• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Abba: The lost factor.

Some here have alluded to Abba not being successful in the US. Not sure I understand that, atleast from a radio perspective.

Abba had nine top 15 billboard us hits, ten if you include Freda’s ‘83 hit.
 
seatownmedia said:
Some here have alluded to Abba not being successful in the US. Not sure I understand that, atleast from a radio perspective.

Abba had nine top 15 billboard us hits, ten if you include Freda’s ‘83 hit.
Click to expand...
I sure played plenty of Abba on the radio, and a couple of their hits still get played today.
 
seatownmedia said:
Some here have alluded to Abba not being successful in the US. Not sure I understand that, atleast from a radio perspective.

Abba had nine top 15 billboard us hits, ten if you include Freda’s ‘83 hit.
Click to expand...
This is where we get into where the line is drawn for "hit".

Dancing Queen: #1. Monster.
Take A Chance On Me: #3. Big hit.
Waterloo: #6. Hit.
The Winner Takes It All: #8. Hit.

So let's look at their next five biggest singles:

The Name Of The Game: #12.
Fernando: #13:
Knowing Me, Knowing You: #14.
Waterloo: #15.
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do: #15

Remember that these weren't cumulative numbers. A chart peak was simply the best a record did, in comparison to other records, on its best week. In that second batch, there were between 11 and 14 bigger records on the best week those five ABBA records had.

Sometimes, especially in the later 70s, a single under-performed because fans were buying the album. But ABBA's biggest album, ABBA: THE ALBUM, peaked at #14. ARRIVAL, which had a number one single on it, only made #20.

So, understanding that airplay doesn't equal sales ( I mentioned earlier, that apart from the singles that hit the top ten, ABBA singles were largely turntable hits) and that, compared to the biggest artists of the era in which they charted (Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire), ABBA wasn't that big a deal.
 
seatownmedia said:
Some here have alluded to Abba not being successful in the US.
Click to expand...

I think it's more of a comparative discussion, that their success here was not as great as it was in Europe.

By the 70s, American music was splinting into many genres, and it was possible to ignore them completely.
 
Mikey Radio said:
I'm a firm believer that some people have a natural gift for being able to learn and speak other languages and they catch on rather quickly, while some of us have a much more difficult time. I have a few friends who were born and raised near the Mediterranean Sea, and it's relatively common there for people to know multiple languages and be able to interchange them... Spanish, French and Italian roll off their tongues pretty readily.
Click to expand...

I would also think that some of the key is location of birth, related to the childhood years living in locations where multiple languages are found. Early exposure to a second or more languages is very important for this.

My youngest daughter is fluent in English, essentially her first language, but she is also conversationally fluent in Tagalog, her mother's first language.

The subject of teaching daughter Tagalog came up shortly after she was born, and when my wife asked me about this, I said absolutely, do so. Virtually all of the relatives on the in-law side speak Tagalog, that it is the language of her mother and I am proud that daughter has a working knowledge of Tagalog.

Like David ended in his joke, what do you call someone who speaks only one language? An American.. And unfortunately, I fit that mold. My understanding of Tagalog is just enough to catch the drift of some conversations, but that is about it.
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
The subject of teaching daughter Tagalog came up shortly after she was born, and when my wife asked me about this, I said absolutely, do so. Virtually all of the relatives on the in-law side speak Tagalog, that it is the language of her mother and I am proud that daughter has a working knowledge of Tagalog.
Click to expand...
That is a lovely story. And there is an added advantage, endorsed by sociologists and psychologists and a bunch of other related experts: a person with more than one language has also learned some of the culture behind the language and thus can see more angles, perspectives and aspects of a subject because their realm of possibilities is expanded.
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
I would also think that some of the key is location of birth, related to the childhood years living in locations where multiple languages are found. Early exposure to a second or more languages is very important for this.
Click to expand...
Separate subject, separate response.

There is a lot of research regarding the optimum second language acquisition age. It is concentrated in the period from the very early years where learning more than one tongue as an infant comes naturally and with no embarrassment. As children get older, they become uncomfortable and are even embarrassed showing deficiencies in another language. By the teen years, peer group influences are strong and the mind's ability to adapt to new thought patterns is more restricted. Most adults have a very hard time learning a second language well.

Once a person has two languages, the sort of "get it" on how to bend the mind to new rules. It becomes easier and easier to learn additional tongues or even regional accents and vocabulary difference.

Your observation about childhood years is very accurate. And the fact that most adult or late teen immigrants to the U.S. have a lot of trouble learning fluent English is explained by this process; ignorant people think they "don't want to learn" or "just came here for the money" and do not understand language learning phases.

I've seen studies that show that the one place where adults learn a second language is when they marry someone who has a different native tongue. Because they are completely at ease and have full trust with the other person, they are not embarrassed by mistakes and by the learning process.
 
michael hagerty said:
This is where we get into where the line is drawn for "hit".

Dancing Queen: #1. Monster.
Take A Chance On Me: #3. Big hit.
Waterloo: #6. Hit.
The Winner Takes It All: #8. Hit.

So let's look at their next five biggest singles:

The Name Of The Game: #12.
Fernando: #13:
Knowing Me, Knowing You: #14.
Waterloo: #15.
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do: #15
Click to expand...

You have Waterloo as a hit and a non-hit.
 
JBraddock said:
Absolutely. And they sounded better delivery-wise at different times in their career. Anna-Frida's vocals on her solo US releases (as Frida) sound great (Phil Collins' sympathetic production didn't hurt), so they can deliver. They just aren't on this new release.

Perhaps it's the age factor, or maybe it's a calculated move. Alt-rock band Shonen Knife all speak fluent English, and yet they made a career out of sounding naive about the language, if not the music.
Click to expand...
Since the late 1970's or early 80s, most people in Scandinavia can speak, write and read English well. I think 90% of the people in Sweden, Norway and Denmark are fluent in English, at least on the reading-writing level. Some time before 1980 it appears that wasn't the case. I think the EU adopted English as a prominent second language, and that probably also made a difference.

English is -- along with German and French -- one of the "procedural" languages in the EU.
 
michael hagerty said:
Cliff must have had some promotion in the U.S.---he actually made #30 in 1959 with "Living Doll", which I'd describe more as like half of the Everly Brothers than an Elvis clone. Here's the link:


And he managed to hit #25 with a cover of "It's All In The Game" in 1962:


But it was non-charters and stiffs ranging from #92-#99 on the Hot 100 for 14 years after that until "Devil Woman" hit #6 here. This record I'm old enough to remember, and being in programming at the time, I remember the circumstances.

While it was released on EMI in the UK, Elton John's Rocket Records label got the U.S. distribution rights, and Rocket/MCA put some significant effort into trade advertising. Still, even with a #6 hit in his pocket, the next ten singles either didn't chart or stiffed, with the best-performing of the two that charted stalling at #57.

It was three years between "Devil Woman" and "We Don't Talk Anymore", which made #7. "Dreamin'" hit #10, and the duet with Olivia, "Suddenly", was actually a disappointment, peaking at #20.
Click to expand...
I'm reminded of how (during the time that the brothers weren't speaking to each other) Cliff Richard and Phil Everly teamed up. I couldn't remember which brother, so I typed in "Cliff Richard Everly" in the search box. I found this:


Also on a recent retro American Top 40 countdown, Casey mentioned that the British invasion focused on groups, so Richard (as a solo performer) was at a bit of a disadvantage.
 
DavidEduardo said:
In Latin America, where I have worked in all but two of the Spanish speaking countries, Cliff Richard was much bigger than Elvis. Not that Elvis did not have hits, it's just that Cliff had more. As I have mentioned before, there were lots of popularity differences such as CCR being bigger than the Beatles.
Click to expand...
Of course, Elvis never toured internationally. Thank you, colonel! *sarcasm* Advantage Cliff.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I learned Spanish from the radio. Every night in Cleveland, I'd tape HJED in Cali, Colombia on 820 AM and that next evening, while doing homework, would listen to the overnight show. I did not use a dictionary; I learned like a baby does by repetition and context. I guess they call that "immersion" or something like that.
Click to expand...
WBAP/WFAA signed off every night then?
 
One additional experience on language learning.

In 2003 we adopted two teen girls (sisters) from Romania. One was 15 and had some English at school. The other was 13 and had just what she had observed in TV shows (with most being dubbed in Romanian). I told them that learning American English would be one of the most difficult things they would have to do...but then the 13 year old was functional within 6 weeks and fluent in 6 months. Not only did she pick up words and a ton of slang but she lost most of her native accent. The 15 year old struggled for years and still has a very strong accent and is not totally fluent.

David was right in that it depends a lot whether the learner is embarrassed to speak the new language in front of peers. The 13 year old dived right in, mistakes or not. The 15 year old tended to hang out with her high school friends in which English was a second language and she was deathly afraid of making a mistake although she took Spanish in high school and did very well.

I spent 3 years in Asia with the majority of time in Japan. Over that time I heard enough Japanese to become functional but was never there long enough to get much better. The main problem was that, just as in high school (in German class), I was not immersed nor did I have anyone with which to practice my new language.

Now, all these many years later I have forgotten most of my foreign language skills but still manage to have some fun with my Spanish speaking friends. Greeting: "cómo se bean caballo?" English translation "How you been Hoss?" I get some very interesting stares returned.
 
My wife and I have had several exchange students. Some were from Europe (Germany and Spain) and some were from Asia (Taiwan, Thailand, and Korea). All the German and Spanish girls and the one from Thailand were very fluent in English, but the ones from Taiwan and Korea had more trouble. They all probably had more trouble understanding Southern. 😁
 
firepoint525 said:
Of course, you have got to remember that Europeans travel to other countries in much the same way that we Americans travel to different STATES. I have a friend who lives in Germany now. And he traveled to France by train, to meet up with another friend who met him there.
Click to expand...
Yes, the proximity of nations with different languages does change things. Yet millions of Americans live next to or very near the Mexican border, and other than Beto, how many speak Spanish?

I am very fond of the Eurail Pass and on my first experience visited 13 nations in a month, each with a different language!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom