On June 15, Robyn will release her latest album, Body Talk Pt 1
. The first single, “Dancing On My Own,” follows the Swedish singer’s tradition of layering simple chord progressions under an infectious melody, like in her two previous big hits, “Show Me Love” and “With Every Heartbeat.”
To commemorate the album’s launch, we’ve assembled a chronology of Swedish pop music that has pleased ears around the globe for decades. Sweden is, after all, the world’s third largest exporter of music, just behind the US and the UK. It’s brought us one-hit wonders Eagle-Eye Cherry (“Save Tonight”) and Rednex (“Cotton Eye Joe”). Plus, if you listen to Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, N’ Sync, Katy Perry, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Ke$ha or any other similar-sounding acts, there’s a good chance the music you are listening to was co-written by pop mastermind Max Martin. He’s Swedish, too. Our video history of Swedish pop (including more surprises) is after the jump.
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Last night at the Waldorf-Astoria The Hollies, Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, ABBA and Iggy Pop’s Stooges accepted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the Stooges, who had previously been named finalists six times, it was an honor a long time coming. “After the seventh time we were beginning to think we would have to take pride in not getting in,” James Williamson said in his acceptance speech. (Iggy had a different take: “Roll over, Woodstock. We won.”) After the jump we’ve rounded up videos of a few of the night’s performances — apologies for the poor quality in some cases, but we figure it’s better than nothing.
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1. Pitchfork‘s top 100 tracks of 2009 list is up, and Animal Collective nabbed the number one slot with “My Girls.” (Dirty Projectors‘ “Stillness Is the Move” came in second; Phoenix, “1901,” third.) [via Pitchfork]
2. Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air swept this morning’s 2010 Golden Globe nominations with six nods. Glee dominated the TV categories with four nominations. [via ArtsBeat]
3. Are its latest privacy settings a sign that Facebook has crossed over to the dark side? [via Gawker]
4. ABBA and The Stooges are among this year’s inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for Gene Simmons and his family jewels, Kiss got dissed. [via Rolling Stone]
5. Australia — a democracy, mind you — is planning to introduce an Internet filtering system that would block “obscene and crime-linked Web sites.” [via HuffPo]
Bonus link: Download The Velvet Underground, Live from the NYPL
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a complex affair. After looking over this year’s nominees, we realized that it’s just not enough to have the most “rock out with your cock out” songs anymore. To be a competitor, you need to have invented this advanced form of rocking out in the first place. The real determining question is, “Who looks/acts the most like a rock star?” This explains Madonna’s entrance into the Hall-O-Fame last year. After the jump, we take a look at the top five nominees, basing their chances of entry on attitude and style. Read More »
By day Gala Bell (aka Meredith Metcalf) is one-third of theatrically complex indie rockers Bodies of Water, but by night she’s a dancing queen, a Silverlake Donna Summers performing glistening disco pop that would make the Bee Gees jealous. Bell, along with Torg (Adam Siegel) and Kamer (Daniel Metcalf), is part of the L.A. dance rock trio Music Go Music; their sound is an intoxicating blend of disco, prog rock, ’70s soft rock, and metal, all neatly packed together with a melodic pop sensibility that makes it immediately accessible and irresistibly danceable. We caught up with Bell to learn a little bit more about the band and their new music video for “Light of Love” (a Flavorpill exclusive). Read More »
The topic of file sharing has sparked a heated internet debate between two seemingly disparate music forces. On one side of the battle, we have Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), Dave Rowntree (Blur), and Billy Bragg supporting illegal downloading. Opposite of this pirating posse is Lily Allen, Patrick Wolf, Matt Bellamy (Muse), and Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA), who are calling for the end of file sharing. Which side are you on? Each artist’s arguments after the jump. Read More »
Americans have always had an inexplicable fascination with Sweden. The name conjures images of pristine landscapes, snow-covered Lingdon berries, and beautiful people gallivanting around in knit reindeer sweaters. But the stereotypes aren’t all social utopia: some people think it’s a strange, bleak landscape haunted by bizarre and occult figures — you can thank Ingmar Bergman for that.
With recent release Let the Right One In (a vampire flick that makes Twilight look like Romper Room) garnering such critical success, film buffs are asking if our fair neighbors to the north are having a second golden age.
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