Did Queen ever fully recover from Hot Space in the US?

The topic about Queen songs on the radio got me thinking about this.

It's well-known that Hot Space pretty much ended Queen's career as the US was concerned. The Game had been a huge success in America, and then Hot Space hurt them so much here that they never toured in the US again. While the rest of the world forgave them for Hot Space, they never had a major commercial success in the US again...in fact Radio Ga Ga was the only post-Hot Space song that could even be considered a minor success in the US.

In the US, at least from my experience, almost everyone likes Queen at
least somewhat but most people only know their biggest 70s/early 80s hits.
I Want it All is a half-exception, but only because of some use in
commercials; a lot of people don't even know it's a Queen song. More importantly, only a small minority of people know any of their album tracks at all.

So while Queen is respected in the US now after being viewed as something of a joke in America for a long time (as I understand it, I'm only 22), I feel like they still haven't quite recovered from their fall from grace then. Sure they're considered a classic band here now - but compared to other classic bands like The Beatles or Pink Floyd, a lot less people have listened to even a single one of their albums. Or even heard of any of them.

Let's not turn this into a debate about the quality of 80s Queen please, that's not really the point here (and it's not like Innuendo or its singles did that well either).

Oops, this was supposed to go in Serious Discussion...can someone move it?

err.................. crap discussion not worth commenting

No, I don't think Queen ever fully recovered from Hot Space.  This is in part due to the fact that Queen pretty much gave up on the United States.  Obviously, we know that they stopped touring here, but we also know (to my understanding anyway) that promotion was never quite the same again.  So, Hot Space didn't have to be the end of Queen in the US.  In my opinion, Queen gave up way too easily.

Only after Freddie died and Wayne's World re-introduced Bo-Rap did Queen recover in the US.

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[b]Rubbersuit wrote: [/b]







Only after Freddie died and Wayne's World re-introduced Bo-Rap did Queen recover in the US.





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Queen were never that popular here to begin with, even with the first release of BoRhap, or WWRY/WATC playing at sporting events. When BoRhap was re-released in 1992, it was big, but I wouldn't say that it was a [b]full[/b] recovery in popularity (although, considering it was never huge in the first place... maybe briefly?). What ultimately sealed Queen's fate with the US was the I Want To Break Free video. Fortunately, though, there are a number of us in the States that love Queen dearly.

The Game was a massive success stateside,and since they wanted  to try new ideas with their music,Hot Space alienated quite a few new found fans. The Works started well,and still sold well over 500,000 copies in a couple of months.Then the Gay rumours did not sit well with a ' Rock Band' image (press reports etc...) and the Break Free video really did cause a massive backlash.The Magic/ Works tours never came to America ,and at the time they were huge everywhere else in the World,and you Americans had your beloved Kiss shows to flock to...Anyway,The Miracle sales actually went beyond expectations,and Innuendo went Gold,not bad considering they had virtually vanished from the airwaves at the time.Now get ready for ANOTHER Greatest Hits reissue,it should do fine.I am going for the Alternative Absolute Greatest... best songs,not hits   watch this Hot Space...........

I don't think that Hot Space is all bad there are some great tracks "Put out the fire"-"Dancer"-"Calling all girls."Yeah it was a pretty drastic change of direction and it certainly was not ANATO or NOTW.I think Freds sexuality did more damage in the USA than Hot Space did.I think that the same thing happend to Judas Priest when their lead singer came out.What dark times they were and thankfully most people judge people on their music now and not their sexuality.

Am from th UK. Around '82, the band were really in the doldrums here - I do remember the flyers for the Hot Space tour featuring the artwork from GH V1.
Then came 'The Works' and BANG - back on top, the rest is history I suppose.

From this end, it would seem that the Break free video was too local - you really needed to know the soap Opera Coronation street (shown in UK) to get the humour - - BIG mistake, probably their biggest

It also seems that, from then on, Freddie didn't really take any of his work that seriously (changed later for obvious reasons) but there was a distinct lack of quality control in the '80s when tongues were frimly stuck in cheeks

Added to that, their pride prevented them from working at rebuilding the American sales - ignoring the states on touring schedules was prettu unforgibable; even a selected short tour might have repaired some of the damage

Sorry to prattle on, but another thought has occurred to me; if you follow Freddie's whereabouts  from the late '70's you cant help but notice that he made his home where he was MOST successful: USA (around the GAme), off to Germany when USA lost, then back to UK when huge here - kinda truned his back on territories ...

ANAGRAMER [b]-
[/b]if you follow Freddie's whereabouts  from the late '70's you cant help but
notice that he made his home where he was MOST successful: USA (around
the GAme), off to Germany when USA lost, then back to UK when huge here[b]
- kinda turned his back on territories ...[/b]

-

Was he meant to commute between continents on a daily basis???

BTW, I thought he returned to the UK  for something else... didn't know it was because he was "huge here".

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[b]ANAGRAMER wrote: [/b]

From this end, it would seem that the Break free video was too local - you really needed to know the soap Opera Coronation street (shown in UK) to get the humour -

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Well, I've never seen one single episode of Coronation Street and I've always thought the video is hilarious. Moreover, how come the rest of the Europe got the humour. I don't think Coronation Street was aired in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, France or any European countries.

They had a steady climb in the US through the 70s, peaking in 1980 when The Game and two singles from it hit number one.  But they had lost many of their fans from the past decade with radio-friendly hits that were so far removed from their earlier rock sound, so it was largely a different group of people who gave Queen this commercial success.  Things declined quickly by the next record, because now both of those groups had eroded away greatly.  It showed in the record sales and concert attendance.  Many venues were sold out, but for the first time many were not.

Most artists who have success in the US only have it for a brief while, and Queen were no different.  Very few artists are lucky enough to have long-lasting success there.

Yeah Queen never made it as for instance U2 and a handful of other bands have in the states here (which pisses me off since we all know that Queen had more talent and overall were plain and simple BETTER) but also some of you are insinuating that Queen were never "big" if ever for very long. I would disagree mostly with that. Yeah, obviously 1980 was their peak but they are still in the top 50 all time in US record sales... not bad going against all time including singers with that one... plus really only making live appearances for less than a decade.

BTW, we have not seen the last of Queen in the states. I have a strong feeling that Queen will have an ultimate view as one of the greatest here in the states... if not already. I personally am starting to see more and more in the media and friends acknowledge them. And as technology grows, so will the timelessness and all of the classic songs that never made it big in the first place in the states that Queen produced. As long as there are Queen rock bands, movies with Queen songs, etc, etc, Queen's legacy will continue to grow in the states. Sooner or later, there will be a feature movie about Queen and Freddie Mercury... and if done right, it will win over new fans and appreciation all over this country.

I always wish too that the NFL would invite Queen to play in the Super Bowl. How huge would that be? The set can only be around 8 or so minutes... so a quick "Under Pressure" with some guest performances... and/or a nice medley and then a classic rendition of WATC and WWRY would be perfect.

Did the recent American Idol appearances get people talking? I mean are they getting more air-play on tv and radio etc?

Hot Space didn't exactly help them, but  it was the video for I Want To Break Free that really hurt them in America. They just didn't get the humor in the video.