Grammys 2022: How Nominees ABBA, Jon Batiste, and Bruno Mars Feel About the Sounds of the 1970s Taking Over
Many nominees in the upcoming 64th Annual Grammy Awards have something in common. Both older and newer acts have relied heavily on the sounds of the 1970s. Here’s what they have to say about the era’s recent takeover.
ABBA’s Benny Anderson doesn’t understand why the group’s popularity has risen over the years
Swedish pop group, ABBA, released Voyage, their first album since 1982, in Nov. 2021. The album’s single, “I Still Have Faith In You,” is up for Record of the Year at the 2022 Grammy Awards. It is the group’s first Grammy nomination. Voyage, of course, takes sounds from the 1970s, the decade that ABBA dominated the charts.
The group also announced a concert experience in London to accompany the album starting in May 2022. So, the group, which first found success on Eurovision in 1974, seems to be in the thick of a strong revival.
However, there’s been an ABBA revival going on for years. For years, the tribute band Björn Again has brought ABBA’s hits to new crowds. In 1994, Muriel’s Wedding was the first film to use ABBA’s songs as a sort of soundtrack, and then, of course, the popularity of Mamma Mia!, the film and the musical, have brought the 1970s music to new heights.
In 2000, an unnamed consortium of British and American investors offered ABBA $1 billion to reform. Twenty years later, Tik Tok introduced a younger audience to the group’s songs.
ABBA’s Benny Andersson admits he doesn’t understand why there’s been such a big 1970s music resurgence. “It’s difficult to fathom, you know, I really don’t get it,” Andersson told the Guardian.
Grammy Award nominees Jon Batiste, Doja Cat, and Silk Sonic all took inspiration from the 1970s
ABBA, or any other older nominated acts like AC/DC, couldn’t help but return to their 1970s roots. However, acts like Jon Batiste, Doja Cat, and Silk Sonic all chose to revive the sounds of the 1970s in their Grammy-nominated projects.
Listeners can hear undeniable influences of 1970s disco in Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More,” nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Song and Record of the Year.
Meanwhile, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak‘s Silk Sonic has gone full 1970s R&B. The duo told Rolling Stone that they “did the research” to make An Evening with Silk Sonic sound as authentically 1970s-sounding as possible.
.Paak said the album has a “foundation — the Sixties, Seventies, the old school.” Mars added, “I don’t know what year it is. I’m not looking at the charts. So we’d just come here every night, have a drink, and we play what we love.”
“Leave The Door Open” is nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Record and Song of the Year.
Batiste is following in Mars and .Paak’s direction. He too had old-school influences on his 11-time nominated album, We Are. “It has the classic feel I was trying to imitate when I was growing up,” Batiste told The Cut. “My mentors — Stevie Wonder, or Quincy Jones, who wrote the liner notes for the album — when they listen to it, they hear that in it.”
The Grammy Awards chalk the 1970s vibe of this year’s awards to nostalgia
On their website, the Grammy Awards wrote, “Between the feel-good soul of Silk Sonic and the return of pop greats ABBA, there’s no denying that the 1970s have permeated mainstream music once again. And as several 2022 Grammy nominations reflect, its influence goes beyond the dance floor.”
They chalk up the apparent theme to nostalgia. They continued, “So why are the sounds of the ’70s making such a triumphant return? One could argue that after two years of dour headlines and uncertainty, people are eager to remember times when society let loose and the culture was just unapologetically fun.
“The recycling of former sounds is a story as old as the music industry itself, with long-antiquated genres popping up and taking culture by storm on a regular basis. These periods of renewed interest are akin to the revival of any sort of trend in music, fashion or otherwise.
“It often follows a formula: first something is cutting edge, then it becomes mainstream, sometimes resulting in a period of ultra-proliferation. During this phase, the trend morphs into passé, only to be forgotten about — and then subsequently rediscovered by some future generation.
“This oft-repeated cycle, which takes place over a period of 20 to 40 years, is another reason why the ’70s are back. It even occurred during the actual 1970s, as the ’50s came back into vogue in the wake of the Vietnam War and subsequent American political upheaval.”
Sounds of the 1970s didn’t inspire all of the nominees for the 2022 Grammy Awards. However, it’s irrefutable; there’s a good chunk of them that were. Different sounds from bygone eras inspire the present generations all the time. We can’t wait to see which period comes into popularity next.
