Band member
Freddie Mercury, pianist and lead singer. Well-known lyrics and songs include Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Someone to Love, Killer Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and so on.
Brian May, guitarist. Well-known lyrics and songs include: We Will Rock You, Tie Your Mother Down, The Show Must Go On, Hammer to Fall, Fat Bottom Girl and so on.
Roger Taylor, drummer and percussion instrument. Well-known works of lyrics and songs include: Radio Ga Ga, A kind of magic, the invisible man, These are the days of our lives, etc.
John Deacon, bass player and rhythm guitar. Well-known works of lyrics and songs include: Another One Bites The Dust, I Want to Break Free, You're My Best Friend, Spread your wings and so on.
Introduction
QUEEN was an outstanding gorgeous rock band in 197s. This four-person band from England created a kind of music as gorgeous as opera and as magnificent as epic. For many years, their album has been declared "never used a synthesizer", which faithfully retains the characteristics of hard rock bands in the LED ZEPPELIN period.
Few bands can completely reflect the richness of the world rock stage in the 197s like QUEEN. QUEEN, like a variety hall, perfectly melts gorgeous rock, progressive rock, classical music and heavy metals into one furnace. This four-person band from England is committed to exploring the gorgeous and exaggerated artistic style and creating a rock-and-roll form with strong opera color. The lead singer is sexy and like a choir voice, and the layered keyboards and gorgeous guitar solo are their signs. QUEEN's music has extraordinary imagination, grandeur and a touch of strangeness, and its style is varied. You can hear the shadow of almost all European music forms (traditional and modern) from their music. However, QUEEN's broad music is actually expressed in a traditional rock way.
Although QUEEN's reputation is very loud, it seems that they seldom get the praise from music reviews and the media. Constant criticism did not reduce QUEEN's popularity. Even until the late 198s, QUEEN still had a large number of fans outside the United States. In the United States, the peak of the band was in the early 198s, that is, after they released a series of quite successful albums in the last decade. Although none of these records were well received at that time, their sales were staggering. QUEEN's music has a far-reaching influence, which can be found in several generations of hard rock/heavy metal bands in the past 2 years, from METALLICA to SMASHING PUMPKINS.
QUEEN originally evolved from the psychedelic hard rock band SMILE. In 1967, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor joined SMILE. After the lead singer Tim Staffell left the team in 1971, May and Taylor and the lead singer Freddie Mercury from the former WRECKAGE band formed this band called QUEEN. In 1971, bassist John Deacon joined, so the band began some rehearsals. About two years later, when all four members of the band graduated from college, they took the time to create, rehearse and perform. In 1973, they released their first album "Queen" produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and began their first tour. The music in Queen is all direct hard rock/heavy metal, which didn't attract much attention at that time.
The album Queen II released in p>1974 was an unexpected success in Britain. Before the release of the album, the band performed the song "Seven Seas Of Rhye" in the famous music program "Top Of The Pops" of British TV. The song itself and the performance were excellent, and soon the song rushed to the top 1 of the charts, and the album "Queen II" rose to the fifth place in the charts. In order to cooperate with the release of the album, QUEEN began to tour the United States, mainly to warm up MOTT THE HOOPLE. QUEEN's fancy and psychedelic stage performance has undoubtedly won the recognition of American audiences, and the album has reached 43 rd place in the American charts.
Then the band released the album Sheer Heart Attack, in which the single Killer Queen quickly became the runner-up in the British charts, and the album itself reached the same position in the charts. The achievement of this album in the United States is also quite good, which laid the foundation for the great success of the album A Night At The Opera in 1975.
"A Night at the Opera" is the most classic album of QUEEN, and the band has spent a lot of energy on the production of this album. It is reported that it is the most expensive album in the history of rock music. Among them, the famous single Bohemian Rhapsody has become QUEEN's signature track, and large sections of heavy metal guitars riff and solo are constantly added to the gorgeous soundtrack that resembles opera singing poetry, which is the typical style of QUEEN. The production process of the song also reflects QUEEN's typical attitude of striving for perfection. It took them three weeks to record, and a lot of background dubbing was added to the track of the song, so that after the recording, the magnetic powder on the master tape was thin enough to see through in some places. QUEEN tried the conceptualization method for the first time in the video of Bohemian Rhapsody, and put a huge sum of money into it, but the reward for QUEEN was also considerable: the single quickly rose to the position of champion in the British charts, and stayed there for nine weeks, and finally broke the record of the longest stay of the champion in the British singles charts. In the United States, this song and the whole album have also achieved great success, entering the top 1 of the charts and becoming a platinum single and platinum album at the same time. Even more than ten years later, in 1992, this song Bohemian Rhapsody won the second place in the American singles charts for several weeks.
After "A Night At The Opera", QUEEN got a taste of what a superstar is, and they also got the benefits that this position can bring. Their endless dances and extravagant lifestyles became eternal legends in rock music. However, all this has not affected their pace of progress and efficient work at all. In the summer of 1976, QUEEN gave a free concert in Hyde Park in London, and the attendance of the audience set a new record. A few months later, they released the hit single "Somebody To Love", which was included in the album "A Day At The Races". This album achieved excellent results, became the champion in the British charts, and rose to the fifth place in the United States. In the next five years, tireless QUEEN made dozens of hit singles and several platinum records. Because they have won the love and admiration of so many fans all over the world, they have met with resistance from some critics, especially when they show their extremely bad conservative attitude towards punk sports. However, fans still bought QUEEN's album, including two Top 5 singles "We Are The Champions" and "We Will Rock You", and the album "News Of The World" became the top 1 album in 1977.
In p>1978, the album Jazz almost repeated the same success. Among them, the singles Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race became international hit singles, although the public expressed great dissatisfaction with the tricks of a female nude cycling race organized by the band. In the early 198s, QUEEN still maintained a very popular position. In 198, they released the album "The Game", and the music style changed a little. They added more flexible slow songs and light and pleasing songs, which was quite far away from heavy metals. The success of the singles Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Another One Bites The Dust once again made The Game album top of American charts, which was a breakthrough success for QUEEN. However, when people found that it was just a clever and flattering album, they began to lose interest in QUEEN. Many of the original loyal supporters of the band changed their tune, especially in the United States. The direct result was that their pure instrumental album recorded for the movie Flash Gordon later in the same year received an unusually cold response.
In p>1981, David Bowie and QUEEN co-produced the single "Under Pressure", which enabled Queen to gain a firm foothold in the turbulent waves of new wave music. The single "Under Pressure" reached the number one position in the British charts, which was also their other number one single, and was included in the album "Hot Space" in 1982. However, the album "Hot Space" has not aroused much enthusiasm, because it is still an easy album, neither so popular nor so elegant.
In p>1984, the album The Works showed more rock elements, but people's response to it was still tepid. These unsuccessful experiences made them decide to leave Elektra Company and sign Capitol Company.
Seeing that their market in the United States is shrinking day by day, and their performance in Britain is worse than before, QUEEN, who has conquered Europe, North America and Japan, decided to open up another market. They set their sights on Latin America, Asia and Africa, which are often overlooked by rock bands. In 1985, because of her outstanding performance in the Live Aid benefit to help African refugees, Queen got together again and reached the climax of her career.
In p>1986, QUEEN released a new album "A Kind Of Magic", but the impact of the album on the American market ended in failure.
the p>1989 album "The Miracle" suffered the same blow in America.
However, Innuendo (Irony) in 1991 finally became a hit, which won the band a reputation in the United States, and entered the top 3 of the charts while reaching the gold record. Of course, this is much smaller than their success in Europe. In Britain, they easily won the top spot in the charts. This colorful album has rediscovered QUEEN's original style, including powerful heavy metal works and typical QUEEN-style opera rock. However, this excellent album is regarded as the band's work of coming back to life, because a huge shadow is gradually hanging over this extraordinary band.
In p>1991, QUEEN was no longer as active as before, and rumors about the physical condition of lead singer Freddie Mercury were flying all over the sky. On November 23rd, he finally confirmed to the outside world that he was infected with AIDS. A day later, Freddie died.
In the spring of p>1992, the rest of the band held a memorial concert at Wembley Stadium. The audience of this live concert broadcast live to the whole world has reached more than one billion. In addition to the three members of QUEEN, the lineup of the performance also includes David Bowie, Elton John, Annie Lennox, DEF LEPPARD and GUNS 'N ROSES. This performance is for the Phoenix Trust. After Freddie's death, Freddie's family, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Mary Austin and Jim Beach raised millions of dollars, which will be used for AIDS research. This performance also made the 1975 single Bohemian Rhapsody once again beautiful and rose to the second place in the American charts.
After p>Freddie's death, the band members remained silent for a period of time. In 1993, Brian May released his second solo album "Back To The Light", ten years after his first solo album. Roger Taylor published some works in THE CROSS, while John Deacon decided to wash his hands of it. However, in 1994, the three members got together again to record and synthesize Freddie's legacy. The lead singers of these songs were all completed by Freddie during his serious illness. In 1995, this album "Made In Heaven" was released. Because of its special commemorative significance, this album caused a buying frenzy all over the world, especially in Europe. Undoubtedly, this is QUEEN's last studio work.