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Moving the sections about the band to YMMV.Queen Band.
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!! For the band:
* AccidentalInnuendo: The fact that a flamboyantly gay singer named his band Music/{{Queen}} is purely coincidental.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: "One Vision" was obviously written as a cheesy plea for an end to war, famine, religious intolerance and other problems pop stars tend to call "bad things". However, due to the vagueness of the lyrics, it's more than a little ironic that it can be interpreted as a fascist anthem from the perspective of a frustrated wannabe-fuhrer. The Slovenian art-rock group Laibach did a version in German for this very reason which they re-titled "Birth of a Nation".
* AmericansHateTingle:
** The band's foray into funk with the album ''Hot Space'' cost them their American fanbase (''kind'' of, see "Common Knowledge" below), which never truly recovered until [[PosthumousPopularityPotential after Freddie Mercury's death]].
** The band cross-dressing in the video for "I Want to Break Free" squicked out a lot of the band's American audience at the time, who were unaware the video was parodying the British soap opera ''Series/CoronationStreet''.
* {{Applicability}}: What exactly are their songs about again? According to the band themselves, whatever you want.
* AudienceAlienatingEra: Many fans hate the disco album ''Hot Space'' with a passion. Releasing a {{disco}} album in 1982 proved to be a very poor move, and indeed [[PopularityPolynomial they fell out of favor]] [[AmericansHateTingle in the US]] for quite some time. The only song from it that most people will defend is "Under Pressure", the famous duet with Music/DavidBowie[[note]]some also include "Body Language," as against all odds it did manage to crack the American Top 20[[/note]]. Both John Deacon and Roger Taylor also expressed their dislike for it several times. On the other hand, Freddie virtually wrote its sequel for his debut solo project, and Music/MichaelJackson cited it as a major influence on ''Music/{{Thriller}}''. Moreover, while most people tend to acknowledge ''The Cosmos Rocks'' (their one and only album after Freddie Mercury's death), some of the other activities Taylor have been involved with (e.g. recording with Music/BritneySpears and Music/{{Five}}) are treated as if they'd never happened.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** "One Vision" — how many people who didn't already know to look for it were surprised when singing the track on ''[[VideoGame/RockBand Rock Band 2]]'', and seeing that the last words were "fried chicken" instead of the repeated title? The story as to why they included it is well documented, but the line still comes out of nowhere.
** Similarly, in their song "I'm Going Slightly Mad", the line "I think I'm a banana tree," which even the band found amusingly out-there.
** "Get Down, Make Love", a raunchy hard rock tune that breaks into a fit of electronic weirdness about 2/3s of the way.
* BrokenBase:
** 1982's ''Hot Space''. Some fans praise the album for its production, vocal harmonies, and willingness to try something different and transcend musical boundaries. Alternatively, it's hated and considered to be below to the band's standards, mainly because of the use of [[ScrappyMechanic synthesized bass and drum machines]] and the fact that May's guitar is essentially DemotedToExtra.
*** Despite the fact that his role in the band was essentially usurped by machines on the album, it was actually John Deacon who pushed the band towards using more synthesizers and pre-programmed beats, as both Deacon and Mercury were very interested in the funk and dance music they heard in American clubs. May and Taylor, on the other hand, viewed the entire project as a mistake, and the fact that they are for all intents and purposes Queen in the twenty-first century may have influenced the album's status as TheUnfavorite of the catalogue.
** While ''The Works'' was considered somewhat of a return to form following ''Hot Space'', fans were split more once ''A Kind of Magic'' was released. The fact that it's a film soundtrack to ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' was already polarizing enough, as that was a common criticism regarding ''Flash Gordon'', but unlike ''Hot Space'' and ''The Works'', which have at least ''one'' standout song each in the form of "Under Pressure" and "Radio Ga Ga", most of the songs on ''A Kind of Magic'' are generally considered to be unmemorable, with songs even such as "Who Wants To Live Forever" generally not having memorable rhythms to them, while other fans were still able to cherish such songs, and point out that it has an overall more consistent quality of songs compared to the last two albums. Thankfully, ''The Miracle'' and ''Innuendo'' would remedy this issue by still keeping a consistent quality, while also having more memorable standout songs.
** On a broader level, there's debate on which Queen era is the best and how long they kept up their quality. Some people like Queen's early prog influences (i.e. ''Music/QueenII'') and dislike everything else. Or they feel that everything after ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' indicated Queen's decline. Or they like all of Queen's work in TheSeventies and dislike their work in TheEighties, only coming back after ''Music/{{Innuendo}}''.
** Whether the band should have kept going after Freddie died. Some say that Queen isn't Queen without him, others say it's great that they can still stay relevant. Also over whether Adam Lambert is worthy frontman.
* CargoShip: "I'm in Love with My Car" on ''A Night at the Opera'' is a [[InUniverse canon]] example:
-->''With my hand on your [[SexualEuphemism grease gun]]''
-->''[[HoYay Oh, it's like a]] [[HarsherInHindsight disease]], son''
* CommonKnowledge:
** Everyone who's even barely interested in Queen is aware that they lost their American fanbase following the negative reception of ''Hot Space''... except that's not entirely true. Although they did stop touring there and didn't have the same iconic status that some of their other '70s peers had in the '80s, they were hardly "unheard of" and definitely weren't "unpopular" by that point. What eventually ''did'' alienate the American fanbase was the video for "I Want to Break Free", since crossdressing was not part of the comedy repertoire across the pond at the time and the show they were spoofing, ''Series/CoronationStreet'', was unknown in the US to anyone other than hard-core lovers of Creator/{{PBS}}. Their performances at Sun City in apartheid South Africa in late 1984 also significantly harmed their American reputation, and the stigma from it stuck around for a while there, even after Live Aid a few months later.
** The idea that the band broke up after Freddie Mercury's death and the release of ''Made in Heaven''. While the band didn't put out any studio albums for a long time since then, not to mention bassist John Deacon's retirement in 1997, they never formally dissolved and have remained active into the present day. In fact, they eventually put out a sixteenth album, ''The Cosmos Rocks'' (in collaboration with [[Music/BadCompany Paul Rodgers]]), in 2008. However, because that album was poorly received by both fans and critics, it's subjected to such heavy amounts of FanonDiscontinuity (and possibly CanonDiscontinuity given that it was left out of the band's 2011 remastering campaign) that even Website/{{Wikipedia}} is reluctant to classify it as a "proper" Queen album, giving ''Made in Heaven'' the title of Queen's last studio record under the technicality of ''The Cosmos Rocks'' being attributed to "Queen + Paul Rodgers."
* CoveredUp: A rare non-song example: ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' and ''Music/ADayAtTheRaces'' are better known as Queen albums than as Creator/TheMarxBrothers movies in some circles.
* CreatorWorship:
** [[SchmuckBait Go ahead; say that Queen is a bad band]]. Even among people who despise ArenaRock as a whole, you'll find that damn near all of them will make a huge exception for Queen. It helps that the band had genuine artistry and sophistication behind them that ran counter to the typical fratboy image of the genre, partly the result of them including an astrophysicist (Brian May), a graphic designer (Freddie Mercury), and a biologist (Roger Taylor) in their lineup, leading to plenty of {{genius bonus}}es, and that they displayed heavy enthusiasm for genres typically outside the scope of arena rock (including classical music, funk, and SynthPop). The fact that all four members are considered amongst the [[NiceGuy nicest guys]] in music has even cemented this further.
** Freddie Mercury himself. Disliking him or thinking he is overrated will inevitably generate a lot of flak. Even those who dislike Queen as a band will often recognize Freddie's abilities as a singer, musician, and frontman.
* CriticalBacklash: ''Hot Space'' is pointed out so often as Queen's low point that it has left people wondering if it's really that bad. Today, an increasing number of fans have started to appreciate the album.
* CriticalDissonance: Their popularity with the music press was inversely proportionate to their popularity with their audiences. By the onset of the 1980s, they could have legitimately claimed to be the biggest band in the world, but at the same time ''Magazine/RollingStone'' was denouncing them as "the world's first fascist rock band". Of course, after Freddie's death, this perspective became vastly different. See VindicatedByHistory below.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: In private, they kept the rule of being four equal parts and having no sidemen, so each one considered himself 25% of the band, no more, no less. In public, however, it wasn't quite like that: early publicity material was focused on Brian, and the first time they had any media coverage it was about the fact Music/BrianMay had made his own guitar. Freddie only started receiving attention around mid-70's, and he'd soon become the focal point both in terms of public perception and songwriting... until John Deacon began writing big hits in the early 80's and then Roger Taylor afterwards.
** Post-''Film/BohemianRhapsody'', Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon all seemed to amass pretty sizable fandoms individually, especially among younger fans, as evidenced by the avalanche of fan accounts dedicated to each band member on various social media platforms.
** Also, all of their three main producers had to work their way up: Roy Thomas Baker was 'just' an engineer and only took over when the main producer (John Anthony) fell ill, but the band liked him and kept him for future projects; Reinhold Mack was hired as engineer and was made producer after 'The Game' album was so successful; David Richards began as engineer, then helping Roger Taylor on solo projects and was made producer in 1986 (8 years after he'd first met them, 7 years after their first project together).
** As mentioned below, ''Queen II'' has become quite popular among fans of the band, particularly those inclined toward ProgressiveRock.
* EpicRiff:
** Lots, from "Keep Yourself Alive" to "White Man" to "Another One Bites the Dust", an epic bass riff.
** "We Will Rock You". Off the top of your head, how many ''body percussion'' riffs can you name?
** The bass from "Under Pressure".
%%* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Most of the dissections and analyses of "Bohemian Rhapsody" tend to veer off into this category.
* FaceOfTheBand:
** Music/FreddieMercury. Overlaps in the public mind with IAmTheBand, as even the fans who ''don't'' regard new singers as {{replacement Scrapp|y}}ies will tend to agree that there is no Queen without Freddie. Of course, there wouldn't be a Queen without Music/BrianMay, either; his distinctive guitar style is just as important to Queen's trademark sound as Freddie's vocals and, according to Freddie himself (Circus mag, 1977), if ANY of the four left, it'd be the end of Queen.
** This trope could slightly apply as the band's career went on, with the gradual reduction in the amount of songs with lead vocals by the other members.
** Invoked by Taylor in early tour posters which he designed, amusingly boasting 'Legendary Cornish Drummer Roger Taylor... and his band Queen', much to the annoyance of the other band members.
** As lead guitarist, co-founder/spokesman, and especially after Freddie's death, Music/BrianMay has often been designated as the face of Queen. This also means that the responsibility of the band's legacy has been directed towards him.
* FanNickname: "Bo Rhap" for "Bohemian Rhapsody" (acknowledge by Freddie in some concerts and interviews), "Deacy" (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, "Deaky") for John Deacon (used often by Brian May—Roger and Freddie always called him John, though), "Maylor" for Music/BrianMay + Roger Taylor, and "Dr. May" for May (recently a certified [=PhD=], which makes it accurate).
* FanonDiscontinuity:
** Narrowly averted with ''Hot Space'', because of the presence of Music/DavidBowie on "Under Pressure", the one (and usually only) track that everyone enjoys.
** To a lesser extent, ''Made in Heaven'', though this is mainly concerning ''Innuendo'''s status as a DyingMomentOfAwesome to the fandom more than anything else.
** The Paul Rodgers album. Many fans feel that the lack of Freddie makes it not a Queen album. Even non-fans have commented that it ''sounds'' more like a Paul Rodgers album than Queen, and Website/{{Wikipedia}} outright refuses to classify it as a "proper" Queen album.
** The fact that Music/AdamLambert joined the band after Rodgers' departure.
* FriendlyFandoms: Thanks to the "Under Pressure" collaboration, Queen fans and Music/DavidBowie fans tend to intersect quite a bit.
** Also ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' since their contributions to the soundtrack are such a major part of the franchise's legacy that some even jokingly call the original movie a feature-length Queen music video.
* GeniusBonus:
** "'39" makes a lot more sense if you understand Relativity...and remember that Music/BrianMay was studying for a degree in Astrophysics when the band was formed, and now has his doctorate.
** In [[http://www.npr.org/2010/08/03/128935865/queens-brian-may-rocks-out-to-physics-photography an interview with NPR]] Brian May discussed the iconic "stomp stomp clap" intro for "We Will Rock You." The band recorded a few people stomping/clapping, then Brian overdubbed multiple times, with time delays of prime numbers so that the stomping would not harmonize. The results, a sound that sounds like a stadium stomping the intro, despite only being a few people. Ladies and Gentlemen, ''math rocks.''
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** They were (and still are) wildly popular in Japan, which was acknowledged with the Japanese lyrics of "Teo Toriatte". Heck many manga and anime use Freddie's design for their character such as ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'', ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'', and ''Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable''.
** According to Brian May, Queen was worried for a time that they'd neglected their native Britain during the seventies (in spite of their considerable success at home) in favour of making it in America, but the massive success of their free concert in Hyde Park in 1977 allayed their fears.
** When their [[TheEighties 1980s]] music and {{Camp}} image (and a payola scandal on EMI, their second label) alienated much of their American fanbase, they concentrated on England, Europe, Japan and South America both as touring stops and music markets, aided by their early adoption of video promotion. A large amount of Queen's music became hits overseas, but didn't do nearly as well by comparison in the states.
* GrowingTheBeard: ''Sheer Heart Attack'' is regarded as the band's first great album. Fan opinion is divided on whether or not they lost the beard with ''Hot Space'' and when it was grown back.
** The early and late (i.e. no-synth and synth) periods of the band (the former as an art/progressive-rock album band, the latter as a mainstream pop group) are reflected in their long/short hair periods as well as Freddie's moustache.
*** You could say that, rather than having grown a second beard, they...[[IncrediblyLamePun grew a mustache]].
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Freddie's statement that "we're going to stay together until we fucking well die, I assure you." Ouch.
** That line is followed by "I keep wanting to leave... but they won't let me!"
** The song "I'm Going Slightly Mad" is a silly song, full of weird metaphors, but once you learn it was written reflecting Freddie's real-life AIDS dementia...
** Some of the lyrics of "Bohemian Rhapsody", especially the ones relating the impending death of Freddie's character.
** "Hammer to Fall" really sounds as if it was written after Freddie was diagnosed with AIDS, the lyrics are eerily apt, but it was actually written a couple of years before he even contracted HIV. On top of that, it was written by Music/BrianMay, with the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in mind.
*** For an example of why people made this connection, the line "Build your muscles as your body decays" is actually about the superpowers wasting disproportionate amounts of money on military assets and nuclear bombs while their economies stagnate, but it takes on a whole new context when you know one of the symptoms of AIDS is atrophying muscle mass.
** Most of Queen's material post-AIDS diagnosis (''Music/TheMiracle'', ''Innuendo'', ''Made in Heaven'') can be seen as a mixture of this and HeartwarmingInHindsight.
*** Listen to "Khashoggi's Ship" from ''Music/TheMiracle'' for an example, as Freddie sings "Who said that my party was all over?/Uh huh, I'm in pretty good shape" with the knowledge that he'd be gone in a few years time. Ouch.
*** There are a '''bunch''' of songs from that period that can be considered "farewell songs", intentionally or not, for this reason. This includes "The Miracle", "Was it All Worth It" (allegedly intended to be a DyingMomentOfAwesome, as Freddie didn't expect to make as much material as he did later in life), "Don't Try So Hard", "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (notable for being Freddie's final on-screen appearance in the music video), "Delilah" ([[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments a farewell to his favorite cat]]), "Bijou", "The Show Must Go On", "Mother Love" (the last recorded song Freddie ever sang on), and "A Winter's Tale" (the last song Freddie ever wrote).
** The album title ''Sheer Heart Attack'' after Brian May revealed in May 2020 that he'd been hospitalized [[TemptingFate after having a heart attack.]] For what it's worth, though, May took it in stride.
--> I wondered if [[DudeNotFunny it might upset some people]] who had actually had heart attacks. I'm actually quite relieved now that I'm in that club-- [[GallowsHumor and I don't find it upsetting at all!]]
* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
** From "Radio Ga Ga". The scene where Freddie is standing in front of the clock and his band mates materialise in front of him and put their hands on their hips almost like guarding him. When Freddie was diagnosed with Aids his band mates did their best to shield him from media scrutiny denying he was sick.
** From Music/FreddieMercury himself: "When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance." [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments He doesn't know how right he is]].
* HilariousInHindsight: When inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Roger Taylor (who was a dentistry student at one point) said that it was just like getting a Ph.D. A few years later, Music/BrianMay actually got his Ph.D. in astrophysics.
** "Radio Ga Ga", which came out right around the time when MTV was starting to take off and become a phenomenon, has one particular lyric: "So stick around, cause we might miss you when we grow tired of all this vision." 30 years later, MTV hardly even plays music videos anymore, while Internet and satellite radio, allowing listeners access to countless songs and genres of music, have become wildly popular.
* HoYay: Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor: best friends, metrosexuals, exceptionally good with high falsetto vocals, party animals, heavy smokers (at least at some point) and drinkers. It's probably no surprise that Freddie and Roger roomed together as college students. Need more proof? Just listen to unreleased track "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6PZmBFLPdU Dog With a Bone]]".
* HypeBacklash: Almost inevitable, given their extensive praise as important musicians, with many people even worshipping them as gods. The general consensus is that, while they have memorable singles, none of the albums, besides ''A Night at the Opera'', is impressive.
* IAmNotShazam: Due to Freddie's FaceOfTheBand status, occasionally there are those who see Freddie as "Queen", or that Queen is Freddie's solo project or stage name rather than referring to the band itself.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: They've become this in the years after Freddie Mercury's death. "Theatre/WeWillRockYou" and "Film/BohemianRhapsody" have only solidified this sentiment amongst the older fans.
* JustHereForGodzilla: While their music has received mixed reception at times, Queen has been recognized as one of ''the'' greatest live bands with one of rock's greatest frontmen and lead singers. Their performance at Live AID is frequently recognized as the best live performance of all time. Even for people who are otherwise not a fan of the band have agreed with the assessment.
* MemeticBadass: Freddie. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvg6ZP-HTCA 'Nuff said]]. AIDS didn't kill him, he merely [[TooCoolToLive imploded from sheer awesomeness]] and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended back to the higher plane of existence]] from whence he came. [[WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory He didn't leave a mark on history, he French kissed it]].
* MemeticMutation:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a an example of a classically successful [[http://allisonpregler.tumblr.com/post/167240580822/pyrrhiccomedy-catwinchester-evieplease meme]].
** An audition art piece submitted to Marvel comics by an unidentified would-be artist, showing ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} wandering around a forest and suddenly being confronted by Freddie, achieved somewhat memetic status among comics fans when it was posted online by artist Steve Bunch.
** Putting Freddie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSS3GTmKWVA in]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVmf7qKF_Y silly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gPcpDgeI4 situations]] with dialogue spliced together from various Queen songs.
** "Do what you want with my music, just don’t make it boring."
* MisaimedFandom:
** "Bicycle Race" is often misinterpreted as Freddie Mercury's ode to his own bisexuality. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It is simply a song about riding and racing bicycles]].
** "I Want It All" is about ambition (the title deriving from writer Brian May's wife's favorite sayings), not a gay anthem or anti-Apartheid as some have interpreted it.
* NarmCharm: "Somebody to Love" is a good song, despite-- or perhaps because of-- the fact that the other three guys sound like background singers from a Disney film.
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** It's not uncommon to find people under the impression that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was originally written and recorded for ''Film/WaynesWorld'' in 1992, which happens to be a year after Freddie's death.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is frequently thought to be the first "real" MusicVideo, but Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and other groups did plenty of music videos throughout the 60s and 70s. Queen ''themselves'' had a few videos before that as well. Making videos as part of their marketing strategy wasn't by any means as widespread as it'd become later (thanks, in no small part, to "Bohemian Rhapsody"), but they were certainly common enough back then to already be in common parlance (they were called "pop-promos").
* OneSceneWonder:
** Music/DavidBowie joining up for "Under Pressure", generally regarded as one of the best musical collaborations of all time.
** Steve Howe playing a relatively short (compared to Music/{{Yes}} and Music/{{Asia}} standards) flamenco guitar solo on "Innuendo", which has become a classic and one loads of people around the world try to learn and replicate (oddly appropriate given that Brian May asked Steve to do it because he couldn't manage it).
** The half-minute operatic section on "'Bohemian Rhapsody" is arguably one of the first things people recall about Queen in spite of being very different to 99% of things the band did before or since.
* ParanoiaFuel: "The Invisible Man".
-->''I'm your meanest thought''
-->''I'm your darkest fear''
-->''But I'll never get caught''
-->''You can't shake me, shake me dear''
* PosthumousPopularityPotential: While the band's popularity in the US [[AmericansHateTingle waned]] in TheEighties, their reception among Americans recovered after Freddie Mercury's death in TheNineties.
* ReplacementScrappy:
** Paul Rodgers. His tours with the band and the addition of Music/BadCompany and Free songs to the set were actually fairly popular with fans, but the less said about the original album they recorded, the better. Though Rodgers ''wasn't a replacement''. It was "Queen teams up with Paul Rodgers", not "Paul Rodgers becomes a member of Queen".
** ''Any'' singer who has performed with Queen since Freddie's death (except from the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert) has been seen as a ReplacementScrappy by fans.
** A new contender for "Most hated Queen lead vocalist who isn't Freddie" is ''Series/AmericanIdol'' singer Adam Lambert. Reaction to his announcement of a tour with Queen was met negatively to say the least, although once he actually started performing a substantial number of fans [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap were pleasantly surprised]].
** Though not as much as the lead singers, the bassists who have replaced John Deacon have received their fair share of vitriol from some fans. In some cases, though, they're barely noticed.
** Happened to their producer Reinhold Mack as well: though loved and respected by the band back when they worked together, Tony Iommi (in his autobiography) suggested Brian wasn't too keen on him at the end. Fans also tend to blame him for what they consider to be the dark period for the band (''Hot Space'' in particular) while they're far more appreciative of Roy Baker (intermittently producing their early albums from ''Queen'' to ''Jazz'') and David Richards (''The Miracle'', ''Innuendo'' and ''Made in Heaven'', plus bits of ''A Kind of Magic'').
* SacredCow: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has this reputation as far as individual songs are concerned, due to its status as Queen's foremost SignatureSong, and that it's regarded as one of the greatest (or probably ''the'' greatest) songs of all time, so criticizing it as pretentious tripe, admitting to disliking it or attempting to cover it (we're looking at you, Music/KanyeWest) is bound to make someone wish they were dead.
* SignatureSong: By album:
** ''Queen'' – "Keep Yourself Alive"
** ''Queen II'' – "Seven Seas Of Rhye"
** ''Sheer Heart Attack'' — "Killer Queen"
** ''A Night at the Opera'' — "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"You're My Best Friend"
** ''A Day at the Races'' — "Somebody To Love"/"Tie Your Mother Down"
** ''News of the World'' — "We Will Rock You"/"We Are The Champions"
** ''Jazz'' — "Don't Stop Me Now"/"Fat Bottomed Girls"
** ''The Game'' — "Another One Bites The Dust"/"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
** ''Flash Gordon'' – "Flash"
** ''Hot Space'' — "Under Pressure" with Music/DavidBowie/"Body Language" (to some extent)
** ''The Works'' — "Radio Ga Ga"/"I Want To Break Free"
** ''A Kind of Magic'' — "Who Wants To Live Forever"/"Princes Of The Universe"
** ''The Miracle'' — "I Want It All"/"The Miracle"
** ''Innuendo'' — "The Show Must Go On"/"These Are the Days of Our Lives"
** ''Made In Heaven'' — "Made in Heaven" (even if it's a cover of one of Freddie Mercury's solo songs)
** Overall — "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the ''News of the World'' signatures are the frontrunners, with "Dust", "Pressure" and "Don't Stop" not far behind.
** As a band, Queen was also notable for each band member contributing at least one SignatureSong for themselves and the band. By band member:
*** Music/FreddieMercury wrote the most number of hit songs, with "Bohemian Rhapsody" being the most well known and defining for him and the band as a whole. "We Are The Champions" is another iconic song and pairs well with Brian's own SignatureSong.
*** Music/BrianMay is best known for "We Will Rock You", with its stomp-stomp-clap being a staple at sporting events.
*** Roger Taylor's most defining Queen song came later in the form of "Radio Ga Ga". It also became well-known for its crowd participation element with everyone clapping in unison.
*** John Deacon wrote "Another One Bites The Dust", which ended up being the band's biggest hit and one of their few Billboard Hot 100 No.1 songs. The song was so successful that it briefly motivated the band to change musical direction.
* StuckInTheirShadow: While John Deacon is considered one of the best bassists in rock music, his personality was too reserved to make him as memorable as the more dynamic band members ([[Music/FleetwoodMac like some]] [[Music/TheWho other nonetheless talented]] [[Music/DreamTheater bass guitarists]] [[Music/LedZeppelin called John]].)
** This trope can apply to Queen as a whole. Although all four of the band members were strong songwriters and musicians, Freddie Mercury has received the lion share of attention as the most famous member of the band. In many lists of "Greatest Singer" or "Greatest Frontmen", expect to see Freddie at or near the top.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Another One Bites the Dust" is this of the disco band Music/{{Chic}}'s "Good Times". Justified as Chic's Bernard Edwards says that John Deacon, the song's writer, hung out at their studio, leading to this song.
** The song's bassline and rhythm is also pretty reminiscent of "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang -- [[FridgeBrilliance which makes sense]], since that was based entirely around a looped sample from the aforementioned "Good Times".
** "The Invisible Man" has frequently been likened to the title theme of ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' by Ray Parker, Jr. - which itself is a SuspiciouslySimilarSong to Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews' "I Want a New Drug".
* TooCoolToLive: Freddie.
* ToughActToFollow:
** ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' is frequently considered to be Queen's best and most famous album. After this album and ''Music/ADayAtTheRaces'', the band would deliberately aim for a more stripped down approach.
** ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' is so highly thought of as the band's de-facto GrandFinale that every piece of new material that they've released since then has been measured up against it. As a result, ''Music/MadeInHeaven'' and "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" are typically treated as optional epilogues rather than the "true" end to the Queen story, and the Paul Rodgers collaboration ''The Cosmos Rocks'' is frequently thrown into FanonDiscontinuity. Roger Taylor himself [[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-new-music-roger-taylor/ admitted]] that the challenge of living up to ''Innuendo'' and the rest of the band's legacy is a major factor in why Queen hasn't recorded any new, original material since ''The Cosmos Rocks''.
* ValuesResonance:
** Like Music/TheBuggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Radio Ga Ga" was written as a commentary about the decline of the influence of radio as the primary mass medium in the late 70s/early 80s, getting overtaken by television. The line "Stick around, 'cause we might miss you when we grow tired of all this visual" is still hard-hitting in light of how the internet has overtaken both radio and television itself as the primary mass medium.
** "Scandal" is a searing attack on the tabloid press. The media is still intrusive and the song is arguably more relevant now than when the song came out.
** "Thank God It's Christmas", Queen's 1984 Christmas single, wasn't a big hit when it was released, but after 2020 was such a turbulent year with struggles like the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed to resonate even more than ever, thanks to lyrics like "Oh, my friends / It's been a long hard year".
* VindicatedByHistory:
** Brian May has said that, in retrospect, he thinks that ''Music/QueenII'' was probably the strongest album the band ever recorded. Similarly, some critics have reconsidered the first album and judged it to be a perfectly good hard rock debut.
*** Interestingly, ProgressiveRock fans seem to share May's opinion on ''Queen II''. You would probably expect ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' to have the highest rating of any of their studio albums on Prog Archives, since it's almost universally regarded as a masterpiece and has several of the genre's signature songs, but ''Queen II'' is actually rated even higher (4.37/5 for ''Queen II'' as opposed to 4.27/5 for ''Opera'' at the time of this writing).
** Freddie himself: while alive, he was regarded by many tabloids as a conceited gay showman with some (but not too much) talent and more often than not Brian was shown as the musical anchor (although his personal life was heavily criticised especially in the 80's). Recently, the press tends to refer to Freddie as a great late musical genius without whom Brian and Roger are nothing.
** ''Hot Space'' has become much more appreciated in recent years, what with the revival of funk and disco music by modern artists, especially those in the electropop genre.
** So has the band's '80s output in general, as evidenced by the MemeticMutation of Freddie's '80s appearance via rage comics.
** ''Jazz'' was originally regarded as a FollowUpFailure for Queen after ''News of the World'', but it's become better appreciated in later years. This tracks with the album's most popular song, "Don't Stop Me Now". At the time of release it was considered a minor entry in their catalogue (they only played it on the ''Jazz'' tour before they removed it from their setlist) but its reputation has grown to the point where it's now their second-most popular song ''ever'', behind only "Bohemian Rhapsody". The fact that ''scientific studies'' have ranked it as the most uplifting song ever created certainly helps.
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: With the exception of Freddie Mercury in the 70s, and his cigarette smoking, the band's songs were not written under the influence of anything stronger than tea and alcohol. Brian May actually goes so far as to ban smoking from his later concerts and any building he owns.
** Special mention to the song "39". While the lyrics sound bizarre and incomprehensible at first, reality is stranger than fiction: they describe space travel on subluminar velocities and time dilation according to Einstein's theory of relativity. Brian May, who wrote the song, holds a [= Ph.D. =] in astronomy, and certainly knows his stuff. He described the song as "space folk".
* AccidentalInnuendo: The fact that a flamboyantly gay singer named his band Music/{{Queen}} is purely coincidental.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: "One Vision" was obviously written as a cheesy plea for an end to war, famine, religious intolerance and other problems pop stars tend to call "bad things". However, due to the vagueness of the lyrics, it's more than a little ironic that it can be interpreted as a fascist anthem from the perspective of a frustrated wannabe-fuhrer. The Slovenian art-rock group Laibach did a version in German for this very reason which they re-titled "Birth of a Nation".
* AmericansHateTingle:
** The band's foray into funk with the album ''Hot Space'' cost them their American fanbase (''kind'' of, see "Common Knowledge" below), which never truly recovered until [[PosthumousPopularityPotential after Freddie Mercury's death]].
** The band cross-dressing in the video for "I Want to Break Free" squicked out a lot of the band's American audience at the time, who were unaware the video was parodying the British soap opera ''Series/CoronationStreet''.
* {{Applicability}}: What exactly are their songs about again? According to the band themselves, whatever you want.
* AudienceAlienatingEra: Many fans hate the disco album ''Hot Space'' with a passion. Releasing a {{disco}} album in 1982 proved to be a very poor move, and indeed [[PopularityPolynomial they fell out of favor]] [[AmericansHateTingle in the US]] for quite some time. The only song from it that most people will defend is "Under Pressure", the famous duet with Music/DavidBowie[[note]]some also include "Body Language," as against all odds it did manage to crack the American Top 20[[/note]]. Both John Deacon and Roger Taylor also expressed their dislike for it several times. On the other hand, Freddie virtually wrote its sequel for his debut solo project, and Music/MichaelJackson cited it as a major influence on ''Music/{{Thriller}}''. Moreover, while most people tend to acknowledge ''The Cosmos Rocks'' (their one and only album after Freddie Mercury's death), some of the other activities Taylor have been involved with (e.g. recording with Music/BritneySpears and Music/{{Five}}) are treated as if they'd never happened.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** "One Vision" — how many people who didn't already know to look for it were surprised when singing the track on ''[[VideoGame/RockBand Rock Band 2]]'', and seeing that the last words were "fried chicken" instead of the repeated title? The story as to why they included it is well documented, but the line still comes out of nowhere.
** Similarly, in their song "I'm Going Slightly Mad", the line "I think I'm a banana tree," which even the band found amusingly out-there.
** "Get Down, Make Love", a raunchy hard rock tune that breaks into a fit of electronic weirdness about 2/3s of the way.
* BrokenBase:
** 1982's ''Hot Space''. Some fans praise the album for its production, vocal harmonies, and willingness to try something different and transcend musical boundaries. Alternatively, it's hated and considered to be below to the band's standards, mainly because of the use of [[ScrappyMechanic synthesized bass and drum machines]] and the fact that May's guitar is essentially DemotedToExtra.
*** Despite the fact that his role in the band was essentially usurped by machines on the album, it was actually John Deacon who pushed the band towards using more synthesizers and pre-programmed beats, as both Deacon and Mercury were very interested in the funk and dance music they heard in American clubs. May and Taylor, on the other hand, viewed the entire project as a mistake, and the fact that they are for all intents and purposes Queen in the twenty-first century may have influenced the album's status as TheUnfavorite of the catalogue.
** While ''The Works'' was considered somewhat of a return to form following ''Hot Space'', fans were split more once ''A Kind of Magic'' was released. The fact that it's a film soundtrack to ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' was already polarizing enough, as that was a common criticism regarding ''Flash Gordon'', but unlike ''Hot Space'' and ''The Works'', which have at least ''one'' standout song each in the form of "Under Pressure" and "Radio Ga Ga", most of the songs on ''A Kind of Magic'' are generally considered to be unmemorable, with songs even such as "Who Wants To Live Forever" generally not having memorable rhythms to them, while other fans were still able to cherish such songs, and point out that it has an overall more consistent quality of songs compared to the last two albums. Thankfully, ''The Miracle'' and ''Innuendo'' would remedy this issue by still keeping a consistent quality, while also having more memorable standout songs.
** On a broader level, there's debate on which Queen era is the best and how long they kept up their quality. Some people like Queen's early prog influences (i.e. ''Music/QueenII'') and dislike everything else. Or they feel that everything after ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' indicated Queen's decline. Or they like all of Queen's work in TheSeventies and dislike their work in TheEighties, only coming back after ''Music/{{Innuendo}}''.
** Whether the band should have kept going after Freddie died. Some say that Queen isn't Queen without him, others say it's great that they can still stay relevant. Also over whether Adam Lambert is worthy frontman.
* CargoShip: "I'm in Love with My Car" on ''A Night at the Opera'' is a [[InUniverse canon]] example:
-->''With my hand on your [[SexualEuphemism grease gun]]''
-->''[[HoYay Oh, it's like a]] [[HarsherInHindsight disease]], son''
* CommonKnowledge:
** Everyone who's even barely interested in Queen is aware that they lost their American fanbase following the negative reception of ''Hot Space''... except that's not entirely true. Although they did stop touring there and didn't have the same iconic status that some of their other '70s peers had in the '80s, they were hardly "unheard of" and definitely weren't "unpopular" by that point. What eventually ''did'' alienate the American fanbase was the video for "I Want to Break Free", since crossdressing was not part of the comedy repertoire across the pond at the time and the show they were spoofing, ''Series/CoronationStreet'', was unknown in the US to anyone other than hard-core lovers of Creator/{{PBS}}. Their performances at Sun City in apartheid South Africa in late 1984 also significantly harmed their American reputation, and the stigma from it stuck around for a while there, even after Live Aid a few months later.
** The idea that the band broke up after Freddie Mercury's death and the release of ''Made in Heaven''. While the band didn't put out any studio albums for a long time since then, not to mention bassist John Deacon's retirement in 1997, they never formally dissolved and have remained active into the present day. In fact, they eventually put out a sixteenth album, ''The Cosmos Rocks'' (in collaboration with [[Music/BadCompany Paul Rodgers]]), in 2008. However, because that album was poorly received by both fans and critics, it's subjected to such heavy amounts of FanonDiscontinuity (and possibly CanonDiscontinuity given that it was left out of the band's 2011 remastering campaign) that even Website/{{Wikipedia}} is reluctant to classify it as a "proper" Queen album, giving ''Made in Heaven'' the title of Queen's last studio record under the technicality of ''The Cosmos Rocks'' being attributed to "Queen + Paul Rodgers."
* CoveredUp: A rare non-song example: ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' and ''Music/ADayAtTheRaces'' are better known as Queen albums than as Creator/TheMarxBrothers movies in some circles.
* CreatorWorship:
** [[SchmuckBait Go ahead; say that Queen is a bad band]]. Even among people who despise ArenaRock as a whole, you'll find that damn near all of them will make a huge exception for Queen. It helps that the band had genuine artistry and sophistication behind them that ran counter to the typical fratboy image of the genre, partly the result of them including an astrophysicist (Brian May), a graphic designer (Freddie Mercury), and a biologist (Roger Taylor) in their lineup, leading to plenty of {{genius bonus}}es, and that they displayed heavy enthusiasm for genres typically outside the scope of arena rock (including classical music, funk, and SynthPop). The fact that all four members are considered amongst the [[NiceGuy nicest guys]] in music has even cemented this further.
** Freddie Mercury himself. Disliking him or thinking he is overrated will inevitably generate a lot of flak. Even those who dislike Queen as a band will often recognize Freddie's abilities as a singer, musician, and frontman.
* CriticalBacklash: ''Hot Space'' is pointed out so often as Queen's low point that it has left people wondering if it's really that bad. Today, an increasing number of fans have started to appreciate the album.
* CriticalDissonance: Their popularity with the music press was inversely proportionate to their popularity with their audiences. By the onset of the 1980s, they could have legitimately claimed to be the biggest band in the world, but at the same time ''Magazine/RollingStone'' was denouncing them as "the world's first fascist rock band". Of course, after Freddie's death, this perspective became vastly different. See VindicatedByHistory below.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: In private, they kept the rule of being four equal parts and having no sidemen, so each one considered himself 25% of the band, no more, no less. In public, however, it wasn't quite like that: early publicity material was focused on Brian, and the first time they had any media coverage it was about the fact Music/BrianMay had made his own guitar. Freddie only started receiving attention around mid-70's, and he'd soon become the focal point both in terms of public perception and songwriting... until John Deacon began writing big hits in the early 80's and then Roger Taylor afterwards.
** Post-''Film/BohemianRhapsody'', Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon all seemed to amass pretty sizable fandoms individually, especially among younger fans, as evidenced by the avalanche of fan accounts dedicated to each band member on various social media platforms.
** Also, all of their three main producers had to work their way up: Roy Thomas Baker was 'just' an engineer and only took over when the main producer (John Anthony) fell ill, but the band liked him and kept him for future projects; Reinhold Mack was hired as engineer and was made producer after 'The Game' album was so successful; David Richards began as engineer, then helping Roger Taylor on solo projects and was made producer in 1986 (8 years after he'd first met them, 7 years after their first project together).
** As mentioned below, ''Queen II'' has become quite popular among fans of the band, particularly those inclined toward ProgressiveRock.
* EpicRiff:
** Lots, from "Keep Yourself Alive" to "White Man" to "Another One Bites the Dust", an epic bass riff.
** "We Will Rock You". Off the top of your head, how many ''body percussion'' riffs can you name?
** The bass from "Under Pressure".
%%* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Most of the dissections and analyses of "Bohemian Rhapsody" tend to veer off into this category.
* FaceOfTheBand:
** Music/FreddieMercury. Overlaps in the public mind with IAmTheBand, as even the fans who ''don't'' regard new singers as {{replacement Scrapp|y}}ies will tend to agree that there is no Queen without Freddie. Of course, there wouldn't be a Queen without Music/BrianMay, either; his distinctive guitar style is just as important to Queen's trademark sound as Freddie's vocals and, according to Freddie himself (Circus mag, 1977), if ANY of the four left, it'd be the end of Queen.
** This trope could slightly apply as the band's career went on, with the gradual reduction in the amount of songs with lead vocals by the other members.
** Invoked by Taylor in early tour posters which he designed, amusingly boasting 'Legendary Cornish Drummer Roger Taylor... and his band Queen', much to the annoyance of the other band members.
** As lead guitarist, co-founder/spokesman, and especially after Freddie's death, Music/BrianMay has often been designated as the face of Queen. This also means that the responsibility of the band's legacy has been directed towards him.
* FanNickname: "Bo Rhap" for "Bohemian Rhapsody" (acknowledge by Freddie in some concerts and interviews), "Deacy" (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, "Deaky") for John Deacon (used often by Brian May—Roger and Freddie always called him John, though), "Maylor" for Music/BrianMay + Roger Taylor, and "Dr. May" for May (recently a certified [=PhD=], which makes it accurate).
* FanonDiscontinuity:
** Narrowly averted with ''Hot Space'', because of the presence of Music/DavidBowie on "Under Pressure", the one (and usually only) track that everyone enjoys.
** To a lesser extent, ''Made in Heaven'', though this is mainly concerning ''Innuendo'''s status as a DyingMomentOfAwesome to the fandom more than anything else.
** The Paul Rodgers album. Many fans feel that the lack of Freddie makes it not a Queen album. Even non-fans have commented that it ''sounds'' more like a Paul Rodgers album than Queen, and Website/{{Wikipedia}} outright refuses to classify it as a "proper" Queen album.
** The fact that Music/AdamLambert joined the band after Rodgers' departure.
* FriendlyFandoms: Thanks to the "Under Pressure" collaboration, Queen fans and Music/DavidBowie fans tend to intersect quite a bit.
** Also ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' since their contributions to the soundtrack are such a major part of the franchise's legacy that some even jokingly call the original movie a feature-length Queen music video.
* GeniusBonus:
** "'39" makes a lot more sense if you understand Relativity...and remember that Music/BrianMay was studying for a degree in Astrophysics when the band was formed, and now has his doctorate.
** In [[http://www.npr.org/2010/08/03/128935865/queens-brian-may-rocks-out-to-physics-photography an interview with NPR]] Brian May discussed the iconic "stomp stomp clap" intro for "We Will Rock You." The band recorded a few people stomping/clapping, then Brian overdubbed multiple times, with time delays of prime numbers so that the stomping would not harmonize. The results, a sound that sounds like a stadium stomping the intro, despite only being a few people. Ladies and Gentlemen, ''math rocks.''
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** They were (and still are) wildly popular in Japan, which was acknowledged with the Japanese lyrics of "Teo Toriatte". Heck many manga and anime use Freddie's design for their character such as ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'', ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'', and ''Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable''.
** According to Brian May, Queen was worried for a time that they'd neglected their native Britain during the seventies (in spite of their considerable success at home) in favour of making it in America, but the massive success of their free concert in Hyde Park in 1977 allayed their fears.
** When their [[TheEighties 1980s]] music and {{Camp}} image (and a payola scandal on EMI, their second label) alienated much of their American fanbase, they concentrated on England, Europe, Japan and South America both as touring stops and music markets, aided by their early adoption of video promotion. A large amount of Queen's music became hits overseas, but didn't do nearly as well by comparison in the states.
* GrowingTheBeard: ''Sheer Heart Attack'' is regarded as the band's first great album. Fan opinion is divided on whether or not they lost the beard with ''Hot Space'' and when it was grown back.
** The early and late (i.e. no-synth and synth) periods of the band (the former as an art/progressive-rock album band, the latter as a mainstream pop group) are reflected in their long/short hair periods as well as Freddie's moustache.
*** You could say that, rather than having grown a second beard, they...[[IncrediblyLamePun grew a mustache]].
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Freddie's statement that "we're going to stay together until we fucking well die, I assure you." Ouch.
** That line is followed by "I keep wanting to leave... but they won't let me!"
** The song "I'm Going Slightly Mad" is a silly song, full of weird metaphors, but once you learn it was written reflecting Freddie's real-life AIDS dementia...
** Some of the lyrics of "Bohemian Rhapsody", especially the ones relating the impending death of Freddie's character.
** "Hammer to Fall" really sounds as if it was written after Freddie was diagnosed with AIDS, the lyrics are eerily apt, but it was actually written a couple of years before he even contracted HIV. On top of that, it was written by Music/BrianMay, with the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in mind.
*** For an example of why people made this connection, the line "Build your muscles as your body decays" is actually about the superpowers wasting disproportionate amounts of money on military assets and nuclear bombs while their economies stagnate, but it takes on a whole new context when you know one of the symptoms of AIDS is atrophying muscle mass.
** Most of Queen's material post-AIDS diagnosis (''Music/TheMiracle'', ''Innuendo'', ''Made in Heaven'') can be seen as a mixture of this and HeartwarmingInHindsight.
*** Listen to "Khashoggi's Ship" from ''Music/TheMiracle'' for an example, as Freddie sings "Who said that my party was all over?/Uh huh, I'm in pretty good shape" with the knowledge that he'd be gone in a few years time. Ouch.
*** There are a '''bunch''' of songs from that period that can be considered "farewell songs", intentionally or not, for this reason. This includes "The Miracle", "Was it All Worth It" (allegedly intended to be a DyingMomentOfAwesome, as Freddie didn't expect to make as much material as he did later in life), "Don't Try So Hard", "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (notable for being Freddie's final on-screen appearance in the music video), "Delilah" ([[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments a farewell to his favorite cat]]), "Bijou", "The Show Must Go On", "Mother Love" (the last recorded song Freddie ever sang on), and "A Winter's Tale" (the last song Freddie ever wrote).
** The album title ''Sheer Heart Attack'' after Brian May revealed in May 2020 that he'd been hospitalized [[TemptingFate after having a heart attack.]] For what it's worth, though, May took it in stride.
--> I wondered if [[DudeNotFunny it might upset some people]] who had actually had heart attacks. I'm actually quite relieved now that I'm in that club-- [[GallowsHumor and I don't find it upsetting at all!]]
* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
** From "Radio Ga Ga". The scene where Freddie is standing in front of the clock and his band mates materialise in front of him and put their hands on their hips almost like guarding him. When Freddie was diagnosed with Aids his band mates did their best to shield him from media scrutiny denying he was sick.
** From Music/FreddieMercury himself: "When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance." [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments He doesn't know how right he is]].
* HilariousInHindsight: When inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Roger Taylor (who was a dentistry student at one point) said that it was just like getting a Ph.D. A few years later, Music/BrianMay actually got his Ph.D. in astrophysics.
** "Radio Ga Ga", which came out right around the time when MTV was starting to take off and become a phenomenon, has one particular lyric: "So stick around, cause we might miss you when we grow tired of all this vision." 30 years later, MTV hardly even plays music videos anymore, while Internet and satellite radio, allowing listeners access to countless songs and genres of music, have become wildly popular.
* HoYay: Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor: best friends, metrosexuals, exceptionally good with high falsetto vocals, party animals, heavy smokers (at least at some point) and drinkers. It's probably no surprise that Freddie and Roger roomed together as college students. Need more proof? Just listen to unreleased track "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6PZmBFLPdU Dog With a Bone]]".
* HypeBacklash: Almost inevitable, given their extensive praise as important musicians, with many people even worshipping them as gods. The general consensus is that, while they have memorable singles, none of the albums, besides ''A Night at the Opera'', is impressive.
* IAmNotShazam: Due to Freddie's FaceOfTheBand status, occasionally there are those who see Freddie as "Queen", or that Queen is Freddie's solo project or stage name rather than referring to the band itself.
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: They've become this in the years after Freddie Mercury's death. "Theatre/WeWillRockYou" and "Film/BohemianRhapsody" have only solidified this sentiment amongst the older fans.
* JustHereForGodzilla: While their music has received mixed reception at times, Queen has been recognized as one of ''the'' greatest live bands with one of rock's greatest frontmen and lead singers. Their performance at Live AID is frequently recognized as the best live performance of all time. Even for people who are otherwise not a fan of the band have agreed with the assessment.
* MemeticBadass: Freddie. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvg6ZP-HTCA 'Nuff said]]. AIDS didn't kill him, he merely [[TooCoolToLive imploded from sheer awesomeness]] and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended back to the higher plane of existence]] from whence he came. [[WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory He didn't leave a mark on history, he French kissed it]].
* MemeticMutation:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a an example of a classically successful [[http://allisonpregler.tumblr.com/post/167240580822/pyrrhiccomedy-catwinchester-evieplease meme]].
** An audition art piece submitted to Marvel comics by an unidentified would-be artist, showing ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} wandering around a forest and suddenly being confronted by Freddie, achieved somewhat memetic status among comics fans when it was posted online by artist Steve Bunch.
** Putting Freddie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSS3GTmKWVA in]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVmf7qKF_Y silly]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gPcpDgeI4 situations]] with dialogue spliced together from various Queen songs.
** "Do what you want with my music, just don’t make it boring."
* MisaimedFandom:
** "Bicycle Race" is often misinterpreted as Freddie Mercury's ode to his own bisexuality. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It is simply a song about riding and racing bicycles]].
** "I Want It All" is about ambition (the title deriving from writer Brian May's wife's favorite sayings), not a gay anthem or anti-Apartheid as some have interpreted it.
* NarmCharm: "Somebody to Love" is a good song, despite-- or perhaps because of-- the fact that the other three guys sound like background singers from a Disney film.
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** It's not uncommon to find people under the impression that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was originally written and recorded for ''Film/WaynesWorld'' in 1992, which happens to be a year after Freddie's death.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is frequently thought to be the first "real" MusicVideo, but Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and other groups did plenty of music videos throughout the 60s and 70s. Queen ''themselves'' had a few videos before that as well. Making videos as part of their marketing strategy wasn't by any means as widespread as it'd become later (thanks, in no small part, to "Bohemian Rhapsody"), but they were certainly common enough back then to already be in common parlance (they were called "pop-promos").
* OneSceneWonder:
** Music/DavidBowie joining up for "Under Pressure", generally regarded as one of the best musical collaborations of all time.
** Steve Howe playing a relatively short (compared to Music/{{Yes}} and Music/{{Asia}} standards) flamenco guitar solo on "Innuendo", which has become a classic and one loads of people around the world try to learn and replicate (oddly appropriate given that Brian May asked Steve to do it because he couldn't manage it).
** The half-minute operatic section on "'Bohemian Rhapsody" is arguably one of the first things people recall about Queen in spite of being very different to 99% of things the band did before or since.
* ParanoiaFuel: "The Invisible Man".
-->''I'm your meanest thought''
-->''I'm your darkest fear''
-->''But I'll never get caught''
-->''You can't shake me, shake me dear''
* PosthumousPopularityPotential: While the band's popularity in the US [[AmericansHateTingle waned]] in TheEighties, their reception among Americans recovered after Freddie Mercury's death in TheNineties.
* ReplacementScrappy:
** Paul Rodgers. His tours with the band and the addition of Music/BadCompany and Free songs to the set were actually fairly popular with fans, but the less said about the original album they recorded, the better. Though Rodgers ''wasn't a replacement''. It was "Queen teams up with Paul Rodgers", not "Paul Rodgers becomes a member of Queen".
** ''Any'' singer who has performed with Queen since Freddie's death (except from the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert) has been seen as a ReplacementScrappy by fans.
** A new contender for "Most hated Queen lead vocalist who isn't Freddie" is ''Series/AmericanIdol'' singer Adam Lambert. Reaction to his announcement of a tour with Queen was met negatively to say the least, although once he actually started performing a substantial number of fans [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap were pleasantly surprised]].
** Though not as much as the lead singers, the bassists who have replaced John Deacon have received their fair share of vitriol from some fans. In some cases, though, they're barely noticed.
** Happened to their producer Reinhold Mack as well: though loved and respected by the band back when they worked together, Tony Iommi (in his autobiography) suggested Brian wasn't too keen on him at the end. Fans also tend to blame him for what they consider to be the dark period for the band (''Hot Space'' in particular) while they're far more appreciative of Roy Baker (intermittently producing their early albums from ''Queen'' to ''Jazz'') and David Richards (''The Miracle'', ''Innuendo'' and ''Made in Heaven'', plus bits of ''A Kind of Magic'').
* SacredCow: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has this reputation as far as individual songs are concerned, due to its status as Queen's foremost SignatureSong, and that it's regarded as one of the greatest (or probably ''the'' greatest) songs of all time, so criticizing it as pretentious tripe, admitting to disliking it or attempting to cover it (we're looking at you, Music/KanyeWest) is bound to make someone wish they were dead.
* SignatureSong: By album:
** ''Queen'' – "Keep Yourself Alive"
** ''Queen II'' – "Seven Seas Of Rhye"
** ''Sheer Heart Attack'' — "Killer Queen"
** ''A Night at the Opera'' — "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"You're My Best Friend"
** ''A Day at the Races'' — "Somebody To Love"/"Tie Your Mother Down"
** ''News of the World'' — "We Will Rock You"/"We Are The Champions"
** ''Jazz'' — "Don't Stop Me Now"/"Fat Bottomed Girls"
** ''The Game'' — "Another One Bites The Dust"/"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
** ''Flash Gordon'' – "Flash"
** ''Hot Space'' — "Under Pressure" with Music/DavidBowie/"Body Language" (to some extent)
** ''The Works'' — "Radio Ga Ga"/"I Want To Break Free"
** ''A Kind of Magic'' — "Who Wants To Live Forever"/"Princes Of The Universe"
** ''The Miracle'' — "I Want It All"/"The Miracle"
** ''Innuendo'' — "The Show Must Go On"/"These Are the Days of Our Lives"
** ''Made In Heaven'' — "Made in Heaven" (even if it's a cover of one of Freddie Mercury's solo songs)
** Overall — "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the ''News of the World'' signatures are the frontrunners, with "Dust", "Pressure" and "Don't Stop" not far behind.
** As a band, Queen was also notable for each band member contributing at least one SignatureSong for themselves and the band. By band member:
*** Music/FreddieMercury wrote the most number of hit songs, with "Bohemian Rhapsody" being the most well known and defining for him and the band as a whole. "We Are The Champions" is another iconic song and pairs well with Brian's own SignatureSong.
*** Music/BrianMay is best known for "We Will Rock You", with its stomp-stomp-clap being a staple at sporting events.
*** Roger Taylor's most defining Queen song came later in the form of "Radio Ga Ga". It also became well-known for its crowd participation element with everyone clapping in unison.
*** John Deacon wrote "Another One Bites The Dust", which ended up being the band's biggest hit and one of their few Billboard Hot 100 No.1 songs. The song was so successful that it briefly motivated the band to change musical direction.
* StuckInTheirShadow: While John Deacon is considered one of the best bassists in rock music, his personality was too reserved to make him as memorable as the more dynamic band members ([[Music/FleetwoodMac like some]] [[Music/TheWho other nonetheless talented]] [[Music/DreamTheater bass guitarists]] [[Music/LedZeppelin called John]].)
** This trope can apply to Queen as a whole. Although all four of the band members were strong songwriters and musicians, Freddie Mercury has received the lion share of attention as the most famous member of the band. In many lists of "Greatest Singer" or "Greatest Frontmen", expect to see Freddie at or near the top.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Another One Bites the Dust" is this of the disco band Music/{{Chic}}'s "Good Times". Justified as Chic's Bernard Edwards says that John Deacon, the song's writer, hung out at their studio, leading to this song.
** The song's bassline and rhythm is also pretty reminiscent of "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang -- [[FridgeBrilliance which makes sense]], since that was based entirely around a looped sample from the aforementioned "Good Times".
** "The Invisible Man" has frequently been likened to the title theme of ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' by Ray Parker, Jr. - which itself is a SuspiciouslySimilarSong to Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews' "I Want a New Drug".
* TooCoolToLive: Freddie.
* ToughActToFollow:
** ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' is frequently considered to be Queen's best and most famous album. After this album and ''Music/ADayAtTheRaces'', the band would deliberately aim for a more stripped down approach.
** ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' is so highly thought of as the band's de-facto GrandFinale that every piece of new material that they've released since then has been measured up against it. As a result, ''Music/MadeInHeaven'' and "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" are typically treated as optional epilogues rather than the "true" end to the Queen story, and the Paul Rodgers collaboration ''The Cosmos Rocks'' is frequently thrown into FanonDiscontinuity. Roger Taylor himself [[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-new-music-roger-taylor/ admitted]] that the challenge of living up to ''Innuendo'' and the rest of the band's legacy is a major factor in why Queen hasn't recorded any new, original material since ''The Cosmos Rocks''.
* ValuesResonance:
** Like Music/TheBuggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Radio Ga Ga" was written as a commentary about the decline of the influence of radio as the primary mass medium in the late 70s/early 80s, getting overtaken by television. The line "Stick around, 'cause we might miss you when we grow tired of all this visual" is still hard-hitting in light of how the internet has overtaken both radio and television itself as the primary mass medium.
** "Scandal" is a searing attack on the tabloid press. The media is still intrusive and the song is arguably more relevant now than when the song came out.
** "Thank God It's Christmas", Queen's 1984 Christmas single, wasn't a big hit when it was released, but after 2020 was such a turbulent year with struggles like the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed to resonate even more than ever, thanks to lyrics like "Oh, my friends / It's been a long hard year".
* VindicatedByHistory:
** Brian May has said that, in retrospect, he thinks that ''Music/QueenII'' was probably the strongest album the band ever recorded. Similarly, some critics have reconsidered the first album and judged it to be a perfectly good hard rock debut.
*** Interestingly, ProgressiveRock fans seem to share May's opinion on ''Queen II''. You would probably expect ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'' to have the highest rating of any of their studio albums on Prog Archives, since it's almost universally regarded as a masterpiece and has several of the genre's signature songs, but ''Queen II'' is actually rated even higher (4.37/5 for ''Queen II'' as opposed to 4.27/5 for ''Opera'' at the time of this writing).
** Freddie himself: while alive, he was regarded by many tabloids as a conceited gay showman with some (but not too much) talent and more often than not Brian was shown as the musical anchor (although his personal life was heavily criticised especially in the 80's). Recently, the press tends to refer to Freddie as a great late musical genius without whom Brian and Roger are nothing.
** ''Hot Space'' has become much more appreciated in recent years, what with the revival of funk and disco music by modern artists, especially those in the electropop genre.
** So has the band's '80s output in general, as evidenced by the MemeticMutation of Freddie's '80s appearance via rage comics.
** ''Jazz'' was originally regarded as a FollowUpFailure for Queen after ''News of the World'', but it's become better appreciated in later years. This tracks with the album's most popular song, "Don't Stop Me Now". At the time of release it was considered a minor entry in their catalogue (they only played it on the ''Jazz'' tour before they removed it from their setlist) but its reputation has grown to the point where it's now their second-most popular song ''ever'', behind only "Bohemian Rhapsody". The fact that ''scientific studies'' have ranked it as the most uplifting song ever created certainly helps.
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: With the exception of Freddie Mercury in the 70s, and his cigarette smoking, the band's songs were not written under the influence of anything stronger than tea and alcohol. Brian May actually goes so far as to ban smoking from his later concerts and any building he owns.
** Special mention to the song "39". While the lyrics sound bizarre and incomprehensible at first, reality is stranger than fiction: they describe space travel on subluminar velocities and time dilation according to Einstein's theory of relativity. Brian May, who wrote the song, holds a [= Ph.D. =] in astronomy, and certainly knows his stuff. He described the song as "space folk".
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Changed line(s) 145 (click to see context) from:
** ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' is so highly thought of as the band's de-facto GrandFinale that every piece of new material that they've released since then has been measured up against it. As a result, ''Music/MadeInHeaven'' and "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" are typically treated as optional epilogues rather than the "true" end to the Queen story, and the Paul Rodgers collaboration ''The Cosmos Rocks'' is frequently thrown into FanonDiscontinuity. Roger Taylor himself [[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-new-music-roger-taylor/ admitted]] that the challenge of living up to ''Innuendo'' and the rest of the band's legacy is a major factor in why the band hasn't recorded any new, original material since ''The Cosmos Rocks''.
to:
** ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' is so highly thought of as the band's de-facto GrandFinale that every piece of new material that they've released since then has been measured up against it. As a result, ''Music/MadeInHeaven'' and "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)" are typically treated as optional epilogues rather than the "true" end to the Queen story, and the Paul Rodgers collaboration ''The Cosmos Rocks'' is frequently thrown into FanonDiscontinuity. Roger Taylor himself [[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-new-music-roger-taylor/ admitted]] that the challenge of living up to ''Innuendo'' and the rest of the band's legacy is a major factor in why the band Queen hasn't recorded any new, original material since ''The Cosmos Rocks''.
