Svenska Dansband: 43 Vintage Portraits of Swedish Dance Bands of the 1970s

Dansband ("dance band") is a Swedish term for a band that plays dansbandsmusik ("dance band music"). Dansbandsmusik is often danced to in pairs. The terms dansband and dansbandsmusik were coined around 1970, when Swedish popular music developed a signature style. The genre developed primarily in Sweden, but has spread to neighbouring countries Norway, Denmark and the Swedish speaking regions of Finland.

Before dansband music became popular, many jazz orchestras played a "schlager-inspired" dance music. Many people believe that the development of the dansbands during the 1950s and 1960s depended on the decreasing interest for jazz, it being replaced by pop and rock as the most popular music among young people.

The golden era of dansband music was the 1970s, with bands like Thorleifs, Flamingokvintetten, Ingmar Nordströms, Wizex and Matz Bladhs. There were at most around 800 full-time working dansbands in Sweden; by the late 1990s this number was down to around 500.

The term "dansband" was coined in Sweden in 1976, to sound more modern and tougher than the earlier "dansorkester" (dance orchestra), but later many of the bands have begun to call themselves "live bands".

For taxation reasons, it was possible to deduct "fantasy" outfits in the declaration of income. The reasoning behind the phrasing was that it shouldn't be possible to wear the same outfit in your daily life. This led to many bands wearing highly extravagant matched outfits in their stage performances.

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40 Black and White Photos That Document Everyday Life of Stockholm From Between the 1940s and 1950s

These black and white photos from The Stockholm Transport Museum that documented everyday life of Stockholm, Sweden from between the 1940s and 1950s.

Spring flood in Stockholm, 1940

Work with tracks in Stockholm, 1941

Children on a swing in front of house in Stockholm, 1942

Tailor at tram depot in Stockholm, 1943

Installation of trolley bus wires with horse-drawn carriage assembly, 1944

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Beautiful Stockholm in the 1960s Through an American Traveler's Lens

Thees photos from Rob Ketcherside that were taken by his grandfather David C. Cook on a visit to Stockholm, Sweden for a meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1967.

Sundbergs Konditori, Stockholm

West End of Stora Gatan, Sigtuna, Stockholm

af Chapman, Stockholm

Bell Tower of Mariakyrka, Sigtuna, Stockholm

Charles XII Square, Stockholm

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35 Incredible Color Photos Document Everyday Life of Sweden in the Late 1930s

For many people, Gunnar Lundh (1898-1960) is the small-scale photographer who, together with Ivar Lo-Johansson, documented the state's lives in Sweden in the 1930s and 40s. Fewer people know the very extensive image agency archive he created during his business period. This includes a unique color archive with about 15,000 images from 1937 onwards.

Agriculture, preparedness and population; peace time and depression; people and royalty - Gunnar Lundh's orderly archives allow us to capture the time - the thought of Sweden during the decades of the Second World War.

Take a look at these incredible color photos taken by Gunnar Lundh to see everyday life of Sweden in the late 1930s.

A couple reading newspapers on the boat, 1938

Two ladies are sitting on a low fence of iron pipes, 1937

A farmer spreading lime on a field, Gotland, 1938

A maid with a vacuum cleaner, 1938

A man and a woman lead their bike, 1938

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Beautiful Color Photos Document Everyday Life of Sweden in the 1940s

Fredrik Daniel Bruno (1882–1971) was a town engineer in Hudiksvall in the province of Hälsingland, in the northern part of central Sweden. He was also a dedicated amateur photographer, and took colour photographs during travels around Sweden in the 1940s and early 1950s. The images are taken with either Kodachrome or Agfacolor diapositive film.

Most of the photos show Swedish towns - with buildings, harbours, squares, monuments and public parks. Göteborg (Gothenburg) on the west coast and Stockholm, the Swedish capital, are well represented. Other photos show the countryside. A lot of the photos might be from official travels Fredrik Bruno made in his service as a town engineer, and they reflect well his professional field of interest.

A photo collection from Swedish National Heritage Board taken by Fredrik Bruno that shows everyday life of Sweden in the 1940s.

Kungsgatan street in Stockholm City, at the intersection with Sveavägen street, 1940

Funfair in Hudiksvall, 1942

 Hötorget (The Haymarket ) in Stockholm City, 1942

Men at a bus in Eskilstuna, 1942

City hotel of Hässleholm (today Hotel Statt), 1943

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42 Beautiful Color Photos Capture Everyday Life of Sweden in the Late 1950s

Björn Allard (1923-2006) was employed as a photographer at the Swedish National Heritage Board in the 1950s and 1960s. He took part in archaeological surveys and excavations to contribute documentary photographs. Since he held an academic degree in Nordic and comparative archeology, he was certainly well suited for the work.

An important part of Björn Allard's tasks was to document at the Board’s culture-historical surveys and archaeological excavations in northern Sweden, due to the regulations of Swedish lakes and rivers at the expansion of hydropower and the construction of new power plants in the 1950s and 1960s.

Five Swedish provinces will be represented in the album. From north to south: Lapland (Lappland), Ångermanland, Jämtland, Dalecarlia (Dalarna), Östergötland and Västergötland. The images will be uploaded in this order, province by province, to make the context clear.

The images are taken between 1957 and 1959. They show landscapes, cultural environments in the countryside and archaeologists from the Swedish National Heritage Board at field work. Locals in northern Sweden, at work or at leisure, will appear now and then.

A woman fishing at lake Hökvattnet, Jämtland, Sweden, 1958

Aerial view, Hökvattnet, Jämtland, Sweden, 1958

Archaeological excavation, Häggum, Västergötland, Sweden, 1958

Archaeological excavation, Häggum, Västergötland, Sweden, 1958

Archaeological excavation, Häggum, Västergötland, Sweden, 1958

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Interesting Vintage Photographs of Sweden in the 1930s

Sweden is the 3rd largest EU country in land area, after France and Spain. It is one of the homelands of the Germanic ethnicity and culture. The Goths, the Suevirs and the Norses (Vikings) all trace their origin back to Sweden (as well as Norway and Denmark for the latter).

In the 9th and 10th centuries, Swedish Vikings invaded and settled in parts of Eastern Europe as far as Constantinople and the Caspian Sea. They founded the first kingdom of Russia. All the Tsars of Russia until the last one, Nicholas II, were of Swedish Viking descent.

Below are some of interesting vintage photos of Sweden in the 1930s.

The local choir at the artist Zorn's Gammelgård (Old farmhouse) in Mora, Dalarna, 1931

Women washing at timber jetty in Vindelälven river in Lapland, 1937

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23 Rare Cyanotype Photos Document Everyday Life of Sweden Before 1900

Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. The English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel discovered the procedure in 1842, and engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

These vintage photos are cyanotypes that were taken by Carl Curman (1833–1913), a physician and a scientist - as well as a prominent amateur photographer. They decumented everyday life in Stockholm and on the west coast in Lysekil with surroundings, where Carl Curman spent most of his days from between the 1860s and 1900.

A man and four women sitting in the lounge of the gentry's house, Lysekil, ca. 1880s

A young woman in the main Curman villa, 'Storstugan', Lysekil, ca. 1890s

Area of falls and sluices in Trollhättan, 1888

Big bathhouse and Curman's first villa, Lysekil, 1875

Calla Curman (Carl Curman wife) in Curman's villa at Floragatan 3 in central Stockholm, ca. 1880s

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Not a Bad Idea! Here's a Self-Portrait Taken With a Selfie-Stick Back in 1934

Selfie sticks have been around way longer than you thought.

This is a 1934 self-portrait of Helmer Larsson and his wife Naemi Larsson who lived in Stöpafors, Wermland, Sweden. Not much is known about the photo but it appears that Helmer was using a tree branch to press the shutter button on the camera.

Here's another photo of Naemi Larsson, the same woman who was on the selfie stick photo.

18 Rare Vintage Photographs of Swedish Telephone Operators at the Turn of the Century

In the early days of telephony, through roughly the 1960s, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the operator participate in the call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the telephone receiver was lifted (the earliest systems required a generator on the phone to be cranked by hand). Lines from the central office were usually arranged along the bottom row.

On September 1, 1880, for the first time in Sweden, it became possible to place calls to a number of persons, to anyone who had a telephone that was connected to a telephone exchange. The first telephones that came to Sweden were simple Bell instruments that had been made in the United States. They were available in Stockholm at the end of 1877. One could only speak between two instruments that were connected to a fixed line. The same device served as both the receiver and microphone, so that callers had to move the "open" end between ear and mouth during a call.

When telephones had been developed to the point where they had a special microphone and a bell, they could be linked together in telephone networks. This required a telephone switch in a telephone exchange, plus operators who made the connections.

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Fantastic Black and White Photos That Capture People of Stockholm in the 1970s

Stockholm-based photographer Per Lander documented street portraits of people in Stockholm during the 1970s. Take a look...

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