History YMMV / ABBA

* 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.

%%* NarmCharm:
%%** Their videos.
%%** Most of their songs, really.

* 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]]

** 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.

** 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.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Many critics who diss ABBA tend to sing praises for ''Music/TheVisitors'' (and some songs of ''Music/SuperTrouper''), at the time where the band's real life issues caused them to clearly enter into CerebusSyndrome.

* SignatureSong: "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.

* SignatureSong: "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" and "S.O.S." are also strong contenders.

* SignatureSong: "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" and "S.O.S." also strong contenders.

* SignatureSong: "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" are also strong contenders.

* 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/GhostBand Ghost]] 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.

* 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).

* 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 "Disco Sucks" backlash began.

* SignatureSong: "Dancing Queen", although "Mamma Mia", "Waterloo" "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" and to a lesser extent, "Super Trouper" are also strong contenders.

* SignatureSong: "Dancing Queen".

* 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}} 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.