Mariel, not Muriel

One of my favourite lines – for many reasons – from the film “Muriel’s Wedding” is when Muriel says “When I lived in Porpoise Spit, I used to sit in my room for hours and listen to ABBA songs. But since I’ve met you and moved to Sydney, I haven’t listened to one Abba song. That’s because my life is as good as an Abba song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen.” Although strictly speaking that’s not what I’ve done tonight, I have listened to a fair bit of Swedish pop music.

Aside from QANDA, my night has pretty much revolved around around Youtube and some of my favourite pop clips from Sweden. Not so much the well-known stuff, not so much the regular schlager you might see in Eurovision, not so much the indie, just the slightly obscure including…

One of my all time favourite bands from the last few years from Sweden has, oddly enough, been a teenage duo called “West End Girls” who do cover versions of songs by Pet Shop Boys.

I’ve also been enjoying a group called Pay TV, a group of “model-like” singers who sing anti-establishment political songs.

I guess what I like about these acts is their superficial elements of pop combined with a degree of subversion.