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Queen (band)

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Queen was a British rock band of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Their biggest hit was Bohemian Rhapsody, first released in 1975, and promoted by one of the earliest successful music videos and later re-released for the soundtrack album to the movie Wayne's World.

The beginnings of Queen can be traced to 1968, when Brian May and Roger Taylor formed Smile, a psychedelic trio, at Imperial College, London, where they were both students. After their bassist and lead singer Tim Staffel's departure in spring 1970, they formed a new band - Queen - with Freddie Mercury as lead vocalist in April 1970. In 1971 John Deacon as bassist joined. Queen never actually disbanded, although their last album (not including compilations) was released in 1995, four years after Freddie Mercury's death from AIDS. The band, minus John Deacon still appears from time to time, making "Queen+" projects with various guest musicians.

Members

Though Freddie Mercury's personality always dominated in the press, actually all four members of the group wrote huge hits:

In the 1970s Queen enforced a strict no-synthesizer policy, as evidenced by the famous "No Synthesizers were used on this Album" sleevenote included on their early LPs. The first album to feature a synthesizer was The Game, although the change in policy came about during the earlier recording of the music for the movie Flash Gordon which was released as an album after The Game.

They lost many fans with the Hot Space album, which used Funk and synth-driven disco beats rather than the Glam or Hard Rock styles of earlier albums, a move intended by Freddie Mercury to target the American radio audience. The song "Under Pressure", co-written by and performed with David Bowie, was a hit, but the change in direction never really caught on with the band's guitar rock fan base and by the time it came to tour only one or two songs from the album where apologetically inserted into the set.

Queen embarked upon many popular tours, with memorable shows held at Wembley Stadium in England, and Maracanã, for the Rock N' Rio festival in Brazil, although only the group's final tour, in suport of the album "A Kind of Magic", ever actually made any money.

The Wembley concert, part of a UK tour in 1986, attracted 150,000 people over two nights. A memorable and prophetic moment occurred when Freddie Mercury told the audience: "There's been a lot of rumors lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumors are that we're gonna split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!". Freddie: "Forget those rumors, we're gonna stay together 'till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".

Musical progression

Queen's musical style changed every few years, sometimes rather drastically. They started off with what may be called Medieval Metal moving in the direction of Glam Rock.

The A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races albums (named after Marx Brothers movies) are perhaps best described as Opera Metal. News of the World and Jazz are fairly eclectic.

Elements of Funk and classic rock and roll make up The Game. Hot Space is definitely Funk orientated, which was not received well either by fans or critics.

With The Works and A Kind of Magic Queen gave up experimenting, making sure the fans get what they wanted.

With The Miracle Queen returned to their Hard Rock roots.

However, most Queen albums contain songs that do not fit into these descriptions.

Legendary songs

  • Bohemian Rhapsody - a classic long song that was the focus of one of the first music videos ever.
  • We Will Rock You is a staple at sporting events around the world; audience members will stomp and clap along to the rhythm of the song and chant the chorus line of the song, in support of their team.
  • We are the Champions is a favourite post-game song for obvious reasons.
  • Another One Bites the Dust, a huge hit when it was released, has been one of the songs rumored to have a backwards message, supposedly "It's fun to try marijuana." The title phrase of the song does sound vaguely like that when played backwards, but it is most likely a coincidence, since there is nothing about the song that suggests that the lyric was contrived to sound a particular way when played backwards.

Films

Queen contributed music directly to the movies Flash Gordon and Highlander (the original film directed by Russell Mulcahy). Several other films featured their songs, including Iron Eagle, Wayne's World, Small Soldiers and A Knight's Tale.

Theatre

In 2002, a musical or rock theatrical based on the songs of Queen, entitled We Will Rock You, began playing at the Dominion Theatre in the West End of London. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor. The launch of the musical coincided with the Queen's Golden Jubilee. As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed a guitar solo of the National Anthem - as featured on Queen's A Night at the Opera - from the roof of Buckingham Palace.

Discography

Albums

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