* AmericansHateTingle: Not ''hate'' exactly but still a difference in appeal - North America: pretty successful, but just another group. Rest of the World: popularity rivaled that of Music/TheBeatles. One factor could've been that, at the time ABBA was most popular worldwide, Music/FleetwoodMac had the prime position in the North American market, so to speak, on melodic, harmonic pop. It was pretty hard for ''anyone'' to compete against the Mac at the time of ''Music/{{Rumours}}''. For that matter, the parallel between the two groups in terms of couples that broke up but kept on working together is pretty eerie. Another factor could have been Americans weren't that used to hearing foreign sounding singers at the time. Even most British pop/rock artists sing with an American accent. It also doesn't help their American popularity that one of their {{Signature Song}}s, "Dancing Queen", is a disco song, and it was released just before the "DiscoSucks" backlash began.
* BrokenBase:
** ''Music/VoulezVous'' is noticeably divisive. Many believe it is one of their best and most consistent albums, with several album tracks that receive praise as being amongst ABBA's best non-singles. However, there are others who prefer ABBA's earlier pop-schlager influenced sound to the disco prevalent on Voulez Vous, and considered the band to have abandoned their roots for something that was popular in America.
** ''Music/TheVisitors'' is also divisive. Critics and a fair number of fans think it is a mature work with songwriting and dark themes that were noticeably distinct from their earlier pop image. However, it also wasn't as well-received from a lot of record buyers at the time, primarily due to the slower tempos, emphasis on sparse synthy production, and dark themes, in comparison to the more upbeat material on their earlier albums.
* CargoShip: "Dum Dum Diddle" from ''Music/{{Arrival|Album}}'': Some guy/violin.
* EpicRiff:
** "Watch Out", a surprisingly heavy song led by a guitar riff worthy of Music/BlackSabbath.
** Even some of their more disco/dance songs had pretty rockin' riffs. The opening arpeggios from "Gimme Gimme Gimme" is one good example. It gets bonus points in particular for having been covered by none other than the Swedish virtuoso guitar-player ''Yngwie Malmsteen''. And yes, he sweep picks those arpeggios on a guitar, instead of having a keyboard play them as done in the original!
** "Dancing Queen" accomplishes this instantly by starting with a glissando on a piano.
** Even the album tracks have their share of these; take "Eagle", for example.
** "Mamma Mia" has some pretty cool riffs too, although it's more famous for its overly epic chorus-melody.
** "SOS"'s opening riff (which Björn credited as solidifying the band's style), which was famously used as the basis for the opening riff of "Pretty Vacant" by Music/SexPistols (of all bands) after Glen Matlock heard it on the radio.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** Though the group were extremely popular in other places in Europe outside Scandinavia (the UK included), for a time in Australia they were greeted by the type of hysterical mania commonly associated with Music/TheBeatles. A special they made for the country had viewer figures outnumbering the moon landing, and at any given time from 1975 to 1977, an ABBA album or single (or both!) was always sitting in the top five. A movie was even made about their tour of Australia when the excitement reached fever pitch. Ironically, "Take A Chance On Me", their second highest-charting song in America (after "Dancing Queen"), didn't even crack the top ten in Australia.
** They were very popular in Latin America, especially in Mexico in the 80s, to the point that they recorded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracias_Por_La_Música an album of Spanish versions of their greatest hits for the region]], and their ''Gold: Greatest Hits'' album got [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oro:_Grandes_Éxitos its own Spanish equivalent.]] ABBA's popularity in Latin America is also credited as a factor in the Music/ATeens, which was initially [[SpinoffBabies a tennage ABBA tribute/cover band]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6s7XkwSe9E being greeted with a similar mania]] at the 2000 edition of the region's fabled Viña del Mar Festival in Chile.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Music videos that featured a vehicle at fast speed, such as "Money, Money, Money", "That's Me", and "Tiger" could fall under this when one thinks about Agnetha Fältskog getting involved in a bus crash in 1983, [[OnlyAFleshWound with a minor concussion]] considering the fact [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat she was thrown out a window from the force of impact and lived]]. "Tiger" in particular has them driving at high speed, with the male members as backseat passengers and the ladies at the front, with the boys looking seemingly somewhat worried.
** The band's particular situation of being composed of two couples makes their [[BreakUpSong Break-Up Songs]] like "SOS" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You" much harder to listen to while having in mind what happened afterwards to them.
** "Happy New Year", recorded in January 1980, is a very bittersweet song, but it has a linger of hope about the future in the lyrics: "In another ten years time / Who can say what we'll find / What lies waiting down the line / In the end of '89". The band didn't reach that date together, breaking up around two years after the song's release.
** "Under Attack" has two:
*** It's hard to listen to the already-dark song, without thinking about how Agnetha was in a romantic relationship with a man who would eventually stalk her some 15 years later...
*** And there's also the fact that the music video ends with the band members [[OffIntoTheDistanceEnding walking out of the warehouse into the daylight]], reminiscent of an "AndTheAdventureContinues" ending, but would later become the last time the world would see ABBA together (for four decades, at least).
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The song "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" from ''Ring, Ring'' has two:
*** The song is about a shy woman who wows night club crowds with her dancing every Friday night. Almost 40 years later, the movie ''Film/BlackSwan'' starring Creator/NataliePortman was released, which was about a trainee ballerina with self-esteem issues called Nina.
*** The song includes the line "Just like Cinderella!" ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'' would feature among its main cast Creator/LilyJames, who among her best-known roles is playing the title character in ''Film/Cinderella2015''.
** The ''"alright, alright, alright, alright"'' from "So Long", which would later become MemeticMutation attributed to ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' (and by extension, Creator/MatthewMcConaughey)[[note]](Ironically, [=McConaughey=] would credit the phrase to another band, namely Music/TheDoors frontman Jim Morrison.)[[/note]] and Music/OutKast's "Hey Ya!"
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Benny and Björn admitted that they intentionally wrote "So Long" from ''Music/ABBAAlbum'' in the same style and structure of "Waterloo" in the belief that it would a guaranteed hit. It instead performed badly on the charts, seemingly ''because'' it was too similar to "Waterloo". Fortunately for them, "SOS" from the same album ended up being the song that became a hit, which they credited with cementing the band's style.
* LGBTFanbase: ABBA are considered a favorite amongst the LGBT community. Despite the band consisting of two married couples, quite a few of their songs have been applied as having LGBT themes. The flashy outfits they wore early on didn't hurt either. In 2010, the San Francisco Bay Men's Chorus did an ABBA tribute show.
* MemeticMutation:
** ABBA: The X.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Started with ''The Album'', then ''The Movie'', ''The Folio'', ''The Scrapbook'', and nowadays there's ''The Forum'', ''The Site'', etc.[[/labelnote]]
** "Sweaty, obsessive fans."[[labelnote:Explanation]]A general description of (usually) hardcore Agnetha fans.[[/labelnote]]
** One joke that became mainstream is listening to "Dancing Queen" on either the last day you're 16 or the night before you turn 18 years old.
%%* NarmCharm:
%%** Their videos.
%%** Most of their songs, really.
* PeripheryDemographic: Go into the comments section of any of their videos. You will inevitably find some variation of "I'm a metalhead/hard rock fan, but I love ABBA." It doesn't hurt that quite a few metal bands have covered some of their songs. Heck, Glenn Matlock ''of the Music/SexPistols'' admitted that the bass line for "Pretty Vacant" was cribbed from hearing "S.O.S." on the radio. Apparently, when that became public knowledge, he said the band's bassist sent him Christmas cards for about a decade. Whether that was Benny, Bjorn, or whatever session bassist may have participated in the recording "S.O.S." was left undisclosed. There's also the fact that they're among the bands whose songs fellow Swedes Music/{{Ghost|Band}} made covers of (namely, "I'm the Marionette"), with many fans ending up finding that if anything Ghost ''softened'' the song, with "I'm the Marionette" having more DarkerAndEdgier themes than ABBA's usual repertoire and being sung by ABBA in a more dramatic style, but Ghost singing it in the usual style of most of ABBA's discography. Overall, ABBA in general are that rare pop band that's embraced by rock fans and musicians everywhere, especially those of the RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow mindset.
* RefrainFromAssuming:
** "I Have a Dream" is often mistaken as "I Believe in Angels".
** Regarding the Spanish-language versions of their songs, "Conociendote, conociendome" (the Spanish-language version of "Knowing Me, Knowing You") is not called "Sola tu, sola yo". (It doesn't help that the phrase "Sola tu, sola yo" takes the same place in the song as the phrase "Knowing Me, Knowing You" does in the original.)
* SampledUp: The riff of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" is nowadays recognizable for how Music/{{Madonna}} sampled it for her song "Hung Up".[[note]]This is the fact one of only two times the band authorized a sampling of their songs, the other being when Music/TheFugees sampled "The Name of the Game" for "Rumble in the Jungle".[[/note]]
* SecondVerseCurse: "Thank You For The Music". This even goes to the fact that one of their final TV performances was a first-verse-and-chorus only version of "Thank You For The Music".
* SignatureSong: Tons of them. The main one is "Dancing Queen", although "Mamma Mia", "Waterloo", "The Winner Takes It All", "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," and to a lesser extent, "Super Trouper", "Voulez Vous", and "S.O.S." are also strong contenders.
* TestosteroneBrigade: Not that ABBA is a band with a particularly female-dominated fandom, but the band has an enclave of male fans that were pulled into it because of the band being fronted by two female singers who were quite easy to the eye. Some even openly admit to not even caring that much about the songs, with "the music sucked but the girls were cute" or messages among those lines being commonly found among ABBA fan sites.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
** Some fans blast ''Voulez Vous'' for being more disco-oriented.
** This was the general hit-buying public's reaction to ''The Visitors''[='=] DarkerAndEdgier sound. It's regarded as one of their best works, but remains their most traded in album.
* ValuesDissonance:
** "When I Kissed The Teacher" is a laid-back and cheerful look at a TeacherStudentRomance situation. Guess how that goes down nowadays. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Then again]], given that the student is ''pushing'' herself on her ''male'' teacher, some may now see it as a TakeThat to the DoubleStandard presented with most {{Teacher Student Romance}}s. It's also possible to view an element of UnreliableNarrator on the student's part, as the teacher seems more than a bit taken aback by the situation (and there is never any indication that he returns her feelings).
** The narrator of "Does Your Mother Know" won't have sex with a girl he thinks might be underage, but he will flirt with her, which is presented as an acceptable alternative. Nowadays he'd be suspect for even flirting with her at all, although some of the lyrics, such as, "Now I could dance with you, honey, if you think it's funny", indicate that he doesn't reciprocate the attraction at all, but is merely humoring her.
* VindicatedByHistory:
** The more pretentious type of rock critic (and rock fan) liked to deride ABBA during their heyday as being little better than bubblegum pop; as Björn pointed out in a 2002 Australian interview, "for the main part of the group's lifespan, the critics despised us". The first major change in critical consensus came in 1995, when ABBA were included in the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_Alternative_Record_Guide Spin Alternative Record Guide]]'' a reference book and review compendium of mostly alternative rock acts that nonetheless featured ABBA as its first entry, complete with a glowing write-up and album recommendations. These days, a lot of people appreciate the group for their musical and vocal craftsmanship.
** It has also been made clear that rather than a faceless pop band, ABBA played pop and disco music because they were the most popular amongst the various styles they did. Björn and Benny could easily have been a hard rock band as evidenced by such songs as "Watch Out", experimented in funk with "Man in the Middle", not to mention the progressive rock stylings of "Hole in Your Soul".
** Furthermore, Björn and Benny's self-deprecating sense of humor regarding most of their songs means that you know their cheesiest moments are just as cheesy to them too.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Sure, many of their songs are about love-and-peace-and-some-more-love and the kids love to sing along with them. But:
** "Honey Honey" is really about sex, so much that in the version heard in ''Theatre/MammaMia'', when the lines "you do your... thing" and ''"you're a dog-gone beast"'' are sung, the singer is [[LampshadeHanging clearly enjoying herself]].
** "Voulez-Vous" is about a consensual one-night stand.
** "The Winner Takes It All" is about divorce.
** "Does Your Mother Know" is about trying to ''invoke'' NoYay, in the sense that a legal minor is all but throwing themselves at the singer. Very much not kid-friendly.
** "Hey Hey Helen" is about a woman who's recently left her husband for an unspecified reason. It is implied that he was abusive to her. Her kids miss their father, but she never wants to see him again. The song essentially is trying to help them all cheer up. This is quite a dark meaning for such an upbeat tune and it is not surprising it was just an album track.
** "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" is about being horny.
** "Money Money Money" is about the singer being sick of being poor and deciding to find a SugarDaddy so that she can "fool around and have a ball."
** "Under Attack" is about someone being chased by a stalker of a lover.
** "The Visitors" has the singer in a police state about to be hauled off by the authorities. The line "they've come to take me/come to break me" implies that the singer ''knows she's about to be tortured''.
** "Two for the Price of One" is about pimping.
** "The Piper" is about a fascistic leader seducing the public.
** "Soldiers" is about a militaristic state conscripting people to fight in a HopelessWar.