ABBA-Coded

 So, for those of you who don't know, although I think I've mentioned it quite a few times on this blog haha, I am a fan of Sabrina Carpenter, and I think I've considered myself to be a fan since just before her EVOLution album came out in 2016.  Getting to see her rise in popularity over the last couple of years, watching her shift from genre to genre, and produce songs that feel more true to herself with her fun sense of humor and love for innuendos, has been extremely exciting to watch.  She's become a pretty iconic singer, and I can't help but feel proud!

I've also been quite happy to see that she's quite the ABBA fan herself (literally just made an update to my Sabrina being an ABBA fan video last night), and has stated that ABBA is one of her favorite bands, listed ABBA as an inspiration behind some of her songs, even one of the costumes on her most recent tour was inspired by ABBA Voyage.  She's covered ABBA songs frequently, named her cats after Bjorn and Benny, and even got to meet Bjorn when she was in Stockholm on the last stop of her tour! So in short (and sweet - haha couldn't help myself), Sabrina is a big ABBA fan.

Just over a week ago, Sabrina's 7th album, Man's Best Friend, came out, and I listened to it, and was initially quite turned off by the nature of sexual themes in this album, just something that I personally am turned off by, but not saying it's a bad thing just to be clear.  So while listening to the entire album, I was veering towards not liking it.  However I'm also someone who likes to read comments, see what other people's opinions are on topics, see what interest people and what doesn't, etc, and when I got to the last track on the album, titled Goodbye, without reading the comments yet, I for some reason found myself thinking, "Hey, this sounds like it's inspired by ABBA."  I'm not usually someone who actively looks for ABBA inspiration in songs, and often times when people say a song by any artist sounds like ABBA, I cannot for the life of me hear what they're hearing and would love if they would elaborate, which they of course don't.  

After listening to the song, I opened the comments, and already it was flooding with people saying it sounded like ABBA, which meant I wasn't the only one thinking that either, haha.  And considering Sabrina has stated that she is a massive ABBA fan and already included ABBA in the inspiration behind the soundscape of her song "Please Please Please," it's no surprise that she would find ways to use that inspiration in more songs, and that's awesome.  I'm happy for her.

Now, all of this that I just shared is relevant, but kinda not really what I'm trying to post about haha.  This is me we're talking about, so obviously I'm here to complain about something, hahaahahhaa.

One thing that I noticed in a lot of the comments on her song Goodbye, was people saying the song sounded like a specific ABBA song, and what do you know, most of the titles that people were suggesting were from ABBA Gold.  People were saying, "omg this song sounds like Fernando!" or "this song sounds like Voulez-Vous!", or this song sounds like Chiquitita, and most commonly, people were saying the song sounded like Take A Chance On Me!  Now, I'm not someone who understands BPMs, tempo, rhythm, and all that jazz, and I am simply an ABBA fan, and a person who likes music and listens to music, and I know for a fact that Goodbye, which is a bit of a slower track with rich harmonies and cheeky humor mixed in, does not sound like Take A Chance On Me. Another common thing that people were saying was that the song is so "Mamma Mia! and ABBA-coded."

I feel like a lot of people in today's day and age, are familiar with ABBA, and considering ABBA Gold is literally their most popular compilation album, it makes sense that ABBA Gold is pretty much everyone's frame of reference when it comes to ABBA.  And then you have the success of Mamma Mia! the musical and movie franchise that I personally despise but a lot of people really like.  Add on top of that the impact that ABBA have had on the Queer community, and that is basically what comes to mind when people think of ABBA: Mamma Mia!, Dancing Queen and all other songs from ABBA Gold, and Queer.  No knowledge of any other songs in ABBA's catalog, very little knowledge of the members of ABBA and their story, and that the songs somehow have to do with a girl trying to find which of her three dad's is her actual dad.  And I'm not saying that you have to be an obsessed ABBA fan like I am to be able to like ABBA or speak on ABBA, but what I'm trying to say is that a lot of people think they know ABBA without actually knowing about ABBA, and as a result, they end up sounding a bit silly when comparing modern artists to ABBA.

I went on about this a bit in a previous rant already, but one thing that really ticks me off is how people were comparing the band The Last Dinner Party to ABBA, and they would rattle of titles of ABBA songs, all from ABBA Gold, and say that The Last Dinner Party sounds like those songs.  No other details or insights on what makes the song sound like an ABBA song, just that it does.  

Similarly, before Chappell Roan officially released her song The Subway, all there was to listen to were live audios from the various live performances.  I actually really like that song a lot, haha, and I was a frequenter to "Chappell Roan performing The Subway Live - Highest Quality!" videos, and often would read the comments see people in the comments comparing the song to the Cranberries, which makes a little sense as Chappell Roan is a fan of the Cranberries, and, more surprisingly, comparisons to ABBA.  And I'm just here, like, "How?"  The only connection I could think of was perhaps due to ABBA being quite prominent and well loved by LGBTQ+ people, fans were simply trying to compare Queer artist Chappell Roan to another "queer" band ABBA, without having knowledge on ABBA and their only frame of reference for ABBA is the fact they've become known to be a Queer Band.  (And to be clear - I am not trying to say its a negative that ABBA have become known as a Queer or Gay band!)  Chappell sings in a completely different style, her vocals, while absolutely stunning and powerful, aren't harmony focused like ABBA's (again, not a negative, just pointing out a difference), and structurally the song doesn't match any ABBA songs.  So, I don't get it.  And as far as I can tell, Chappell has not listed ABBA as an inspiration to any of her music, either.

And falling back to Sabrina's song "Goodbye", when people say the song sounds like any song from ABBA Gold, it's simply falling back to their basic knowledge of ABBA.  Obviously because it has an alleged slight Spanish flavor, clearly that means it's inspired by Fernando.  And because the song has "Ahas", something that ABBA are notorious for including in their songs, that means that the song is inspired by "Voulez-Vous", despite the fact that Goodbye is a slower song and Voulez-Vous is an upbeat Disco-esque song.  And despite the fact that the Mamma Mia! versions of ABBA's songs strip away all pleasant sounding harmonies and replace them with Musical style singing that is not layered with harmonies, clearly the harmonies on Goodbye are inspired by Mamma Mia! the Musical...  You get my gist?

So yeah, basically I just wish people wouldn't just throw around ABBA when listening to modern artists simply because they think they know what ABBA is and what makes a song sound like an ABBA song, when what they know is only a fraction of what is ABBA on a whole. And that's basically what I wanted to rant about today.

 

Going back to Sabrina's song, I have been thinking, when I heard Goodbye for the first time, why did I immediately think of ABBA?  Seeing as I'm actually familiar with ABBA's songs outside of the ABBA Gold tracklist, I feel like I am a little more qualified to share my thoughts, haha.

 I think the first thing that stood out to me was the chorus, where Sabrina sings "Goodbye means that you're losin' me for life/Can't call it love, then call it quits, can't shoot me down, then shoot the shit/Did you forget that it was you who said/goodbye?", the way the harmonies build, and the message of the song - the first thing that came to mind was Put On Your White Sombrero, another Spanish-flavored song in ABBA's repertoire that isn't Fernando. (Although I wouldn't say Sabrina's song has a Spanish flavor, I think the only connection to that is because she says Goodbye in several languages throughout the song, including a couple of phrases in Spanish.)  

The story of both songs are quite similar as well, with the whole sentiment essentially being, "You didn't find me to be good enough for you, so goodbye loser," and I mean, there is literally the line "Think of this day as a showdown/Goodbye, my friend, this is the end for me and you."  Then you add the little piano or keyboard flourishes in the chorus that sound similar to the piano flourishes in the chorus of Dancing Queen, and on top of that the "Aha"s, which aren't tied to any specific ABBA song as they appear in so many.  The instruments sound very real as well, nothing sounds overly computerized, much like what would appear in a song from ABBA's era.  However, while the song includes all of these elements, the song itself still sounds like something from Sabrina's catalog, not sounding like an ABBA rip-off at all, simply taking inspiration from a band that Sabrina admires and packaging it into a love-letter of sorts while still keeping it her own and still sounding like Sabrina.  If that makes any sense.

And while this song hasn't been confirmed to be an ABBA-inspired song in any way, considering Sabrina is an ABBA fan who is actually familiar with ABBA's songs, including those outside of ABBA Gold's Tracklist, it wouldn't surprise me if the song was heavily inspired by ABBA.  But those are just my thoughts.