In 1984, Queen released their eleventh studio album, The Works.
The first single from it was Radio Ga Ga, which achieved great success.
The next single was I Want to Break Free, which became very popular in Europe and Latin America.
A little less so, at the time, in the United States.
The cause?
The axe of censorship, which fell violently on the video clip proposed by Queen.
We all know the video I'm talking about, the one that still makes us smile today.
In essence, the video shows the band members dressed as women, in what is intended to be a parody of a British soap opera, Coronation Street.
Well, in 1984 that video was considered scandalous... so much for irony.
MTV did not broadcast the video for over seven years, which limited the sales of the single.
The album and single, however, sold so well all over the world that I don't think Queen lost sleep over it, at least not from a commercial point of view.
In other respects, well, the band was quite angry, so much so that the tour for the album didn't touch the United States, as had happened for previous tours.
Of course, it could have also depended on other reasons, despite Freddy Mercury's statement announcing his intention to no longer perform in the country. After all, I doubt that the record companies put freedom of expression before profit.
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