Classical Influence On Rock Music In 1970's Music

In this essay I will discuss progressive or art rock with a particular focus on the band Queen and their music from the 1970s. This essay will examine the development of the band and their musical characteristics with a detailed commentary on the songs “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “The Prophets Song” from the album A Night at The Opera. This essay will endeavour to identify the classical influence on rock music within this genre (Lowe, G 2014) and look at other influence on the band Queen, such as, jazz, glam and art rock. Further, the band has also moved into a commercial phase with a famous video for “Radio Ga Ga” (Blenkinsop, I, p 352) and their 1984 hit from the album The Works, “I Want to Break Free”, however, it is the earlier songs that firmly place the band, albeit momentarily, in the progressive rock genre during the 1970’s. …show more content…
Queen’s music cannot be seen in isolation. Bands and artists at the time, such as, Roxy Music and David Bowie were creating art music within a glam rock setting (Alfonso, B: p85) too. Leading exponents of the Progressive Rock genre include King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes who were inspired by the psychedelic scene (Alfonso, B p 82). Progressive Rock can be seen as experimental music, music for art’s sake and as described by critics of progressive rockers as mere self-indulgence (Alfonso, B et al p85; Covach, J and Flory p 316, 329). It is argued that much of their inspiration came from the concept album format which was firmly established by The Beatles and their concept album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Covach, J and Flory, A p