Queen at the Christmas party
How little can you actually say and yet everyone has the entire film in front of their eyes? I think three words are enough. At least when it’s these: Christmas party with karaoke.
It’s your own fault if you don’t submit a temporary injunction to Human Resources, stating that “Sky is the limit” after-dinner speeches in unison with sweaty singing skills from hand lamps from accounting are not allowed to come within 50 meters. However, I was there and experienced my queen moment from hell at such an event. A moment that turned out to be equally satanic and profane…
For the first hour, only those who can somehow perform or those whose unshakable self-confidence allows them to make a fool of themselves in front of their colleagues grab the microphone of the rented karaoke machine in a basement bar. Eventually we’re all full, the karaoke machine loses attention, but long after midnight the grumpy file corpses from various departments have gathered and share eight microphones and the improvised stage. Swaying, sweating, uninhibited, arms around the shoulders of the man next to you. The chosen song is obviously intended to express her deep feelings, her eternal desire. And so they sing “We are the champions, we are the champions!” At the latest with “No time for losers” the text-image scissors slip out of the situation, fall down and pierce the thighs of the stunned viewers. Metaphorically speaking, of course!
I remember thinking a lot about that performance at the time, and definitely one of them was, “Dude, what kind of fucking band is Queen?!”
Queen in battle rap
It’s probably unrelated to this Queen’s Christmas party trauma that I enjoy watching men yell at each other on YouTube. Battle rap as Guilty Pleasure. In a recent match, an MC spends an entire turn incorporating Queen song titles into his punchlines. Ok Boomers! It’s not particularly fresh. However, this part is really long and I’m surprisingly aware of how many songs Queen has that you could sing to or along with (Where’s the nearest karaoke machine?!). In any case, that gives me more food for thought than the hype surrounding the Oscar-winning Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” a few years ago.
Female read person with beard
When people ask me about my personal fascination with pop today, I like to mention the potential that I thought I discovered early on. As a youth in the village, it just seemed an exciting opportunity to be more or different than you were (or perceived). Playing with identities, especially gender identities, was a single promise. Annie Lennox of Eurythmics and Boy George made it clear in the garish 1980s that there was obviously no obligation per se to fulfill traditional gender roles.
The power of this symbolic politics was demonstrated in Copenhagen in 2014 by Conchita Wurst. In an evening dress and with a full beard, she won the Eurovision Song Contest. The result was more than just a pop culture landslide. This noticeably boosted the visibility of queer people – and of course also the backlash, because many assholes realized through this performance that such glamorous gender fuck even existed. You can definitely find Conchita’s performance courageous.
But let’s look back. Almost exactly 30 years ago – it’s 1984, Queen throw their video “I Want To Break Free” into the hot MTV hype of that time. You see Freddie Mercury in drag and with a thick mustache as a bored housewife. And even if the basis of this crossdressing was the pastiche of a well-known English TV series, MTV’s reaction shows how unaccepted men in roles read by women were at the time: cool MTV, the leading broadcaster at the time, boycotted the video. “I Want To Break Free” did not air in the US.
queen and queer
But with all the queer codes that Queen mixed in with the ultimately completely heteronormative 1980s, it was only the death of Freddie Mercury on November 24, 1991 that turned him into a queer key figure that triggered a lot in society. In the 1990s, grief and compassion took the place of panic. The “AIDS shock” that the “Stern” once called “AIDS shock” was over, the time of “AIDS help” began. Freddie Mercury gave a global face to solidarity with the hitherto largely invisible queer community. This is the start of a development that, by the end of that decade, in many countries would lead to things like registered cohabitation, the forerunner of “marriage for all.” The loss of Freddie Mercury, experienced worldwide, seems inseparably intertwined with this course of time. Although Mercury himself kept his illness a secret until shortly before his death. Nevertheless, he died an activist, too much impact emanated from him, his art and his fate.
The show must go on
Of course, the story potential surrounding Queen has far more to it than this small excerpt. I refer you to a band biography coming out this week, it’s titled “The Show Must Go On” (Reclam) – and was written by Stephan Rehm Rozanes, this more than central editor of the Musikexpress. He tells the story(s) of the band and, among other things, also corrects what the tasty bubblegum film “Bohemian Rhapsody” has foisted on you in the form of obsolete facts. In addition to the book, Rehm Rozanes has also published another baby, which we also see here (see photo). There is a human touch in this highly concentrated pop culture gala of the column. Why not, folks!
The show goes on (and how?)
But back to the beginning. Why does a band still play a role that has been history for 30 years – or only lives on with foreign singers or in embarrassing musicals? I spoke to Stephan Rehm Rozanes about this crucial question.
Stephan Rehm Rozanes: “I was born in the year when Queen was the biggest band in the world – that was 1980. I didn’t notice them until 1992, because back then they were omnipresent again. Freddie Mercury had been dead for a year by then, but his end has to be seen as a grenade hit in pop culture at the time. There was the Mercury tribute, at that time Queen were really big again in America. This worldwide interest in turn flooded the market with many products. Above all, the posthumous album ‘Made In Heaven’ was released, about which opinions are divided to this day, but also far more outlandish ones, such as ‘Queen Dance Traxx Volume One’, initiated by the broadcaster VIVA with Captain Jack, Magic Affair, Blümchen. There was ‘Radio Gaga’ in DJ Bobo’s versionboy bands like Worlds Apart took on Queenthe cover version of Dune too ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ was a huge hit in the 90’s.
What did that mean?
One could get the impression that Queen was a highly active band. The ‘Greatest Hits’ collection enters its 1,100th chart week in England today, making it the best-selling album in British history. It is also striking how often Queen songs have recently been used in cinema films – the situation is similar in advertising. For example, the piece ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, which the band rarely played live during their lifetime, was only a moderate hit and has recently been used in twelve different advertisements. So the band remains in the perception. Another reason for the presence of the band is licensing. There are Funko Pop figures from them, but also Queen-Monopoly, Happy Socks, Ben & Jerry’s Queen flavored ice cream.
Can it go on like this forever, Stephan?
There is still a lot of potential – for example in the form of unreleased songs. The band had been very productive before Mercury’s death, so it’s far from exhausted. Queen will also be able to keep going through the music, because there are an insane number of artists who still refer to Queen today. Lady Gaga is certainly one of the most prominent examples. So much that the band stood for is carried on on the most diverse levels. All of that has long since become independent. It’s similar to Kraftwerk or ABBA, who can only send their dummies, holograms or avatars through the world. Because if this band could exist without Freddie Mercury for so long, then the other three are no longer needed. The Queen phenomenon has long been decoupled from the people in the band.
Love & Hate for Queen
In conclusion, I would like to return from this insight into the big picture and get back to personal things. Exit through the gift shop. Because what you take away from such a spectacle is still up to you. Take what you need. Here are my three favorite songs on the cover of Queen:
01 “Under Pressure”
02 Flash
03 The legendary “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene from the movie “Wayne’s World”
PS: On the other hand, this migraine trigger “I Want To Ride My Bike” puts me in a bad mood.
PPS: No ads, but I’ll google where I can get this Ben & Jerry’s Queen ice cream…
What happened until now? Here is an overview of all pop column texts.
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