Progg

The political progg movement culminated around the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Stockholm after ABBAs victory in Brighton the year before.

They created a new distribution company, SAM-distribution, which distributed the records of the alternative record companies, and so called music forums, places where concerts could be held without a commercial middleman such as ordinary concert arrangers were created in many Swedish cities.

There were a wide range of artists as well, including Bo Hansson, Kebnekajse, Södra bergens balalaikor, Blå Tåget, Hoola Bandoola Band, Nationalteatern, Dag Vag, and Jan Hammarlund.

The United FNL groups were a strong movement in support of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, and progg bands often played at their demonstrations.

Progg bands also played at other big demonstrations at the time, such as the protest that managed to stop the cutting down of the elms in the park Kungsträdgården in Stockholm, and the protests to stop the tennis matches against tennis players from the Pinochet-ruled Chile in Båstad 1975.

In 1977 the record company Silence moved their studio to the small village Koppom in the forests of the province of Värmland.

Some of the artists from the progg movement have continued to play music and managed to remain popular over the years, for example Björn Afzelius, Mikael Wiehe, Totta Näslund and Peps Persson.

Silence has re-released much of their catalogue from the 1970s on CD, and old LPs with progg music are sold at high prices.