ABBA On The Web - September 2002
July 29 2002 saw the long awaited launch of ABBA – THE SITE, version 2. Since the upgrade was first announced three years ago, ABBA fans everywhere have eagerly anticipated the new version of the official ABBA site.
But has it been worth the long wait? Well, yes and no. Let’s take a look at what The Site has to offer.
Firstly, ABBA – The Site has a whole new look that is bright and refreshing. Gone is the dark, gloomy black with gold, and in comes various shades of blue on blue, highly reminiscent of the ‘Voulez-Vous’ album cover and the whole 1979 tour look. The main theme of ABBA – The Site coordinates with ‘ABBA – The Album’, ‘ABBA – The Movie’, etc. The cartoon silhouette figures of ABBA that appeared so memorably in the opening credits of ‘The Movie’ appear in the logo for The Site, while the cartoonish artwork seen on ‘The Album’ sleeve and ‘The Movie’ poster appears in several guises, from the changing faces in the top left corner of the screen, to the subtle use of images to illustrate each section of The Site.
Many of the features of the original version have been carried over – Forum, News, Music, People, Worldwide. Some are essentially the same as they were, some a greatly changed and improved. There are also a few brand new features that haven’t appeared before.
The main page has a number of elements greeting visitors. There’s a brief welcome message, the two most recently posted messages to the Forum section (more on that shortly), a Video of the Day which can be downloaded and viewed in full – other videos can be found elsewhere on the site, but only a one minute sample can be viewed. There’s a piece of ABBA trivia, regularly updated with ABBA facts and information, the latest News headlines, and an In Focus feature which takes an in-depth look at a particular aspect of ABBA history, which will also be updated regularly. At the moment, the Focus is on ABBA’s biggest hit ‘Dancing Queen’.
From the main page, all the various sections of The Site can be easily accessed. On each page within The Site relevant pages are also linked, making it easy to find more information.
The first and self-confessed main feature of The Site is the Forum section, which is the most changed and improved section of all. This is where ABBA fans can post messages under a number of preselected topics, such as ABBA – The Group, The Music, Musicals, Videos and Books, individual forums for each member, and several others. It makes it much easier to find discussions on particular points of interest.
Unlike the old version, the Forum requires you to become a registered member before you can post a message there. Members are able to create a profile to let other visitors know a little bit about themselves, and can also include a photograph so that others can see what you look like (a hint to registered members – a head shot works best, no one can see a full body shot or you with Benny). As I write this article, there are 4,649 registered members and 5,340 individual posts – not bad for about three week’s work! There are also a number of moderators to ensure that nothing too offensive is posted and to stop the trouble that caused so many problems in the past.
There’s also a FAQ section with many frequently asked ABBA questions. This is one section that I think could do with a bit of work – some of the questions are ambiguously answered and leave the reader just as in the dark as before they read the answer, and other questions that are often asked just don’t appear at all.
The News section is exactly that – the latest “official” ABBA related news updates from Universal Music. Currently, most news items are related to the newly released ‘Definitive Collection’ DVD and ‘Mamma Mia!’ musical. I doubt that this will ever be the place where you’ll hear about Frida’s new duet (through Warner Music) or Agnetha’s alleged new album.
The contents of the Music section remain mostly unchanged from the old site, though there is a lot more interaction between pages now. Music features the Polar discography of ABBA albums and singles, plus key compilations. Each album has a brief story about the songs and ABBA history at the time, plus links to the lyrics of each song, though unfortunately some of the lyrics are not quite right. You can also look up every officially released song individually, and can hear one minute of each song, and with many you can see one minute of video as well, though it can be a convoluted process to make these work.
As a surprise bonus, one minute each of the commercially unreleased songs ‘Sång till Görel’, ‘Hovas vittne’ and ‘Tivedshambo’ (the 1981 instrumental version, not ABBA’s TV reunion of 1986) can also be heard. Most pages in the Music section feature a gallery of contemporary photographs, though there are none dating before 1977, except for album and single sleeves.
The People section contains biographies of the four ABBA members, key people behind the scenes such as Stig Anderson, Görel Hanser, Owe Sandström, Rune Söderqvist and others, and the primary musicians that played on ABBA’s recordings and concerts. It’s very interesting to read about the contribution that all these people made to ABBA. Newly added here are photographs of each of the people, so that finally we can see what many of them looked like. For instance, now I know for sure that it’s drummer Roger Palm who is seen playing drums in the ‘Dancing Queen’ video.
Bonus is a brand new section that was long promised and is now finally available. This section features ABBA wallpaper for your computer desktop and ABBA screensavers. At the moment, all the wallpapers are based on the covers of ABBA’s eight studio albums. There are also four different screensavers, including a very cute animated version of the ‘ABBA – The Album’ cover. Indications are that there will be more added in to the Bonus section in the future. In fact, since The Site was relaunched, several wallpapers have already been added.
The final section is Worldwide, which features links to other ABBA related web sites created by fans. This was also a feature of the old site, but has also been improved somewhat. Now, visitors can vote for their favourite sites, which will be listed on the What’s Cool page. The old site had a similar feature, but the coolness factor was based on how many people had hit the link. The sites are listed under a number of categories, and fans are free to register their own sites here. So far, there’s no sites listed on the What’s Cool page, so get there and start voting!
At the bottom of each page there’s a link to the Help page that provides technical assistance on using the may features of The Site, and should assist the visitor with any problems they might encounter.
Overall, ABBA – The Site is highly appropriate for ABBA’s official website. It’s a great place for the novice ABBA fan who wants to get an introduction to ABBA. The Forum has already become a popular meeting place for fans from around the world. But long term ABBA fans looking for “something new” may be disappointed. This isn’t the place where you’re suddenly going to find out the answers to every long standing question you’ve ever had about ABBA, nor are you going to get unreleased gems like ‘Just Like That’ – though several current threads in the Forums keep raising that particular issue.
ABBA – The Site has been created by Famestudios AB for Universal Music Sweden. Famestudios is also responsible for the official Kristina från Duvemåla and Chess – The Musical sites, plus sites for other Swedish – and ABBA related – stars such as Peter Jöback, Tomas Ledin, Roxette and Carola.
