I've had this one running on iPadForums for a while, and thought that members here might like to join in.
I know we already have a thread for posting what you are listening to on your phone, but the intention of this one is a bit different. It's not so much about what you are listening to as why are you listening to it.
What is the back story? What is interesting about the composition, or the composer? What is special about this piece of music, either in historical or personal terms? Include as much or as little information as you want. I'll start with a cut and paste job of one of my own posts.
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For years, I laboured under the misapprehension that Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" was the first commercially available CD. I was wrong. It was actually the first album to sell more copies on CD than it did on vinyl. Whatever the truth may be, it's a fine album.
So what was the first commercially available CD?
It was Abba's "The Visitors" which I'm listening to right now.
It is unfortunate that this was the band's last album. They had taken the world by storm after a somewhat shaky start as the winners of 1974's Eurovision Song Contest, a competition which is infamous for cutting short the musical careers of its winners.
In fact, Eurovision was not their start. They were quite well established in Sweden as performers who actually performed in Swedish, rather than English, as was more fashionable.
However, as fame caught hold, they succumbed to temptation, switched to English, and enjoyed a brilliant, if short, career as the original supergroup. They are credited with the invention of the music video. After being somewhat less than pleased at the performance of studio musicians on the BBCs Top Of The Pops they swore never to appear again on the show live, and instead supplied a video to accompany their seemingly never ending string of hits.
For me, The Visitors is far away from the pop roots of the group. The music, while instantly recognizable as Abba, has a thoughtful quality about it. The album was produced as the marriages of the band's members were dissolving, and political influences of the time also coloured the writing, resulting in a darker experience than was found in earlier albums. As always, the vocals of Agnatha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are clear and powerful, backed up by some superb musicianship from Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvæus.
I know we already have a thread for posting what you are listening to on your phone, but the intention of this one is a bit different. It's not so much about what you are listening to as why are you listening to it.
What is the back story? What is interesting about the composition, or the composer? What is special about this piece of music, either in historical or personal terms? Include as much or as little information as you want. I'll start with a cut and paste job of one of my own posts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For years, I laboured under the misapprehension that Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" was the first commercially available CD. I was wrong. It was actually the first album to sell more copies on CD than it did on vinyl. Whatever the truth may be, it's a fine album.
So what was the first commercially available CD?
It was Abba's "The Visitors" which I'm listening to right now.
It is unfortunate that this was the band's last album. They had taken the world by storm after a somewhat shaky start as the winners of 1974's Eurovision Song Contest, a competition which is infamous for cutting short the musical careers of its winners.
In fact, Eurovision was not their start. They were quite well established in Sweden as performers who actually performed in Swedish, rather than English, as was more fashionable.
However, as fame caught hold, they succumbed to temptation, switched to English, and enjoyed a brilliant, if short, career as the original supergroup. They are credited with the invention of the music video. After being somewhat less than pleased at the performance of studio musicians on the BBCs Top Of The Pops they swore never to appear again on the show live, and instead supplied a video to accompany their seemingly never ending string of hits.
For me, The Visitors is far away from the pop roots of the group. The music, while instantly recognizable as Abba, has a thoughtful quality about it. The album was produced as the marriages of the band's members were dissolving, and political influences of the time also coloured the writing, resulting in a darker experience than was found in earlier albums. As always, the vocals of Agnatha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are clear and powerful, backed up by some superb musicianship from Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvæus.