thomasquinn 32989 wrote:
I think you're seeing a long-term strategy that was never really there - you can connect the dots after the fact, but I seriously doubt that, say, the 5ive-collaboration was meant as anything more long-term than "we might get a hit this year". Now, with Queen being on top, it might all look like a grand, long-term plan coming to fruition, but I find it much more likely that the examples cited were all intended to have short-term benefits, and the fortuitous long-term outcome that happened to occur many years later was simply a matter of luck.
This kind of thing occurs in historiography all the time, and we have a word for it: "teleology", the idea that phenomena arise because of the purpose they serve, rather than arising from underlying, possibly less visible, causes.
For anything that is happening in the present, you can draw a continuous string of events, causes if you will, leading up to it, but it would be a mistake to assume that all those events could only have led to the present outcome, or were even meant to produce that outcome. It's easy, perhaps even natural, to look at history that way, but it is deceptive.
Indeed, you're not at all wrong.
Maybe the 5ive and Coca Cola things were a naive shot in the dark, but the combination of Cozy Powell's death (effectively ending Brian's solo career) and Deacon's departure shifted their gears in some way, however concerted their efforts to reach the next generation were or were not. But somewhere along the way that became their MO, wherever that may have been.
As the boys got older their legacy became more and more important to them, and they really hit their stride with Lambert and the biopic. Touring with Paul Rodgers was great, but it wasn't going to get a half million kids asking "daddy, who's the old guitar guy?" the way a single appearance with Lady Gaga would. However conscious that decision was, I guess you'd have to ask him.