Max Martin and Shellback receive award (photo)

[turnaround]

Cool, I haven't yet google translated it but nice picture



http://www.skap.se/nyheter/201206/max-martin-och-shellback-prisas-av-svenska-kompositorer

http://www.rahfo.se/Ge-en-gava/denniz-pops-minnesfond/

There is a Denniz Pop fond.

Can someone please explain in English

[georg_e]

             Beautiful pic and the design on the award is great!! :-)

[Rebecca]

oh what a wonderful photo! and so nice they won another award. they are laughing so hard, I wish I knew what about.

I put it in google translate:

Max Martin and Shell Back praised by Swedish composers

  Max Martin and Shell Back has received grants of SKAP - Swedish Composers of Popular Music. Ceremony took place at Berns in Stockholm on Monday.

  Max Martin and Shell Back, or Martin Sandberg and Johan Schuster that they actually called, was on Monday to receive scholarships of SKAP - Swedish Composers of Popular Music for his contributions as a songwriter.

Max Martin was awarded a scholarship from the Fred Winters Memorial Fund and Shell Back one SKAP scholarship. Together they have worked with superstars like Britney Spears, Usher and Pink and dominated the Billboard singles chart in the past year.

- Max Martin and Shell Backs international success has helped to highlight the importance songwriter behind a hit. Not least, they have also contributed to Sweden's prominent position in the music world, says Alfons Karabuda, SKAP chairman.

Max Martin and Shell Back received scholarships, with SEK 80 000, at Berns in Stockholm yesterday, 18 June. The money they donate to Denniz Pops Memorial Fund.

The songwriter and producer Denniz Pop died of cancer in 1998, only 35 years old. He was one of the initiators of hitfabriken Cheiron and productions signed Denniz Pop has sold 50 million copies. Dividends from Denniz Pops Memorial Fund is used to travel abroad for purposes of study for professionals at Radiumhemmet and the improvement of patient care environment at Radiumhemmet.

[Joshua]

Didn't know there was a Denniz fund, so wonderful that they raise money for the hospital. That is one awesome photo too!

[blondesstfriende]

Why are Swedish songwriters so good? What is the secret?? And is Max Martin married???

[Joshua]

Why are Swedish songwriters so good? What is the secret?? And is Max Martin married???

Hey blondesstfriende, welcome! Yes Max is married and also has a daughter. In answer to your other question, I found an interview with Ulf Ekberg from Ace Of Base who answers it perfectly.

VA: Why do you think Sweden has had so much success with music?

Ulf: one of the reasons [for] our ability for hook lines is that melody chorus is in our folk music, and our language is melodic. Our folk music schlager is what whole euro vision song contest based on.

Another reason is our support system in the 60,70, 80, 90 our government supported music education schools, schools offered basic music education and you could take any instrument, and extra classes if you wanted to. Also rehearsal rooms, equipment you wanted to buy [was] supported by the government. This helped people focus on music.

Another reason why musicians in Sweden might be so successful is because  Swedes speak English, so when we write lyrics in English it's more simple. Sweden as a brand is simple, our design is simple [. . .] so even people in Japan, or Germany can understand our lyrics. Sometimes when the English or Americans write songs, they write complicated lyrics, whereas everyone can understand what Swedes are saying in English. If a French, German or Japanese group can only sing in their own language they might only be a star in their own country.

But when our big stars become successful [it] isn't really thanks to the Swedish record companies, it's more thanks to the bands themselves – there is a huge talent pool in Sweden, from Max Martin the man behind Nsync, Britney Spears and Katy Perry, to other mega producers, Andreas Carlsson to Anders Bagge. And many big stars travel to Sweden to work in our studios here, such as Max [who] has the Maratone Studios and now the biggest producer of them all, Red One, who produced Lady Gaga. Most of the team in his office in LA are Swedish.

Link if anyone wants to read the whole thing... http://globalcomment.com/2011/ace-of-bases-stockholm-an-interview-with-ulf-ekberg/

[blondesstfriende]

Thanks for the info Joshua, that's so interesting! About the schlager, the simple English lyrics, and the Swedish language being melodic. I agree, many famous Swedish-made pop songs have such simple but effective English lyrics, but sometimes I am amazed at the originality, too, which I suppose means that the writers are comfortable enough with the language to be inventive with it. Like 'she's a juvenile scam' in Roxette's The Look. Also maybe, because English is a second language for Swedish writers, they are less likely to rely on predictable rhymes that native English speakers are maybe more prone to fall back on. The lyric 'Roses are dry, violets are black' in Allison Iraheta's Just Like You really got my attention, and yet it is so simple. I have never heard Swedish so I do not know what is meant by it being melodic, but I am interested to know. Also, I didn't know anything about schlager, but after reading the link article I looked it up and found it interesting that, according to wikipedia, schlager are often melancholy in character. It reminded me of an interview posted on the maxmartinfansite, where Max Martin comments that his favourite songs have a melancholy element, and that he prefers to write in a minor key. All very interesting....(I like that word).

[Joshua]

You're welcome. Yeah I've wondered the same thing about their use of language. Do you think it's that they're using parts of English phrases they've come across, or are they straight translations of Swedish phrases? What about "my heart did time in Siberia", so much imagery, I love it.

I've heard a few people say the Swedish language is melodic, it certainly has a lot of character to it, I'm trying to teach myself a bit the moment, it's not easy!

I had never heard about Max liking songs that are melancholy, all my favourite songs of his have that element. I'm also a big fan of minor keys, I guess that's why I love his writing so much. Max Martin you are my hero!

[blondesstfriende]

You're welcome. Yeah I've wondered the same thing about their use of language. Do you think it's that they're using parts of English phrases they've come across, or are they straight translations of Swedish phrases? What about "my heart did time in Siberia", so much imagery, I love it.

I've heard a few people say the Swedish language is melodic, it certainly has a lot of character to it, I'm trying to teach myself a bit the moment, it's not easy!

I had never heard about Max liking songs that are melancholy, all my favourite songs of his have that element. I'm also a big fan of minor keys, I guess that's why I love his writing so much. Max Martin you are my hero!

Yes, I love the imagery in 'Siberia', too! Now you've got me wondering about that - are they translating the Swedish or quoting English phrases? Hmmmm...
I think I read somewhere that Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA said he sometimes made errors (which he found amusing in hindsight) in his use of English, such as 'you're a doggone beast' in 'Honey Honey' - in this case probably a 'quote' from English as I'm not sure there's a Swedish equivalent for something so quintessentially American as 'doggone'!!
That's great that you're teaching yourself Swedish! After reading what you said about Swedish being melodic I looked around for an 'Idiots'' guide to the language so I could find out exactly what that meant. In one book it explained that Swedish, like English, uses stress (emphasising some syllables more than others) but Swedish has a primary and secondary stress (the unstressed syllable is still clearly pronounced) whereas in English, the syllables after the stressed syllable are often toneless or muted. The effect of this secondary stress for Swedish is more 'melody' I suppose, as the tone doesn't drop out after the stressed syllable but is re-sounded or even rises.... I don't know if it's the same, but when I hear people speaking with a Welsh or Liverpudlian accent, I notice a similar thing, where the unstressed syllable is clearly pronounced unlike in standard English.
eg. 'Cover' - Standard English:COV-uh ('er' becomes neutral); Liverpudlian English: CAW-veh
     'Bloated' - Standard English: BLOW-tud; Welsh English: BLOR-ted
Having said all that, I still don't know any Swedish...!

[Joshua]

Oh wow you're right, it's definitely the stress of the secondary syllables. It sounds so busy, especially compared to Australian English which is quite lazy sounding. Here we leave the end off so many words, whereas a lot of Swedish words emphasize them like you said. I've been spending about 30 minutes a night learning basic phrases, I only started about a week ago. I feel like it's going to take forever to become even slightly fluent, but I'm so obsessed with everything Swedish at the moment that I'm determined to learn the language as best I can. I'd love to holiday or even move there one day. All dreams of course, but you never know. Hmm I've taken us way off topic, maybe we should start a general "Sweden" thread.