November 18, 2018 – Thanks for indulging this because I can’t get enough of Queen. I’ve stopped listening to interviews and now am just listening to the records. There’s so much there, so many jewels. I said it in the comment, but these albums are a present to me – music I knew, but not really. It’s new, and I’m hooked!
As it turns out, I’m not alone. Riding the wave of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie soundtrack debuted at 25, then climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – the album chart, and Queen, the band, is No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart, a relatively new chart that counts things like streams, making Queen the number 1 act in America right now.
Remarkably, also riding the wave of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, the song Bohemian Rhapsody entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week. The song is number 33. As for Bohemian Rhapsody’s charting history, it reached No. 9 in its first run in 1976. It entered the chart again in 1992, following the success of the movie Wayne’s World, peaking at No. 2, and now, it’s having its current third run at No. 33! Plus, it’s one of only a handful of other songs that have charted on the major pop chart in each of three decades, sharing company with Prince’s 1999, various unnamed Christmas songs and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The song 1999’s three entries include its initial charting in October 1982 (eventually rising No. 44 that December), then its re-entry in 1999 (in January 1999 as No. 4, and in July 1999 as No. 12), and following Prince’s death, 1999 spent two weeks on the Hot 100 chart, topping out at No. 27 in May 2016. Although, like the Christmas songs in this company of songs, if you ask me, 1999 is a holiday song too, the holiday being the year 1999. So, I think, that leaves Bohemian Rhapsody in a field of very little company, perhaps only itself, if you exclude the holiday effects of these other songs.
Oh and for those of you who don’t ever turn on pop radio, I have to tell you, the songs on pop radio are the Billboard Hot 100, make that the top 20 or so of the Billboard Hot 100, and it’s a far cry from Bohemian Rhapsody, indeed a far cry from what played in 1992, and certainly in 1976 (Bohemian Rhapsody’s other charting years). So it’s not likely that Bohemian Rhapsody is going to actually play on the pop radio home of the Billboard Hot 100 songs, but you never know. Also, for those of you who don’t ever turn on pop radio, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, even remotely rock on pop radio, well unless you consider Maroon 5 rock…. Enough said. Just to show you, the top ten songs for this week, listed 1 to 10, are:
Thank U, Next, Ariana Grande (incidentally, this is a debut song at No. 1, so an accomplishment for Ariana Grande)
Girls Like You, Maroon 5, featuring Cardi B (if Maroon 5 is rock, the adding Cardi B, the grossest rapper ever makes it not rock)
Sicko Mode, Travis Scott
Happier, Marshmello & Bastille
Lucid Dreams, Juice WRLD
Without Me, Halsey
Better Now, Post Malone
ZEZE, Kodak Black, featuring Travis Scott
Mo Bamba, Sheck Wes
Drip Too Hard, Lil Baby & Gunna
Not even I can tell you what half of those songs are. I know they are rap, except for Ariana Grande, Halsey and Marshmello is an EDM guy, but with a rapper. I can’t listen five seconds to most songs like these now; I’m having a pop culture rebellion, most of these, I don’t know at all.
But what I do know is that it takes more than just my demographic to put a song on the Hot 100 list, even at No. 33. It takes more than just my demographic to put a band at the top of the Billboard Artist 100. And a three-decade entry on the Hot 100 chart? A rock song in this sea of rap? Who knew it was going to be Queen to get people listening? I just want to shout, Love Live the Queen! Actually, to be fair, there have been six rock acts to lead the Billboard Artist 100 this year: Fall Out Boy, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Panic! at the Disco and Greta Van Fleet. But still, Love Live the Queen! And, it makes me wonder about the rappers. Perhaps they need to start taking guitar lessons. Or singing lessons. All jokes aside, this is so exciting! Perhaps times are changing!