1.
Dansband
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Dansband or Danseband is a Swedish term for a band that plays dansbandsmusik. Dansbandsmusik is often danced to in pairs, jitterbug and foxtrot music are often included in this category. The music is inspired by swing, schlager, country, jazz. The main influence for rock-oriented bands is the music of the 1950s and 1960s. The terms dansband and dansbandsmusik were coined around 1970, when Swedish popular music developed a signature style, the genre developed primarily in Sweden, but has spread to neighbouring countries Norway, Denmark and the Swedish speaking regions of Finland. When the music came to Norway it was first called Svensktoppar, a dansband often travels by bus, performing several times every week year-round, outdoors in the summertime and indoors in the wintertime. Performances may also be held on a boat, several dansbands are named after their lead singer, followed by orkester. The tradition origins from the old dance orchestras, often named after their Kapellmeister, the possessive suffix s is often replaced by z in dansband names. Some dansbands are named after earlier members, the main audience for dansband music is middle-aged adults. The music is performed live by the bands at venues where the main interest of the audience is dancing. However, many dansbands also record albums and singles, Dansband lyrics are often brightly characterized, and are mostly about love, friendship and peace. Some of the texts are inspired by national romanticism, with lyrics about things such as old memories from the past, nature. The Norwegian dansband Ole Ivars has also, much with humor, the lyrics are often in Swedish in Sweden, and in Norwegian in Norway. In the 1990s, special dansband songwriters broke through, among them Lasse Holm, Gert Lengstrand, for many years, the same person wrote songs for most bands, but soon dansband musicians became more involved in songwriting. Before dansband music became popular, many jazz orchestras played a dance music. The golden era of music was the 1970s, with bands like Thorleifs, Flamingokvintetten, Ingmar Nordströms, Wizex. There were at most around 800 full-time working dansbands in Sweden, the term dansband was coined in Sweden in 1976, to sound more modern and tougher than the earlier dansorkester, but later many of the bands have begun to call themselves live bands. In 1977, the song Beatles, performed by Swedish dansband Forbes, won the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1977, for taxation reasons, it was possible to deduct fantasy outfits in the declaration of income
2.
Peace & Love (festival)
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Peace & Love was the largest music festival in Sweden, known for its humanitarian message, pervasive throughout the event. It started in Borlänge and ran from 1999 until the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the Peace & Love Crew announced that they would continue to do the much loved festival and in 2014 the festivals were back on under the name Peace & Love World Forum. The Peace & Love Festival was first held in 1999, as a reaction to the ongoing violence, the first festival was held at a club in central Borlänge, with about 900 attendees. Since then the festival was held at different locations in central Borlänge, the Peace & Love Festival was one of Scandinavias fastest-growing festivals. In 2006 there were 15,000 visitors per day, with over 37,000 people attending in total, the 10th Peace & Love Festival was in 2008 and had a record of 25000 visitors, which made it the second biggest festival in Sweden. The tickets sold out as early as 23 May, and the festival got a lot of attention in nationwide media,2008 was celebrated as the tenth festival. Artist that played, amongst others, were Sex Pistols, Manu Chao, Kent, Teddybears, The Wombats, as a late surprise Roky Ericson and The Nomads was announced. The festival was held between 22 June and 27 June and this year Peace & Love became Swedens biggest festival with 41685 tickets sold. Some of the bands and artists were, Mötley Crüe, The Kooks, Volbeat, Milow, Keane, Thåström, in 2010, the event took place between June 28 and July 3 - the same weekend as other major Scandinavian festivals Roskilde Festival and Hove Festival. The festival sold 42000 tickets and this year, amongst others, Jay-Z, Lily Allen, Patti Smith, The Kooks and Kent played. Each year, Peace & Love focuses on a subject that they theme the festival on, past years themes 2004 - Freedom of Speech 2005 - Environment 2006 - Democracy 2007 - Revolution 2008 - Wake Up. A. S. P. Sugarplum Fairy has played every year since 2001
3.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
4.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
5.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
6.
Breakdancing
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B-boying or breaking, also called breakdancing, is a style of street dance that originated primarily among Puerto Rican and African American youths during the mid-1970s in the Bronx. The dance spread worldwide due to popularity in the media, especially in such as Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, b-boying consists of four kinds of movement, toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. B-boying is typically danced to hip-hop, funk music, and especially breakbeats, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo, a practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. Although the term breakdance is frequently used to refer to the dance in culture and in the mainstream entertainment industry. These terms are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners, instead of the term b-boying, the mainstream media promoted the artform as breakdancing, causing many to only know it as such. Enthusiasts consider breakdancing an ignorant and derogatory term due to the exploitation of the artform. The media displayed a simplified version of the dance, making it seem like the so-called “tricks” were everything, ultimately trading the culture for money and promotion. The dance itself is properly called breaking according to such as KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def. The terms b-boy, b-girl, and breaker are the terms used to describe the dancers who performed to DJ Kool Hercs breakbeats. DJ Kool Herc is a Jamaican-American DJ who is responsible for developing the foundational aspects of hip-hop music, the obvious connection of the term breaking is to the word breakbeat. DJ Kool Herc has commented that the term breaking was 1970s slang for getting excited, most breaking pioneers and practitioners prefer the terms b-boy, b-girl, and/or breaker when referring to these dancers. For those immersed in culture, the term breakdancer may be used to disparage those who learn the dance for personal gain rather than for commitment to the culture. B-boy London of the New York City Breakers and filmmaker Michael Holman refer to these dancers as breakers, frosty Freeze of the Rock Steady Crew says, we were known as b-boys, and hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa says, b-boys, what you call break boys. Or b-girls, what you call break girls, many elements of b-boying can be seen in other antecedent cultures prior to the 1970s. B-boy pioneers Richard Crazy Legs Colon and Kenneth Ken Swift Gabbert, many of b-boyings acrobatic moves, such as the flare, show clear connections to gymnastics. The engraving shows a man apparently B-boying. The dance was called the Giesse Harad Polska or salmon district dance, a young street dancer performing acrobatic headspins was recorded by Thomas Edison in 1898
7.
Graffiti
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Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often within public view. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and they have existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, in modern times, paint and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials. In most countries, marking or painting property without the property owners permission is considered defacement and vandalism, Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture, graffiti have evolved alongside hip hop music, b-boying, unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials, law enforcement, both graffiti and its occasional singular form graffito are from the Italian word graffiato. Graffiti is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface, a related term is sgraffito, which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was used by potters who would glaze their wares. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, the word originates from Greek γράφειν — graphein — meaning to write. The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD, the first known example of modern style graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. Local guides say it is an advertisement for prostitution, located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint and a number. This is believed to indicate that a brothel was nearby, with the handprint symbolizing payment, the ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the world had different connotations than they carry in todays society concerning content. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, mansueta tene. Etched on the surface of the Mirror Wall, they contain pieces of prose, poetry, the majority of these visitors appear to have been from the elite of society, royalty, officials, professions, and clergy. There were also soldiers, archers, and even some metalworkers, the topics range from love to satire, curses, wit, and lament. Many demonstrate a high level of literacy and a deep appreciation of art. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there, one reads, Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems
8.
Tensta
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Tensta is a district in Spånga-Tensta borough, Stockholm, Sweden. There are about 6,000 apartments in Tensta and a population of 17,083 as of December 31,2007, modern Tensta, with its Plattenbau-style concrete apartment buildings, was constructed in the 1960s. Like nearby Rinkeby and Hjulsta, it was part of the Million Programme and this was partially because lots of people moved in when the area was still a construction site, and it took years before the metro station opened. In the center of Tensta there is a fruit market. The art gallery Tensta Konsthall is also situated close to the centre and has gained a name in Sweden, the government has decided to award to 200 million kronor in performance based subsidies to boost fifteen of Sweden’s suburbs grappling with social exclusion. Tensta is one of the suburbs that have chosen to receive this cash injection, the districts will receive the cash injection at the end of 2013 at the earliest, after the results from the past year have been evaluated. The subsidy - which is performance based - will be awarded for three criteria, how the deal with education, employment, and social benefits. When the farm of Stora Tensta was demolished in the 1960s, Tensta is situated on the Järva field, which was used as a military training ground from 1907. The area was closed to the public, several farms continued growing crops and raising livestock throughout the time the army exercised here, but the farmers were not allowed to cultivate virgin soil or erect new building. In 1962 the government decided that almost the whole training ground should be available for civil buildings. The aim was to build homes to eliminate the housing shortage. People living in cramped city flats without modern conveniences, and all the moving to Stockholm, would acquire spacious. The construction of Tensta went very fast, the general plan was approved in 1965. People began to move in two later, and Tensta Centre was opened in 1970. The Metro came to Tensta in 1975, the lime-lined avenue of Tenstagången leads straight through the district
9.
Plattenbau
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Plattenbau is a building constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of Platte and Bau, although Plattenbauten are often considered to be typical of East Germany, the prefabricated construction method was used extensively in West Germany and elsewhere, particularly in public housing. In English the building method is also called large-panel system building or LPS, prefabrication was pioneered in the Netherlands following World War I, based on construction methods developed in the United States. The first German use of construction is what is now known as the Splanemann-Siedlung in Berlins Lichtenberg district. These two- and three-story apartment houses were assembled of locally cast slabs, inspired by the Dutch Betondorp in Watergraafsmeer, in East Germany, Plattenbau areas have been designated as Neubaugebiet. There were several common plattenbau designs, the most common series was the P2, followed by the WBS70, the WHH GT18, and Q3A. The designs were flexible and could be built as towers or rows of apartments of various heights, there have been projects with low rise plattenbauten such as the town of Bernau just north of Berlin. This town had an almost complete historic center of wooden framed buildings within its preserved city walls. Most of these were torn down after 1975 and during the eighties to be replaced by 2–4 story buildings constructed of prefabricated concrete slabs, a similar project was the Nikolaiviertel around the historic Nikolai church in Berlins old center. In the case of the Nikolaiviertel the buildings were made to more historic. Many plattenbau apartments were built in giant settlements, often on the edge of cities and their inconvenient locations were likely also a factor in their rapid deterioration. Eastern Berlin has many Plattenbauten, reminders of Eastern Bloc planned residential areas, with shops, the building method is also associated with problems with bad fire insulation, as well as bad sound insulation between units, which is a direct result of their method of construction
10.
Million Programme
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The aim was to construct a million new dwellings during the programmes ten-year period. At the time, the Million Programme was the most ambitious building programme in the world to one million new homes in a nation with a population of eight million. At the same time, a proportion of the older unmodernised housing stock was demolished. The housing shortage in Sweden before the start of the programme was a political and social issue in Sweden. Between 1860 and 1960, Sweden had transformed from a nation to a highly industrialized nation. The population in the countryside moved in large numbers to towns after 1945 and this urbanization following World War II was also encouraged by the authorities and governing establishment. After the war, as Swedish industry was unharmed, cities needed workers to produce the amount of goods demanded by the rest of war-destroyed Europe. The major cities of Sweden had in many cases had their last building boom in the century and were, by 1950. The increasing standard of living led to demands to decrease the population density. This was made possible because of the outstanding growth Sweden had during the years in the 1950s and 1960s which led to a flood of income to the national treasury. This money was used to implement social reforms, another new law said that a municipality could build homes outside its border, because rural municipalities near Stockholm could not afford building so much. Over the lifespan of the program,1,006,000 new dwellings were built, for the houses designed for the lowest-income group, the government would bear 66% of the initial costs and this would be repaid by the customers and residents in a 30-year period. For other categories such as students and blue collar workers and immigrants, the net result was an increase in Sweden’s housing stock of 650,000 new apartments and houses, financed through property tax, with a general rise in housing quality. The new Million Programme residential areas were greatly inspired by early suburban neighbourhoods such as Vällingby, one of the main aims behind the planning of these residential areas was to create good democratic citizens. A principal aim was to mix and integrate different groups of households through the mixing of tenures. Most of the apartments were of the three room apartment type of 75 m², planned for a model family of two adults and two children. The second type of apartments were the student blocks or student suburbs that were planned and built in the cities having large universities, like Stockholm, Lund, Uppsala, Linköping and Umeå. Almost 150,000 new student apartments were built in specially designated student suburbs in order to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing university student population and these student apartments were usually 1-bedroom 1-bathroom and common kitchen type dorms that were clustered together in a large suburb or neighborhood
