Indie Music is Pretty Swede – The Swedish Indie Music Empire 0
Indie Music is Pretty Swede – The Swedish Indie Music Empire
When it comes to indie music, there are many hotbeds of talent but Sweden isn’t normally one you would naturally think of. Unfortunately, the music history of that nation appears to start and end with Abba for many people, but over the past decade or so, there have been a growing number of bands from Sweden impacting on the indie world.
The most noticeable would be The Cardigans who achieved massive worldwide fame with their ‘Lovefool’ single and blend of charming and slightly tween indie-pop. Perhaps as a reaction to their fame, The Cardigans changed their style, their music got harder and Nina Persson went from blonde to brunette. They may not feature on the radio as much today as they used to but the band still draws a fairly large crowd to any festival they perform at.
If that was all that Sweden contributed to indie music, it would be a poor return, but when you consider the following acts, you will realise just how many of your favorite tracks have hailed from Sweden: The Wannadies,
Peter, Bjorn and John, The Hives, The Concretes, Love Is All, The Shout out Louds, I’m From Barcelona, Jose Gonzalez, The Knife.
For such a short space of time that is an impressive list of bands and you may be familiar with some of these songs:
Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John
You may not know the title but as soon you hear the whistling section of ‘Young Folks’ you will know exactly what the song is and recall what a phenomenon it was at the time. The track came second in the NME’s list of best songs of 2006 and fifth in the Pitchfork review of tracks from 2006.
Hate To Say I Told You So’ by The Hives
Not many bands could announce themselves as your new favorite band and keep a straight face but The Hives aren’t like many other bands. Filled with a confidence that no other band seems capable of matching this track captured the garage