Nordic music
The Nordic countries have an impressive heritage of music, with a living heritage of folk music, well-known classical composers such as Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius, and a modern scene of pop, rock and electronic music.
Understand
| “ | Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing Thanks for all the joy they're bringing |
” |
—Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus | ||
The Nordic countries have a lively music scene, with classical music, pop, rock and folk tradition all thriving. They host many smaller and larger music festivals of all kinds, some of which have gained international recognition, attracting international stars on a regular basis.
The Nordic countries have large and thriving pop music scenes. Some Nordic singers and bands who have achieved chart-topping success internationally include Aqua (Denmark), Toy-Box (Denmark), ABBA (Sweden), Roxette (Sweden), A-HA (Norway), M2M (Norway), Björk (Iceland) and Sigur Rós (Iceland). Due to the high level of English proficiency and small local markets in the Nordic countries, Nordic bands and singers often release songs in English instead of their native languages, though pop music in the native languages is still possible to find. Music festivals are most diverse and range from pop, rock and jazz to electronica, psych, metal and hip hop.
Folk music and folk dance has a long history in the Nordic countries and in some regions, especially in Norway and the Faroe Islands, it is still practised as authentic as ever as part of local cultural traditions. In Denmark, folk music and folk dance has not survived as a continuous popular tradition from older times. Here, it is mostly practised by organised enthusiasts trying to revive or rediscover these traditions, bringing them to peoples general attention and keeping them alive. The styles, accompanying garments and occasions vary somewhat from country to country and from region to region. The Sami people who live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia have their own musical tradition, known for the iconic singing style, the joik.
Denmark
Denmark has a lively and broad musical culture. Even though most of the folk dance and folk music traditions haven't been kept alive in the popular culture, singing has continued to be strongly rooted in Denmark through the centuries. After the reformation in 1536, a large number of psalms were composed in Danish by notable poets like Brorson, Kingo, Grundtvig and Ingemann and they are still very popular in churches and some even on non-religious occasions. In the later half of the 1800s, during a soaring wave of Danish nationalism, a lot of new songs were composed and added to the already large body of Danish songs. Singing became an important part of the Højskole tradition, and ordinary schools as well, and in 1894, the first collection of Danish songs was issued in Højskolesangbogen. This particular songbook has seen many subsequent editions and is the most popular songbook in the country to this day. Outside the cultural institutions, there is a strong tradition for performers and troubadours composing and singing in Danish, with iconic performers from modern times like John Mogensen, Cæsar, C V Jørgensen, Povl Dissing, Kim Larsen, Johnny Madsen and Niels Hausgaard. The Danish language has a small audience, but singing in Danish have seen something of a revival in the new millennium, as represented by popular artists Medina, Suspekt, Carl Emil (Ulige Numre), Sys Bjerre, Nephew and Peter Sommer.
In the classical genre, Denmark had many Romantic composers, of which Carl Nielsen and Hans Christian Lumbye are perhaps the most notable. More recent and experimental composers includes Vagn Holmboe, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Anders Nordentoft and Per Nørgård. The contemporary scene for classical music is both broad and very active with many notable and prolific composers and solo-artists. Opera has been enjoyed in Denmark since the early 1700s, when the royal family was inspired by Italy. Early composers of Danish operas includes J. A. P. Schulz and Kuntzen from the 1780s and several notable operas were produced in the 1800s onwards, including the still popular Elverhøj (Elves' Hill) from 1828 by Kuhlau. More recent and active composers includes John Frandsen, Poul Ruders and Bent Lorentzen who have also worked internationally with both operas and orchestral compositions. Opera can be experienced regularly in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense and Esbjerg.
Today, Denmark hosts many music festivals of all musical genres, and is especially known for the popular annual Roskilde festival and Copenhagen Jazzfestival. Well-known and active international artists and bands from Denmark includes Mø, Oh Land, Lukas Graham, Mew and Volbeat to mention just a few from the pop and rock scene. In pop music, Denmark is particularly known for the genre of bubblegum dance, with bands such as Aqua and Toy-Box achieving international success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic has a rich heritage of Faroese folk music and dance and it is still very much alive. The young generation have also taken up contemporary music with several notable rock and pop bands and musicians, including Teitur, Dánjal á Neystabø, Gestir and Hamferð to name a few. The long lasting artgroup and band Yggdrasil also includes musicians from Denmark and plays a broad repertoire of Faroese ballads, inuit songs and Shetland folk, often with an improvisational jazzy approach.
Greenland
The original folk music of the Greenland inuit is the drum dancing, accompanied by storytelling songs, chants and sometimes shaman rituals. It also includes a plethora of vocal and musical games. When Christianity was introduced, the shamanistic culture was abandoned, but inuit folk music is still practised as a performing art occasionally. The Scandinavian settlers introduced new instruments, and new folk music styles evolved, such as the Kalattuut, a sort of polka, and the more recent vaigat, akin to country music. Since the 1950s, jazz, rock and pop have all inspired a growing Greenlandic scene for contemporary music. Every summer, Aassivik music festivals are arranged.
Finland
The national identity of Finland was formed in the 19th century, with romantic classical composer Jean Sibelius as an important contributor. Classical music continues to be strong in Finland, with the musical education internationally famous and classical "music festivals" in summer consisting of concert series of one or a few weeks arranged in most cities and even in some minor towns and villages, beside the ordinary concert program in cities in winter. Special events of classical music include the Savonlinna Opera festival (with the medieval castle as stage), the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Mirjam Helin Competition and the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition.
Social dancing with live music is an important way of gathering for some people. A variant of tango has become a broadly popular social dance in Finland, although Finland has almost no common history with Argentina. The Tangomarkkinat in Seinäjoki is probably the biggest tango event worldwide.
Folk music is very much alive. The yearly week-long folk music festival in Kaustinen attracts some 3,000 artists.
Finland has a rock'n'roll scene with spectacular acts, such as Leningrad Cowboys or Lordi who surprised everybody by winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. There are many rock festivals (some for a specific genre, some interpreting "rock" rather liberally) around the country in summer.
Iceland
Iceland has produced pop stars such as Björk, Emilíana Torrini, Sigur-Rós and more recently Of Monsters and Men.
Norway
Norway is known for Edvard Grieg, as well as modern acts such as A-Ha, M2M, Lene Marlin, and Alexander Rybak, and a dominance of the death-metal scene.
Sweden
While Sweden has few classical composers of international success, the country has become known for pop acts. The Golden Age of Swedish pop began on the 6th of April 1974, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo; the same day as Blue Swede (starring Björn Skifs) reached the top of the Billboard List. Sweden's next globally successful pop band was Roxette, who performed It Must Have Been Love for the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pretty Woman and had four #1 Billboard songs in total.
In the 1990s, Sweden established a scene of DJs and music producers who reached international fame. Denniz Pop (1963-1998) wrote the debut songs for Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. He mentored Max Martin, the most successful hitmaker since The Beatles.
Since then, Sweden has had countless world acts, including Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Tove Lo, and Zara Larsson. Sing-alongs are popular.
Sweden pioneered home computing and Internet use, and has been a haven for music piracy, with services such as The Pirate Bay (launched in 2003 and still online despite prison sentences for its founders, and efforts to shut it down). Since the 2010s, the Swedish application Spotify is the world's leading application for music streaming.
Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest six times, and has an enormous fanbase for the event.
Destinations
- 1 ABBA the Museum, Djurgårdsvägen 68 (Stockholm/Djurgården). A museum of ABBA, opened in 2013.
- 2 Swedish Performing Arts Museum (Scenkonstmuseet), Sibyllegatan 2. A museum which displays dance, theatre and music from Sweden and other countries. Since 2018, it has an exhibition for Swedish pop music.
- Siljansbygden contains the Dalhalla outdoor concert hall in Rättvik, as well as a living folk music heritage.
Festivals
- 1 Sweden Rock Festival (Sölvesborg).
- 2 Seinäjoki Tango Festival. Seinäjoki is known as "the world's second capital of tango".
- 3 Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (Kaustinen, in July). Biggest folk music festival in the Nordic countries, with over 3,000 performers, domestic as well as foreign. Total audience during the week more than 100,000.
- Roskilde Festival (Denmark, early July). One of the worlds most famous rock festivals, with 70,000 tickets for sale and 30,000 volunteers.
- Skanderborg Festival (Denmark, mid August). Second biggest festival in Denmark. A beautiful setting in a forest area hosting many Danish as well as international names. Roughly 50,000 tickets for sale.
- 4 Ruisrock (Finland, July). Finland's largest music festival, held on an island in Turku, with around 70,000 spectators. Europe's second oldest rock festival, is held early July each year with both world stars and Finnish pop and rock bands and artists performing.
- Øya (Norway, August). Norway's main rock festival although deliberately intimate; located centrally in an Oslo park and using the whole city as a stage in the night.
- Hove (Norway, June-July). Hove Festival mixes large international acts with Norwegian bands in the unique setting of an island outside Arendal city. 50,000 tickets sold.
- G! Festival (Faroe Islands, July). The Faroes' main (and arguably only) event, with around 10,000 participants and 6,000 tickets sold every year. Mainly local and Scandinavian bands.
- Iceland Airwaves (Iceland, October). A progressive, trendsetting, music festival that attracts around 2000 visitors every year, besides the many locals showing up.