An Extremely Minor Point

[Perknose]

Allow me to state upfront that I have never been a keen fan of Abba nor have I ever necessarily expended any energy detesting them. They made "pleasant pop" and I'll leave it at that. For some reason unconnected to music per se, I was faced with a vid of Abba performing Dancing Queen live. WHAT STRUCK ME was the almost stately (or lame) choreography from the two girl singers near the beginning of the song. These days (remember, I'm old) it seems that popular music features hyper kinetic, hyper sexualized gyrations. It often seems that the actual song is secondary to the "show" on stage.

I'm not griping about that, I just don't give a flying patootie. I fully understand that each generation's music is meant to separate themselves from geezers. I get that and so won't waste any time doing an "old man yells at cloud" routine.

I just found, in the moment, the, again, almost stately (or, again, lame) Abba choreography to be quaint unto momentarily pleasing. It almost made me like Abba!

See for yourself.

 

[sdifox]

Blame MTV

 

[Captante]

"There's leather groups and plastic groups and groups that look real queer ... the tinseltown aficionado's come to see and not to hear".

"But then again this system works as perfect as a dream.... it works for all the record-company pricks who come to skim the cream"

 

[nakedfrog]

Blame MTV

And maybe more specifically, Madonna.

 

[nakedfrog]

Although TBF, I do believe that back in the day, clubs were known for having go-go dancers...

 

[lxskllr]

Inexplicably, G Gordon Liddy was a fan of ABBA :^D

Sometimes simpler is better

 

[Captante]

clubs were known for having go-go dancers...

Ask and ye shall receive ?!?

 

[Captante]

"The image they present on screen - friendly, warm, bright, intelligent people - is exactly what they are. Complete modesty is the group's most refreshing quality".

 

[UsandThem]

IMO, Michael Jackson was the leader in the choreographed music videos that showed the record execs that it meant big $$$.

After that, videos went from being performances being shot for in 30 minutes for $200 to something totally different.

As 90 year old Madonna says:

 

[KMFJD]

Madge barely looks the same now

 

[IronWing]

I had a thought yesterday that disco was basically amorphous square dancing.

 

[Perknose]

Madge barely looks the same now

I hope to live long enough to see KIm Kardashian wrinkle up and sag. Gravity gonna' grab that big ol' booty!

 

[esquared]

My hate for ABBA is as strong as it was nearly 50 years ago.

💩😁👍

 

[pcgeek11]

IMO, Michael Jackson was the leader in the choreographed music videos that showed the record execs that it meant big $$$.

After that, videos went from being performances being shot for in 30 minutes for $200 to something totally different.

As 90 year old Madonna says:

OMG what the hell. She look like an Alien.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I wish ABBA ( and a few others) hadn't been Disco-ized. Some of their music was really pretty good and might have even been better as pop ballads rather than Disco. Chiquitita for one.

Yeah, yeah, I know, they made mega bucks.....

 

[UsandThem]

OMG what the hell. She look like an Alien.

Yeah, the extensive plastic surgeries is beginning to get the pretty bad stage.

I had such a crush on her most of the 80s. Then when I was around 11 (87-88 timeframe), we heard she was going to be in Playboy. One of my friend's dad had a subscription, so when he was out golfing one day, we just had to see!

Let's just say having the hots for her died that fateful day.

 

[UsandThem]

Sometimes video choreography worked, and sometimes not so much.

 

[KMFJD]

Billy had some great songs in the early 80's but damn, that video was bad

 

[Perknose]

Sometimes video choreography worked, and sometimes not so much.

Someone got paid to produce that.

 

[UsandThem]

Billy had some great songs in the early 80's but damn, that video was bad

As bad as that video was, the all-time-worst modern rock video had to be:

Two music icons combining to produce absolute caca.

 

[Captante]

I mostly stopped watching non live-performance music-videos after I realized that they were leading to me liking a LOT of "music" that if I only heard it I wouldn't be into it at all. (and might hate!)

The above Billy Squier vid OTOH might have had the opposite effect!

 

[nakedfrog]

Sometimes video choreography worked, and sometimes not so much.

He actually blames that video for killing his career.

 

[KMFJD]

As bad as that video was, the all-time-worst modern rock video had to be:

Two music icons combining to produce absolute caca.

the early 80's were a strange time...i blame too much coke, not enough lsd , it's all about balance

 

[UsandThem]

He actually blames that video for killing his career.

Well, it kind of did.

Rockers should just rock, and leave the fancy dancing to other music genres.

I for one don't want to see someone like Rob Halford or Brian Johnson take the stage and begin dancing Gangnam Style.

 

[Captante]

Really I think Billy Squier's music-career died because he was a "one-trick pony" in terms of sound.... that video is pretty embarrassing but I heard "rock me tonight" like 50 billion times on the radio back in the day.

I saw him live once and while it wasn't terrible it WAS a really short set that sounded partially pre-recorded too.