Did you know that songs like ‘Can’t stop this feeling’ by Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake it off’ and ‘Last Friday night’ by Katy Perry were composed by the very same Swede that dominated the charts in the 90’s with songs for basically all the big boy-bands, for Britney Spears, and later for artists like Avril Lavigne, Pink, A-Ha, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, and so on.
This one guy, Max Martin, has written so many songs and is a key figure in Swedish pop that it is unlikely that you would go a day listening to the radio without hearing his music all over the world.
We also must not forget Denniz Pop, who together with Max Martin, contributed significantly to the great success of Swedish pop music in the 90’s.
Swedish pop all over the world
Furthermore, there are a huge number of Swedish artists that have gained international recognition over the years and some even gained cult status. Of course, I’m talking about ABBA, one of the biggest namnes in Swedish pop, but we also have Roxette, Ace of Base, Robyn, Zara Larsson, Avicii, and many more.
Sweden isn’t just a nation of Swedish pop music but also plays in the highest league, when it comes to jazz, hard rock, and metal music.
Music of all genres
The Swedish jazz musicians were, especially in the 60’s, very highly ranked abroad and a huge deal of the world’s leading bands in the harder genres come from Sweden. Here you’ll find bands like Europe (who has never heard ‘The final countdown’?), In flames, Sabaton, Dark tranquility, Soilwork, Arch enemy, Amon amarth, Opeth, Meshuggah, Hammerfall, and so many, many, many more.
I have yet to mention all the great songwriters and artists that are well known only inside Sweden or the Nordic countries and those are a pretty big deal. This article would run far too long if I went down that road but to help you get an understanding of Sweden’s musical greatness, I am curating a couple of Spotify playlists, which you can find links to here:
Swedish music lists
- Best Swedish Music Right Now
- Best Swedish Classics
- Best Swedish Summer
- Best Swedish Music In English
- Best Swedish Music In Swedish
The question you are probably asking yourself right now is: how did this happen? I think the reason Swedes are so musically literate is due to the fact that we have government funded music and culture schools. Thus a lot of Swedes sing in choirs and/or can play an instrument at least with basic proficiency.
Furthermore, there is a culture of collective singing and dancing (for Christmas and the Scandinavian holiday ‘Midsummer’) and collective singing in form of sing-a-longs. There are several TV-shows, in which the audience is invited to sing-a-long and the lyrics are broadcast as subtitles and game shows dedicated to music.
The Eurovision Song Contest
Did you ever hear about the Eurovision Song Contest? That huge European music contest, that is larger than the Super Bowl? When the Swedish national song contest starts in February and the song and act is selected to represent Sweden in the ‘ESC’, it goes on for a whole month. The show tours around Sweden and basically all news outlets report about this almost exclusively.
So there you have it: music is a huge deal in Sweden and this has spilled over our borders and Swedish music (even though, at first, it doesn’t seem like Swedish music) is enjoyed all over the world.
In Sweden we call this ‘det svenska popundret’ – ‘the Swedish pop wonder’ and if Elvis Presley was and remains the king and Michael Jackson the king of pop, then Sweden is truly the ‘Kingdom of Pop’ – or rather the ‘Kingdom of Music’.
