Feb
12
Cultural Clues, from Richard Owen
February 12, 2013 |
Queen's Lady Gaga was a huge hit globally. It was beloved in the UK. It was Queen's major seller before their "live aid" moment which spurred them on to their greatest album and peak success.
I recently read, however, that it was a dud in the USA. Queen had been on the ascendant there. Thereafter, their name in the US was on a downward spiral. Which was aberrational as Queen were major sellers in pretty much every major western country.
Why? Apparently the comedic video, featuring the band all dressed up as women, left Americans with a funny feeling in their gut.
I guess to politics, religion and honeys one needs to add humour?
The market equivalent would be Blackstone (i) buying Celanese in Germany, (ii) fussing around and doing some jazz hands in the interim, and then (iii) reselling the same company in the USA for twice the price.
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Queen was pretty much a #1 act until Freddy Mercury’s untimely death from complications of AIDS back in 1991. I never remember a moment from 1973-1991 that Queen was not on everyone’s top 10 list. The Billboard numbers don’t show a significant decline that could be aberrational either. Queen was huge and I saw them at least 5 times and was rewarded with great entertainment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_%28band%29 Why would Queen in drag bother American sensibilities? After all, we had Liberace, Elton John, Flip Wilson, and David Bowie and their high camp behavior entertained Americans and didn’t cause offense.
Great points, the analysis might be a bust. It was from the mouth of Brian May who was mournful of their loss of America thereafter. But perhaps he was overstating the case.
Ps. I should have written “I Want to Break Free” where I wrote “Lady Gaga”.