ABBA - Thank You For The Music

What this video is

Produced in February 1978 as a promotional film for ABBA's single release from their fifth studio album The Album (1977), this video predates the MTV era entirely and belongs to the tradition of European promo clips designed as broadcast surrogates for markets the band could not personally tour. The song itself occupied a unique cultural position — simultaneously a joyful ode to music and widely interpreted as a…

Why it matters

Represents a pivotal document of the pre-MTV European promotional film tradition, in which a major international pop act chose introspective, low-production staging over spectacle. The video's restraint is historically significant as a counterpoint to ABBA's more visually extravagant promos and…

The director

Lars Sven 'Lasse' Hallström (born 2 June 1946, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish film director who first gained recognition directing almost all of ABBA's promotional music videos between 1974 and 1982, including ABBA: The Movie (1977). He achieved…