THOUGHTS ON QUEEN AND ADAM LAMBERT

Tarabostes
For GratefulFan
You keep rationalizing a pure dislike of Adam Lambert. Yes , fandoms' creation, rise and decline can be interesting for us to study, each has its own dynamic that lies in their origin, some are rooted in obscure clubs where the singers/players were heard first, others are manufactured by shrewd producers in "labs" for the only purpose of making profits. In our case the fandom has its origin in a TV show, does this make it worthier of our despise? Where does all this snobbery come from, it is an American product after all!
I won't be alarmed that other I. contestants will follow this path , I am alarmed by the increasing number of fabricated stars out there in the mainstream, with 0 musical qualities, but dependent on technology. I am alarmed that on a Queen forum , I can't say that I love Queen Adam Lambert collaboration without being invaded by musically illiterates who can hardly hide their homophobia. Let's be honest , all these discussions about how talented or not is Adam Lambert or how suited is he to front Queen are roars of homophobia(most of them).

Double post. Sheesh.

[QUOTE] [b]someonewholikesadam wrote:[/b]
I disagree that the fan dynamic is "somehow rooted in television." I never even watched American Idol before Adam. My mom told me to tune in one night and happened to catch Adam's performance. I was instantly hooked and tuned in every week just to see him, started googling and was enthralled with all his pre-Idol work. Then I started watching every interview that he gave and fell even more in love. Many fans I know have similar stories. Many did not watch AI but upon discovering him, rewatched the AI performances. It has nothing to do with TV and all to do with Adam, the performer and the man.[/QUOTE]

I've actually seen that story before from TV shows with large middle-age female followings. They weren't big TV watchers, never been a fan of anything before, some never even used the Internet much. But BAM! They fall in love with a TV show, get online, and form fan communities to discuss the show, write fanfic, and drool over pictures of the good-looking stars.

They also monitor blogs and other media covering or reviewing the show and bombard them with praise or insults depending on whether they say good or bad things about the show. They vote en masse in any and every online poll to boost the show. They encourage fans to get their friends and families to watch the show. If the show is out on DVD, they encourage fans to buy multiple copies to give to friends and families or donate to libraries -- they encourage buying from Amazon in particular to get the DVD bumped up in the Amazon rankings. They follow TV ratings, and if the show is ratings-challenged, they complain endlessly about how inaccurate Neilsen is because how could a show with so many online fans get such low ratings.

If the show is canceled, they engage in email and letter-writing campaigns and even more desperate stuff like getting the phone numbers of network execs and encouraging fans to call every day and leave messages until the voicemails are filled up; picketing the network; buying ads on billboards or in trade papers, etc.

IMO, all of this is remarkably similar to what's going on in the AL fandom.

Tarabostes
Sorry for the double post.

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
You're talking about anecdotes and I'm talking about a culture. Stamp collectors are completist hobbyists who amass their albums over years for a personal purpose. Nutty Lambert fans buy 20 or 50 or whatever of the identical thing and get mad when Wal-Mart doesn't have enough of them on the shelf to Hoover up all at once, prompting scathing complaints to corporate. If you believe you're comparing apples with apples, knock yourself out. I tried. :) I've lurked on and off in the Lambert fan community for years and I assure you there is nothing easily comparable to the fandoms souffled in the Idol kitchen. [/QUOTE]

It is like Apples and Oranges in some points, because there definitely are Queen fans who would want to achieve the same hype for anything Queen related, and there are Queen fans who are distorting the album charts and statistics in their own way.

The fact is there just isn't enough dedicated Queen fans to achieve the same instant effect. And I don't mind that at all.

The board is malfunctioning. I was referring to my own post which got posted twice too. I deleted the first one. :D

I think the point GF is making is that even among dedicated Queen fans, very few are interested in engaging in that sort of campaigning. Whereas campaigning seems to be a central activity of dedicated AL fans.

ssshhh .. someone will accuse you of homophobia.

Tarabostes wrote:
Let's be honest , all these discussions about how talented or not is Adam Lambert or how suited is he to front Queen are roars of homophobia(most of them).



Really Tarabostes? Fans of Freddie Mercury 'homophobic'???

Adams boyfriend, friends and family are in London forvthe shows. Expect possibly even more theatrics.
Adam's dad is a HUGE Queen fan!

Tarabostes
Really, tigrlily!!! I'm trying and trying to remember where on earth did I read an article, something about FM being a fraud singer? The climax of the whole idiocy , he surely was because , look he even changed his real name!!! The person was wondering whether the moustache was a fake or not. A real fan or what!
If you have the curiosity and patience to read most of the comments on Adam's performances , you can't miss some aggressive , abusive ones. All are entitled to their opinion, but let's try not to replace rational discussions with hate and imprecations . I am aware that Adam is not everybody's cup of tea , but some of the comments
here only prove a gross lack of musical knowledge
poor judgement or....homophobia?
ex. the so often mentioned vibrato, used by AL only when he wants the song to be more dramatic.

What the comments here reveal more than anything is a lack of tolerance for opinions that don't match those of Lambert supporters. "Homophobia" is just one of the endless irritating diagnoses handed out by people who can't hack criticism they don't agree with. Lambert detractors largely ignore the collective you on this topic, and the collective you can't leave us alone.

[QUOTE][b]Tarabostes wrote:[/b]
Let's be honest , all these discussions about how talented or not is Adam Lambert or how suited is he to front Queen are roars of homophobia(most of them).

[/QUOTE]

Political corectshitness wash your brain?

Say something bad on gay - you are homophobic.
Say something bad on black - you are racist.
Say something bad on Jew - you are antisemethic... etc.

Overhyped gay singer is overhyped gay singer. Nothing homophobic, just true.

Nowadays, we have dangerous and f***ed up times. Some groups are trying fight by abnormal political corectness.
So what should to say bad, white, straight singer?  That you are whitephobic? or straightphobic?

Cool times...

[QUOTE] [b]Tarabostes wrote:[/b]
Tarabostes
Really, tigrlily!!! I'm trying and trying to remember where on earth did I read an article, something about FM being a fraud singer? The climax of the whole idiocy , he surely was because , look he even changed his real name!!! The person was wondering whether the moustache was a fake or not. A real fan or what!
If you have the curiosity and patience to read most of the comments on Adam's performances , you can't miss some aggressive , abusive ones. All are entitled to their opinion, but let's try not to replace rational discussions with hate and imprecations . I am aware that Adam is not everybody's cup of tea , but some of the comments
here only prove a gross lack of musical knowledge
poor judgement or....homophobia?
ex. the so often mentioned vibrato, used by AL only when he wants the song to be more dramatic.[/QUOTE]


I think we are all wandering off topic. What we are here to discuss is whether Adam Lambert did justice to the Queen catalogue, whether his singing works well with the Queen sound. That is all. It is not about Freddie's mustache, Adam's eyeliner, Freddie's name change, and it is definitely NOT about homophobia. Both Freddie and Adam are gay, so homophobia is certainly not even a concern.
The only concern is the music, the performance, the talent. I have nothing against AL; certainly he seems like a really good person, and he sings his kind of songs very well. But does he do justice to Queen? Not really! AL is not a rock singer at all. Compare Freddie's raw, powerful, immense voice, his stage charisma, his complete crazy rock persona, and of course that magnificent voice, and Adam is a very poor imitation (in the Queen context) at best. I am sure AL fans do not think so, and they are entitled to their opinion, but to real Queen fans I guess most singers are a downgrade, because Queen started out with the very best singer and frontman ever! Who can compare with Freddie Mercury? In voice, in style, in performance, in rock star quality? The minute Freddie stepped up on the stage, he owned the audience!
So, let us just discuss the music and leave out the name calling.

Tarabostes
How lucky we are! A bunch of idiots were singing with and applauding "a very poor imitation", and we, here are writing bombastic "essays" full of stereotypes.

And this is how a real rock star performs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHQk6HFn4rE
No words necessary!