Keeping themselves alive
Identifying and analysing Queen’s musical development, 1973–1980
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v9i3.27029Keywords:
Analysis, History, Queen, Style, IdiolectAbstract
This article is a study of British rock band Queen’s output between 1973 and 1980. It traces the changes in the band’s music through this era with respect to the notion of musical development. I consider Queen’s songs from three perspectives—style, the group’s cumulative idiolect, and the role of idiolect traits within songs—to suggest that each vantage point produces a different reading of Queen’s career trajectory. I further argue that the most appropriate reading of Queen’s development is in terms of an ‘expedition’ narrative, whereby the group explored new stylistic ground but marked these expeditions with the traits of its idiolect. Queen’s development is thus not a singular path from one point to another, but rather a wide-ranging musical journey with the group’s sonic imprint impressed on each stylistic turn.
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Barnes, Ken. 1974. ‘Queen II: Album Reviews’. Rolling Stone 163. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/queen-ii-19740620 (accessed 30 June 2014).
Browne, Tom. 1977. ‘Interview with Queen’. BBC Radio One, 24 December. http://www.queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Group_-_12-24-1977_-_BBC_Radio_One (accessed 2 October 2014).
Christgau, Robert. 1970. ‘Credence: Where Do You Go from the Top?’ Village Voice, February. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/creedence.php (accessed 18 November 2013).
Covach, John. 1997. ‘Progressive Rock, “Close to the Edge”, and the Boundaries of Style’. In Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, ed. John Covach and Graeme M. Boone, 3–31. New York: Oxford University Press.
—2006. ‘From “Craft” to “Art”: Formal Structure in the Music of the Beatles’. In Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four, ed. Kenneth Womack and Todd F. Davis, 37–54. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
de Boer, Jennifer. 1999. ‘On the Margins of the Mainstream: Queen, the Rock Press, and Gender’. MA thesis, McMaster University.
Everett, Walter. 2009. The Foundations of Rock. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fletcher, Gordon. 1973. ‘Queen: Album Reviews’. Rolling Stone 149. http://www.queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Queen_-_12-06-1973_-_Queen_-_Rolling_Stone_%28Issue_149%29 (accessed 28 July 2014).
Gelbart, Matthew. 2003. ‘Persona and Voice in the Kinks’ Songs of the Late 1960s’. Journal of the Royal Musical Association 128/2: 200–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jrma/128.2.200
Harrison, Daniel. 1997. ‘After Sundown: The Beach Boys’ Experimental Music’. In Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, ed. John Covach and Graeme M. Boone, 33–58. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hector, James. 1995. The Complete Guide to the Music of the Rolling Stones. London: Omnibus Press.
Jenkins, J. Daniel. 2010. ‘After the Harvest: Carter’s Fifth String Quartet and the Late Late Style’. Music Theory Online 16/3. http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.10.16.3/mto.10.16.3.jenkins.html (accessed 21 April 2014).
Kerman, Joseph, Alan Tyson, Scott G. Burnham, Doulas Johnson and William Drabkin. 2014. ‘Beethoven, Ludwig van’. Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/subscriber/article/grove/music/40026pg11 (accessed 1 September 2014).
Macan, Edward. 1997. Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195098884.001.0001
May, Brian. 2014. Interview with author. Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand, 4 September 2014.
Moore, Allan F. 1997. ‘Anachronism, Responsibility and Historical Intension’. Critical Musicology Journal. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/info/critmus/ (accessed 4 July 2014).
—2001. Rock: The Primary Text, 2nd edn. Aldershot: Ashgate.
—2004. ‘Review of Progressive Rock Reconsidered. Edited by Kevin Holm-Hudson’. twentieth-century music 1/2: 293–97.
—2006. ‘What Story Should a History of Popular Music Tell?’ Popular Music History 1/3: 329–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/pomh.2006.1.3.329
—2007. ‘Gentle Giant’s “Octopus”’. Philomusica On-line: Composition and Experimentation in British Rock: 1966–1976. http://www-3.unipv.it/britishrock1966-1976/pdf/mooreeng.pdf (accessed 3 May 2013).
—2012. Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. Farnham: Ashgate.
Moore, Allan F., and Anwar Ibrahim. 2009. ‘Sounds like Teen Spirit: Identifying Radiohead’s Idiolect’. In Strobe-Lights and Blown Speakers: Essays on the Music and Art of Radiohead, ed. Joseph Tate, 139–58. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Pond, Steve. 1980. ‘Review: The Game’. Rolling Stone 326. http://www.queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Queen_-_09-18-1980_-_The_Game_-_Rolling_Stone_%28Issue_326%29 (accessed 30 January 2015).
Riley, Tim. 1987. ‘For the Beatles: Notes on their Achievement’. Popular Music 6/3: 257–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000002312
Said, Edward. 2006. On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain. London: Bloomsbury.
Scruton, Roger. 1997. The Aesthetics of Music. New York: Oxford University Press.
See, Bill. 2011. ‘The Battle to Stay Relevant’. PopMatters, 6 November. http://www.popmatters.com/column/150435-the-battle-to-stay-relevant/ (accessed 1 September 2014).
Sheinbaum, John J. 2008. ‘Periods in Progressive Rock and the Problem of Authenticity’. Current Musicology 85: 29–51.
Spicer, Mark. 2004. ‘(Ac)cumulative Form in Pop-Rock Music’. twentieth-century music 1/1: 29–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1478572204000052
Stewart, Tony. 1977. ‘Freddie Mercury: Is This Man a Prat?’. New Musical Express, 18 June. http://www.queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Freddie_Mercury_-_06-18-1977_-_NME (accessed 1 September 2014).
Straus, Joseph N. 2008. ‘Disability and “Late Style” in Music’. Journal of Musicology 25/1: 3–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jm.2008.25.1.3
Strick, Wesley. 1977. ‘Queen’s Own Tale of Success’. Circus, January. http://www.queenarchives.com/index.php?title=Group_-_01-31-1977_-_Circus_Magazine (accessed 1 September 2014).
Webster, James. 1994. ‘The Concept of Beethoven’s “Early” Period in the Context of Periodizations in General’. Beethoven Forum 3: 1–27.
Zak, Albin. 2009. ‘“Only the Lonely”: Roy Orbison’s Sweet West Texas Style’. In Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music, ed. Mark Spicer and John Covach, 18–41. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Published
2016-09-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Braae, N. (2016). Keeping themselves alive: Identifying and analysing Queen’s musical development, 1973–1980. Popular Music History, 9(3), 248-269. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v9i3.27029
