A few excerpts from this very long article (Adam related)
….”There was a moment during this year’s BRIT Awards that got me thinking. Host Jack Whitehall was introducing the next set of presenters, and he referred to one as the “Lead singer in the biggest band in the world”. And out popped…Adam Lambert.
Of course, as most people know, Lambert has spent much of the last decade singing with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor under the moniker Queen + Adam Lambert. How much you count him as Queen’s frontman is up to you. Personally, I believe this incarnation to be totally separate from the original band, and billing Lambert separately is a testament to that.
Either way, was it a bit ambitious to refer to Queen as the biggest band in the world, 30 years after the death of Freddie Mercury?
Well, actually, no. It wasn’t.
Full disclosure: Queen have always been my favourite band. I was born in 1988, not even really able to be consciously aware that Freddie Mercury had died in 1991. In fact, I didn’t find out he was dead until 1995’s posthumous Made In Heaven came out and I asked my dad why it was called Made In Heaven, before disappointingly listening to my cassette copies of their Greatest Hits albums when I got the answer. I can thank them for introducing me to all manner of different styles that I still appreciate to this day, my lack of snobbishness, my appreciation of intricate musicianship and for having a sense of humour about these things.
This obviously means I am inclined to big them up and give them the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things (except for their decision to play Sun City, obviously, which was just flat out wrong).
But it also means I have some very specific thoughts on how and why Queen have managed to grow in popularity as time marches on, when the appeal of other legendary artists is fading fast.
Yes, we hear their music everywhere. Yes, they had a movie. But surely it’s more complex than that?
If Queen Are Massive on Spotify, They’re Massive with Kids
In 2019, a math teacher interviewed by The Thrillist let one of his female students jump on his computer to play some music off YouTube while the class worked on an assignment. She didn’t go for Taylor Swift, she went for Queen. “I thought nothing of it,” explains the teacher, “until I looked up and saw every 9th and 10th grade student lip-syncing the whole song.”
Just last month, an article from Music Business Worldwide explored Queen’s everlasting appeal. That study found that with over 37.6 million monthly listeners, they are the 38th biggest artist on Spotify. Most of the people listening on streaming platforms won’t be their original fans, 65 year old men who have been listening to the same vinyl copy of A Night At The Opera for 46 years.
Spotify is where young people go for their music. Music Ally report that over 70% of Queen’s Spotify listeners are under the age of 35. This is all reflected in the numbers for their classic rock contemporaries, most of whom seem to average around 14-17 million streams or less (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2, Springsteen, AC/DC, Metallica, Nirvana etc). David Bowie, with whom Queen recorded the 1981 smash Under Pressure, sits comfortably in that bracket with just over 15 million. Bob Dylan only gets nine million listens a month.
On Spotify at least, Queen are the literally the biggest band in the world – everyone above them is a solo artist, vocal group, rapper or DJ. They dwarf The Rolling Stones (21 million). They even smash The Beatles (24 million). Furthermore, at time of writing no song by those bands are even close to getting a billion streams. Queen have four (Bohemian Rhapsody, Don’t Stop Me Now, Another One Bites The Dust, and Under Pressure).
And it isn’t just bands. I was expecting Michael Jackson to beat them. He doesn’t (26 million).
But I’m sure that more contemporary superstars do, right? Like, Beyonce. She’s ruled the world for over a decade, at the exact right time for the streaming phenomenon. Surely she beats Que…
…nope. With 32 million monthly listens, Beyonce trails them by around 4 million.
Now, don’t get it twisted; I’m sure if Beyonce dropped an album tomorrow, she would fly ahead of Queen. But she hasn’t, meaning they are both purely going by back catalogue.
It is utterly fascinating that a band with no new releases in over a quarter of a century, whose most iconic member has been dead for three decades, who were critically mauled at every turn throughout their career, have not only remained at the forefront of the public consciousness, but continue to be rediscovered by each passing generation. To the point where both Brian May and Roger Taylor have had top 10 solo albums this year.
“…..
…. “There were little peaks along the way. Freddie’s death didn’t really move America, but people enjoyed the famous Wayne’s World scene so much that Bo Rhap reached a new peak of #2 there. But they never truly had another hit single or top 20 album ever again.
When they hooked up with Adam Lambert, there was a heavy implication that this was “Queen’s” first US tour since 1982. But we all know that wasn’t true.
In 2004, May and Taylor joined up with former Free and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. Widely (and correctly) regarded as one of the finest rock singers of his generation, he was a peculiar fit for Queen; a bluesy, hard rock, meat and potatoes kinda guy probably shouldn’t be singing “All we hear is radio ga ga/Radio goo goo“. But, it was an interesting combination nonetheless.”…..
…”But it was different with Lambert, with whom they had no trouble selling out US arenas. His fans are much younger, and weren’t around at any point during Queen’s existence. Furthermore, when they joined forces, Lambert was just coming off a massively successful #1 album in the States. He had something Rodgers never really did, that many of Queen’s biggest hits truly call for: star power. I couldn’t have hurt that he is American, either.
“The audience was fragmented at first into old Queen fans who came with their arms crossed saying, ‘What’s this all about?’ and the Adam fans who were like ‘What’s this old band he’s attached himself to?’,” explained Edney.
“That really has changed now. We’ve gotten to a point where 90 to 95% of the audience that shows up never saw Freddie Mercury perform live with Queen. But they have seen him on the screen and they know the songs because the songs are so much in the musical consciousness of everybody because of the TV commercials and sporting events and whatever, so everyone knows half a dozen Queen songs even if they don’t realise it. I look out and I see teenagers weeping with joy when Fat Bottomed Girls comes on. And then there’s old people that are proud to say, ‘I saw them in 1975’ or whatever. They’re all singing along with the same gusto. It’s crossing genres and generations, which is pretty much what they always did. Queen were never fashionable, so they’re never really unfashionable.”
The last US tour ended with Queen + Adam Lambert headlining the Global Citizens Festival. Despite Queen having no major US hit since 1980, they closed the show over Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams and OneRepublic. The footage, broadcast live on MSNBC, shows a predominantly young crowd of 60,000 screaming at Queen as if they’re Harry Styles. Like Queen themselves, it’s subtly surreal.
A Unique Phenomenon
The Q+AL Rhapsody Tour is due to play a whopping ten nights at London’s O2 Arena next spring. That is 200,000 tickets in London alone, plus further shows around the country.
It would be astonishing for anyone. It is double the amount of O2 shows that current superstars like Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and Lady Ga Ga sold on their last tours. And this is without the most iconic member of the band. Could you imagine a scenario where The Rolling Stones could play to 200,000 people in one city without Mick Jagger? Or The Doors without Jim Morrison? Or Aerosmith without Steven Tyler? Or The Jacksons without Michael Jackson? I can honestly say…no, I can’t. At all.
Last year, much was made of Bob Dylan selling his catalogue for $300 million. Confirming the continued relevance of a band that probably shouldn’t still be relevant given the circumstances, Music Business Worldwide estimated that if Queen were to sell theirs, they would be looking at a sale price of just over $1.5 billion.”
