Unexpected Reflections from the ABBA Museum Experience

I love ABBA. My parents and uncle turned me into music of their generation when I was young, and I was hooked on them, the Beatles, Boney M, Beegees. My husband is similar, so our teen is also into ABBA and such.

So when I found out there was an ABBA museum in Stockholm, it was honestly the first museum here I wanted to see, despite many many other really attractive ones.

The lines were long, you had to book ahead online and find a slot or risk not being able to enter. We actually had to book an hour after we arrived there. Thankfully, many other nearby museums we were interested to see anyway.

The lines at this museum are different. You know people there are an affinity group. They love ABBA. Versus a museum of art or history or science – you may go because you feel obligated or to show your children culture or to educate yourself, it’s occasionally exhausting or boring, but occasionally with well-designed museums, can truly attract you and bring joy. And of course people really into art, science or history are different. But no one goes to the ABBA museum,I think, unless they like ABBA.

I expected the museum to be a celebration of their illustrious career and achievements when they were together, but it was, strangely but very interestingly, a showcase of what they had done since they broke up. What an odd concept!

So these things struck me about it

1. The main or at least first exhibit is about a modern-day ABBA live concert with a new album I had never heard about, and which used some kind of technology similar to CGI to bring young-ABBA members to life even though they are now in their 70s maybe? When they spoke about the album (this film plays in multiple places at the museum but definitely as you enter), they talked about how the music was more mature and appropriate for their age. I wonder why they wouldn’t let their natural faces and bodies show, why they would use this 3D illusion tech to make themselves appear younger. The live concert would have been a 3D recording of not-them. At first, I thought perhaps this was simply ageist, they despised their aging bodies and faces and did not want to show them. And it made me upset and angry, because I think many male artists continue to perform till they are older, but perhaps not as many female artists (is it their choice, or their producers’ choice? Or is it the public’s bias?). Then later it occurred to me that perhaps their age came with medical conditions and family commitments that would have made touring difficult. But why attempt it at all? Why not, like, do very few tours, and make it more precious? I don’t know. I will read up on it more. The first costume they show you was their phoenix costume. What an apt metaphor.
2. I did not know all ABBA members had separate careers after breaking up. I never knew Frida and Agnetha sang solo! And to read about it and watch it, I realized both kind of talked about how liberating it was to be without confines and comprises of a group… and also about writing music themselves for the first time. Of course, this got me thinking about patriarchy and how often men write songs for women. These two were the singers in ABBA but the men were the musicians, right, and their husbands, too, right? How often are women’s talents suppressed by working closely with men and never having opportunities to discover their own voice and express it truly? (Thank God we have more women singer-songwriters now – is this a new phenomenon? Why on earth would anyone ever think women could not write lyrics or music? Am I overexaggerating this issue and projecting from other areas of life?)
3. The men seem to have been involved in producing multiple musicals, not just Mamma Mia! The picture below is of me sitting in the car that is in the movie. I don’t have a big reflection on this (loved the movie, despised the storyline because it’s sooooooo impossible to adapt for a child audience in a conservative culture, that I had to tell my kid’s drama teacher i could not imagine it as a school play in a Muslim culture. It’s also not very feminist. But the music and the way Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan emoted it? OMG so much better than ABBA. So sorry!)

So wait, I loved this exeprience. I truly did. But I think when your brain is trained to the isms you can’t help but find them.