Zagorski-Thomas’ notion of ‘sonic cartoons’ provides a useful backdrop for the discussion of Queen’s ‘epic’ sound. The first section of the analysis below considers how Queen’s performance and studio techniques encouraged such a reading the second section of the analysis offers some insight into how these particular traits developed and changed through the early stages of Queen’s career. Specifically, I will argue that the ‘Queen sound’ was built around a number of arrangement and production techniques that fostered an extravagant and grand sense of size in the group’s songs. While there are elements of Queen’s songs that could be discussed fruitfully in terms of musical narratives, as per Zak’s work, I am going to use ‘epic’ in an altogether more straightforward manner in relation to the ‘Queen sound’. The Queen-related sources are much less helpful in prescribing the meaning of the adjective. For Zak, the term ‘epic’ has a temporal basis discussing Led Zeppelin’s output, he argues, ‘the expanded dimensions allow time for musical ideas to spin forth, and narrative space for contrasting sections to interact’ (Zak: 2008, p. This adjective derives, in the first instance, from Zak’s study of 1970s songs that extended beyond the formal conventions of pop and rock music (Zak: 2008) further, it has been employed in various appraisals of the group in music magazines and critical writing (Barrow and Newby: 1994, p. Rather than simply document the traits of the ‘Queen sound’, this paper will consider how the components of the group’s sonic fingerprint may be understood as ‘epic’. Within this framework, I wish to narrow the study one step further. This paper offers a humble realisation of this idea-that is, idiolect analysis (from the musicological side of the equation) can be a useful focal point for discussions of record production equally, this paper demonstrates that an understanding of Queen’s idiolect is enhanced significantly by documenting some of their studio processes and techniques. Zagorski-Thomas has recently expounded the need to bring the study of record production and traditional musicology into contact with one another (Zagorski-Thomas: 2014, 1ff). There is a broader disciplinary aim also. There has been much less consideration of the normative elements of the group’s studio practices-what comprises their overall ‘sound’-and thus this paper brings some balance to the Queen-related literature. Despite the rich detail one can glean from these sources, they are focused, above all, on the unusual and extraordinary feats of the group, such as Brian May’s imitation of a Dixieland orchestra on his Red Special guitar on ‘Good Company’ (1975), or Freddie Mercury’s ‘megaphone’ voice on ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’ (1975). ![]() Queen’s practices in the studio have been addressed on a number of prior occasions, notably in a handful of documentaries and articles that involve interviews with producers Roy Thomas Baker, Reinhold Mack and the group members (Cunningham: 1995 Longfellow: 2005 O’Casey: 2011 Promane: 2009). I have taken this to refer to musical features that are concerned with primarily the performance- and recording-based elements of Queen’s songs, such as texture and instrumentation, recording techniques, and the manipulation of the sound-box. In the case of Queen, one of the key components of the group’s idiolect was the so-called ‘Queen sound’ (de Boer: 1999, 84 Serpick). Past idiolect analyses have demonstrated that a ‘fingerprint’ may comprise any number and type of musical details, ranging from the textural juxtapositions of Jethro Tull (Moore: 2003), to the idiosyncratic harmonic progressions of the Beatles (Pedler: 2010), to the instrumental techniques of the Police band members (Spicer: 2010), to the common formal structures of Radiohead’s songs (Moore and Ibrahim: 2009). This term refers to the musical characteristics or ‘fingerprints’ that mark and define an individual artist’s recorded output (Moore: 2012, 166). The aim of the wider study is to identify and analyse Queen’s musical idiolect. This paper derives from a wider study of British rock band Queen, with a particular focus on their songs written and released between 19 on the albums Queen through to The Game.
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