Youandi Van Wezenbeek (1693649)
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2018 Youandi van Wezenbeek (1693649) Music Management Essay of icon CJ Otten Minor Music Marketing & Management 11/23/2018 Introduction Who does not know them? ABBA’s legendary hits ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Money Money Money’, ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Waterloo’. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 in Brighton, UK with their legendary song “Waterloo” and their music has been used in many movies. This makes that their music still is popular nowadays. Unfortunately the Swedish pop group, formed in Stockholm in 1972, collapsed 10 years later in 1982 (Perrone, 1997). The band The band consisted of two couples: Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, the other Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson and the name ABBA was a result of adding the first letters of their name together. Unfortunately their marriages collapsed due to their big success (Perrone, 1997). Ulvaeus and Andersson met in 1966, when Andersson played keyboards with the Hep Stars (who were almost as famous in their country as The Beatles). Stig Anderson then asked them to write songs for their own album as well as for Stig’s other acts. The three of them composed a song called “Lycka” (Happiness) together and on also a track called “Hej Gamle Man” (“Hey Old Man”). That was the first time that Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog were all together on record. At that time, they already were two couples, but they all still pursued separate musical careers (Perrone, 1997). ABBA was Stig’s second and third try with getting a winning entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. His first attempt with Lena Andersson, with the song “Better To Have Loved” in 1972 came third, in 1973 he tried with Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, with the song “Ring-Ring” but they also did not win. So on Stig’s advice, they shortened their name to ABBA. Then they had to decide whether to try with “Hasta Manana” or “Waterloo” and finally went for the latter, as it was “more fun to perform”, according to Ulvaeus. This time, ABBA was chosen to represent Sweden on the Eurovision Song Festival 1974 in Brighton, UK (Perrone, 1997). After they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 they got bigger, pioneered pop videos and toured the world and even had their own movie: ABBA The Movie, released in 1978. At the end of ABBA, Ulvaeus and Andersson had assumed full creative control on their later classics, like “Angel Eyes” and “The Winner Takes It All”, with which they were basically documenting the break-ups of both relationships in their songs (Perrone, 1997). Essay Week 1 ABBA 1 The manager ABBA’s manager was Stig Anderson. He was a Swedish entrepreneur, music manager, music executive, lyricist, music publisher and actor who was the co-founder of Polar Music. He was born on January 25th, 1931 in Hova (Sweden) and he died on September 12th, 1997 at the age of 66. He was the son of a single mother. He began his career as a chemistry and mathematics teacher at a primary school. He took night classes for this after he left school at the age of 15. He had written his first song at age 16 and soon after that, he entered the Swedish popular music scene, where he became a music producer, manager and sometimes even performer (Perrone, 1997). He was one of Sweden’s most productive songwriters during the 1960s, as he produced more than 3,000 published titles. He also Figure 1 Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, founded Sweden Music in 1960, next to several other companies. manager of ABBA and CEO of Polar Music in 1968 In 1963 he co-founded Polar music, together with Bengt Bernhag (Perrone, 1997). In the end of the 1960’s, he was the manager and producer of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who later became the main songwriters of ABBA. He became their manager after he managed the Hootenanny Singers, of which Ulvaeus was a member. In 1972 he also started to manage Anni-Frid Lyngstad and in 1976 Agnetha Fältskog. Before ABBA, Björn and Benny lived in a Volkswagen and wanted to leave the music industry in order to gain regular jobs. Anderson was the one to persuade them to start a new band and invested a considerable amount of money in the group (Perrone, 1997). Highlights Before ABBA, Anderson managed some of the biggest Swedish artists and had many hits on the Swedish charts. Because of his success, he earned the nickname “The Business”. When he wanted new ideas, he would travel to New York, buy songs that had been American hits and then translate or transcribe this lyrics during his journey home, ready for a recording session shortly after and have the record in the stores a few days later. Some of his songs were sent to IFPI or ASCAP for copyright infringement (Perrone, 1997). He was basically known as the fifth member of ABBA, as he co-wrote their songs (even some of their biggest hits) and he also was the owner of the record label and the publishing company. he gave shares in the company as a gift to Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Michael B. Tretow – the sound engineer of ABBA – out of friendship when the group became highly successful. Anderson even got the Billboard Magazine’s Trendsetter Award, which he treasured very much as it had only been presented to one European before Anderson, namely to the manager of The Beatles (Perrone, 1997). Anderson was basically the leader behind ABBA, as he represented their commercial interests and their global success through successful record deals. Meanwhile, he also managed the investment of funds and the rest of the enormous incomes of Polar Music, where he held the majority of stocks. This agreement dated back to 1974 and a big part of the money came from Essay Week 1 ABBA 2 individual record deals that he got for the group. One of these deals was with the Soviet Union, where ABBA’s records were released in exchange for barrels of oil (Perrone, 1997). All time low In the middle of the 1980s, a big part of ABBA’s fortune was lost by mismanagements, the rise of credit rates, high demands for tax and bad investments (Perrone, 1997). The contract with the performers varied from standard publishing and recording deal involving identical contracts, rather than from one written specifically with the performers of the band. Later, it was revealed that Anderson had used this contract to take a percentage of profits, which counted up to a value of 4.5 million euros over the course of many years. Because of this, three out of the four ABBA members terminated their relationship with Anderson and submitted a complaint against him to the Stockholm District Court in June 1990. Eventually it was settled out of court in July 1991, but the terms of this settlement are still undisclosed. The only one not involved in the legal proceedings was Anni-Frid Lyngstad, as she had sold all her shares in the Polar Music company and moved abroad (Perrone, 1997). References Perrone, P. (1997, September 15). OBITUARY : Stig Anderson. Independent. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-stig- anderson-1239364.html Essay Week 1 ABBA 3 .