Monday, September 5, 2011

A Googlicious birthday for Freddie


Media Moment: Google Doodle 
Queen-related: Freddie’s 65th birthday is commemorated

Although the Queen community finds their own way of paying tribute to Freddie on this, his birthday, the folks at Google have gone all out in commemorating his legacy by posting what it probably the most elaborate Google Doodle they’ve produced. It appeared on their home page across the globe last night at midnight, except in the United States where the Labor Day holiday is being observed, then the Freddie Doodle will be posted tomorrow (September 6th).

If you haven’t seen it by now, here it is:



The choice of song was appropriate, in my opinion, since the melody of Don’t Stop Me Now captures the fun-loving spirit that Freddie embodied. And the visual interpretation of the lyrics offered the Doodle designer a lot to work with. Not only is it a music video for the song in many ways, it does a great job at distilling down Freddie’s key moments with Queen into the small details throughout. The depiction of Brian’s guitar is completely wrong, which is surprising given the attention to other band details.

What I thought would be a neat tie-in was some kind of reference to Freddie’s visual arts training. It would have been an interesting parallel to the use of hand illustrations in creating Doodles.

I find the Google Doodle coincides nicely with the Freddie For a Day event, the release of the remastered albums, the photo exhibition, and even the lengthy debate about who is going to portray Freddie in the upcoming film about his life. 

In many ways, as Brian commented to the Google people, Freddie’s presence is more potent now that it’s ever been.

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