Sunday, June 5, 2011

Dschinghis Khan Is Better Than Abba


(Image taken from: dedica.la)

You may know Dschinghis (pronounced, "Jingis") Khan. They got really big on the internet from this video:



Classic, I know. But that's not why I think they're better than Abba, as the title of this article suggests. The reason why I like them so much more than the two girl, two guy hitmakers is because, well, they never grew as BIG as Abba, so I couldn't grow to hate Dschinghisc Khan. But I DO hate Abba. Very much so, actually.


(Image taken from: musicmaven.wordpress.com)

That's not to say that Abba didn't make great songs. Are you kidding me? "Super Trouper"? "Dancing Queen"? "Mamma Mia"...Oh, "Mama Mia." Now THAT'S where I get upset with the group. "Mama Mia" is a very good song. An amazing song, actually. It's quirky, it's fun, and a great song to grab a hairbrush and sing into. It's just a magnificent number. But then, they made a Godawful musical off of it, and also, a terrible movie, which subjected us to listen to Pierce Brosnan "sing".



Rrrr Rrrrr Rrrr Rrrrr, Rrrrr Rrrrr, Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr, Rrrr Rrrr. That's my impression of Pierce Brosnan singing.

I mean, seriously. That was just awful. But not as awful as the A*Teens, which also spawned off of Abba.



So, if you haven't already guessed, here's my problem with the group. Over the years, they were just TOO overexposed. And it's not like it was just their songs that I was hearing, which would have been fine. It's the fact that they allowed pretty much anybody to take their songs and do whatever they wanted with them. Smart, right? It created a perpetual money-making machine for the group.

But not so fast, hombre, as many people see Abba as too saccharine and goofy now. I remember during the 2008 Presidential election, people were actually making fun of John McCain because he said he had Abba on his Playlist. Like that was some kind of joke or something. Hur, hur, hur, look at that old fart! Listening to Abba. I would never vote for him. But ooh, what's Obama listening to? I sooooo want to vote for him if I find out that he has Marvin Gaye on his iTunes. I love that man.

It was a really silly reason for preferring one candidate over an another, but that just shows that people laugh at Abba today. Abba is a joke.

Dschinghis Khan is a joke, too, but if you look beyond "Moskau," they really, truly had songs that were just as good as anything Abba ever produced. Some of them were also more entertaining to watch as well. Don't believe me? Check this out:



That's fun! Or listen to this:



That's pretty! Sure, it doesn't have the universal appeal of Abba, but that's because they didn't sing in English. They chose to stay true to themselves and sing in their native language of Deutsch. They could sing in English, though. They just didn't want to:



I actually bought the group's greatest hits album and I just fell in love with it. And I'm being completely serious here. I really like the album. I still listen to it frequently while I turn the station whenever I hear Abba come on. I can't even listen to that group anymore. So, yeah, I think Dschinghis Khan is much better than Abba. Abba is not The Beatles, so please don't get on my case that their songs are timeless gems. They're not. They're great, but Abba's songs aren't perfection. And with overexposure, they kind of suck. So listen to some Dschinghis Khan, why don'tcha? They have a lot more songs than just "Moskau," you know.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi. You are definitely right.But dont worry, Dschinghis Khan may not be big in Anglo-Saxon territories but they definitely are in the rest of the world! Take a look to the you tube comments and you will witness their victory from south America to Japan,without forgetting all the Asia including İran, İndia, Tibet, Mongolia (of course),also Russia. There are many more to mention. In brief, you are right, I even dont compare them to Abba.