Killer Queen
Music: Edexcel GCSE, topic 3.2.1
Music Technology
Your second set work for Vocal Music is Queen: Killer Queen (from the album ‘Sheer Heart Attack’).
Genres
- Written by the band Queen and released in 1974.
- This set work is a well crafted and complex pop song combining the genres of glam rock and stadium rock (vaudeville) in a multi-tracked melting pot of theatre and rock.
Music technology
- This set work uses a multi-tracking technique where parts are recorded and then overdubbed.
- This is a technique used where one part is recorded and another part recorded over it afterwards.
New effects
- There were new effects used such as:
- Flanger -an effect creating a whooshing sound.
- Wah Wah -a filter effect giving the instrument a ‘wah wah’ sound.
- Distortion -a timbre effect that distorts a signal.
Word paint
- The flanger is used on the word ‘Laser Beam’ to word paint that lyric.
Panning
- Panning allowed the stereo field to become a 3-dimensional space.
- The technology of the time allowed different parts to be placed into different spaces within the stereo field.
Test yourself on Killer Queen
Which album is Queen's song Killer Queen from?
Which effect is used on the word ‘Laser Beam’ to word paint that lyric?