Sweden give creds to their music teachers in school for teaching them the basics of good songwriting and these music teachers often had had some sucess in music short or long lived careers. Probably doesn't hurt to have a lot of good music teachers spread songwriting nerdery
No respectable person in Stockholm calls Globen "Avicci Arena". All respect to the guy, he was a fantastic musician, but Globen has been Globen since February 1989. No one called it "Ericsson Globe" either, when they tried to rebrand it. The shopping mall directly attached to the arena is still called "Globen Shopping" and the metro station is still called Globen. This is Stockholm's giant golf ball and no rebranding can take it away.
The music video "Show me the meaning of being lonely" by BSB is dedicated to Denniz Pop. It's written in the beginning and on the bus it says "Denniz St".
Love the reaction!!! If you wanna know more about the cheiron studio and the people behind it you should definitely react to “flat pack pop: Swedens music miracle”
In Sweden we either write dates year, month, day or day, month, year. Both is correct but it often varies depending on what you’re writing. Birthdays are often year, month, date because that’s how our “personnummer” (like social security numbers) are made. So we always put the month in the middle
The YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD is a ISO standard that several European countries as adopted but not all use it in everyday life - similar to "military time" (the 24 hour clock) in the US that Sweden also use as standard. Not sure though if the DD/MM - YY is a ISO standard or just common practice in Sweden. Note though that for the latter style one sjould use the / to seperate the date an month. We do not write it like DDMMYY or DD-MM-YY however at times we drop the year completly and only the DD/MM is used.
In a time when most music was just downloaded for free, to come up with a service where you needed to pay for music and it succeeded is really strange. But it shows that if you have a good product people are willing to pay for it.
Not only that, it is cheap and most people had it for free in the beginning. It was better to use Spotify than the very slim risk of actually getting caught downloading music illegal. Thats why I started using Spotify atleast. For the price of 3 bottles of coke, I had unlimited music. I call it worth it.
the dates are written "year-month-day" so Tim's birthday is 8th of september 1989 also: Spotify only started making profit like 1-2 years ago!! I read it in the news it kinda blew my mind that they hadn't gained profit in all those years
One of the clues is that ALL children in Sweden has music as a school subjekt. Among all theese there are golden stuffs😊. They can from there (free) start with an easy wooden floot (?) and after that going on with another instruments. This is one of the reasons why we have do many music talents from here👍❤️
I (a swede) have listened to lots of music documentaries about Swedish music history, and they often talk about cheiron. Two reasons for why they because so successful was that they believed that a hit song needed to be annoying enough to stick in your head, and they also considered themselves a music factory. They didn't try to make the best music, they tried to make hits. And when it comes to Sweden in general, as others have said already, we (at least used to) value music as part of the education, and lots of kids played instruments and sang in choirs (myself included) growing up. Or played in a band etc. Lots of it funded by the state, as in free or cheap to access. Then there's also the Swedish sound, which is a contributing factor. If you listed to Swedish folk music, it's moody with minor chords etc. You can hear that in a lot of music made by swedes, and it brings complexity. A bit like how a dessert shouldn't be just sweet, but also have a bit of tartness to it. PS, don't quote me on any of this ;)
I didn't know about pirate bay either - I always thought it was from america xD I'm glad that I found your channel. So interesting hearing your thoughts and see your reaction / Regards from Sweden :D
There's another documentary about Sweden and the music industry, I forget the name of it now but it's a really really good one. It's on youtube somewhere I'm sure people can recommend it and probably has.
Centuries of music tradition, music schools and music education are free and accesible to everyone, instruments are basically free for children, as an adult you can borrow instruments.❤🇸🇪
I'm Swedish and I've spoken to max martin and others through this course i took, and yeah it's interesting... I think we just have a lot more free access to stuff than many other people from other countries. For example music school which is a school you can go to after regular school and play instruments or sing. I sing so i went to that.
I learnt a lot. I am an event planner and there were details I did not know and now it makes sense, about Avicii and Taylor Swift and I got the names behind many successful stories. Including Spotify. So amazing. ❤
It should be said that even if ABBA didn't get a record deal immediately, they probably were watched closely by the record companies, since both Benny Andersson and Björn Ulveus had been in successful, signed bands before ("Hep Stars" and "Hootenanny Singers", respectively). Anni-Frid Lyngstad (originally from Norway) had also recorded some singles that had done well.
In Sweden we go from biggest to smallest when it comes to dates so it goes year, month day (yyyy-mm-dd). So Avici was born 1989-09-08 so 8 september 1989.
Many amazing musicians throughout music history passed away before they turned 30. It is indeed sad, but I dunno if it's even more sad that the people who is working with them can't catch up to check how their band mates are actually doing.
If you don´t want to live in the city when visiting Stockholm I recommen Strawberry Hotel at Avici Arena. 5 min strolling to the subway and 5-10 min to T-Centralen on the train. A short travel to the histle and bustle but a calm and quiet stay at night. We always stay there when we´re visiting Sthlm. If you´re lucky Annika still work as a foyer hostess, singing the aria from The Magic Flute by Mozart. Oh well...Annika is a parrot, very charming. Give her some popcorn and she will be your BFF forever! 😃
If you like music and are amazed by Swedish musicians of all kinds you just HAVE TO go down the Tommy Johansson rabbit hole!!! He is AMAZING! A metal boy but also the winner of the Swedish Karaoke competition in 2009. He is the lead guitarist in Sabaton, lead singer in Majestica and releases covers every Friday on TH-cam. He is playing guitar, base, flute, keyboard, drums... and sing with a range that can only be describes as insane. Happy listening! You will thank me :)
Great video, but he didn't really answer the question in the title. We used to have so many music programs for kids. If you had a project you could get state funding for it. In my teens (15-20 years ago) me and my friends organized music events and local competitions. As the political landscape has become more and more conservative, programs like these no longer have any funds. Only time will tell what consequences changes like these have on Swedish music export.
Should we mention there's a political party in Sweden called the Pirate Party that also was formed in 2006? Which main issue was reform on copyright laws . Not that they've ever gotten enough votes to enter the government, but they still exist...
Max Martin doesn't so much adapt to current pop music as directing it. We also write our dates like you do, only the other way around. I'm not sure why they use dots here, but it's YYYY-MM-DD, so 1989 - September - 8th. We read it as "nineteen-hundred eighty-nine, oh-nine, oh-eight" Sort of, that "oh" can just as well mean "zero" since both are _noll_ when it comes to numbers. As for how we actually say dates: _tjugoåttonde september nittonhundraåttionio_ 28th September 1989 basically. We write it "28 september 1989".
in regards to the UK export/import thing is cause you export to alot of diffrent nations but you only import from a few, mainly the US wheres other nations import english speaking music.
I do understand why Spotify pays such small sums per stream. With current structure, people like Taylor Swift would get way to much if Spotify increased the pay per stream. What they should do is make a incremental pay structure. So that small artists gets what they deserve and stupid rich people like Taylor ($1,1 billion net worth) gets todays pay. Which still is a lot! Taylor gets a couple of million dollars monthly from Spotify.
I don't think they mean that with export and import. But they look at what is the turnover of UK music abroad and what is the turnover of other countries' music in the UK.
The Pirate Bay was created and hosted in Sweden, the largest file sharing site/torrent tracker in the world in the early 00's. The controversy and legal battles between Piratebay and Hollywood studios and applications like Napster & Kazaa inspired founders of Spotify (founded in Stockholm, Sweden) to try and create a legit alternative for music streaming good enough to be able to remove the need for average person to engage in illegal download of music albums. To somehow be able to negotiate sucessful deals with copyright holders/labels to create a huge catalogue to rival piracy sites/services.
Not only pop, Sweden has the second most metal bands per capita in the world, Finland is #1 with 53 bands per 100.000 Sweden and Norway are tied for second with 27 and Iceland on third place with 22 band per 100.000 And good ones as well. Oh, and they had one of the best tenor singers this world has ever seen, the one and only, Jussi Björling. It seems like music is their thing no matter the genre. My understanding is that if the music and lyrics is written by, say a Swede, but sung by an American it's still a song made by Swedes? Therefor they export more than import, same with UK and America. I could be wrong.
Regardless! The Beatles! That's enough, or OK (because I'm Swedish) ABBA. The Stones! Maybe I'm too old? I have worked as a music teacher, the seventies, and we rocked. "What do you want to learn", I asked. "POP"!! They (the students) answered and it was Pop. If it's not democracy, tell me. The music room was chaos and noise. Other teachers complained, but we found each other. We lived like only a happy family can. Out of this chaos, even from my class, extraordinary talents were extracted. But I don't think that's the whole truth. The children were/are free to investigate, even today. In addition, financially free = can afford to try their wings. Also, they are so aware of the outside world, because they are not indoctrinated in any way (hence some angry teachers) and never had to feel pressured, just because they wanted to play music. They felt/feel free to express themselves. BUT! Today this "art school" is questioned by the populist right! The right has never liked free artists. But despite everything. Today's young Swedes, like those of so many other countries, completely screw up the obstacles, real or not, that someone is trying to set up. The music/art is free today. Consider Spotify, which is Swedish :)
The argument that Spotify doesn’t do ”fair” payments is just bonkers. How much would a radio station pay artists for using a song? Say the station had 50 000 listeners, would they pay as much as Spotify for 50k streams? No way in hell.
You got it backwards. The reason Max Martin always seems to be on the top of the lists is not cuz he changes with the industry. Its because the industry changes with him, he is the trailblazer. Who was before Brittney? no one. Not really. Not quite with that sound, not quite with that style, there is something about Brittney that stick out, that no one else had, something everyone knew was there but no one could really point to. When you hear any of the early Brittney songs youd never misstake them for another song. More often than not, when there is a trend shift in the industry Max had a finger in the song that set the trend. Who are the faces of the genres and eras? Practically every artist Max ever worked with. Once means nothing. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. I have no idea what 511 times mean. But Im pretty sure "being WAY ahead of the curve" is pretty much an axiomatic truth. Why compete for the title when you have the ability to set the rules?
Apart from what everyone else says in the comments below I also would like to add that most Swedes grow up in kindergarten and learn to sing together from childhood. We then have music class in school and a lot of people sing in choirs. A lot of our entertainment circle around music (see f.e. this clip from popular tv-show "Så ska det låta" to understand why: th-cam.com/video/rletYAdBndM/w-d-xo.html) and the music scene is small and tight knit enough that there is a lot o cross-fertilisation between genres and people share contacts and knowledge.
Best thing I've heard anyone say. That someone appointed should keep track of the person whose life changes drastically, as with Avicii. On the other hand... what an impossible mission. Just sad. I think it's difficult. Everyone is on the merry-go-round. But maybe..?
No one mentions the fact that we all grew up with a municipal music school where talented kids got a really good music and dance education. That was the ground for the Swedish music wonder that WAS our second largest export. And of course the politicians save money in first hand to cut down on culture and schools… so those days are gone.
Yes, thats how it was. We used to encourage ALL talented kids from all corners of the society and all different talents including school work. Then we thrived. Now we do the same as everywhere else. Only privileged kids get the opportunity. Sad!
Yes the lefty haters dont understand what actually did make this country so great! It was the left wing workin class movement.
There is a parallell in IT/internetn/compuiters in the 'Home-PC-reform' enabling anyone to early on purchase a PC at very reasonable price thanks to tax deduction. So what...? So Spotify, so Skype, so Pirate Bay, so 'is this thing not from Silicon Valley?'
And video games. Minecraft and many of the biggest/greatest game titles come out of sweden.
When I went to school it was mandatory to go to music school for an hour every week during normal school hours. Learned to play the recorder and the guitar. Unfortunately that is not the case any more
In Sweden we have ABF. Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund, (ABF) translates to Workers’ Educational Association and is the largest study association in Sweden. Through them young kids (and adults) can form a band and for a really small fee, get accses to a rehearsal-place, instruments, a studio and a teacher who showes you how to play. Thats why every small town in Sweden has alot of bands. Especially punk and metal-bands. They never mention that when they talk about "the Swedish music wonder". That's how I learned how to play and I greatful that I had that as a young kid.
yeah i really love that and also that it is quite cheap ❤❤❤
Yep,true story brother.When I grew up in a small town Sweden,there were options for the kids that wasn't into sports.Music was as available as sports were for teens without athlete ambitions.The punkrock scene etc in the 80's was amazing and it just kept growing.I live in the US nowadays but this is just one of the countless amazing things we can contribute to that "evil socialist" country I grew up in.😋
I also would want to lift the youth centers that often has a "music room" with instruments and at times a full out rehersal-place/studio. I know several bands/musicians that started more seriously in that setting with the encuragement of the staff at the youth center.
+1
ABF is a fascist organisation!
A little fun story, in 2007 i met a guy at a party that I started talking to (unfortnutely I don't remember his name) but he said that he was working for a small firm in stockholm that was putting music legally online and he explained that they were trying to get ads so that they could expand. He wondered if I wanted to try it. I did and at that time they only had a couple hundred songs and pretty much all of them were in swedish. That was Spotify so I have playlists that are soon 17 years old.
the good ol days when spotify was free
@@r0obful it still is free, just with ads...
no shit :)@@xaoz2362
@@r0obful and extremely limited
Some claim that it's because of the free of charge Music Schools that works in tandem with regular Schools. Very many children learns to play at least one instrument from around age 10.
Some say it's because of the rich music tradition, but I'm not sure. Many other countries also have that.
That explains all the metal bands
In the beginning of 2023, Sweden passed UK and is now only behind the US in music export. "Take this with a grain of salt, the fact is not confirmed..."
Soundcloud was started by two Swedes, Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, in Berlin.
Va fan, har vi gjort allt?
@@fjalls Vad har du gjort?
Also Spotify is Swedish
A few things why we are big on pop music are.
1: Work life balance.
2: Cold winters rainy autumns, so spend a lot of time at home.
3: Music tradition.
4: Music school, it doesn't cost much and is a school children and young people can go to after school. Many children may have a sport or a cultural activity they do once or more a week, music school is the most common among these cultural activities.
5: ABF (a certain explanation is required, ABF stands for the workers' education association), through these you can apply for grants to start an association, for example a music association.
6: Our welfare system, which allows you to resign from a job, bet on your music career and if it doesn't work out, you won't end up on the street. But you can get money until you find a new job. This means that more people dare to bet on creative professions, or for that matter start their own company.
7: Another thing is our child focus, we sing a lot for children, for example. Many of the melodies that are then written for children's lyrics are then used in pop music. If a child can clap along to a song that doesn't have such a developed feel for rytems, then everyone can clap along. It will be those melodies that settle on the brain. Max Martin is an expert in this. This is, for example, why Jazz will never as big as pop, because it is advanced rhythms that require you to have heard a lot of music and have a developed sense of rhythm. You can compare it a bit with all appreciating a coca cola, but you have to learn to appreciate a whisky.
8: We are quite good at English (which is the language of music)
Re 8, English has been compulsory in Swedish schools since 1953.
None of these factors are unique to Sweden though
@@jimimaru
So you have ABF in other countries? And the music school (yes, of course they exist in many other countries, but look at what it costs in many other countries, only the children of the rich can afford to go to such)
@@jimimaru well maybe combined they make a sucessfull make up only the US beats us and we are one 50th of their size..
Often forgotten. In famous Swedish successful music is all of the other genre's.
Like rock/metal, jazz, classical, choir, and Synth music etc.
Music is like a religion in Sweden. Its a big part in education, scools, upbringing of people in general.
Its often music, sports, or computers or a combination thats a big part in many Swedes life allready from an early age.
Then add that we learn English from 6 years of age. We dont have dubbed tv so we are allways "feeded" with English.
And on Internet Swedes are known to allways been on the forefront. Both in content and and the general computer knowledge in people.
So we also fill ourselves with a lot of music and impressions from all over the world.
Then we have a lot of churches who contribute a lot with different music activities. Both learning instruments, sing in choirs etc. We are also one or maybe "the" most choir singing countries in the world.
In schools we are offerd to learn a instrument. Often begins with piano or flute.
I begun with flute and öater played the trombone. And after that what become my life love have been singin in choirs until som years ago.
Thru our free education system we have many different ways of learn music.
So summoning up we have a lot of chances and choices if we want to follow professional or amateur
Level music just for fun.
But its also something deep within our folksoul that makes every Swede compared to many other europeans, highly musical in general.
Even some non Swedes even think the Swedish language has a singin tone in it. Just as Norwegian..
Love ure reactions
All the best from Stockholm Sweden/ Jonny
Thanks for a great reaction! 👍 I really think you should watch "Flat Pack Pop: Sweden’s Music Miracle" to learn more about the Cheiron studio. It will be worth the watch.
12:17 No, we always write from biggest to smallest (YYYY-MM-DD or YYMMDD) or sometimes smallest to biggest (DD-MM-YYYY) - so month is always in the middle. Most arenas in Sweden is named after the company who sponsor it, The Avicii Arena is actuallly called that because several foundations are paying for it to highlight the mental health of young people.
That both Spotify and the Pirate bay (and many other IT-related things) comes from Sweden is because most of us had avcess to computers and the internet very early.
The government had special funding programs for home computers in the late nineties that brought computers to the families that did not have them yet. (And quite many did. I think people bought them via their jobs earlier)
We also systematically brought internet to all of Sweden. I have had broadband since 2001 or something.
So Benny and Björn were not aspiring, they were popstars in Sweden by the mid 60s, so was Agnetha and Frida. Agnetha also wrote her own songs. They first became couples in the late 60s and started to sing together around 1970, then it all developed in to what we know. And they were first called Fästfolket and then Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida, then ABBA.
(anni-frid not frida)
@@g_e_o_x_ Yes, you are right. Fridas full first name of course, Anni-Frid. Otherwise no ABBA. I guess it felt so obvious I didn't think of it.
I watched a documentary about the Swedish music wonder and learned that 1964 we got our first song on Billboard hot 100; "Sole, Sole, Sole" with Siw Malmkvist.
She was not number one though, our first one was "Hooked on a feeling" with Blue Swede and then "Dancing Queen" with ABBA, Roxette with "The Look", "Listen to your heart", "It must have been love" (it was in the movie "Pretty Woman"), "Joyride" and Ace of Base with "The Sign".
Quite an impressive musical journey Sweden has taken, starting with just translating other famous songs to Swedish in the beginning, to now creating music worldwide. 😊
#proud 😉
Don’t forget, thousands of swedes are singing in choirs, children-, church-, gospel-, senior- and many moore kinds of choirs. Sweden really is a singing nation. 🎼🎶🎶🎶🎶🇸🇪
Sweden isn't just big in popmusic, we are quite successful in the metal sceen aswell ;)
Sverige og Finland styrer 👍
Indeed, most people dont know that Sabaton is from Sweden, im from Sweden and I didnt know xD
Thats the understatement of the year.
Sweden and Finland are pretty much spearheading the genre.
Have been for decades.
The UK ranks pretty high as well but mostly off of legacy.
Unlike Sweden and Finland, the UKs metal generally lives of lingering glory of their massive bands from the 70s and 80s
It's crazy. Max Martin and RedOne has basically created the whole pop music scene for 30 years now. If a song isn't written or produced by any of them it's by someone trying to do it like them. Amazing!
The month is always placed in the middle no matter what way you start the dates.... in Sweden ! !
The fact that you have more people living in London then in whole Sweden and we still is upp there among the three top nations when it comes to music
I love your reactions and your very human and empathic thoughts! Thanks from a Swede ;)
Alice Babs, a singer in Duke Ellington's Orchestra, and participant in Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, was Swede.
Music lessons at school in Britain were hitting triangles and blowing into a recorder. And the going through composers of centuries ago.
Music lessons in Sweden are making your own beats, playing lots of different instruments, rapping and song writing. Though none of my kids have any idea how to read sheet music!
We had lots of youth recreation centers and music studie cirkels in sweden, you could learn how to play instruments or singing all for FREE so lots of band started,
Another interesting fact about The Pirate Bay (and Napster) is that it pioneered a new way to use Internet, called Peer-to-peer, which is the foundation of today's streaming services like Netflix and TH-cam, and communication application like Skype, Whatsapp etc
some here in the comments will say Sweden is 3 on that list, but we are no 2, we passed the UK years ago.
We are also quit good at inventing games. Candy Crush, Minecraft and Battlefield are also Swedish
Besides the public music school, higher education is also free so if you have an interest in music you have a very good opportunity to educate yourself.
Kazaa filesharing was also founded in Sweden
napster
Remember when bands wrote their own songs and sing it?
17:27 This is wrong. ABBA didn't win Melodifestivalen with "Ring Ring" in 1972. They competed in Melodifestivalen in 1973, and came 3rd.
We started really early. The most spread Swedish song ever was written already in the 1850's and one of our first superstars were engaged in the US by P.T. Barnum.
About the song "Wish you were here", that is mentioned; it's written by Teijo Agélii-Leskelä and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin. I know 'cause I worked with Teijo, recording his songs. 😊
I think it's the way we talk. Some say it sounds like we are singing when we are talking and the fact that we have a lot of music in school from an early age. That is how i got into singing and playing instruments. Music is in our culture and soul.
I think the tradition ofheavy use of melodies and very often a noticeable touch of melancholy predates ABBA but their huge sucessinternationally as well as their high quality really set a high standard to live up to for the artist that came after they called it quits in the beginning of the 80s. Heavy Metal dominated throughout the 80s in Sweden, and international efforts and successes where in those genres. Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen where the major international sucess stories until Roxette became huge in the late 80s and early 90s. And after that the Swedish pop world domination of the 90s began at Cheiron Studios, etc. From then until now a huge number of pop hits internationally have been written by old swedish metal/hårdrock musicians turned songwriters. Max Martin is the biggest such example of 80s rocker that went on to dominate international pop production and songwriting, while Jonas Åkerlund 80s metalhead went on to become the most in demand/sucessful music video director/producer in the 90s and 00's.
All these bands such as ABBA, Roxette and the countless 90s hits from Sweden all set a high bar of quality future artists had or should meet to really stand out and get attention, this is a reason behind Sweden's music export sucess that often isn't focused on enough or at all. Refusal to prioritize quantity over quality has been universal here more or less, too. There's also been plenty of musicians that have worked as music teachers at high schools etc outside of their music careers or after those careers ended. I've heard so many songwriters for bands i like from Sweden give creds to their music teachers in school for teaching them the basics of good songwriting and these music teachers often had had some sucess in music short or long lived careers. Probably doesn't hurt to have a lot of good music teachers spread songwriting nerdery
Not only pop music but also metal music
No respectable person in Stockholm calls Globen "Avicci Arena". All respect to the guy, he was a fantastic musician, but Globen has been Globen since February 1989. No one called it "Ericsson Globe" either, when they tried to rebrand it. The shopping mall directly attached to the arena is still called "Globen Shopping" and the metro station is still called Globen. This is Stockholm's giant golf ball and no rebranding can take it away.
The music video "Show me the meaning of being lonely" by BSB is dedicated to Denniz Pop. It's written in the beginning and on the bus it says "Denniz St".
no it's not, even Max Martin said that it's bs
Skype is also Swedish and Bluetooth.
Love the reaction!!! If you wanna know more about the cheiron studio and the people behind it you should definitely react to “flat pack pop: Swedens music miracle”
In Sweden we either write dates year, month, day or day, month, year. Both is correct but it often varies depending on what you’re writing. Birthdays are often year, month, date because that’s how our “personnummer” (like social security numbers) are made. So we always put the month in the middle
The YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD is a ISO standard that several European countries as adopted but not all use it in everyday life - similar to "military time" (the 24 hour clock) in the US that Sweden also use as standard.
Not sure though if the DD/MM - YY is a ISO standard or just common practice in Sweden. Note though that for the latter style one sjould use the / to seperate the date an month. We do not write it like DDMMYY or DD-MM-YY however at times we drop the year completly and only the DD/MM is used.
In a time when most music was just downloaded for free, to come up with a service where you needed to pay for music and it succeeded is really strange. But it shows that if you have a good product people are willing to pay for it.
Not only that, it is cheap and most people had it for free in the beginning.
It was better to use Spotify than the very slim risk of actually getting caught downloading music illegal.
Thats why I started using Spotify atleast. For the price of 3 bottles of coke, I had unlimited music. I call it worth it.
8th of September, in Sweden we write year/month/day
Max Martin got music in his DNA
He's just built different
the dates are written "year-month-day" so Tim's birthday is 8th of september 1989
also: Spotify only started making profit like 1-2 years ago!! I read it in the news it kinda blew my mind that they hadn't gained profit in all those years
Bonus info. Spotify hired one of the guys behind the Pirate Bay, to learn more about peer to peer networking
One of the clues is that ALL children in Sweden has music as a school subjekt. Among all theese there are golden stuffs😊. They can from there (free) start with an easy wooden floot (?) and after that going on with another instruments.
This is one of the reasons why we have do many music talents from here👍❤️
I (a swede) have listened to lots of music documentaries about Swedish music history, and they often talk about cheiron. Two reasons for why they because so successful was that they believed that a hit song needed to be annoying enough to stick in your head, and they also considered themselves a music factory. They didn't try to make the best music, they tried to make hits.
And when it comes to Sweden in general, as others have said already, we (at least used to) value music as part of the education, and lots of kids played instruments and sang in choirs (myself included) growing up. Or played in a band etc. Lots of it funded by the state, as in free or cheap to access.
Then there's also the Swedish sound, which is a contributing factor. If you listed to Swedish folk music, it's moody with minor chords etc. You can hear that in a lot of music made by swedes, and it brings complexity. A bit like how a dessert shouldn't be just sweet, but also have a bit of tartness to it.
PS, don't quote me on any of this ;)
I didn't know about pirate bay either - I always thought it was from america xD
I'm glad that I found your channel. So interesting hearing your thoughts and see your reaction / Regards from Sweden :D
Sweden has a tradition of co-operation, songs are often written by several musicians/lyricists, brainstorming idéas together.
There's another documentary about Sweden and the music industry, I forget the name of it now but it's a really really good one. It's on youtube somewhere I'm sure people can recommend it and probably has.
Centuries of music tradition, music schools and music education are free and accesible to everyone, instruments are basically free for children, as an adult you can borrow instruments.❤🇸🇪
I'm Swedish and I've spoken to max martin and others through this course i took, and yeah it's interesting... I think we just have a lot more free access to stuff than many other people from other countries. For example music school which is a school you can go to after regular school and play instruments or sing. I sing so i went to that.
I learnt a lot. I am an event planner and there were details I did not know and now it makes sense, about Avicii and Taylor Swift and I got the names behind many successful stories. Including Spotify. So amazing. ❤
Your singing voice sounds pretty good!
We write dates Year-Month-Day (890908). But you can also write Day/Month - Year (8/9 -89): in other words the 8th of september 1989 ^^
I was about to say you have a very nice singing voice. Turns out you are a musician!
In Sweden we write dates in year-month-day.
It should be said that even if ABBA didn't get a record deal immediately, they probably were watched closely by the record companies, since both Benny Andersson and Björn Ulveus had been in successful, signed bands before ("Hep Stars" and "Hootenanny Singers", respectively). Anni-Frid Lyngstad (originally from Norway) had also recorded some singles that had done well.
Dont forget the Metal genre, aswell as our Opera Singers. And Björn Skifs, Yngwie Malmsteen etc etc.
The thing with music exports, its quite natural that the US and UK export more music than they import, everyone listen to music in English.
In Sweden we go from biggest to smallest when it comes to dates so it goes year, month day (yyyy-mm-dd). So Avici was born 1989-09-08 so 8 september 1989.
As a sweede, i sold accounts to spotify fort a pack of cigg. It costed me 3 min to make a mail and sign up for 30 days trial ;D probly was 2010!
Many amazing musicians throughout music history passed away before they turned 30. It is indeed sad, but I dunno if it's even more sad that the people who is working with them can't catch up to check how their band mates are actually doing.
If you don´t want to live in the city when visiting Stockholm I recommen Strawberry Hotel at Avici Arena. 5 min strolling to the subway and 5-10 min to T-Centralen on the train. A short travel to the histle and bustle but a calm and quiet stay at night. We always stay there when we´re visiting Sthlm. If you´re lucky Annika still work as a foyer hostess, singing the aria from The Magic Flute by Mozart. Oh well...Annika is a parrot, very charming. Give her some popcorn and she will be your BFF forever! 😃
12:35 It goes year month day or day month year. Never month day year or year day month
What kind of music do you make? :)
If you like music and are amazed by Swedish musicians of all kinds you just HAVE TO go down the Tommy Johansson rabbit hole!!! He is AMAZING! A metal boy but also the winner of the Swedish Karaoke competition in 2009. He is the lead guitarist in Sabaton, lead singer in Majestica and releases covers every Friday on TH-cam.
He is playing guitar, base, flute, keyboard, drums... and sing with a range that can only be describes as insane. Happy listening! You will thank me :)
My amazement with Swedish musicians tops with Dirty Loops.
We write dates either Y-M-D, or D-M-Y in Sweden
Max Martin has so far had 25 no 1 billboard hits. He is in 3rd place after John Lennon (26) and Paul McCartney (32).
Great video, but he didn't really answer the question in the title.
We used to have so many music programs for kids. If you had a project you could get state funding for it. In my teens (15-20 years ago) me and my friends organized music events and local competitions. As the political landscape has become more and more conservative, programs like these no longer have any funds. Only time will tell what consequences changes like these have on Swedish music export.
Should we mention there's a political party in Sweden called the Pirate Party that also was formed in 2006? Which main issue was reform on copyright laws . Not that they've ever gotten enough votes to enter the government, but they still exist...
The UK does not just export to the US, but to the whole world. As do Sweden and the US. There, the mystery about import/export balance is solved…
Of course you're up there! Ever heard of Manchester? :)
Max Martin doesn't so much adapt to current pop music as directing it.
We also write our dates like you do, only the other way around. I'm not sure why they use dots here, but it's YYYY-MM-DD, so 1989 - September - 8th. We read it as "nineteen-hundred eighty-nine, oh-nine, oh-eight" Sort of, that "oh" can just as well mean "zero" since both are _noll_ when it comes to numbers.
As for how we actually say dates: _tjugoåttonde september nittonhundraåttionio_ 28th September 1989 basically. We write it "28 september 1989".
in regards to the UK export/import thing is cause you export to alot of diffrent nations but you only import from a few, mainly the US wheres other nations import english speaking music.
All big artists in the world travels to Sweden to record songs produced by Swedish songwriters :)
Swedes most often write dates like YEAR-MONTH-DAY
16:01 avicii sadly died of blood loss 💔
It's the 8:th of September.
Avicii went to my school. I still remember him very well.
Year, month, day. Opposite of the USA for example.
I do understand why Spotify pays such small sums per stream. With current structure, people like Taylor Swift would get way to much if Spotify increased the pay per stream. What they should do is make a incremental pay structure. So that small artists gets what they deserve and stupid rich people like Taylor ($1,1 billion net worth) gets todays pay. Which still is a lot! Taylor gets a couple of million dollars monthly from Spotify.
Regarding the date order: in Sweden we write them in logical order 😊 year, month, day
I don't think they mean that with export and import. But they look at what is the turnover of UK music abroad and what is the turnover of other countries' music in the UK.
In Sweden we write the dates like this yyyy-mm-dd
and the Wasa museum.
Weird, I was pretty sure Jamaica also featured on that imp-exp list..
…and we are only about 10 million inhabitants in Sweden😊
Spotify is founded in Borås, …not Stockholm!
We listen a lot of brittish music you see!
Napster was also founded in Sweden.
I think you are thinking of Kazaa, Napster was not founded in Sweden as far as I understand
No. Napster was not founded in Sweden.
The Pirate Bay was created and hosted in Sweden, the largest file sharing site/torrent tracker in the world in the early 00's. The controversy and legal battles between Piratebay and Hollywood studios and applications like Napster & Kazaa inspired founders of Spotify (founded in Stockholm, Sweden) to try and create a legit alternative for music streaming good enough to be able to remove the need for average person to engage in illegal download of music albums. To somehow be able to negotiate sucessful deals with copyright holders/labels to create a huge catalogue to rival piracy sites/services.
You’re so right about mental health. Sadly some just see artists as cash cows and don’t see the person.
Not only pop, Sweden has the second most metal bands per capita in the world, Finland is #1 with 53 bands per 100.000
Sweden and Norway are tied for second with 27 and Iceland on third place with 22 band per 100.000
And good ones as well.
Oh, and they had one of the best tenor singers this world has ever seen, the one and only, Jussi Björling.
It seems like music is their thing no matter the genre.
My understanding is that if the music and lyrics is written by, say a Swede, but sung by an American it's still a song made by Swedes?
Therefor they export more than import, same with UK and America.
I could be wrong.
Pop music for sure but also the swedish hardrock/metal scene as well…
Regardless! The Beatles! That's enough, or OK (because I'm Swedish) ABBA. The Stones! Maybe I'm too old? I have worked as a music teacher, the seventies, and we rocked. "What do you want to learn", I asked. "POP"!! They (the students) answered and it was Pop. If it's not democracy, tell me. The music room was chaos and noise. Other teachers complained, but we found each other. We lived like only a happy family can. Out of this chaos, even from my class, extraordinary talents were extracted. But I don't think that's the whole truth. The children were/are free to investigate, even today. In addition, financially free = can afford to try their wings. Also, they are so aware of the outside world, because they are not indoctrinated in any way (hence some angry teachers) and never had to feel pressured, just because they wanted to play music. They felt/feel free to express themselves. BUT! Today this "art school" is questioned by the populist right! The right has never liked free artists.
But despite everything. Today's young Swedes, like those of so many other countries, completely screw up the obstacles, real or not, that someone is trying to set up. The music/art is free today. Consider Spotify, which is Swedish :)
The argument that Spotify doesn’t do ”fair” payments is just bonkers. How much would a radio station pay artists for using a song? Say the station had 50 000 listeners, would they pay as much as Spotify for 50k streams? No way in hell.
You got it backwards.
The reason Max Martin always seems to be on the top of the lists is not cuz he changes with the industry.
Its because the industry changes with him, he is the trailblazer.
Who was before Brittney? no one.
Not really.
Not quite with that sound, not quite with that style, there is something about Brittney that stick out, that no one else had, something everyone knew was there but no one could really point to.
When you hear any of the early Brittney songs youd never misstake them for another song.
More often than not, when there is a trend shift in the industry Max had a finger in the song that set the trend.
Who are the faces of the genres and eras?
Practically every artist Max ever worked with.
Once means nothing.
Twice is a coincidence.
Three times is a pattern.
I have no idea what 511 times mean.
But Im pretty sure "being WAY ahead of the curve" is pretty much an axiomatic truth.
Why compete for the title when you have the ability to set the rules?
Skype is also swedish 😅
With all this said and all kind of inventions Sweden have done . Our dear neighbors calls us boring and stupid 😂
Apart from what everyone else says in the comments below I also would like to add that most Swedes grow up in kindergarten and learn to sing together from childhood. We then have music class in school and a lot of people sing in choirs. A lot of our entertainment circle around music (see f.e. this clip from popular tv-show "Så ska det låta" to understand why: th-cam.com/video/rletYAdBndM/w-d-xo.html) and the music scene is small and tight knit enough that there is a lot o cross-fertilisation between genres and people share contacts and knowledge.
In Sweden we go YYYY,MM,DD... Avicci sadly took his own life due to depression. =/
Best thing I've heard anyone say. That someone appointed should keep track of the person whose life changes drastically, as with Avicii. On the other hand... what an impossible mission. Just sad. I think it's difficult. Everyone is on the merry-go-round. But maybe..?