After a long and winding road we have received the film we all wanted. Bohemian Rhapsody hit theaters on November 2nd, and has broken numerous records such has Biggest Grossing Biopic of All-Time. This film has been a long time coming as we received leaks back in 2010 that a Queen movie was in the works. But alas, 8 years later, we have our film. Nevermind the wonderful acting from Rami Malek and company, and their spot-on depiction of the Live Aid Concert back in 1985, I want to delve into the deeper meaning of this motion picture– what it means to be on top of the world and how to do it the right way. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon showed us all that being a world-renowned rock band doesn’t mean all the crazy stuff backstage. The lessons I gathered from this movie are: Don’t be like the others, be persistent, and give 110 percent all of the time.

In the age of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, and The Eagles topping the Billboards with their hard rock styles, Queen took a different spin on their musicality. Instead of Freddie Mercury screaming into the microphone like Brian Johnson or Roger Taylor bashing the drums like the great John Bonham, they went to the more orchestral and lighthearted side of rock. This is first seen in the song “Queen Killer” which contains four-part harmonies such as you would expect to hear in a Mozart piece, not a rock band. Later, when the immortal “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released on the album “A Night at the Opera” in 1975, they, just as the name of the album implies, combined various operatic movements with just a hint of rock. This proved to work wonders for the group as they rose to the top with their unconventional ways of making it as a rock band in the 1970s.

The film depicts how the band was told numerous times by old school music producers and executives that songs over three minutes would not get time on the radio due to their length. “Bohemian Rhapsody” tops out at nearly 6 minutes, however the band was so committed to this song that they bootlegged copies to give to nearby radio stations. This shows the persistence of Queen to accomplish what they believed in.

To show their belief in their now most famous song, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen created a music video. This was years before MTV, or anything of the sorts. Rolling Stone magazine did not overstate the video’s importance which led to almost making it mandatory  for new music to have a video if the band wanted their song to succeed.

In conclusion, this movie was much more than a genesis of a band that carried music in the 70s but it is that of a band that didn’t do it the “normal” way. They went out on limbs when it came to the writing and producing of their music and their distribution of said music. Queen never followed the guidelines en route to their rock and roll immortality.