Moriarty – QUEEN

If you are examining the 1970’s and 1980’s bands come up like ACDC, Led Zeppelin, or Aerosmith but everyone’s favorite is obviously Queen. Well that may be a little bias because Queen is my favorite band in general let alone from the time period. Maybe not everyone loves Queen as much as I do but they are always in the conversation of the 1970s’ and 80’s music. Led by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitar Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and last but not least bass guitarist John Deacon, this band formed in London, England would become a hit sensation during that time and even up to today. The group credits inspiration to bands such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, and Jimi Hendrix. When the group first started they were known for more hard rock and heavy metal when they signed a deal with record label Trident/EMI such as a lead song “Keep Yourself Alive.” Rolling Stone and other artists at the time loved their heavy metal songs yet it received little mainstream attention so they decided it was time for a change. They started to create more pop rock type of music and that was when the tides turned. They started to receive major popularity in their albums “Queen II” and “A Night at the Opera” which was released in 1975. With the new genera known as “Stadium Rock” which was a stem from a number of genres such as heavy metal and hard rock but also psychedelic rock and folk music. Stadium Rock or Arena Rock being the dominant genre of the time Queen came out with the album “News of the World” which contained one of my favorite songs “We Are the Champions” and also including “We Are the Champions.” I personally heard these two songs in the movie “The Mighty Ducks” and that’s when I fell in Love with Queen. Receiving countless awards for their music from Britain and the US such as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and of course being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 with each individual member being inducted also into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. Credited with a ton more awards it is safe to say that Queen was an extremely influential and popular band during the time period and they continue to be popular now in 2018. No one has obviously been to a Queen concert in a while but their music still rings in pop culture movies such as Iron Man and Crazy, Stupid, Love which illustrates how diverse their music can be used as shown with the two movies Iron Man and Crazy, Stupid, Love being very different movies in general.

Here is a YouTube video fo Queen performing their hit song “Another One Bites the Dust” which is an extremely popular song that is considered Funk Rock which is another genre Queen had in their singing and performing arsenal.