Not everyone has to like Queen

I was freaking desperate for Innuendo to be #1 when Queens released in 1991. Back in the days when people actually gave a shit about the charts, I wanted it to be #1 so bad, because then it would play on Ready To Roll and I would be able to tape the music video and watch it till my eyes bled.

Even more than that, I wanted it to be number one so more people would know about it, because everybody had to like Queen. I was 16 years old and a massive Queen fan and convinced that if I liked it, it must be good, and you should like it too.

I'm so glad I grew out of that twisted sense of privilege and entitlement, even if it took me a while to  realise that everybody didn't have to like the same stuff.

Even the most beloved movies and TV shows have their haters - people who think The Godfather is pretentious trash, or that The Wire ain't all that. But hell, in the immortal words of modern philosophers Groove Armada -  if everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at one another.  

To take offense at that, like I did when I was 16 and demanding to know why everybody couldn't recognise the same genius that I could see in Queen, is so fucking immature, and I'm glad I got it out of my system then. Sometimes it still flares up, when someone tells me Mad Man is trash, but I can let it go pretty easily.

Innuendo did make a dent in the charts in New Zealand - I'm convinced I remember it making all the way to #1, but the historical record only has it reaching 10, so who fucking knows? Whatever the final score, they did play it on Ready To Roll, the one place you could find new music videos o nan early Saturday night. And I was ready with my remote to tape it, and then it came on and all was well with the world, until they cut it off right as it got to the saucy bits. I was fucking gutted. You couldn't fucking win.

Now you can find almost any music video ever made in three seconds on YouTube. You can like whatever you want, and that variety makes this whole world hum, man.

Still, you should check out the video for Innuendo. It's not the most important thing in the world, not like it once was for me, but you still might like it.