Music Video Task 1 - Video Two

QUEEN – BOHEMAIN RHAPSODY

 
Queen was the first band I listened to when I was a kid and I remember this video back then too. I REALLY like this song and how it goes from one to another and I still remember that when the hard metal part comes on - I'm headbanging all the way!!!! I still listen to them and this song.
 

 

 

BACKGROUND

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album A Night at the Opera.

The style of this song is a stream-of-consciousness nightmare with unusual musical structure for popular music for it has no chorus but instead consisting of six seemingly disjointed sections: introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, hard rock and outro. It was released as a single and became a huge commercial success.

Bohemian Rhapsody is widely hailed as Queen’s “magnum opus” which means it’s the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest achievement by any writer artist, composer or craftsman ever even if this format with abrupt changes in style, tone and tempo, was unusual to rock music. The single was accompanied by a groundbreaking music video which helped establish the visual language of the modern music video.

The music video was directed by Bruce Gowers, who had directed a video of the band's 1974 performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and was recorded by cameraman Barry Dodd and assistant director/floor manager Jim McCutcheon. The video was recorded in just four hours on 10 November 1975, at a cost of £4,500. The director said that the band was involved in the discussion of the video and the end result, and "was a co-operative to that extent, but there was only one leader."

 

In January 1976, Freddie Mercury was interviewed by Sounds magazinregarding the writing process of the song:

“I’m going to shatter some illusions, it was just one of those pieces I wrote for the album: just writing my batch of songs. In its early stages I almost rejected it, but then it grew. We started deciding on a single about halfway through. There were a few contenders - we were thinking of ‘The Prophet’s Song’ at one point - but then ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ seemed the one.”

 

 

 

PROMOTIONAL TOOL

 

It was this video that became regular practice for record companies to produce promotional videos for artists' single releases so this was a good way show off to the other artists about what they could do with their own music videos.

 

This video shows a lot of the clothing that were worn back into the 70s but the video also shows the band playing the instruments that clearly proves that the band can play their own music.

 

Close ups of Freddie Mercury are shown quite a bit throughout the video which points out to the audience that he’s the lead singer but there are shots of where you can see other band members as well.

 

SYNERGY

The music video if released today, people would not think it was made the 21^st century – but then again because of this video – there wouldn’t be any creative ideas that goes into the music videos that we see today.

 

In the closing seconds of the video Roger Taylor is shown stripped to the waist, striking the tam tam in the manner of the trademark of the Rank Organisation's Gongman, familiar in the UK as the opening of all Rank film productions.

 

The song has been covered a lot by many artists – the most notable one is the Muppets version. This cover is perhaps best known for its music video rather than the song which was originally posted on YouTube on November 23, 2009 before the release of the track. The video features multiple Muppets characters singing partially modified lyrics of the original song and garnered over seven million hits within its first week of release.

 

The video and song is an official production of The Muppets Studio. The success of the video caused Walt Disney Records to release the cover as a single on December 13, 2009, where it reached #32 on the UK Singles Chart.

 

 

 

FAN REACTION/CRITICS REPECTION

 

 Although the song has become one of the most revered in popular music history, some of the critical reaction was poor.


Melody Maker said that Queen "contrived to approximate the demented fury of the Balham Amateur Operatic Society performing The Pirates of Penzance". The newspaper's critic Allan Jones heard only a "superficially impressive pastiche" of operatic styles.

 

Nevertheless the song has won numerous awards, and has been covered and parodied by many artists. In 1977, only two years after its release, the British Phonographic Industry named "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the best British single of the period 1952–77. It is a regular entry in greatest-songs polls, and it was named by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002 as the top British single of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed this song in the 163rd spot on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is also listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

The video has been hailed as launching the MTV age, although critical reaction was initially mixed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" remains one of Queen's most popular songs. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as number 163 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

 

Also not too long ago back in July 2012 "Bohemian Rhapsody" topped the list on an ITV nationwide poll to find 'The Nation's Favourite Number One' over 60 years of music

 

The poll was voted number 1 by the British public and beat records such as Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (No.2), Adele's, "Someone like You" (No.3) and Oasis', "Don't Look Back in Anger" (No.4). The single was accompanied by a promotional video, which many scholars consider ground-breaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AVAILABILTIY

Since it was made in the late 70s, apart from watching it on TV, there wouldn’t be at the time internet. Then when VHS tapes came out, there were the “Best of” where music videos are included and now that we have internet – YouTube, VEVO, MusicJesus.com where we can see the video as often as we like.

 

As for CDs and DVDs, there was no such thing in the 70s so the older generation had to wait  but since the video has been talked about since the 70s there was no need as the younger generation would look back and see why it is so talked about after all this time.