"Den lilla röda stugan invid grinden"

Om nostalgins böjningsmönster i Snoddas' repertoar

Abstract

This article considers the songs of Gösta "Snoddas" Nordgren, and how their lyrical contents relate to his artistic image and to historical contexts. Snoddas became immensely popular in Sweden in the 1950s, a period of extensive social development, urbanisation and modernisation. It is suggested here that his popularity is partly explicable by the effective combination of meanings that the singer and his texts produced. To a great extent his songs articulated variations of nostalgia; descriptions of the simple and natural life in the countryside and in the wilderness, and longing for the rural, original home. Popularly known as a simple, genuine, nature-loving young man, Snoddas' own mode of life gave credibility to his performances of the songs. The concept of nostalgia was clearly productive at that time, and as an artist, man and myth Snoddas became an important popular imagination.