Why wasn't Queen as successful in America as in other countries? Then, after Radio Ga Ga, they couldn't even get into the top 40 in America even when these songs were top 10 hits everywhere else in the world.
Last Updated: 18.06.2025 00:19
Edit: As people seem to be questioning the question, Radio Ga-Ga only reached number 17 in the US Charts in 1984, and I Want To Break Free and all singles after it didn’t break the top 40. As for the albums, from 1975 to 1980 Queen had five top six albums in the US, and after that no top 20 albums (with the album after I Want To Break Free not even cracking the top 40 and even Freddie’s swan song Innuendo only made number 30)
The canonical answer (according to surviving Queen members Bryan May and Roger Taylor) is homophobia and, arguably, misogyny. Queen’s single after Radio Ga Ga was I Want To Break Free - and Queen cross-dressed for the music video. It wasn’t (other than Freddie) even “glamorous drag” of larger than life drag queens; they dressed as a family including a woman with hair in curlers (or rather Coronation Street style working class soap opera characters) doing things like vacuuming and washing up.
MTV’s first ban of a video ever had been Queen’s Body Language - but banning a video for being too sexy was rock. Being cross-dressed with a feminist message implying women might want to break free from suburban drudgery? Far “too homosexual” and the video and the rest of the album didn’t get much airtime.