20TH Century Western Music Assignment 2022

Running head: 20TH CENTURY WESTERN MUSIC
20TH CENTURY WESTERN MUSIC: A CASE STUDY OF FREDDIE MERCURY AND
HIS MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

20TH CENTURY WESTERN MUSIC1
Introduction
As opined by Stockdale (2016), the personal life incidents and the age in which the artists
or the musicians live play a pivotal role on the musical compositions or the works composed by
them. Burkholder, Grout and Palisca (2010) are of the viewpoint that these personal life incidents
and also the influence of the age in which the musicians live influence the artists or the
musicians to select the themes which form the central lacuna of their compositions. More
importantly, it is seen that these two aspects also influence the artistic journey which the
musicians or the artists undertake during the course of their entire career. Furthermore, this also
accounts for the difference in gravity, quality, the nature of the themes that the musicians or the
artists explore and other aspects of the early and the later works composed by the artists (Velescu
2019). As a matter of fact, it is seen that the different musicians or the artists usually start their
career by catering to the public demand or follow the trends which are in vogue however in the
later part of their career they usually move on to the themes which are more personal to them and
thereby artistically or aesthetically pleasing. This aspect of the artistic or the musical journey
becomes more profound in the particular case of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer and composer
of the famous 20th century music band “Queen”. This essay intends to analyze Freddie Mercury’s
“Bohemian Rhapsody” (an early composition) and “Time Waits For No One” (a later
composition) to understand the impact of his own historical and also the historical background of
the age in which he lived and composed his music.
Overview of the life of Freddie Mercury
According to Inglis (2016), the life of Freddie Mercury was as accelerating as the nature
of music that he composed. Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) was born as Farrokh Bulsara and his
parents actually hailed from the nation of India however they soon migrated to UK for better
economic opportunities (Kaloudis 2019). In this regard, it needs to be said that Farrokh right
from his childhood showed an inclination towards music although his father was completely
against it. However, a chance encounter at a bar made him join the newly formed band “Queen”
and the credit for making the band a popular one largely belongs to him. He assumed the name
of Freddie Mercury after becoming the lead singer of the concerned band. In this regard, it needs
to be said that he is presently popular as a British Singer, music composer, song recorder and

20TH CENTURY WESTERN MUSIC2
also for his “flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range” (Clement 2018). As a matter
of fact, Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé has noted that “the difference between Freddie and
almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice” (Hawkins 2017).
More importantly, the different songs composed by him in association with the band
“Queen” like “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Killer Queen”, “Somebody to Love”, “Don't Stop Me
Now”, “We Are the Champions”, “Time Waits For No One” has clearly placed him among the
greatest lead singers in the history of Western music (Blake 2016). In this regard, it needs to be
said that during the time of Mercury rock music was an extremely popular genre and the disco
music was on the rise (Stockdale 2016). This particular trend had a profound impact on the
music or the songs composed by him along with the personal failures, heartbreaks, family issues
and others which played a key role in his life. (Bennett 2016) Despite all these, he wanted to be
the best lead singer of all time and this in turn motivated him to take music in religiously.
Furthermore, it was seen that the musicians of the past inspired him in a significant manner and
thus he tried to model his own songs as per the musical style or the techniques followed by them.
However, at the same time it needs to be said that despite the high quality of music composed by
him he had to face a substantial amount of criticism because of the life choices that he made. He
ultimately died at the age of 45 because of AIDS which he got from his wild affairs with multiple
men during the prime of his youth (Klein 2018).
Analysis of “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Lebrun and Strong (2016) are of the viewpoint that the “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of
the most important songs which not only cemented the legacy as well as the fame of Freddie
Mercury but also the British band “Queen” as well. Adding to this, Richards and Langthorne
(2016) have noted that the song under discussion here is an experimental one and thus it is seen
that it explores different genres like opera, rock, melody and others. However, it was the musical
or the artistic genius of Freddie Mercury which enabled him to integrate these diverging genres
and thereby use them to enhance the beauty or for that the pleasure of listening to the song under
discussion here (Inglis 2016). More importantly, this song was written by Freddie Mercury for
the album “A Night at the Opera” of the band “Queen” and was initially rejected by many music
companies because of the six minute length of the song (Blake 2016). As a matter of fact, it is