Accidental Innuendo: Freddie Mercury stated that he was aware of the implications of a flamboyant singer calling his band "Queen," but that it wasn't what led him to pick the name.
It's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.
Alternative Character Interpretation: "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".
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 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 Coronation Street.
Applicability: What exactly are their songs about again? According to the band themselves, whatever you want.
Audience-Alienating Era: The one-two punch of Flash Gordon and Hot Space drove away many listeners thanks to how different they were than their predecessors. The former was a mostly instrumental, synth-driven film soundtrack that got billed as a canon Queen album, while the latter made a hard shift into disco, which particularly hurt their American standing in light of the country's massive backlash against the genre. Queen would recover in Europe after their Live Aid performance in 1985, but further PR blunders ensured that their American standing would remain low until just before Freddie Mercury died. Flash Gordon and Hot Space would also cast a large pall on the band's following albums: even today, many fans rank The Game as either the last truly great Queen album or the end of the band's golden age before a last-minute rebound with Innuendo.
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. Queen II) and dislike everything else. Or they feel that everything after A Night at the Opera indicated Queen's decline. Or they like all of Queen's work in The '70s and dislike their work in The '80s, only coming back after 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.
Cargo Ship: "I'm in Love with My Car" on A Night at the Opera is a canon example:
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, Coronation Street, was unknown in the US to anyone other than hard-core lovers of 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 Paul Rodgers), in 2008. However, because that album was poorly received by both fans and critics, it's subjected to such heavy amounts of Fanon Discontinuity (and possibly Canon Discontinuity given that it was left out of the band's 2011 remastering campaign) that even 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."
1980's Flash Gordon is one of the most divisive entries in Queen's discography next to its follow-up, Hot Space. Being the soundtrack to the film of the same name, the album consists almost entirely of short synth instrumentals and only features two lyrical songs — "Flash's Theme" and "The Hero". While such deviations are typical for soundtrack albums, the band billed it as a studio album, which meant that listeners measured it directly against their typical Glam Rock sound. As a result, fans and critics are typically split over whether it was an entertaining experiment or if it's too different from Queen's usual style to be part of their canon.
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 synthesized bass and drum machines and the fact that Brian May's guitar is essentially Demoted to Extra. This sentiment even extends to the band themselves: John Deacon was the one who pushed the band towards synths, as both he and Freddie 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 the black sheep 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 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.
Go ahead; say that Queen is a bad band. Even among people who despise Arena Rock as a whole, you'll find that damn near all of them will make a huge exception for Queen. Much of this is rooted in Queen's image being much different than what audiences commonly associate arena rock with, thanks to Freddie Mercury's love of camp, the band's enthusiasm for genres typically outside the scope of arena rock, and the band's atypical background, with the lineup featuring an astrophysicist (Brian May), a graphic designer (Freddie Mercury), and a biologist (Roger Taylor), resulting in plenty of genius bonuses. The fact that all four members are considered amongst the nicest guys in music cements 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.
Critical Backlash: 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.
Critical Dissonance: 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 Rolling Stone was denouncing them as "the world's first fascist rock band". Of course, after Freddie's death, this perspective became vastly different. See Vindicated by History below.
Ensemble Dark Horse: 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 Brian May 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-Bohemian Rhapsody, 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 Progressive Rock.
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".
Fan Nickname: "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 Brian May + Roger Taylor, and "Dr. May" for May (recently a certified PhD, which makes it accurate).
Narrowly averted with Hot Space, because of the presence of David Bowie 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 Dying Moment of Awesome 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 Wikipedia outright refuses to classify it as a "proper" Queen album.
The fact that Adam Lambert joined the band after Rodgers' departure.
Thanks to their collaboration on "Under Pressure", Queen fans and David Bowie fans tend to intersect quite a bit.
Queen fans tend to overlap with those of Highlander, since Queen's 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.
"'39" makes a lot more sense if you understand Relativity...and remember that Brian May was studying for a degree in Astrophysics when the band was formed, and now has his doctorate.
In 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.
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 Cromartie High School, Beelzebub, and Diamond is Unbreakable.
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 1976 allayed their fears.
When their 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.
Growing the Beard: 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 if so, when it was grown back.
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 Brian May, with the Cold War 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 (The Miracle, Innuendo, Made in Heaven) can be seen as a mixture of this and Heartwarming in Hindsight.
Listen to "Khashoggi's Ship" from The Miracle 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 Dying Moment of Awesome, 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" (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 after having a heart attack. For what it's worth, though, May took it in stride.
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 HIV and later AIDS, his bandmates were strident Secret Keepers, doing their best to shield him from media scrutiny denying he was sick until he revealed it on his own terms the day before he died.
Hilarious in Hindsight: 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, Brian May 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.
Ho Yay: 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 "Dog With a Bone".
Hype Backlash: 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.
I Am Not Shazam: Due to Freddie's status as the band's most iconic member, 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.
Just Here for Godzilla: 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.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is an example of a classically successful meme.
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗExplanationAn animation depicting a jovial-looking character, represented with this series of glyphs, dancing around to the tune of "Don't Stop Me Now". The video inspired another online animator to make a more fleshed out version more closely based around the song's lyrics, and both videos became popular subjects for parodies thanks to their memorable nature and the catchiness of the Queen song.
Freddie Mercury meets WolverineExplanationAn audition art piece submitted to Marvel comics by an unidentified would-be artist, showing Wolverine wandering around a forest and suddenly being confronted by Freddie. The comic became popular among comic fans when it was posted online by artist Steve Bunch, making it a subject for redraws that emphasized Mercury's reputation as a Memetic Badass.
Rage Comic FreddieExplanationA vectorized photograph of Freddie Mercury taken from a 1986 Queen concert at St James' Park in Newcastle, England, which became a popular image to use in Rage Comics to indicate feelings of triumph.
Faith in humanity: restoredExplanationA version of the vectorized photo with this caption added, which became a popular reaction image in response to heartwarming news.
So close...ExplanationAn edit of the image that depicts Mercury lowering his arm, which in combination with his (unaltered) expression makes him look emotionally deflated. This edit became popular both in rage comics and as a reaction image for situations where someone just barely fails to achieve a goal.
Another one biting the dustExplanationDuring the late 2010s, it became popular to caption images of characters biting objects and/or other characters based on the title of "Another One Bites the Dust". Appropriately, the one biting is "Another One," while the one getting bitten is "the Dust."
Freddie Mercury does stuffExplanationA series of fanmade clipart animations in which Mercury is placed in varioussillysituations, with dialogue spliced together from various Queen songs.
"Do what you want with my music, but don't make me boring."ExplanationA quote from Freddie Mercury where he gave Jim Beach carte blanche for handling the Queen catalog after his death. The quote (and variations on it) became popular for fans to bring up as a way of expressing approval towards various Queen-related works, official or otherwise.
"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.
Narm Charm: "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.
It's not uncommon to find people under the impression that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was originally written and recorded for Wayne's World in 1992, which happens to be a year after Freddie's death.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is frequently thought to be the first "real" Music Video, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones 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").
David Bowie 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 Yes and 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.
Overshadowed by Controversy: Although it dissipated after Freddie Mercury's death, the band's 1984 residency shows at the Sun City resort in South Africa was a huge factor in their American standing tanking in the '80s. The concerts broke a cultural boycott implemented in protest of The Apartheid Era and resulted in the band being fined by the British Musicians Union and blacklisted by the United Nations. While Queen stated that they were apolitical and that they were promised that the crowd would be racially integrated, it didn't stop American audiences from associating Queen with the concerts, to the point where their post-Live Aid European comeback failed to materialize in the region. They did not return to widespread popularity in the US until just before Mercury died, and Roger Taylor would eventually admit in 2021 that the Sun City residency was a mistake.
Paul Rodgers. His tours with the band and the addition of Bad Company 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 Replacement Scrappy by fans.
A new contender for "Most hated Queen lead vocalist who isn't Freddie" is American Idol 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 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).
Sacred Cow: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has this reputation as far as individual songs are concerned, due to its status as Queen's foremost Signature Song, 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, Kanye West) is bound to make someone wish they were dead.
The Works — "Radio Ga Ga" and "I Want To Break Free", though "Hammer to Fall" and "It's a Hard Life" are also not far behind
A Kind of Magic — "Who Wants To Live Forever" and "Princes Of The Universe"
The Miracle — "I Want It All", with "The Miracle" which is also well-known
Innuendo — "The Show Must Go On", and not far behind "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
Made In Heaven — "Too Much Love Will Kill You", "Heaven for Everyone" and also "I Was Born to Love You" and "Made in Heaven" (even if they are covers of Freddie Mercury's solo songs)
Overall — "Bohemian Rhapsody" takes the cake, but the News of the World signatures, "Dust", "Pressure" and "Don't Stop" are not far behind.
As a band, Queen was also notable for each band member contributing at least one Signature Song for themselves and the band. By band member:
Freddie Mercury 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 Signature Song. By popularity, also "Don't Stop Me Now" qualifies, though his personal favorite was "Somebody to Love", also an iconic song.
Brian May is best known for "We Will Rock You", with its stomp-stomp-clap being a staple at sporting events. Very iconic is also "I Want It All".
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. Another very iconic funk-infused rock track, as typical for his style, is "I Want to Break Free".
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.
Suspiciously Similar Song: "Another One Bites the Dust" is this of the disco band 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 The Sugarhill Gang — which makes sense, since that was based entirely around a looped sample from the aforementioned "Good Times".
A Night at the Opera is frequently considered to be Queen's best and most famous album. After this album and A Day at the Races, the band would deliberately aim for a more stripped down approach.
News of the World generated two of the band's most famous songs and is widely considered one of their best albums, setting a high bar for the follow-up. Indeed, Jazz would be deemed a critical and commercial disappointment compared to this album, leading the band to seek a completely different direction from 1979 on. They did, and began their era of short-hair (except for Brian), moustache (for Freddie), synthesizers and releasing more and more singles and playing larger venues.
Innuendo is so highly thought of as the band's de-facto Grand Finale that every piece of new material that they've released since then has been measured up against it. As a result, Made in Heaven 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 Fanon Discontinuity. Roger Taylor himself 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.
In the case of a person, the original line-up is still considered one of the greatest of all time, and anyone trying to fill Mercury's or Deacon's shoes in order to keep the band playing Queen's songs is in for a rough go. Adam Lambert is only barely getting accepted as a decent substitute, despite now singing with the band as "Queen + Adam Lambert" for a little over a decade.
Like The Buggles' "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. Though maybe even moreso over time as radio has persisted in its audience more than MTV and other "traditional" video media and has even had a revival in the digital age through streaming, internet radio, satellite radio, and podcasting.
"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".
Brian May has said that, in retrospect, he thinks that Queen II 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, Progressive Rock fans seem to share May's opinion on Queen II. You would probably expect A Night at the Opera 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 Memetic Mutation of Freddie's '80s appearance via rage comics.
Jazz was originally regarded as a Follow-Up Failure 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.
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.