Swedish traditional music

I turn on the radio, hearing a familiar tune drift into the surroundings, or at least what I think is a familiar tune. "An Ace of Base song!", I exclaim. No, actually, it wasn't. It was a Swedish folk song. Ever since that mix up in 1998, I held on to the belief that AOB's music contains elements of traditional Swedish music. Not being a musician, I cannot technially explain what elements make the connection. But, a few days ago, I read an interview with a Norwegian singer who is very well known, Sissel Kyrkebø. A paragraph from the interview, translated:

-Björn and Benny's songs are built upon folk music, as well as many of the Swedish hits with Ace of Base and Max Martin, she says. If you take those songs out of their pop surroundings and play them as folk music, you can feel the folk vibes. It is a part of us.

I haven't been hallucinating all these years! There really is a connection between AOB and folk music! Reading the words of a competent musician stating that fact makes me feel even more confident of my position. I've spent the last few days searching the internet for a list of elements that can be considered unique to Swedish folk music, or Nordic folk even, but have come up short. No straghtforward list for us non-musicians seems to exist! I have culled some ideas though.

Minor key seems pretty common.
3/4 time seems popular as well.
Many of the songs tend to repeat a section 2 or 3 times and then move on.
Melody seems important.

Of course, you can't pidgeonhole any type of music and say "every Nordic folk song contains these elements" or "every pop song sounds like this" but you can get an idea.

A great deal of Swedish folk music history is online and I find it interesting that a revival of the traditional forms blossomed in Sweden in the 60s and continued through the 80s, which puts it in line with the formative years for Ace of Base.

It's obvious that the band members enjoyed this type of music, at least the Berggrens did. They learned many older songs from relatives and Linn and Jenny sang many traditional songs in their choirs. Did their parents listen to it? I don't know. But, the Aces did sing "Vårvinda Friska" at Vina Del Mar and Linn did write Lapponia, which contains traditional elements. The untitled "Sång" Linn and Jenny sang at Liseberg in 1996 is very much in line with the "Nordic sound" as well.

Take a listen to this sound file from 1981 and tell me you can't hear AOB elements!

Folk och rackare - För redeliga män.

Strings, melody, vocal harmony. It's all there...