In the end of the 80s and in the early 90s, Roxette, a pop-rock duo from Halmstad, Sweden, stood among the top bands in worldwide sales and notoriety, brandishing a simple yet effective blend of pop with a slight edge and occasional hints of dance. The group claims influences ranging from
The Beatles to
Blondie to new wave music to
Joni Mitchell and
Aretha Franklin .
Perhaps, years after the fact, Roxette's popularity can be difficult to understand or appreciate in light of what critics considered its infectious but nonetheless lightweight music, lightweight even compared to what was otherwise on the airwaves at the time.
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Regardless, there was a time in 1991 when Roxette could command an arena filled with tens of thousands of fans in places as diverse as Buenos Aires, Frankfurt and Sydney. The 1992 release Tourism : Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places -- with a recording of audience members singing along to the tune of the group's biggest hit, "" -- exemplifies this temporary but impressive hold Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson had.
Though there is no firm figure, Roxette is believed to have worldwide sales of as many as 75 million copies of its albums and singles, no minor achievement for any pop act. The group's success in the United States alone was arguable. While seemingly not interested in doing so, even by default Roxette could not associate its image with the now-iconic ABBA , another swedish pop group that struggled for recognition in America while still intact in the late 70s, but that managed, through revisionism beginning in the early 90s, to grow into something more intriguing as a legacy.
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