Text Analysis: Bohemian Rhapsody
10 October 2012
Analysis of “Bohemian Rhapsody”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, a British rock band from the 1970’s, is a very complex and elaborately written and performed song. After a first listen, your senses and feelings are being stretched every which way. The song starts out slow with deeply emotional lyrics that signal deep emotion in the writer. Following the intro, the song seems to get even darker, and describes killing someone with a gun. As the song progresses, the tempo picks up with a guitar solo and eventually gets very chaotic. During this part of the song, there are a multitude of words used from foreign languages. Also, there is a fair amount of repetition used in later parts of the song. One thing to note is that there isn’t actually a chorus anywhere in the piece. This is very unique as far as music goes, especially since when released it was given to the public as a single at first, and most singles are meant to have catchy choruses and rhythms. It develops into an opera style singing continuing the dramatic theme throughout the song. There are points in the song where they build intensity and almost give a climax to the piece. The song finally slows down again to a slower ballad, and ends again with dramatic lyrics that fade out slowly with the volume lowering.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a widely critiqued and discussed song that to this day has yet to reveal its “true” meaning. The entirety of the song gives dark views and insights into what the write may have experienced throughout his life. Freddy Mercury, the writer and singer, was an openly gay and very flamboyant man, and was quoted saying, “I’m as gay as a daffodil, my dear.” He was also quoted saying, “It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them... "Bohemian Rhapsody" didn't just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research although it was
Analysis of “Bohemian Rhapsody”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, a British rock band from the 1970’s, is a very complex and elaborately written and performed song. After a first listen, your senses and feelings are being stretched every which way. The song starts out slow with deeply emotional lyrics that signal deep emotion in the writer. Following the intro, the song seems to get even darker, and describes killing someone with a gun. As the song progresses, the tempo picks up with a guitar solo and eventually gets very chaotic. During this part of the song, there are a multitude of words used from foreign languages. Also, there is a fair amount of repetition used in later parts of the song. One thing to note is that there isn’t actually a chorus anywhere in the piece. This is very unique as far as music goes, especially since when released it was given to the public as a single at first, and most singles are meant to have catchy choruses and rhythms. It develops into an opera style singing continuing the dramatic theme throughout the song. There are points in the song where they build intensity and almost give a climax to the piece. The song finally slows down again to a slower ballad, and ends again with dramatic lyrics that fade out slowly with the volume lowering.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a widely critiqued and discussed song that to this day has yet to reveal its “true” meaning. The entirety of the song gives dark views and insights into what the write may have experienced throughout his life. Freddy Mercury, the writer and singer, was an openly gay and very flamboyant man, and was quoted saying, “I’m as gay as a daffodil, my dear.” He was also quoted saying, “It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them... "Bohemian Rhapsody" didn't just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research although it was