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Latin American influences in Swedish popular music
Popular Music and Society, Summer, 1997 by Pedro van der Lee
Editor's Note: The author, Pedro van der Lee, died while this article was under review. The manuscript was revised for publication by Alf Bjornberg, whose contribution is gratefully acknowledged. Any remaining errors or omissions are those of the author.
This article(1) is an attempt at a preliminary survey of Latin American influences in Swedish popular music from a primarily stylistical-historical point of view. The main purpose is, at this stage, to start mapping out an interesting field, with characteristics well comparable to those of what today is known as "world music,"(2) a field perhaps best studied with a mixed approach, utilizing the results of previous work within both popular music studies and ethnomusicology.(3) The influences discussed in this article have been rejected, transformed, or accepted in varying degrees by different social groups at different times, but aspects such as re-, trans- and de-culturation(4) will not be discussed in this context; the further empirical study of such processes and a more detailed theoretical elaboration remain important tasks for future research.
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Some concepts are, however, hard to disregard, such as that of the mainstream (Nettl, Study 41), unthinkable without considering its interaction with marginal traits in the "gray zones" at its periphery, sometimes resulting in a progressive assimilation into the mainstream of some of these traits. Other important concepts are Slobin's superculture (in our case perhaps applicable to the mainstream of Swedish popular music), interacting both locally, with different subcultures, and globally, by means of various types of interculture (industrial, diasporic, affinity) (61 ff.).
Non-Western traits have seldom influenced the Swedish mainstream directly; rather, they have most often been mediated by a Western mainstream interacting with Swedish styles, native or already acculturated. In some few cases, influences were conveyed by musicians originating from or having resided in Latin America, but it is questionable whether their ability to influence Swedish popular music would have been possible without these traits already being present in the mainstream. As immigration did not affect Sweden to a larger degree until the late 1960s and early 1970s, "diasporic" intercultures were not very much at work at first. In popular music it would rather be a question of "industrial" influences, mainly by way of records, sheet music, touring artists and shows, etc., at first catering to "aficionado" audiences where "affinity" intercultures could be seen at work, some traits later being adopted by the mainstream in one form or other (van der Lee, Sitars). Even in these last 20 years, I would argue that diasporic influences have affected the Swedish mainstream only when strengthened by similar traits mediated by the industrial intercultur.(5) All three types of interculture have been and are at work in this area in order to offer Swedes, in our case, "the chance of being able to perceive freely that which is being offered and which interests one" (Baumann, "Multi-Culturalism" 17).
Swedish Popular Music
Swedish popular music has grown out of an interaction between, on the one hand, native and previously acculturated styles and, on the other, the steady influence of popular music from central Europe and, later, the USA.(6) Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the designation "Swedish popular music" could mean cabaret- and phonogram-mediated Schlager songs, often influenced by German and French music,(7) as well as dance music styles showing an increasing U.S. influence.(8) New musical styles were not copied in detail in Sweden but were acculturated, acquiring a distinct Swedish character.(9) examples being the development of the Swedish (but previously acculturated from continental sources) 2/4 schottis dance into bonnjazz ("peasant jazz"),(10) and the acculturation of the waltz.(11)
After 1945, the mainstream was increasingly influenced by Anglo-American rock music (the term used here in the broadest possible sense). Again, the influences were not copied in detail; in the words of Wallis and Malm, influences from the Anglo-American mainstream normally do not lead to "musicians entirely departing from traditional music forms" (273). In most countries, Anglo-American rock is almost inevitably "domesticated" (Slobin 62).(12) In Sweden, this gave rise to a national rock scene, where both visvagen ("the song wave") of the 1960s and the "alternative" or "progressive" music movement of the 1970s were influential in the development toward song lyrics in Swedish rather than English. Another, often overlooked, contemporary Swedish genre is that of dansband (dance bands), perhaps the most popular style among the population at large, not least in rural areas.(13)
Sweden is nowadays also a major contributor to the Western popular music mainstream; some of the better-known names since the 1960s are the Spotnicks, Tages, Ola and the Janglers, ABBA, Europe, Roxette, Ace of Base, Dr. Alban, Whale, the Cardigans, Clawfinger, Stakka Bo, Leyla K, and Robyn. These standard export products remain stylistically within the mainstream of Anglo-American popular music; questions as to what extent these contributions may be characterized as distinctly "Swedish," as well as the reasons for such a relatively prominent Swedish presence on the international scene, remain matters for discussion.
