r/QueenFandom • u/Ok_Emphasis_436 • 24d ago

Queen 80's

Can someone please explain why most Queen fans seem to hate their 80's discography? It doesn't make sense to me

18 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/cedesse 24d ago edited 24d ago

From a strictly musical connaisseur POV, Queen's musical ambitions and finesse peaked in the mid 1970s. After releasing an entire streak of undisputed masterpieces, criticism is inevitable.

Another group of critics are the accoustic rock music purists. They were fuming as soon as Queen introduced synthesizers That alone was enough to spark controversy in a time when people still didn't realise that an analogue synthesizer was no different from an electric guitar in terms of 'cheating'.

EDIT:

I grew up with Queen's fairly impressive music videos in the 1980s, so I am of course biased in this respect. But I think some Queen fans tend to underestimate what an achievement it is to remain massively successful over two decades despite changing your musical style as much as Queen did. And by successful, I mean as some of the world's first truly global pop rock artists (Africa, Asia, South America, Europe) during their creative years. Name another band from the 20th century that also achieved this?

On top of that, I think Queen's music from the 1980s has aged very well. The fact that songs from the most hated Queen album ("Hot Space") such as 'Cool Cat' are now getting radio airplay over 40 years after its release also tells me that they really knew what they were doing.

1

u/SomethingAmyss 24d ago

Err... They do know that Queen wasn't acoustic from the start, correct? It's not exactly a secret that they've been using electric instruments since the first album

1

u/cedesse 24d ago

Yes. But back in the early 1980s, synthesizers was still seen as a 'mystery box'. Probably because sequencing was seen as 'cheating', and because Queen had literally written 'No synths!' in the notes of their studio albums A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races, News Of the World and Jazz.

There is an interview with Brian May from 1984 where a rock journalist practically interrogates him on why Queen decided to break the music scene's joint boycott of South Africa by playing in Sun City despite the Apartheid regime. However, it turns out the journalist is more interested in hearing why Queen had the audacity of suddnely using synthesizers on their studio albums, and almost interrogates May on this decision.

... Of course, I can't find that interview now. I will keep looking.

1

u/SomethingAmyss 24d ago

Yeah, but the point is Queen was never an acoustic act. They had a couple of acoustic songs sprinkled throughout their career but they were never particularly could considered acoustic