Author Topic: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?  (Read 7770 times)

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Offline KevShmev

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To start off, the Beatles are the most popular band ever. I don't think anyone would argue this point.

Moving on, I always thought that after the Beatles, the biggest bands were Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and the Who. The Who kind of tailed off a while back, as it seemed like less younger people were digging them than the others, but I would've still put them in at the bottom of the 2nd tier/top of the 3rd. Queen I always thought of as being a 3rd tier band from a popularity standpoint, but when you consider streaming numbers and the massive popularity of the recent flick about them, I think they have surpassed everyone and moved into 2nd place on list of most popular rock bands.  I think younger people (under 25 or so) are listening to Queen far more than the other (non-Beatles) bands listed above, and this has elevated their status.

Thoughts?

Offline MirrorMask

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2019, 08:25:43 AM »
I think the strong point of Queen, aside from having actual great songs, is that they're kinda the national team of popular music since there's something for everyone. Michael Jackson was a global icon, to make an example, but if you're not into dance-y music, well, there's not much for you there. Queen has songs that appeal basically to everyone, be them pop or rock or prog rock (the '70s) or even metal, so they are able to draw in fans from every area of music.
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Offline Stadler

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2019, 08:48:27 AM »
Well, let's be honest; some of the surge in popularity is hipster cool and riding the coattails.  It's a running joke between my wife and I when commercials come on and there's a Queen song there.    I don't mind that, per se, but the band is striking while the iron is hot, and no mistake.

Elton John's biopic is coming out soon, so while you won't get the same level of surge (Reg isn't dead) it's going to temper things for a while.   Two years from now, The Beatles will still be number one, and the number two will return to the swirling soup of Zepp/Floyd/Who/Beach Boys/etc. that it usually is.

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2019, 08:51:22 AM »
Even before the movie, Queen was responsible for a whole lot of universally popular songs.

Bohemian Rhapsody
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
Fat Bottom Girls
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
etc

Even if you didn't know some of them were queen, a ton of people are familiar with those songs. So it's really not fair to credit the movie for more than just a small bump in younger people.
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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2019, 08:55:12 AM »
I'm not sure if they are the 2nd most popular ever or anything, it's really hard to judge such a thing, but obviously they are huge and have been for awhile.  It does seem the movie might have given the band a bump in popularity for now also the band touring again helps too (well they have been for a bit now) but like playing in the US every year, even with Adam Lambert, is going to help spread the music of Queen.

I watched the movie the other day on my flight and really enjoyed it.

Offline Stadler

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2019, 09:06:05 AM »
Even before the movie, Queen was responsible for a whole lot of universally popular songs.

Bohemian Rhapsody
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
Fat Bottom Girls
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
etc

Even if you didn't know some of them were queen, a ton of people are familiar with those songs. So it's really not fair to credit the movie for more than just a small bump in younger people.

Well, "popular" and "second most popular band ever" are not the same.  There's no doubt they were popular, but just because Rock And Roll, Part I is played at every sports event ever in the States doesn't mean that Gary Glitter is at the level of the Beatles. 

Queen has FIVE iconic songs:   BoRhap, WWRY/WATC; Crazy..., and Another One Bites The Dust.   The artists that have that are legion.   

Zeppelin:  Stairway; WLL; Rock and Roll; Black Dog; Kashmir (and you can sub in any of about 5 other songs too)
Floyd:   Comfortably Numb, Money, Wish You Were Here, Hey You, Time (or ...Brick)
Skynyrd:  Freebird, Sweet Home, Saturday Night Special, What's Your Name, Tuesday's Gone, Simple Man...
The Who:  All three CSI tunes (Who Are You, .... Fooled, Baba O'Reilly) plus Pinball Wizard, My Generation...
John:  Saturday Night's..., Candle In The Wind, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Daniel, Yuor Song (I can go foreever here)
Stones:  Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack, Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, Sympathy, Ruby Tuesday (I can go forever here too)

Queen is AWESOME.   Fred is my favorite singer of all time (and in my view the greatest pure rock singer of all time).    I have every CD - even Flash... even HOT SPACE! - and can find something redeeming about all of them.   Queen II is a top ten record all time for me.  So a lot of love for Queen, but this is a band that couldn't tour here for the last five (plus, minus) years of their career, and not just because of Freddie's illness.    They are not at the level of Zeppelin or The Who in the general zeitgeist of America. 

Offline Zook

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2019, 09:13:09 AM »
I still don't understand how The Beatles are so popular. Not a single song has ever caught my ear. The Monkees have better songs. Queen have more enjoyable songs and I really don't like them that much either.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2019, 09:15:49 AM »
Stadler, you are selling Queen short on the iconic songs.  Under Pressure has to be on that list, and Fat Bottomed Girls likely as well.  That played last week here at work and everyone in the office knew it (even the youngans). 

Meanwhile, play Kashmir for most under 30 and they will get that "what is this" look on their face.

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2019, 09:17:16 AM »
I think Zeppelin will always be more popular.
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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #9 on: March 06, 2019, 09:18:25 AM »
I still don't understand how The Beatles are so popular. Not a single song has ever caught my ear. The Monkees have better songs. Queen have more enjoyable songs and I really don't like them that much either.

I'm there with you on the Beatles.  Nothing from them has ever clicked with me.  I also would say I enjoy the Monkees more sadly  :lol and definitely enjoy Queen more.  My only issue with Queen, and kind of MirrorMasks point on how they are so popular, is that I don't like half their music.  The good stuff is great, but the rest is very meh to me.  They just hit music styles that are not my taste.

Offline MirrorMask

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #10 on: March 06, 2019, 09:19:04 AM »
Stadler, you are selling Queen short on the iconic songs.  Under Pressure has to be on that list, and Fat Bottomed Girls likely as well.  That played last week here at work and everyone in the office knew it (even the youngans). 

Meanwhile, play Kashmir for most under 30 and they will get that "what is this" look on their face.

I know Kashmir but I'm ashamed to admit how many songs of that list I genuinely don't know, or I don't know that I know them.
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Offline Anxiety35

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2019, 09:50:57 AM »
At one point, they were huuuuuuge in Great Britain. They were THE band over there. Here in the states, they had a fair amount of popularity and then Live Aid happened. That crowd at Wembley was insane, Freddie's showmanship, and the band's music put Queen on a world stage. They shot up in popularity here in the US as a result. Live Aid was what took them over the top.

They had a lot of hits. They had a lot of albums. Have they surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever? Not sure. I think it's hard to get past The Beatles, Stones, & Zeppelin as your top 3. Here's a random/not so random list of who I think are the most popular bands ever in rock.

Beatles
Stones
Zep
Who
Floyd
Queen
Eagles
AC/DC
Metallica

How do we gauge popularity? Album sales? Concert ticket sales? Merchandise sales? Hits on a website or social media platform? How often the music is played on rock radio? Use of a band's music in commercials, TV shows, or movies? I'm not sure there's a way to quantify it. 

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2019, 10:00:03 AM »
Yep, there are too many variables, but I would put U2 on that list now as well.  They were still packing stadiums earlier this decade over the course of five (!!) legs, which not many other bands can do.

Offline Cool Chris

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2019, 10:44:51 AM »
Sorry to come in argumentative, but there is no way "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is an "iconic" song. It, and others people are listing aren't even universally liked, or even recognized for that matter*. I'd give them 3 (BH, WWRY, WATC). 2 of those are because of sporting events, the other because of Wayne's World (they are all tremendous songs, but do not reach the level they do without those factors).

*I use Mrs. Cool Chris as the barometer for this. She knows next to nothing about music from any genre or any era. So if she recognizes a song, and can name it and the artist, I consider that song 'widely known (at least in the rock genre)."

Controversial opinion (for the other thread but relevant), Another One Bites the Dust is a dumb song, and not even that cool of a bass line.
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Offline bosk1

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2019, 10:51:24 AM »
Even before the movie, Queen was responsible for a whole lot of universally popular songs.

Bohemian Rhapsody
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
Fat Bottom Girls
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
etc

Even if you didn't know some of them were queen, a ton of people are familiar with those songs. So it's really not fair to credit the movie for more than just a small bump in younger people.

Yeah, but the thing is, outside of that relatively small number and maybe a couple of others like Under Pressure, they really don't have that many that the average person would remember as being a huge hit. 

I guess I'm in sort of "wait and see" mode.  The film obviously gave them a HUGE shot in the arm.  But I really cannot tell whether that is something that will bridge the gap to this new generation and really put them over the top, or whether it is just a momentary bump that will fade in a few years. 

It's a really interesting question to ponder.  But at the end of the day, I just kind of have to throw up my hands and say I dunno.
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Offline Dream Team

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #15 on: March 06, 2019, 11:11:08 AM »
I still don't understand how The Beatles are so popular. Not a single song has ever caught my ear. The Monkees have better songs. Queen have more enjoyable songs and I really don't like them that much either.

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Offline SoundscapeMN

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #16 on: March 06, 2019, 11:12:29 AM »
I think after Wayne's World, they became the 2nd most universally known band, largely because of the crossover appeal.

But I suppose if you consider ALBUMS, their albums/body of work is/are not as bought as Floyd or Zeppelin.

also @Zook and @cramx3 my wife has felt that exact same way about The Beatles (and THE MONKEES) for nearly her whole life. And while I am a fan of The Beatles, I have stopped trying to argue or ask her to justify her feeling of "what's the big deal about The Beatles? There's nothing special about them"... whereas to her The Monkees and especially Mike Nesmith (with the band, and even more on his own) were brilliant.

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #17 on: March 06, 2019, 11:18:04 AM »
I won't say the Monkees are brilliant, they just had catchy tunes (didn't they also have people write those catchy songs for them?).  I really don't know why the Beatles, one of my parents favorite band playing often as a kid, just never stuck with me.  I can't explain it other than it's just not my cup of tea. 

Offline pg1067

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #18 on: March 06, 2019, 11:48:46 AM »
Sorry to come in argumentative, but there is no way "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is an "iconic" song. It, and others people are listing aren't even universally liked, or even recognized for that matter*. I'd give them 3 (BH, WWRY, WATC). 2 of those are because of sporting events, the other because of Wayne's World (they are all tremendous songs, but do not reach the level they do without those factors).

I was thinking the same thing about "Crazy" - and even more so about "Fat Bottom Girls"!  FBG is "iconic"?  After the three mentioned "iconic" songs (BR, WWRY/WATC), the next two in line are "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Under Pressure" (the latter of which gets a boost because of David Bowie's involvement.

As far as "2nd most popular band ever," it's not possible to measure that directly.  Album sales is one measure of popularity, and that list looks like this (according to this 2017 article - https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/10/17/riaa-best-selling-artists-of-all-time/ ):

1. Beatles
2. Garth Brooks
3. Elvis Presley
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Eagles
...
46. Queen


If the list goes beyond album sales, it looks like this (according to Wikipedia):

1. Beatles
2. Elvis Presley
3. Michael Jackson
4. Madonna
5. Elton John
...
12. Queen


Queen doesn't even show up on lists of highest grossing concert tours (of all time or by decade).

So..."2nd most popular band ever"?  Not even close.
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Offline MirrorMask

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #19 on: March 06, 2019, 11:59:29 AM »
But I suppose if you consider ALBUMS, their albums/body of work is/are not as bought as Floyd or Zeppelin.

I have the general impression that the vast majority of Queen fans, or better, people who list Queen as one of their favorite bands (and possibly not the very favorite), are more a "greatest hits" kind of fans, rather than owning all the albums and knowing all the songs.

I'd be curious to make a survey about how many people who are not diehard Queen fans but are "oh yeah, I love Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust, I Want it All" even know about The March of the Black Queen, The Prophet's Song (which is actually on the same album Bohemian Rhapsody is) or even a random straight rocker like Let Me Entertain You ("What? the Robbie Williams song? it's a Queen cover?").
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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #20 on: March 06, 2019, 12:04:03 PM »
@Stads. I didn't mean to agree that they are the 2nd most popular band ever. I have no idea how you'd even measure that. I just meant that they are more, and have been more popular than you give them credit for.

@Bosk, when it comes to VERY well known songs, most band don't have that many outside of their fanbase. Even Metallica, it's basically Enter Sandman and maybe Nothing Else Matters. Play MoP for a random person and they don't know what it is. So to have 5+ songs that are pretty universally known is actually really incredible.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #21 on: March 06, 2019, 12:06:29 PM »
I'd be curious to make a survey about how many people who are not diehard Queen fans but are "oh yeah, I love Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust, I Want it All" even know about The March of the Black Queen, The Prophet's Song (which is actually on the same album Bohemian Rhapsody is) or even a random straight rocker like Let Me Entertain You ("What? the Robbie Williams song? it's a Queen cover?").

The only Queen albums I own and ever have owned are Live Killers and Greatest Hits II.
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Offline Stadler

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #22 on: March 06, 2019, 12:20:04 PM »
I won't say the Monkees are brilliant, they just had catchy tunes (didn't they also have people write those catchy songs for them?).  I really don't know why the Beatles, one of my parents favorite band playing often as a kid, just never stuck with me.  I can't explain it other than it's just not my cup of tea.

There's a thread on this somewhere here.   

I still go back to the piece on the bonus disk of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits box set, where he talks about seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time.  We were not much more than two months out from that generations 9/11 (theirs was 11/22) and this was the sort of breath of fresh air that people were yearning for.    You add up the number of artists/musicians that saw that performance and decided they wanted to make music for a living, then add up all the artists/musicians that saw ANYONE ELSE and decided they wanted to make music for a living and you probably have six in one hand, half dozen in the other. 

Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix and the Stones were all waiting with baited breath to see what the lads would come out with next.   I don't think that was the case with the next Monkees album, no matter how good it might have been (I'm not a die hard, but more than a casual, fan of the Monkees).   The Monkees don't have even one epic, show-closer, event-stopper anthem, and yet the Beatles have at least three, maybe more (Top o' the head:  A Day In The Life, Let It Be, Hey Jude).   They have the most covered song in rock history - Yesterday, written and performed IN HOUSE by Sir Paul - and they haveHALF of the top ten most covered songs ever in this list (though it's obviously an incomplete list):  http://mentalfloss.com/article/20811/most-covered-songs-in-music-history.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #23 on: March 06, 2019, 12:20:50 PM »
Sorry to come in argumentative, but there is no way "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is an "iconic" song. It, and others people are listing aren't even universally liked, or even recognized for that matter*. I'd give them 3 (BH, WWRY, WATC). 2 of those are because of sporting events, the other because of Wayne's World (they are all tremendous songs, but do not reach the level they do without those factors).

I was thinking the same thing about "Crazy" - and even more so about "Fat Bottom Girls"!  FBG is "iconic"?  After the three mentioned "iconic" songs (BR, WWRY/WATC), the next two in line are "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Under Pressure" (the latter of which gets a boost because of David Bowie's involvement.

As far as "2nd most popular band ever," it's not possible to measure that directly.  Album sales is one measure of popularity, and that list looks like this (according to this 2017 article - https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/10/17/riaa-best-selling-artists-of-all-time/ ):

1. Beatles
2. Garth Brooks
3. Elvis Presley
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Eagles
...
46. Queen


If the list goes beyond album sales, it looks like this (according to Wikipedia):

1. Beatles
2. Elvis Presley
3. Michael Jackson
4. Madonna
5. Elton John
...
12. Queen


Queen doesn't even show up on lists of highest grossing concert tours (of all time or by decade).

So..."2nd most popular band ever"?  Not even close.

I think you are looking at it completely wrong.

The premise of this is how popular bands seem to be now, not how popular they were 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.  Album sales are totally irrelevant in that regard, especially since the vast majority of people do not buy albums anymore.  How much their tours grossed is irrelevant as well, especially since Queen (the original lineup, not the 1/2 lineup that tours now with Adam Lambert) has not toured since 1986.  I don't think it is unrealistic to say that if Freddie Mercury were still alive and they did a stadium tour in 2019, they'd all sell out...fast.


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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #24 on: March 06, 2019, 12:41:26 PM »
Maybe things are different in the US, but I live in a country where the nation's biggest radio station does this Top 2000 songs thing every year (started off as a one-off thing to celebrate the new millenium, now it's the largest annual radio event) and every year since its inception, except for three times, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody ended in #1.

The Beatles have always been the band that's represented the most throughout the list, but Queen always came in second. Last year, more Queen songs than ever before were on that list (35 appearances) and every single Queen song that was already on the list gained a ton of places.

Meanwhile:

Led Zeppelin: 8 songs, of which four were in the bottom half
Lynyryd Skynyrd: just 2 songs (Free Bird and Sweet Home)
The Who: 7, of which 5 in the bottom half of the list
Elton John: 11, of which 6 in the bottom half

...

Pretty sure Queen are pretty damn popular over here.

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Offline Stadler

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #25 on: March 06, 2019, 01:30:18 PM »
We have those too.  You can predict the top five almost off the top of your head.

1. Stairway To Heaven

The next four are Freebird, Hotel California, and some combination of BoRhap, Hey Jude, and Won't Get Fooled Again

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #26 on: March 06, 2019, 01:41:39 PM »
When we cruised the Mediterranean three years ago, as we made our initial way from the airport in an Italian cab, the first song we heard was 'A Kind Of Magic'.  Made us feel right at home. ;) 

They never made the 'biggest tour list', but they did bring in over 1M people for 26 dates back in '86.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tour_(Queen)

Their two nights at Wembley sold out in two hours back in the preinternet days. 

As someone who saw them warm up for Mott the Hoople....are they the second biggest or most popular?  Right now...probably. Top Ten, certainly.  Doesn't really matter to me.......

But doesn't everybody have some form of their 'greatest hits' releases?  Heck, a 20 year old friend of ours was upset that 'Fat Bottomed Girls' was used in the movie, and not 'Stone Cold Crazy'!  Didn't make sense to him (or us as well for the era represented). 

Queen did have the most official covers of any band by Dream Theater (and James did 'One Vision' as well)

(and, btw, I still have never put AOBTD on my 'Game' LP version or any GH discs.  It wasn't until Wembley when they moved it out of the encores that I began to semi enjoy it live)
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Offline Cool Chris

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #27 on: March 06, 2019, 01:41:39 PM »
Here in Seattle when I used to listen to KISW do that list, Purple Haze would be up there, due to the Hendrix local ties. Otherwise it was usually Stairway at #1. I can't recall how it usually shook out from there but your list sounds familiar.

Beatles always had the most songs on the list.

I still hate the moniker "BoRhap" more than socialists hate rich people.
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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #28 on: March 06, 2019, 01:46:03 PM »
Here in Seattle when I used to listen to KISW do that list, Purple Haze would be up there, due to the Hendrix local ties. Otherwise it was usually Stairway at #1. I can't recall how it usually shook out from there but your list sounds familiar.

Beatles always had the most songs on the list.

I still hate the moniker "BoRhap" more than socialists hate rich people.

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Offline Stadler

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #29 on: March 06, 2019, 01:46:42 PM »
When we cruised the Mediterranean three years ago, as we made our initial way from the airport in an Italian cab, the first song we heard was 'A Kind Of Magic'.  Made us feel right at home. ;) 

They never made the 'biggest tour list', but they did bring in over 1M people for 26 dates back in '86.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tour_(Queen)

Their two nights at Wembley sold out in two hours back in the preinternet days. 

As someone who saw them warm up for Mott the Hoople....are they the second biggest or most popular?  Right now...probably. Top Ten, certainly.  Doesn't really matter to me.......

But doesn't everybody have some form of their 'greatest hits' releases?  Heck, a 20 year old friend of ours was upset that 'Fat Bottomed Girls' was used in the movie, and not 'Stone Cold Crazy'!  Didn't make sense to him (or us as well for the era represented). 

Queen did have the most official covers of any band by Dream Theater (and James did 'One Vision' as well)

(and, btw, I still have never put AOBTD on my 'Game' LP version or any GH discs.  It wasn't until Wembley when they moved it out of the encores that I began to semi enjoy it live)

And where can I hear that?  That sounds AWESOME! 

Offline pg1067

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #30 on: March 06, 2019, 04:38:52 PM »
I think you are looking at it completely wrong.

The premise of this is how popular bands seem to be now, not how popular they were 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.  Album sales are totally irrelevant in that regard, especially since the vast majority of people do not buy albums anymore.  How much their tours grossed is irrelevant as well, especially since Queen (the original lineup, not the 1/2 lineup that tours now with Adam Lambert) has not toured since 1986.

I get the notion about popularity now versus overall.  I was just looking at some objective way to measure popularity.  Without that, how do we rank who's 1st or 2nd or whatever?


I don't think it is unrealistic to say that if Freddie Mercury were still alive and they did a stadium tour in 2019, they'd all sell out...fast.

If Freddie Mercury, a man who's been dead for 27+ years, suddenly came back to life, then yes, I agree.  However, "if Freddie Mercury were still alive," that would mean he'd also have been alive for the past 27+ years.  What would have happened over those 27+ years, and how would it impact Queen's popularity in the alternate universe 2019?  One thing we probably can conclude is that the movie Bohemian Rhapsody probably would not have been made, which means that the significant upturn in Queen's popularity resulting from that movie would not have happened.  Moreover, I can't think of a single "classic rock" band/artist who has enhanced its/his reputation by virtue of new material released during the time since 1990(-ish).  Maybe Queen would be a nostalgia band like Journey and Styx.





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Offline pg1067

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #31 on: March 06, 2019, 04:39:18 PM »
When we cruised the Mediterranean three years ago, as we made our initial way from the airport in an Italian cab, the first song we heard was 'A Kind Of Magic'.  Made us feel right at home. ;) 

They never made the 'biggest tour list', but they did bring in over 1M people for 26 dates back in '86.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tour_(Queen)

Their two nights at Wembley sold out in two hours back in the preinternet days. 

As someone who saw them warm up for Mott the Hoople....are they the second biggest or most popular?  Right now...probably. Top Ten, certainly.  Doesn't really matter to me.......

But doesn't everybody have some form of their 'greatest hits' releases?  Heck, a 20 year old friend of ours was upset that 'Fat Bottomed Girls' was used in the movie, and not 'Stone Cold Crazy'!  Didn't make sense to him (or us as well for the era represented). 

Queen did have the most official covers of any band by Dream Theater (and James did 'One Vision' as well)

(and, btw, I still have never put AOBTD on my 'Game' LP version or any GH discs.  It wasn't until Wembley when they moved it out of the encores that I began to semi enjoy it live)

And where can I hear that?  That sounds AWESOME!

YouTube is your friend.
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #32 on: March 06, 2019, 04:45:18 PM »
When we cruised the Mediterranean three years ago, as we made our initial way from the airport in an Italian cab, the first song we heard was 'A Kind Of Magic'.  Made us feel right at home. ;) 

They never made the 'biggest tour list', but they did bring in over 1M people for 26 dates back in '86.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tour_(Queen)

Their two nights at Wembley sold out in two hours back in the preinternet days. 

As someone who saw them warm up for Mott the Hoople....are they the second biggest or most popular?  Right now...probably. Top Ten, certainly.  Doesn't really matter to me.......

But doesn't everybody have some form of their 'greatest hits' releases?  Heck, a 20 year old friend of ours was upset that 'Fat Bottomed Girls' was used in the movie, and not 'Stone Cold Crazy'!  Didn't make sense to him (or us as well for the era represented). 

Queen did have the most official covers of any band by Dream Theater (and James did 'One Vision' as well)

(and, btw, I still have never put AOBTD on my 'Game' LP version or any GH discs.  It wasn't until Wembley when they moved it out of the encores that I began to semi enjoy it live)

And where can I hear that?  That sounds AWESOME!

YouTube is your friend.

One listening now. James sounds pretty good, but the musicians.......not so much.

Actually as it goes on, James sounds good at times, but seems tired on chorus.
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Offline 425

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #33 on: March 06, 2019, 04:58:37 PM »
I think younger people (under 25 or so) are listening to Queen far more than the other (non-Beatles) bands listed above, and this has elevated their status.

Thoughts?

I think this is exactly right. As someone under 25, from my experience of what my peers are aware of and interested in, I don't think any of those other bands even comes close to Queen.

In terms of American under-25s, in my experience:

For Zep, it's Stairway and that's it.
For the Stones, probably a handful of songs. Sympathy for the Devil and Satisfaction are the only ones I'd be confident in, though.
For The Who, maybe Baba O'Reilly, but even that is pushing it.
For Floyd, Comfortably Numb, Money, and maybe Time or Us and Them.


Queen definitely has Bohemian Rhapsody, which I would say is the single most popular rock song among Americans my age. They definitely have We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions. They very likely have Under Pressure, Somebody to Love, Another One Bites the Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.


In fact, I would go one step further and say that Queen is not that far away from the Beatles for the top spot among people in my demographic. They aren't quite there, but they are a very strong challenger. A way, way stronger one than anyone else.
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Offline Zook

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Re: Has Queen surpassed everyone to be the 2nd most popular band ever?
« Reply #34 on: March 06, 2019, 05:24:27 PM »
I won't say the Monkees are brilliant, they just had catchy tunes (didn't they also have people write those catchy songs for them?).  I really don't know why the Beatles, one of my parents favorite band playing often as a kid, just never stuck with me.  I can't explain it other than it's just not my cup of tea.

There's a thread on this somewhere here.   

I still go back to the piece on the bonus disk of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits box set, where he talks about seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time.  We were not much more than two months out from that generations 9/11 (theirs was 11/22) and this was the sort of breath of fresh air that people were yearning for.    You add up the number of artists/musicians that saw that performance and decided they wanted to make music for a living, then add up all the artists/musicians that saw ANYONE ELSE and decided they wanted to make music for a living and you probably have six in one hand, half dozen in the other. 

Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix and the Stones were all waiting with baited breath to see what the lads would come out with next.   I don't think that was the case with the next Monkees album, no matter how good it might have been (I'm not a die hard, but more than a casual, fan of the Monkees).   The Monkees don't have even one epic, show-closer, event-stopper anthem, and yet the Beatles have at least three, maybe more (Top o' the head:  A Day In The Life, Let It Be, Hey Jude).   They have the most covered song in rock history - Yesterday, written and performed IN HOUSE by Sir Paul - and they haveHALF of the top ten most covered songs ever in this list (though it's obviously an incomplete list):  http://mentalfloss.com/article/20811/most-covered-songs-in-music-history.

I'm not denying their influence, but the quality by popularity argument never holds up. The Monkees, regardless of who wrote the songs, produced more enjoyable, catchier tunes to me. Let it Be and Hey Jude are incredibly boring. I like the message of Imagine (I know it's a solo tune) but the song itself does nothing for me. I'm almost 34, but I like plenty of older tunes, so the "you had to be there" argument is weak too. I'm sure that was coming, so I'm addressing it now.

I think after Wayne's World, they became the 2nd most universally known band, largely because of the crossover appeal.

But I suppose if you consider ALBUMS, their albums/body of work is/are not as bought as Floyd or Zeppelin.

also @Zook and @cramx3 my wife has felt that exact same way about The Beatles (and THE MONKEES) for nearly her whole life. And while I am a fan of The Beatles, I have stopped trying to argue or ask her to justify her feeling of "what's the big deal about The Beatles? There's nothing special about them"... whereas to her The Monkees and especially Mike Nesmith (with the band, and even more on his own) were brilliant.

^ Is that a good justification? The Beatles are a cure for insomnia. Hell, I ironically enjoy Pink Floyd's Bike more than I will ever enjoy anything by The Beatles, and Bike is a horrible song. That being said, The Beatles win everytime against Cockroach King.

Could there be a Beatles song I could like? Maybe. I haven't heard their entire catalog, nor will I waste my time trying to find a potential needle in a haystack. They just don't do it for me.