ABBA — Money, Money, Money

JUL 01 1976 · 12:00

ABBA — Money, Money, Money (1976) Director: Lasse Hallström Era: Euro-Pop Promo Clip Era (1976) - Pre-MTV promotional film era; ABBA pioneering narrative-driven short-form music video in Sweden at a time when few artists invested in the format Exceptionally high. This is one of the earliest and most sophisticated examples of a narrative-concept music video, predating MTV by five years. Confirmed as the director's own personal best of his ABBA output, it is a key document at the intersection of European cinema, theatrical design, and pop music marketing. Its Cabaret-derived aesthetic and Stockholm location footage give it significant value for both music video history and 1970s Scandinavian cultural archiving. Tier 1 preservation priority. Context: Released November 1976 amid ABBA's peak commercial dominance, this promo clip exemplifies the group's unusually sophisticated approach to music video at a time when few artists invested in the format. Drawing directly from the aesthetic of the 1972 Cabaret film, the video situates a pop song about economic anxiety within a Weimar-inflected visual language — connecting mid-70s European pop to a longer tradition of theatrical political cabaret. Shot on location in central Stockholm and in studio, it documents both ABBA's visual identity and the city's mid-70s urban landscape. The song reached number one in Australia, Belgium, France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, and New Zealand, making this one of the most internationally distributed promo clips of its era. Director notes: Hallström had been ABBA's promo clip director for two years by the time this video was made. The video was inspired by the 1972 film Cabaret, and structurally bifurcates between Frida's 'real world' scenes shot on location in central Stockholm and stylised dream-sequence chorus segments set in theatrical environments. Hallström himself later acknowledged this as the best ABBA video he ever directed. Production company was Polar Music International. An alternate version was also filmed for the TV special ABBA-DABBA-DOOO!! featuring a different 1930s flapper-dress aesthetic. The video was filmed on 18 September 1976.