Many of us have guilty pleasures; food, tv shows, movies but my most grandest wonderful guilty pleasure is in music. I believe everyone has that one "horrible" band they love to listen to that is traditionally the bad apple in their barrel of amazing music (not saying i have to best record collection but you know what i mean). So...................Fuck, I'll just say it, I LOVE ABBA! i can't NOT love them. Being from Russia and having a very extended Russian family, that love for the band is in my blood. By the time i was 7 years old i knew every word Dancing Queen, Mama Mia, S.O.S, and so many more. During those years i didnt know the difference between bad music or good so my naive, innocent mind wasnt corrupted yet by the public debauchery of ABBA. During my early teenage years, trying to be the most indie/hippie/cool/"i knew this band before they got popular" teen, i completely forgot all about where i came from. I was full of angst, thought my family was embarrassing, and never showed my true colors while trying to be something i really wasnt . Then one day as my mom, dad, and i drove to chicago for a russian extravaganza (basically a huge party full of close russian family and friends held as many timesa year as possible) we put in an ABBA cd. The first song was Dancing Queen and as the car filled with music and sounds i began to remember my childhood. Dancing in my parents room with my dad and mom singing the songs and me jumping on the bed pretending i was "the" dancing queen, made me smile so much and miss those care-free times when nothing really mattered to me except that music. I really started to realize how happy it made my parents and me, just in that small 7 hour drive, no fighting, no yelling, just singing. Later on that night when we arrived at the party, excuse me, extravaganza; we ate, drank, talked, and most of all danced. Its not a russian party until ABBA comes on, honestly. "S.O.S" came on and everyone left their tables and got on the lenolium dance floor with about two strobe lights in a barely dimmed room we all came together and danced away. Hearing the room fill with russian accents singing ABBA made me feel so great and i accepted this as just another part of my culture. Like food, there are a lot of russian foods that i know my friends would never accept into their lives, usally foods i love. So i add this into a new category of things that represent my family, culture, and most of all, who i am. I will always love ABBA and the Beatles, for i grew up with these two bands and will never forget where i came from.
