Raf
Dragonfly Trumpeter
Sweet like some kind of cheese
Posts: 198
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Post by Raf on Oct 22, 2021 18:53:07 GMT
Hey guys.
I haven't got statistics, numbers or anything, but I got this anecdote that might work as some food for thought.
I grew up in a smaller city (at least for my state's standards here in Brazil), and back in my teens I used to take guitar lessons from a locally well-known jazz guitarist. I remember being somewhat puzzled sometimes at how little aware of Queen he seemed to be. He knew some of the hits, he seemed to respect Brian May as a great guitarist, he understood Brian was more melodic and less technical, but that was it.
Now, more than 10 years after I moved from my parents' city, I started taking lessons from him again - I figured if I can teach online I might as well take some lessons online myself, and he was the only music teacher who really got through to me.
From our first time chatting after years he immediatly remembered me as "the Brian May guy". One of these days we were talking about the movie, and he said I was his only student interested in Queen for years, but since the movie was released, he got several younger students suddenly interested in playing Queen.
---
I'm sharing my boring story with you guys because I know some of you who have been fans for years and have collected every album and single since the 70s get frustrated sometimes because Queen has a new generation of fans who'll buy some Greatest Hits re-release or be satisfied to hear Radio Ga Ga, WWRY and WATC on QAL concerts rather than demand a boxset full of rarities or deeper cuts on their live setlists, but hey, there's some bright side here too.
These hysterical kids posting overly joyful comments on Brian's instagram posts will grow up listening to Queen, and perhaps without the movie, the re-releases etc they wouldn't. Some of them will be curious enough to look up other bands from the same era and similar style, and a few of those will become musicians and, who knows, play stuff we'll enjoy.
There was no BoRhap movie back in the day, but my earliest contact with music as a child was picking up my mother's Greatest Flix II, then listening countless times to GH1 and GH2, then asking her to buy me GH3 (yes, I know...), and after hell knows how many hundreds of times I've listened to each of those I got curious enough to start listening to proper albums, and after several years listening almost exclusively to Queen I finally started trying other bands from the same era and decided to pick up a guitar and learn. And I, too, had my annoying-teen-on-the-internet days, except back then we couldn't follow Brian and Roger on social media, so I took it all out on Queenzone.
Maybe we could be a little less bitter about the fact that there are kids discovering the hits nowadays as if it were a bad thing. A few years ago many of us were complaining that kids didn't listen to Queen anymore. Let's give them the chance to discover the band's discography as we did at some point in our lives, mature their musical taste, and who knows, maybe this will help some good music pop up on the radio, TV, Spotify or whatever media's relevant a few years from now.
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Lord Fickle
Global Moderator 
Posts: 21,069
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Post by Lord Fickle on Oct 22, 2021 20:40:41 GMT
Hey guys. I haven't got statistics, numbers or anything, but I got this anecdote that might work as some food for thought. I grew up in a smaller city (at least for my state's standards here in Brazil), and back in my teens I used to take guitar lessons from a locally well-known jazz guitarist. I remember being somewhat puzzled sometimes at how little aware of Queen he seemed to be. He knew some of the hits, he seemed to respect Brian May as a great guitarist, he understood Brian was more melodic and less technical, but that was it. Now, more than 10 years after I moved from my parents' city, I started taking lessons from him again - I figured if I can teach online I might as well take some lessons online myself, and he was the only music teacher who really got through to me. From our first time chatting after years he immediatly remembered me as "the Brian May guy". One of these days we were talking about the movie, and he said I was his only student interested in Queen for years, but since the movie was released, he got several younger students suddenly interested in playing Queen. --- I'm sharing my boring story with you guys because I know some of you who have been fans for years and have collected every album and single since the 70s get frustrated sometimes because Queen has a new generation of fans who'll buy some Greatest Hits re-release or be satisfied to hear Radio Ga Ga, WWRY and WATC on QAL concerts rather than demand a boxset full of rarities or deeper cuts on their live setlists, but hey, there's some bright side here too. These hysterical kids posting overly joyful comments on Brian's instagram posts will grow up listening to Queen, and perhaps without the movie, the re-releases etc they wouldn't. Some of them will be curious enough to look up other bands from the same era and similar style, and a few of those will become musicians and, who knows, play stuff we'll enjoy. There was no BoRhap movie back in the day, but my earliest contact with music as a child was picking up my mother's Greatest Flix II, then listening countless times to GH1 and GH2, then asking her to buy me GH3 (yes, I know...), and after hell knows how many hundreds of times I've listened to each of those I got curious enough to start listening to proper albums, and after several years listening almost exclusively to Queen I finally started trying other bands from the same era and decided to pick up a guitar and learn. And I, too, had my annoying-teen-on-the-internet days, except back then we couldn't follow Brian and Roger on social media, so I took it all out on Queenzone. Maybe we could be a little less bitter about the fact that there are kids discovering the hits nowadays as if it were a bad thing. A few years ago many of us were complaining that kids didn't listen to Queen anymore. Let's give them the chance to discover the band's discography as we did at some point in our lives, mature their musical taste, and who knows, maybe this will help some good music pop up on the radio, TV, Spotify or whatever media's relevant a few years from now. The irritating thing is, the younger fans who are enjoying Queen now, might eventually get to enjoy some of the old archive stuff as well, whereas the rest of us will probably be dead by the time it comes out!  |
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donovan
Dragonfly Trumpeter
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Post by donovan on Oct 22, 2021 21:26:12 GMT
The same effect happened to me when Wayne's World came out. *I* had been a grizzled fan since junior high in 1988. Who were these bandwagon jumpers that suddenly liked Queen when I'd been preaching their gospel for THREE YEARS! LOL  I soon realized I was being an insolent dick, and just became happy more people were enjoying what I liked. I'm happy seeing the new fans brought on by the film and the touring. Not MY teenage daughter sadly, but my friend's kids are getting in to the music and asking questions about the band here in Canada. I know a teen going out for Halloween as Freddie Mercury, and they wouldn't be inspired to do so if Queen Management had ignored the potential of a dramatized biopic and released a box set with Self Made Man on vinyl. |
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BrƎИsꓘi
Administrator
They called it paradise, I don't know why...You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.
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Post by BrƎИsꓘi on Oct 22, 2021 21:42:41 GMT
I don't begrudge any new fan this band. in truth, the new fans are the lifeblood of any band. there's a huge argument that - were it not for the new generation of fans, there'd be no QAL = no Bo Rhap movie = no compulsion by Roger to record during lockdown and then to decide to play his new songs live. so, i thank these new fans, because I got to see ONE member of Queen perform live ONE LAST TIME. so, because of new fans, we ALL win.
However, if, I've got to be honest here, I don't envy the new fans. why? well, their experience is wholly different to mine. they discover a band who were last active as a recording group in 1991...it's all there, they can go and get it all at once. it's this immediacy that takes the shine off it (for me), and makes the music more disposable than ever before. everything these days is so instant (no less so with bands who no longer exist organically as they did) - all of the information is there - for ALL to see - all over the www. for me, growing up - it was the "wait", the anticipation of how the next record would sound. the discovery of some new bootleg LP, finding an excellent copy of Lurex (anthem and emi), STL, Bo Rhap in pic sleeves, green and white vinyl LPs, those KYA and SSoR red/gold emi originals...that first gig in '79, followed by 82, 84 and 86. ffs, I was spoiled - that's not gloating, it's a fact - this band really did spoil me. the 1970s: what a f*cking time to be a teenager.
to the new fans i say: whatever is there for you, drink it all in - while you can. this band WILL be gone (as a going concern) soon. enjoy it all.
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Ri
Ploughman
Posts: 490 
Likes: 431
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Post by Ri on Oct 23, 2021 6:21:36 GMT
Great take, God bless 😌
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Post by dragonkiller on Oct 23, 2021 11:47:06 GMT
How true Lord Fickle...how true.
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Post by davex26 on Oct 23, 2021 12:21:38 GMT
Although I am not a musician (yet ), I am one of the new fans as well. My first contact with Queen that I remember is of course WWRY and WATC and other hits, but I did not even know that was Queen at the time. I remember stumbling upon BohRap on Youtube, and I kinda liked it. I remember thinking "what a strange song it is". And that's it. I went on with my life. Then in 2018 we were on a holiday with my family and we went to a cinema to watch the biopic. I really liked the 70s rock and roll feeling in the movie. And the Live Aid scene at the end was mesmerizing, I admit it, I almost cried. Later at home I looked up the real Live Aid video on youtube just to compare it to the movie. I sat through the whole 20 minutes with my eyes glued on the screen (and mainly on Freddie's energetic moves and banter ). MULTIPLE TIMES. Then I started looking up Queen more and more and realised that I knew almost every big hit and didn't even know all of these came from one band. I first listened to GH1 and GH2 and got into the studio albums. There was almost no song that I did not like by Queen. Later I found Queenzone. As I am a big collector, it was heaven for me. First I collected the available live concert videos of Queen, watching them all. Now I have all the commonly available live audio recordings and going through them from the start. Almost 2 TB of Queen stuff i have now . And because of Queen, I got to know other amazing 60s, 70s rock bands and artists. The ones I really like: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Who, David Bowie, Elvis Presley. My latest discovery is George Harrison's solo work (All Things Must Pass is pure bliss). I started collecting vinyl (I have like 200), I bought a HI-FI system and a guitar, so yeah. If there's no biopic, my life would be so much worse without this music. I am 22 by the way. |
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Lord Fickle
Global Moderator
Posts: 21,069
Likes: 7,596
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Post by Lord Fickle on Oct 23, 2021 12:53:47 GMT
Although I am not a musician (yet ), I am one of the new fans as well. My first contact with Queen that I remember is of course WWRY and WATC and other hits, but I did not even know that was Queen at the time. I remember stumbling upon BohRap on Youtube, and I kinda liked it. I remember thinking "what a strange song it is". And that's it. I went on with my life. Then in 2018 we were on a holiday with my family and we went to a cinema to watch the biopic. I really liked the 70s rock and roll feeling in the movie. And the Live Aid scene at the end was mesmerizing, I admit it, I almost cried. Later at home I looked up the real Live Aid video on youtube just to compare it to the movie. I sat through the whole 20 minutes with my eyes glued on the screen (and mainly on Freddie's energetic moves and banter ). MULTIPLE TIMES. Then I started looking up Queen more and more and realised that I knew almost every big hit and didn't even know all of these came from one band. I first listened to GH1 and GH2 and got into the studio albums. There was almost no song that I did not like by Queen. Later I found Queenzone. As I am a big collector, it was heaven for me. First I collected the available live concert videos of Queen, watching them all. Now I have all the commonly available live audio recordings and going through them from the start. Almost 2 TB of Queen stuff i have now . And because of Queen, I got to know other amazing 60s, 70s rock bands and artists. The ones I really like: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Who, David Bowie, Elvis Presley. My latest discovery is George Harrison's solo work (All Things Must Pass is pure bliss). I started collecting vinyl (I have like 200), I bought a HI-FI system and a guitar, so yeah. If there's no biopic, my life would be so much worse without this music. I am 22 by the way. I'm quite envious that you still have a long musical journey ahead. Enjoy it! 🙂 It's also a sign of the time times to hear you say you have 2Tb of Queen material. If Tbs were available when I was your age, I might not have a garage full of boxes! 😁 That said, I'm glad I had the experience of anticipating each new release, and the joy of going into a record shop and coming out with a nice new album in it's gatefold sleeve, with the lyrics printed on the inner sleeve. By the time a new album comes out now, we've already heard half of it on YouTube, so you tend to lose part of the magical discovery. |
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BrƎИsꓘi
Administrator
They called it paradise, I don't know why...You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.
Posts: 3,746
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Post by BrƎИsꓘi on Oct 23, 2021 13:31:18 GMT
My latest discovery is George Harrison's solo work (All Things Must Pass is pure bliss). ...and that, people, is why music is so great. the fact that one "discovery" leads to another, to another, to another - and before you know it you're immersed in a world of incredible art. Most music fans overlook George & Ringo's solo work, but in a lot of ways these surpass Paul & John. ATMP is one of the finest LPs ever created. nice find fella. might i suggest - while you're in your new-found singer/songwriter (Harrison) discovery, you branch out a little further? Joni Mitchell, CSN, Tom Rush - there's loads out there to be had. my job these days is working from home 3 morning s per week, so i have internet radio on - all American stations, playing 60s 70s & 80s classic rock. every once in a while something comes on that i genuinely hadn't heard before - and that's my "discoveries". other than that, i stack up some VLC playlists of classic LPs and "rediscover" them while I work. davex26 enjoy your journey, it'll be a great ride. |
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georg
Global Moderator
wrote several books
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Post by georg on Oct 23, 2021 13:33:46 GMT
I became a Queen fan during their wilderness years (summer 1993), so Brian and Roger were actively kicking against Queen and their popularity resurgence in the US had already peaked with Wayne’s World the year before, and no one gave a shit about them anymore. So trying to find anything out about them was a chore, but that made it more fun: I wasn’t a collector but I still had to track down everything, and this was all pre-internet. Of course, to my friends Queen was that gay band, so I couldn’t talk with anyone about all the cool stuff I discovered.
That all changed in ‘97 or so, when my family got internet and I discovered queen-fip, alt.music.queen, and eventually Queenzone. Then it was easier to get rarities, and now the sharing and trading is like I’ve never seen – rare performances I only read about in books are now available to me at the click of a mouse. Amazing.
But all fans are welcome to Queen (and any other band I happen to like) in my eyes, no matter how late in life you got into them. (For instance, I’m in my late 30s and only recently listened to – and liked – my first Grateful Dead album.) And however they got into them, more power to them; I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a new Queen fan these days, but there are times when I wish I could go back to hearing a Queen song or album for the first time, just to relive that, to tie it all back, kind of magic again.
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