Nordik beat

The Scandinavian electro-pop scene kickstarted with the invention of the Nordik Beat sound in in the late 1980s. By merging the new technologies at the time, building small inexpensive studios armed with computers and samplers rather than traditional instruments and studio equipment, and the latest dance music trends (house, techno, hip-hop, electro, etc.) with the Scandinavian focus since ABBA on mixing strong pop melodies with catchy hooks, both a new sound and a new way of making music were born. A commonly recognized birth date for the movement has become the October 1987 cover story of ID Magazine in the UK, a cover graced by the first international Afro-Scandinavian pop star, La Camilla from Army of Lovers, as the face of the brand new Nordik Beat movement.

A loose network of musicians, artists, record labels and associated clubs soon begun to appear. One of the two main centers was Sonet - Scandinavia's leading independent record company in the 1980s and until its sale to Polygram in 1992, with a market share of 20% for all music sales in Scandinavia. Sonet was the natural investor and distributor for the various Nordik Beat record labels. Sonet's own dance label, Ton Son Ton, was led by songwriter, artist and record producer Alexander Bard, whose band Army of Lovers became one of the leading acts of the new scene with global record sales in excess of 7 million between 1990-1995.

The second center was Swemix, a loose but large and highly influential DJ collective which was soon turned into a proper record company of its own. Swemix fostered such influential talents as Denniz Pop, Douglas Carr, Stonebridge and SoundFactory, all with enormous influence on international pop and dance music throughout the 1990s and beyond. It was quite typical for this egalitarian and playful scene that Army of Lovers made their records with Swemix and Swemix was distributed by Sonet. Other Nordik Beat labels associated with Sonet and Swemix were Telegram (which signed soul vocalist Titiyo, sister of Swedish artists Neneh Cherry and Eagle-Eye Cherry, and ragga/dancehall star Papa Dee) and Ricochet (the home of more R&B-inspired artists such as Robyn and Jennifer Brown).

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