IN: The Birthday Party (originally known as The Boys Next Door) were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1978 to 1983. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called "one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." The group's "bleak and noisy soundscapes," which drew irreverently on blues, free jazz, and rockabilly, provided the setting for vocalist Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion. Their music has been described by critic Simon Reynolds as gothic, and their single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene.

The Boys Next Door's best known song, "Shivers", written by Howard, and first performed and recorded by his band The Young Charlatans, was banned by radio stations because of a reference to suicide. After recordings and moderate success in Australia (including hundreds of live shows) they headed for London in 1980, changed their name to The Birthday Party and launched into a period of innovative and aggressive music-making. Some sources say the band took its new name from the Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party; others (including Ian Johnston's Cave biography) state it was prompted by Cave misremembering, or intentionally misattributing, the name to a non-existent birthday party scene in the Dostoyevsky novel Crime and Punishment. In a 2008 interview, Rowland S. Howard gave his own recollection: "The name The Birthday Party came up in conversation between Nick and myself. There's this apocryphal story about it coming from a Dostoyevsky novel. It may have had various connotations, but what he and I spoke about was a sense of celebration and making things into more an occasion and ritual". They resided in London, with trips back to Australia and tours through Europe and the U.S. before relocating to West Berlin in 1982. Above the barely-controlled racket, Cave's vocals ranged from desperate to simply menacing and demented. Critics have written that "neither John Cale nor Alfred Hitchcock was ever this scary," and that Cave "doesn't so much sing his vocals as expel them from his gut". Though Cave drew on earlier rock and roll shriekers--especially Iggy Pop and Suicide's Alan Vega--his singing with the Birthday Party remains powerful and distinct. His lyrics also drew on Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire. The single "Release the Bats" came out during the emergence of the gothic scene. This song about "vampire sex" was promoted by an advertisement with the words "Dirtiness is next to antigodliness". Their 1982 album Junkyard was inspired by American Southern Gothic imagery, dealing with extreme subjects like an evangelist's murdered daughter.

did their style change over time?

OUT: his singing with the Birthday Party remains powerful and distinct.

IN: A-Teens (stylized as A*Teens) were a Swedish pop music group from Stockholm, Sweden, formed by Niklas Berg in 1998 as an ABBA tribute band called ABBA Teens and later renamed A-Teens. The band members were Marie Serneholt, Amit Sebastian Paul, Dhani Lennevald and Sara Lumholdt. The band's debut album became a success around the world and in 2001 it was reported that the band had sold 6 million albums worldwide. After six years together, the band announced they would take a break in 2004 after the release of their Greatest Hits album.

In 1998, Marie, Sara, Dhani, and Amit were musically united as the ABBA Teens. However, the group's name was changed to the A-Teens to avoid litigation. This choice allowed the band more freedom in creating their own style of music. In early 1999, the band started the recording process of what would be their debut album, The ABBA Generation, consisting purely of ABBA covers reinterpreted with a modern pop and electronic flair to appeal to a new generation of young pop fans. Their first single, "Mamma Mia", topped the charts in over ten countries including their home country Sweden where it stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks. The album hit the peak position in Sweden & Chile and became a top ten hit throughout the world. Further singles enjoyed similar success ensuring top ten placings across the globe, and the album overall sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, being certified Gold or Platinum in over 22 different countries. The band's music video for "Dancing Queen" features a plot very similar to the 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. In addition, the principal seen in the music video was played by Paul Gleason, the same actor who was the principal in the film. The single reached ninety-five on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone, being certified Gold. In early 2000, the band embarked on a U.S. promotional tour, and on the verge of the release of their album in the United States, the band was invited to tour with Britney Spears that summer in her U.S. Tour. They also made several appearances on Disney and Nickelodeon to promote their music. The band's debut became a hit in North America, where the album reached seventy-one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart being certified Gold in September 2000, but its sales reached the million mark in 2001. That month, the A-Teens won a Viva Music Award for Best International Newcomer, competing with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Blink-182, and also the band announced what would be the lead single from their second album and their first to be an original song, "Upside Down", which would also become their signature song. The song was released to Swedish radios on 23 October 2000, and was later unleashed worldwide. When the single was commercially released, it reached number two in Sweden and was later certified 2x Platinum. The song became the band's biggest hit when it reached the top ten in several countries and when the single was released in the United States. The physical single reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales Chart, selling over 500,000 copies in three weeks and being certified Gold. In January 2001, the band was nominated for "Best Swedish Group" at the NRJ Awards.

what music was on The ABBA Generation?

OUT:
consisting purely of ABBA covers reinterpreted with a modern pop and electronic flair to appeal to a new generation of young pop fans.