How people see Queen in the U.S.

I would argue that it is very difficult to classify Queen sound and fit it into one specific genre. Based on my experience living in the USA, the market there prefers the artist to exhibit certain style and not sway much from it. Queen was all over the map vis-a-vis the Zeps, Elvis, the Beatles, AC/DC etc. The heavier Queen hits get play time on Classic Rock music stations even today, fat bottom girls or crazy little thing called love for example, but I have never heard Radio Gaga getting air time in the 1990s and 2000s, when I lived in the States. If Queen played only heavy rock for most of their career, they would be loved in the USA until today. Unfortunately, after hits such as We Will Rock You, which still get air time, they flipped to Hot Space sound, which totally confused the audience and gave every Queen loving American a wtf moment. It is hard to be a heavy rocker and all of the sudden appreciate disco. What would your buddies think if all of the sudden you became a queen, instead of a heavy rocker. It's like being asked to suck on a pacifier in front of your high school mates. Hence, Queen in the States is dead thanks to Queen themselves, mostly due to embracing disco, when disco was at its death bed and clearly associated with the gay community.

"I Was Made for Lovin' You" draws heavily from the disco style that was popular in late-1970s United States. It reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, but some Kiss fans dismissed it as a sell-out. Despite the backlash, the song has become a concert staple over the years, with a different arrangement that de-emphasizes the song's disco elements. My point is it worked with Kiss, why not with Queen? Is the name Queen too much gay related?

Tom

Plenty of gay artists have been extremely successful in the US - particularly Elton John. So methinks that has little to do with it.

Queen just sounded English much of the time, and had a diverse sound that extended to plenty of places that most Americans were barely exposed to. Other than a few of their hits that were more of a rock and roll Esperanto, their sound was exclusively theirs and ultimately didn't connect with most Americans.

But as I mentioned before, Zeppelin brought in all kinds of folk and eastern influences that were completely foreign to most American ears, yet they were successful at it.

There just is no formula. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don't. I don't think we're going to find an easy answer. It's human nature to want those, but more times than not we just don't get them - and we should be fine with it. Cognitive closure is like a pretty shiny widget in the shop window. We want it, but it ultimately doesn't give us much.

Thanks Bob, maybe I was stretching it a bit too far, by making the link Queen and gay. I was merely thinking out loud. And you're right about Elton Johh as an example. But Queen had their succes in the US, maybe not on Led Zeppelin their level. But it is really interesting how Led Zeppeling achieved their maintain succes. For that I thank you Bob and Brenski!

Tom

Bernie Taupin is a huge fan of Americana . Elton John cut his teeth in a residency in the Troubador. He has his own identity but is clearly more Americanised than Queen ever were. He is also, in my view, more middle of the road.He doubles up with Billy Joel. Freddie Mercury does a duet with a Catalan opera singer. I think thats the root cultural point. When Queen became more American in style they were more successful. Thats why CLTCL and AOBTD hit top spot while an opera flavour masterpiece stalled at 9. Zeppelin were also hugely Americanised. Blues, folk, country . They frequently acknowledge American music as an obsession, despite a few other flavours, they are musically and lyrically usually quite American in outlook.

I dont have no Levee where Im from kind sir.

OK I dont sleep on the sidewalk either.

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]


question: why did the synths on Permanent waves, MP, Signals and GUP sound so good, while the synths on HS, Works and Magic sound so (ahem) shit?
[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure they did sound better. However, I think the musicians in Rush were doing more interesting things with the drums, bass and guitar in those synth songs than Queen were in theirs. See for example Rush's New World Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRShD0xuAk

August 14, 2015, Salute to Queen Fireworks show at Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas (following a Major League Baseball game, capacity 40,000) almost 15 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU6RDVHezjY&sns=em

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

Plenty of gay artists have been extremely successful in the US - particularly Elton John. So methinks that has little to do with it.

Queen just sounded English much of the time, and had a diverse sound that extended to plenty of places that most Americans were barely exposed to. Other than a few of their hits that were more of a rock and roll Esperanto, their sound was exclusively theirs and ultimately didn't connect with most Americans.

But as I mentioned before, Zeppelin brought in all kinds of folk and eastern influences that were completely foreign to most American ears, yet they were successful at it.

There just is no formula. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don't. I don't think we're going to find an easy answer. It's human nature to want those, but more times than not we just don't get them - and we should be fine with it. Cognitive closure is like a pretty shiny widget in the shop window. We want it, but it ultimately doesn't give us much.
[/QUOTE]


I don't think the Eastern influences of LZ got the americans connecting with the band, I think this is due to the overal , don't know how the call it , but I'll try : "Heavy Blues"sound LZ generated is what the people in the US liked of this band.

Same for Queen in Europe : somehow here there is more like for the "typical british sound" as the the heavy blues influences.

i think the argument is much more simple than this ^^^

led zep's biggest selling original studio album outsold queen's biggest seller by 4 to 1 worldwide

the USA sales are greater for Zep because the States have always seemed to be more of an album-audience, whereas Europe has always been quite singles-focussed.
queen = singles band = europe = hence greatest hits = huge sales
zep = albums = USA sales

For every American Led Zep enthusiast there's another one that thinks Stairway to Heaven is sung by Kansas and you have to tell them Dust in the Wind is by Kansas not Stairway to Heaven. Then you tell them Stairway to Heaven is Led Zep. Duh! Sigh.

I live in the U.S. , most of my friends were big Queen fans starting with the not so popular self entitled Queen album which we played the hell out of . Most of those same people kind of lost interest when Queen switched gears and
Came out with the Hot Space disco sort of sound. These guys were rockers and wanted nothing to do with the disco scene and sort of felt that the band had sort of sold out and went too commercial for their taste.
It always amuses me to hear that the I Want To Break Free video lost America for Queen....I cannot speak for everyone, but the people I know who were into their music got a big kick out of that video and thought it pretty pissy for MTV to ban it. I don't think it had much to do with the gay aspect, I mean come on, like we couldn't figure out for ourselves from the get go that Freddie was gay ? That has nothing to do with the music, and it's not like it's some shocking revelation .I can only speak as to those who I knew to be into the band that it was about the type of music the band was producing that lost a lot of fans on this side of the pond.Myself not being counted as one of them, as I have always adored the band...although not a big fan of some of the music they produced , I hung in there and was richly rewarded IMO