BILLIONS CLUB: Queen (5/376)

 BILLIONS CLUB

Queen (5/376)

78/376 = 20%

  I wanted to include a catalog artist in the first twenty percent- meaning an artist who hasn't released any new music in the Spotify era, and Queen is probably the most succesful example, with five songs in the BILLIONS CLUB including one,  We Will Rock You, that was added three weeks ago, just after I started this project.  Unsurprisingly, the "album" for four of Queen's five Billions Club songs is the 2018 OST for the Freddy Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.

   That song- Bohemian Rhapsody, is a member of the two billion streams club.  Historically Queen was classified as a rock act though at this point you would be hard pressed to find any fans from their original, active period- the popularity of their songs on Spotify indicates that a younger generation has successfully connected with their classic hits.  If you go through their whole catalog on Spotify it is easy to see how the 2018 film is the point of contact for the streaming generation, with that OST overwhelming the totals for their actual records.  Another instructive element of looking at the Queen catalog on Spotify is just how much of a mess it can be trying to replicate the physical release history of a succesful act like Queen in the streaming context.  It seems like their of dozens of versions of the different studio and live albums, some of the songs appear to be the same on each record, whereas other songs have several versions scattered throughout the catalog.   Is Queen well served, one might ask, by having two different versions of their forgettable 1980 OST for the equally forgettable Flash Gordon film?

   Another interesting streaming era observation about the Queen catalog is the separationof We Will Rock You from We Are the Champions, which appears to be a product of the 2018 film.  In 1977, the two songs were released together as one single and before the streaming era the two songs were typically played back to back on the radio.  In the streaming era, We Will Rock You is a billion streamer and We are the Champions is stuck on 580 million streams.

   As far as personal experiences go, like all adults on the planet earth over the age of 40, I have plenty.  I was of a prime age to be influenced by the usage of Bohemian Rhapsody in the original Wayne's World film:

  That was a huge moment for me and many other young people growing up in the United States- the first Wayne's World was released in 1992 when I was in high school.   We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions were early examples of "jock jams"- music that would be played either in anticipation of or during professional sporting events- I can particularly hearing the into and chorus of We Will Rock You dozens of times at baseball and basketball games in the Bay Area growing up.  Under Pressure was an FM radio staple when I was a child and then in 1990 Vanilla Ice sampled Under Pressure and reinvigorated and expanded the audience for the original- which was only released in 1981. 

  The only one of the five tracks that I find surprising is Don't Stop Me Now, which has 1.5 billion streams.   I remember both Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls garnering more attention when I was growing up but neither song has more than 250 million streams.  Of course, Another One Bites the Dust is a stone-cold classic all the way around- that was a song I would sing on the school bus or like, hum to myself in the outfield when I was playing baseball as a kid.  The bassline, in particular, is practically a part of our common musical heritage in the 20th century- the very essence of pop culture. 

  I couldn't find any other songs from Queen that are close- Crazy Little Thing Called Love has over a half billion streams and Somebody to Love has over 700 million.  In addition to Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls having disappointing streaming numbers, the LGBTQ+ anthem You're My Best Friend only has 200 million streams, which suggests an even tighter connection between the 2018 film and the songs Queen has in the Billions Club.

    In conclusion, that is ten artists with 20 percent of the songs in the BILLIONS CLUB.  It's easy to see a difference between the artists in the first 10 percent- a couple artists with 10 or more songs and then artists with 9, 8 and 7 songs, and the artists from the second 10 percent- already down to five songs per artist.