Why do so few famous artists like Queen?

Killer band, and May is one of my favorite guitar players.

 

The Dinosaur Rock Guitar site postulates that there isn't a guitarist who doesn't like Brian May - that he's the guy that most guitarists can agree on, in a world where everyone likes to rank guitarists over one another.

In my experience, I've never met another guitarist or musician that doesn't at least give May props for being inventive.

 

Why do so few race car drivers drink Pepsi?

 

It's neat to read about other artists' impressions of their contemporaries.

 

I enjoy Queen, but I find Brian May's guitar style quite irritating after a while, I guess I just much prefer the fatter grungy sound of early R&B stuff from the Yardbirds and Stones.

 

Jealousy? .....disregard....I was beaten to the punch....BUT this IS the right answer. Queen were a force of nature. Four amazingly talented individuals whose talents meshed to make something special that will never EVER be repeated.

 

Most artists of any worth probably have some sort of ego. And what does his age have to do with it?

 

This band likes them

 

Le Clock

Beyonce is also influenced by Freddie

 

Someone earlier in this thread partly got it: they seemingly came out from nowhere, no scene or movement behind them but this argument can be only made for their first few albums. After A Night At the Opera, I think that something could be said about their ability to digest and regurgitate any style in an easy-for-consumption manner which is the opposite of what most musicians look for when mining for inspiration. Of course, May is a great and inventive guitarist, of course Freddie is one of the best singers of the rock era but still, their compositions are "just" awesomely effective as they usually don't transcend the medium.

 

overdubs on top of more overdubs... How about the back of the early albums...in small print..No Synthesizers..

 

Early Queen I can take or leave. Night at the Opera is the only one I currently own. Recently my wife has been getting into 80's Queen. It's painful. I now realize 80's Genesis isn't so bad afterall!

 

Micheal Jackson too - he used to attend Queen concerts.

 

I'm embarrassed by how shallow you are.

 

80's Greatest Band. Nuff said.

 

I think it was a question of control, mostly. Queen were a fine entertainment band, but too often let audience response drive their creative direction. It left them with little identity to call their own, aside from their sound... which was very polished and well suited to mass consumption. They've always struck me as more of a caricature of a band, than the genuine article.

 

What's more emblematic about a pop/rock act aside of their sound? Hair? Mustaches?

 

Songwriting. Sorry.

 

Wow, that is such an arrogant statement from Roger. Man, such higher than thou bs.

Reminds me of when I got together with a friend I hadn't seen in years and he was making such arrogant statements about his music (in regard to other people we know), his acting career, money, etc. He's not even that successful (in terms of acting, music). It made me not really want to see him again for maybe another ten years. Is it insecurity, stupidity, or both?

 

I would say a majority of young artists (from any genre) are influenced in some way by Queen...Everything from pop singers to prog-metal/power-metal bands. As far as older artists go, people like Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, and Chris Squire (among many others of course) have all expressed their admiration for Queen.

I was listening to a podcast the other day where Gene Simmons basically said that no band was better. Queen actually sort of reminds me of Kiss, in the sense that the critics always hated them, and certain other fellow musicians may have laughed at them, but the influence they had on a wide variety of musical acts that followed cannot be denied.

Obviously there are certain musicians from back in the day that allow jealousy to get in the way of things, but I would venture to guess that most musical artists out there today have a deep rooted respect and admiration for the band.

 

Although I'm not a dedicated fan, their first Greatest Hits is a fantastic experience and, IMHO, still stands as one of the most exciting single-disc Best Ofs ever. I've seen quite a few artists talking about how much they like Queen in general or at least a particular song, so I don't feel they're that underappreciated. Queen have never been too cool or serious or political; it's all about entertainment, so you have to like entertainment to enjoy their music.

 

I think they're unappreciated on this forum as the majority are mostly from the U.S where Queen didn't go down so well as they did outside it. But other than that, no, they're not.

 

Ghastly threadcrap though it is, this comment does indicate a wider truth: that people don't feel that Queen is "untouchable" in the way that some other groups at the top of the tree are. I'm always surprised that people are willing to have a pop at Led Zep here, but generally the Legendary Acts Club (of which Queen is certainly a member) tend to get a fairly respectful treatment here at SHF.

From that point of view, Queen are quite useful here because they certainly flush out people who may be able to conceal their complete lack of taste in other threads. (That comment, of course, cuts both ways! )

 

There is a different perspective on Queen between USA and rest of the world. They lost popularity from late 70's in USA but continued to be popular in Europe and other parts of the world. However I would say apart from The Works and Innuendo most of the 80's onward output is patchy to awful in terms of music and especially production. This coincides with abandoning the 'no synthesisers' approach. However everything up to 'Jazz' is good to great. The 'revival' to me started with the Live Aid performance which showed how great a live band they were but unfortunately followed by 'A Kind Of Magic' album -Yuk. Anyway I would say they are pretty well respected and influential especially the May guitar sound (due to his 'home made' instrument). It's hard to name a better front man than Mercury (in terms of a performer and vocal ability) whether his style or persona is to your taste or not.

 

They faded in the US and iirc from some documentary they stopped touring the US for many years and were touring the world and still packing arenas and stadiums. However, I too disagree with the OP's thesis. Many "famous musicians" have expressed their admiration for Queen. This is ridiculous.