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Kristen Seurkamp

Intermediate Composition 2089 012

Professor Aaron Kerley

Annotated Bibliography

23 September 2018

Queen: An Annotated Bibliography

Bell, Max. “Queen – Jazz.” ​UDiscoverMusic,​ UDiscoverMusic, 12 Nov. 2018,

www.udiscovermusic.com/behind-the-albums/queen-jazz/​.

This article was an overview of the band’s album “Jazz”. It begins by talking about what

was going on in the band during the time before this album’s release -- how they were coming

off of their News of the World tour and were taking a short break over the summer before they

resumed recording. Then they went into talking about some of the inspirations for this album.

Then, for the bulk of the article, the author breaks down each song on the album -- what it

sounds like, how it was received by listeners, how it was created, etc. At the end of the article,

the author finishes with telling the readers how the album did sales-wise and in the charts, and

what effect this album had on the band and their success.

Biography.com Editors. “Brian May Biography.” ​Biography.com​, A&E Television Networks, 2

Apr. 2014, ​www.biography.com/people/brian-may-20970809​.

This article is a biographical article about Brian May, the lead guitarist for the band

Queen. This article is kept unbiased and is a rather brief biography of the guitarist’s life. The

article begins with a short synopsis of May’s life, and then moves on to talk about his early life,
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his music career as a whole, and his personal life and other ventures. This article is different

from the other biographical articles about the musicians in Queen, because this article only talks

about three topics. It lumps his entire music career into one topic rather than talking about each

music venture individually. It talks a lot about what he has done outside of music recently but it

does not mention much about how he continued to play with Queen after the death of Freddie

Mercury.

Biography.com Editors. “Freddie Mercury Biography.” ​Biography.com​, A&E Television

Networks, 2 Apr. 2014, ​www.biography.com/people/freddie-mercury-9406228​.

This article is a biographical article about Freddie Mercury. It gives details about

Mercury’s life before and during his time as Queen’s frontman. It then gives the details about his

death and his battle with AIDS. This article is unbiased and gives factual information about

Mercury’s life.

Compared to other biographical sources about Mercury’s life, this source is more brief

than most, as it is only a couple paragraphs long. It also focuses more on his life rather than his

music career, which is different from a lot of biographical articles about music artists including

Freddie Mercury.

Biography.com Editors. “John Deacon Biography.” ​Biography.com,​ A&E Television Networks,

Apr. 2014, ​www.biography.com/people/john-deacon-21213183​.

This article is a biographical article about John Deacon, also known as the bassist from

Queen. The article is unbiased and gives a factual account of Deacon’s life. The article begins

with a brief synopsis of Deacon’s life, then goes on the talk about his background, how he joined
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Queen, the songs he wrote for Queen, what he did on the side of being the bassist in Queen, and

then how he opted for a quiet private life after the death of Freddie Mercury. This article speaks

solely of John Deacon and is a biography of him rather than the band as a whole which would be

more common to find.

Biography.com Editors. “Roger Taylor Biography.” ​Biography.com,​ A&E Television Networks,

2 Apr. 2014, ​www.biography.com/people/roger-taylor-21213223​.

This article is a biographical article about Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor. It gives a

brief synopsis of Taylor’s life, then goes on to talk about his background, how he joined Queen,

his work as a solo musician and songwriter, his work promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, and then

how he tried to maintain the band’s legacy for years after Freddie Mercury’s death.

This article is different from other articles about Queen because most other articles speak

mainly of Freddie Mercury as he was the frontman of the band, however, this article dives deep

in the drummer’s life. This article also focuses on Taylor’s individual life as Roger Taylor, rather

than “the drummer from Queen”.

Braae, Nick. “Keeping Themselves Alive: Identifying and Analysing Queen's Musical

Development, 1973-1980.” ​Popular Music History,​ vol. 9, no. 3, 2014, pp. 248–269.,

doi:10.1558/pomh.v9i3.27029.

This article is from a Journal called Popular Music History, which was published in 2014.

It is an analysis of Queen’s music between 1973 and 1980. It shows how their music had

changed through the years. The author notes that this is not a progression of a singular path from

one point to the next, rather a wide-ranging musical journey following each of the group’s

stylistic turns.
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This article also includes visual images which make it easier to view and understand the

data the author is trying to present. It shows that at the beginning of their career, Queen did not

vary much in the musical style of the songs in each album, but as they grew and progressed as a

band, their music style became more versatile and they began to put out different styles of music.

This source was not like any other source I had looked at because instead of it being at article

just stating that their music had changed, it was an actual analysis of Queen’s music and ​how​ it

changed.

Chiu, David. “The History of Smile: The Band That Set the Stage for Queen.” ​Ultimate Classic

Rock,​ 5 Nov. 2018, ​ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-smile-band-history/​.

This is an online article that tells a biographical account of what happened before the

formation of Queen, and how the formation and bisbanding of the band Smile was vital to

Queen. In the beginning of the article, it talks about how Smile came to be. It then goes on to talk

about the band’s experience recording songs, getting a record label and playing at concerts.

Then, it explains how Freddie Mercury found himself in the band’s circle, which eventually led

to his joining of the band once the lead singer left to join another band. It then talks about how

Smile turned into Queen, and thus was a new era of music. This article is very thorough in that it

gives a lot of details when explaining the biographical account of the band. It also gives videos

and images chronologically throughout the article to help the reader understand the time period

and relate the article to visual representations.

Deriso, Nick. “How Queen Overcame Trying Times to Release 'The Miracle'.” ​Ultimate Classic

Rock,​ Ultimate Classic Rock, 22 May 2015, ​ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-the-miracle/​.

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This online article talks about the making of the Queen album “The Miracle”, and how

the band had to overcome trying times to release this album. In the beginning of the article, the

author talks about how the album did and sales and in the charts, and then goes on to talk about

how Freddie Mercury’s declining health made the production and release of this album more

difficult than past albums. The author then talks about what happened with the band after the

release of this album, and how Freddie Mercury’s illness played a role in this. This article gave a

lot of inside information as to what Freddie was going through by including interviews with the

band members. It made the article more personal, as we could see what the band members were

feeling as Freddie was going through this trying time.

Easlea, Daryl. “Music - Review of Queen - News Of The World.” BBC, BBC, 2007,

www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/98dp/​.

This source is an album review of Queen’s album “News of the World”. This review is

brief as it is only three paragraphs long, but detailed. The first paragraph is a description of the

album. In the second paragraph, the author briefly talks about individual songs on the album. In

the third paragraph, the author talks about how the song did in sales and in the charts, and was

happened closely after the release of the album. This review is brief and unbiased, as the author

solely talks about the album objectively.

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “Queen - Queen | Songs, Reviews, Credits.” ​All Music,​ RhythmOne

Group, ​www.allmusic.com/album/queen-mw0000195392​.

This source is an album review of Queen’s first self-titled album, “Queen”. This author

first talks about the debut of the album and how Queen already had a signature sound in their

very first album. He then goes into much detail about what exactly this signature sound was. The
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author said that despite most of the songs not being very memorable, Queen had started to

become irresistible. This review, compared to the previous one, is more biased as the author

shares more of his opinion about the album rather than a solely objective account of the album.

Giles, Jeff. “Revisiting Queen's Second Album, 'Queen II'.” ​Ultimate Classic Rock,​ 8 Mar. 2016,

ultimateclassicrock.com/queen-queen-ii/​.

This is an article that talks about Queen’s second album, “Queen II”. The article starts by

explaining what was going on with the band prior to the release and making of this album, and

how their previous album was affecting the band making this album. It then goes into how this

article was made, and how critics responded to it at first. The author then talked about how this

wasn’t one of their best albums to come out, but it was important to the momentum of the band

in the beginning. This article is shorter than other articles found on this website, as it solely talks

about one album and the creation of this album.

Jones, Chris. “Music - Review of Queen - Sheer Heart Attack.” ​BBC​, BBC, 2007,

www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/xxhj/​.

This source is a review for the Queen album, “Sheer Heart Attack”. This review was

longer as it had more explanation and description of the article and the band during this time

period than other reviews. In the beginning of the review, the author talks about what was

happening with the band before the release of their album. The author then went on to briefly

describe the creation process of this album. He then goes on to give brief reviews and

descriptions of individual songs from this album, before going on to talk about what happened

after the release of the album, and what the reader could expect from the band’s next album.

Light, Alan. “Queen Reign Supreme Once Again.” ​Rolling Stone​, 13 Nov. 2008, pp. 36–37.
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This is an article from the magazine ​Rolling Stone,​ and was published in November of

2008. This article focuses on Queen after the death of Freddie Mercury, and how the band moved

on and continued to play and make music. The author begins the article’s timeframe thirteen

years after the passing of Freddie Mercury, when guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor

are on tour with their new chosen Queen frontman -- Paul Rodgers. The author then goes on to

write about what the band did after this first tour, as a band and as individual people.

This article is different from other articles that I’ve seen because it is written while Paul

Rodgers was the frontman and while all of what he was writing about was going on. Most other

Queen articles talk about their music career through the 1970s and 80s from a historical

perspective, but this article talks about the band with Paul Rodgers from a present-day

perspective.

O'Casey, Matt, director. ​Queen - Days of Our Lives Documentary.​ ​YouTube​, YouTube, 6 Feb.

2012, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NOyPI8_m8​.

This documentary was created for both informational and entertainment purposes. It

focuses on the lives of the band members throughout their career and what was going on during

and led up to the height of the band. This documentary is told in two parts. The first part is

centralized around the band throughout the 70s, and the second part is centralized around the

band in the 80s. This documentary was one of the most famous, if not the most famous,

documentaries about the band. It included many interviews with the members themselves, people

close to the band, and people whom are very knowledgeable about the band.
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"Queen." ​Contemporary Musicians,​ vol. 48, Gale, 2004. ​Biography In Context​,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1608004104/BIC?u=ucinc_main&sid=BIC&xid=c5f5bcef​.

Accessed 23 Sept. 2018.

This article was written for biographical purposes for the band Queen. It is an in depth

article describing the chronological history of the band -- how the band formed, the beginnings

of the band, how the band had continued success through their years together, the death of

Freddie Mercury, and how the band continued on after Mercury’s death. This article also has

brief personal information about each member of the band and the singers that took the place of

Mercury in the many years after his death. This article also has a brief summary of the band’s

career and the awards the band had received.

This source definitely covered all of the bases when it comes to biographies. It had every

factual detail about the band and their music along with all of the information summarized at the

end. Compared to other biographical articles about the band, this author manages to stay

unbiased about the band, giving only factual details. This author also manages to give all of the

information in a brief matter.

QueenAllTheWay. ​Freddie Mercury's Final Days (1991).​ ​YouTube​, YouTube, 31 July 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uazC2IdI8rw​.

This video is a shorter documentary-style clip that focuses on the final days of Freddie

Mercury’s life. The video shows interviews of band members and people close to Freddie

mercury, as well as clips of the band at award shows, on stage, and in music videos.
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Saville, Lyndy, director. ​Discovering Queen .​ ​Kanopy.com,​ 3DD Group, 2012,

uc.kanopy.com/video/discovering-queen.

This is a video that talks about Queen in depth, and came out in 2012. The entire video is

45 minutes long and gives facts about the band (their history, each member, their music, critics,

fans, etc.) and it also gives opinions from experts, critics, and fans. The video is longer and

therefore, is able to dive deeper into all things Queen and give a lot more information than short

videos or articles. There are also multiple videos, music, and pictures that play throughout the

video as well.

Unlike other sources where one reads an article and pulls information from it, when

watching this video, the viewer can see the band play live, see pictures of the members, and

listen to the music and how their music develops through the years. Instead of reading someone

else’s experience watching the band play live or listening to their music change through the

years, the viewer is able to have their own experiences with the band through a videographical

source.

This source, however, is very biased in favor of the band. It is a biographical source and

has facts about the band, but it also includes people's opinions of the band and all of the opinions

are positive and in favor of the band. If one was trying to find an unbiased source with solely

facts about the band, this would not be the best source.

WatchMojo, director. ​The History of Queen and Freddie Mercury.​ ​YouTube​, YouTube, 20 Nov.

2010, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=diy_J6o0qgQ​.

This is a short video that briefly relays the history of Queen. It talks about the band’s

beginning, their albums and how they did on the charts, the band’s most popular songs, the death
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of Freddie Mercury, and then the effort to maintain the band’s legacy by Brian May and Roger

Taylor. This video would be good for someone wanting a quick historical overview of Queen

and what they did as a band; however, for a long biography or someone who wants more

biographical context, this would not be a very good source as it does not give a lot of

information. Compared to other sources, this source does not give half as much information as

others, but it was really easy to follow and to remember each point that the speaker noted.