During the 1970’s, there were many different genres of music being tossed about, specifically the various branches of rock. There was hard rock, metal, progressive rock, and much more. It was this kind of music that inspired many to get to where they are now. A British man named Farrokh Bulsara also enjoyed listening to this type of music. He met a band named Smile which lost a member soon after. Farrokh joined as the lead vocalist in 1970 and renamed the band Queen.

Upon joining this band, Freddie Mercury began to write songs- songs that would hit the charts big time. The first two albums, Queen and Queen II, were hits in the UK, but it wasn’t until Sheer Heart Attack in 1974 and A Night at the Opera in 1975 that the band became an international success. “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the first of many to hit #1 not just on charts in the UK, but in the US as well.

I’d like to focus on “Bohemian Rhapsody” for this blog, just because of the impact that it made worldwide. This is still named one of the best singles of all time. It sold over 1 million copies in 1975 but has sold many more since Mercury’s death and its feature on Wayne’s World. There was even a nationwide poll in the UK in 2012 that declared it as the nation’s favorite 70’s hit. But why all the fuss? This song contains quite a few different styles of music, including opera and rock. It goes from 5 part harmony to incredible guitar and aria-like solos. In some sections, the song had 180 overdubs, taking a total of 3 weeks to completely record. It was the most expensive recording of its time. Queen had stated that the overall idea of the song was that the narrator had killed someone and had sold his soul to the devil. Right before his execution, he called out to God for help, and, with the help of angels, regains his soul. However, Mercury later states that the song was meant to be ambiguous- that listeners are to discover their own meaning to the song.

It all comes back to, “Why?” Why was it so popular? What was it about the song that captured the attention of listeners worldwide? The opera? The piano playing? The guitar solos? The amorphous lyrics? Or perhaps the combination of all the above? There’s no way I could cover this topic in just one blog post, so I’ll leave you with those questions. I’m just heartbroken that we didn’t discuss this in class!

Of course the main topics of discussion while going over music of the 1980’s in class were rap and rock. These two genres were so influential to contemporary music today’s artists that it would be impossible to skip over them. That’s why I’m going to fill in a little spot that we neglected, and that is Steampunk. Steampunk started out in the early 80’s, Thomas Dolby being thought of as the first person to kickstart this. It is said that Thomas Dolby is to Steampunk as Iggy Pop is to punk, though I never would have made this connection. There never was an official consensus as to what the genre essentially consisted of, but is gathered that the Steampunk culture is “geared” towards 19th century United States, when steam powered machines were very popular, as well as the wild west and victorian themes. This isn’t necessarily seen in the music. Thomas Dolby’s music mixes rock, techno, new wave,folk music, and much more to form his unique sound, which is overall a new wave creation. More current Steampunk bands, such as Steam Powered Giraffe, are more on the rock side of things but could also be well described as Cabaret Punk.

All throughout his solo career, synth was essential for Dolby. It is because of this that he earned the name “Dolby” from his friends. His talents got him as far as performing with David Bowie, being featured albums from Foreigner, Def Leppard, and featuring Eddie Van Halen in a few of his works, such as ‘Close But No Cigar’. It is thought that, though Dolby’s sound isn’t quite the punk we were looking for, he was a key component in the vintage sci-fi/fantasy movement.

There later came a band in 2003 that even based its name off of the famous 19th century author, Jules Vern. The Vernian Process combines victorian clothing, steam powered mechanisms, cabaret music, and futuristic sci-fi to create a picture and genre of music that is quite different from your ordinary “punk” band. Along with the Vernian Process there then came Steam Powered Giraffe who also has a similar sound, though slightly more on the contemporary. The Vernian Process features more strings and orchestral music while Steam Powered Giraffe has more of the typical “lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums” set-up, though some banjo and mandolin is also featured.

Steampunk is such a sensitive topic because no one could truly give a completely accurate definition of its culture; it is such a combination of genres, cultures, and time periods that it just is. It is its own entity that, because it possesses so many musical styles, it has acquired a fairly large fan base. Give it a listen; it will definitely get the cogs in your head turning!

A few weeks ago, we had discussed the topic of glam rock. This was the idea that music and live performances also had to be a sort of act. Artists began to dress up especially for their concerts. Previously, most artist just wore jeans and a t-shirt, if that. Now, artists were making an even larger spectacle of themselves by wearing flamboyant clothes, a pound of facial make-up, and several cans of hairspray.  Rock was always known as a more ‘manly’ genre of music, with the heavy guitar, bass, and awesome drum solos. When these outfits and personas started appearing, the sexual orientation of artists came into question.

An artist who took this to extremes was none other than David Bowie. Bowie had many outfits for many personas he would take on during his performances, one of the most popular known as “Ziggy Stardust”. Of course people were startled with Bowie’s new take on the genre and immediately started wondering what ‘team’ he ‘played’ for. Regardless, David was the hottest thing on the music market at that time, and his music was enjoyed by many fans. The artist confessed during multiple interviews that he considered himself a bisexual, the earliest date being January 22, 1972. As I was doing some background research for this blog, I was reading Wikipedia. Within the sexuality section on the David Bowie page, I saw something about an affair with Mick Jagger, so I decided to look into that. I found, after a little digging, that David Bowie had an affair with Rolling Stones lead singer, Mick Jagger.

In the spring of 1973, David Bowie was invited to a Rolling Stones concert by Jagger. Jagger paid for the hotel and even sent flowers. By October  of that year, the two lived down the street from each other. One day, Bowie’s bisexual wife came home to be told by a maid that someone was in her bed. She went to the bedroom to find David and Mick naked, in bed together. Mrs. Bowie didn’t have a problem the fact that her husband was sleeping with a man, since the couple was known to share partners. She was, however, concerned that Jagger would take away from the young, creative genius of David.

The intense emotional and sexual relationship between Bowie and Jagger went on for quite some time, and it was thought of as being very serious. Mrs. Bowie was even jealous because she had always wanted to see like Jagger was in that ‘department’. As far as anyone knows, the two are no longer that close, though the remain good friends. I am personally more of a Mick Jagger fan and it upsets me that he would stoop so low as to sleep with Bowie. Though David is a fantastic and creative songwriter, it was said in one of Jagger’s interviews that Jagger especially liked sleeping with Bowie because he wanted to stay cool and appeal to the newer generation. Ironically, Keith Richards later commented, “Mick could deliver ten times more than Bowie in just a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Why would you want to be anything else if you’re Mick Jagger?”

Of course this is one of the many directions that glam rock went, but I chose to take about this affair in general since both partners were very influential in the rock genre and most people are unaware of the history between the two. The more you know!