Queen’s Road To Critical Acclaim
A story of one’s band transformation from teen idols to rock legends
There is a saying: There’s no accounting for taste. And yet, deep down, we all know some tastes are more socially acceptable than others. Music magazines can speak about Poptimism all they like, but any insecure teenager knows there are few safe choices when it comes to sharing music favorites.
Pop may get you sneers for its manufactured nature, some will say rap isn’t even music and well, nobody under 30 listens to jazz. Classic rock is one of your best bets.
Therefore a band like Queen seems like a perfect choice. Voted the best British band by BBC listeners in 2007 and currently enjoying yet another wave of popularity, thanks to 2018 smash hit biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen remains one of the most beloved music arts in the world. But it wasn’t always the case.
Queen had a rough beginning. No record label had believed in their potential and even when they finally signed a deal, they were still at the bottom of the label’s totem pole. Recording only when nobody else felt like working in a studio. Nonetheless, despite those obstacles, in July 1973, three years after the band was formed, Queen has released their self-titled debut. Queen received little to no attention from the public and lukewarm reception from critics, who perceived it as a rather dated effort.
Their next album, Queen II, didn’t fare any better, receiving scathing reviews left and right. Thankfully, the public felt differently. Seven Seas of Rhye, a single promoting the album, hit number ten in February 1974 and kick-started the band’s mainstream career.
At the same time, thousands of miles away, a surprising fanbase was born.
Japan took some time warming up to western music. Their youth may have been intrigued by new trends, but war-scarred, conservative elders weren’t so enthusiastic about the West’s furthering influence in their country. This conflict between two generations ended only thanks to The Beatles’ famous visit in 1966. Once again the charms of Liverpool proved to be unmatched and led to the quick expansion of western pop culture in Japan. Radio shows started to play more and more foreign music, and music magazines readily featured western acts.
One of those magazines was “Music Life.” It wasn’t a new magazine by any means, having started in the early 1950s, but it was only in 1965 when they made a switch from jazz and pop to reporting on rock music. What differentiated “Music Life” from other music publications was their female following and attitude towards music criticism. Kaoruko Togo, “Music Life” editor and a woman herself, knew her audience. She wasn’t trying to act like she was above her readers and give judgment on which music can be considered good and which not. If she liked someone she wrote about them, believing others would share her opinion.
When Togo had first heard Queen, she didn’t know anything about them, she hadn’t even heard their band name. But their music spoke to her and, as she soon found out, to her readers as well.
After their introduction in “Music Life”, Queen got attention and love right off the bat. Band’s popularity led to the debut album’s Japanese release in March 1974 and just a few months later, in June, their sophomore record found its way on music stores’ shelves. Women were the ones buying the albums. For the first time in Japan, a band had a female-led fanbase. A phenomenon that led to naming them rock shoujo (rock girls).
Gender wasn’t the only thing differentiating them from male fans. Men cared primarily for music. Women wanted the whole package — music, personality, and looks. They wanted to know members’ birth dates, their likes, and dislikes. They even created romance mangas with characters based on Queen. For those women, the band’s looks were just as appealing as their music. Queen’s image of luscious locks and fluttering costumes made an intriguing mix of femininity and masculinity which checks all the boxes for androgyny-loving Japan. They looked like princes.
And when they arrived in Japan, they got treated exactly like royalty. On April 17th, 1975, the band has landed at Narita Airport to the utter joy of two thousand waiting fans.
It was a screaming frenzy, not unlike those The Beatles used to receive back in their heydays. Brian May called it a craziness they haven’t experienced before. The band couldn’t even leave their hotel for the fans were quick to follow them around. Japanese tour took place all over the country, where they performed eight shows in total, with their first show at legendary Budokan. It put them into the same category as UK giants, the likes of Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple. They may have been a small fish in the West, but in Japan, they were already one of the greats.
It does not mean Queen wasn’t facing any criticism. Some mocked the band calling it “Takarazuka Rock” — Takarazuka being a Japanese all-female theater, where women performed both female and male roles, a dig clearly meant to emasculate the group. Their appearances in teen magazines were thought lowly as well.
Those jabs didn’t stop the band.
Queen, with Freddie Mercury at the helm, has toured Japan six times. Mercury was said to be greatly appreciative of Japanese art, having collected numerous crafts from this country. Famously, he also built a Japanese style garden in his London residence. Japan has also left a mark on Queen’s music — In 1976 they released “Te o Toriatte”, a song with two choruses sang entirely in Japanese.
What was the secret behind the Queen’s success?
Why they loved Queen so much? It would be easy to chalk up Queen’s success in Japan to hormone-driven teenagers, who were bewitched by the group’s beauty. But, the more I looked into this story, the more doubtful I became. If this was truly only about attractiveness, how come Led Zeppelin with this Robert Plant or Pink Floyd with this David Gilmour didn’t enjoy similar success among young girls?
Editor Togo in her memoirs mentioned she first came across Queen when she was going through band demos. At the time, she didn’t know how they looked, but she was already hooked on their music. Their energetic guitar playing and Freddie’s passionate singing have caught her attention.
She did, however, used their attractiveness as a selling point and introduced Queen in Music Life as a “band with good music and good looks”. In her later interviews, Togo spoke in length about Queen’s appeal. Their music was joyful and easy to listen to, unlike band men preferred — the likes of Pink Floyd or Deep Purple. They were just the right amount of sexy, the type that made teenagers feel naughty for listening to their music. But more than anything, they had an aura of approachability.
It differentiated them from the likes of David Bowie, whose artistic ventures were too difficult to understand for younger fans. Queen was just the right blend of artistry and pure entertainment. A mix that may seem like a backhand compliment in critics’ sphere, but one that allowed them to stay relevant for all those years.
Queen was never afraid of genre-hopping, taking inspiration from opera and classical music in “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Millionaire’s Waltz”, at the same time singing about “Fat Bottomed Girls” and donning drag in “I Want to Break Free”. This creativity and lack of pretentiousness became a perfect combination, winning people from all over the world — starting from Japanese teenagers.
