These songs have almost nothing to do with each other. Who the fuck would hear "Run The World (Girls)" for the first or second or twentieth time and think to themselves, "now here's a song that's just BEGGING to be compared to Bohemian Rhapsody." "Run The World" didn't even chart that well and isn't nearly as famous as "Bohemian Rhapsody." It seems like an unfair comparison that someone threw together just to troll the frustrated 70's rock fans of Facebook and see how far they could carry a bullshit meme.
Beyonce and Freddie Mercury are both very famous names that generate millions of dollars year after year. This is essentially the base of their similarities, thus making them easy targets for the "popist vs rockist" debate. The image seems to side with the rockists, although it's debatable whether the responsible party truly believes what they're preaching deep down.
"Run The World" isn't exactly bland and simple. It's not the greatest song we've ever heard or anything, but it's adequately structured, with a steady enough progression of ideas and fragments that it actually sounds to us like an equal amount of thought and effort went into BOTH songs.
"Run The World" sounds like it had 6 writers and 4 producers. It's not a surprise to learn this. Yes, it's overproduced, but that's part of what makes it a good song. It takes serious-ass skill to throw together this type of production. In some settings, it can actually be more difficult to write and produce collaboratively.
Despite its complexities, it's similarly unsurprising that Freddie Mercury was the lone songwriter of "Bohemian Rhapsody," in which he plays a character experiencing a flamboyantly wine-drenched and non-linear journey through the process of suicide, with all its glorious darkness and fabulous insanity intact. And the music carefully matches these extremities. While not intended by Queen as kid stuff, kids REALLY love to sing along to it 30+ years on, because it's also fun and kinda wacky sounding. But it's also a rarity in that it's probably the most famous pop song that goes on for six minutes while hardly repeating itself. We could go on and on about how great this song is... Freddie was obviously gifted, etc, etc...
But the point is that it's unfair to judge the music of MOST songs against "Bohemian Rhapsody." "Run The World" is hardly a prime example of a pop song that deserved this. And despite what 70's rock fans might think about it, gloss and shimmer can still reveal depth.
Plus, removing half of the lyrics from both songs and placing them side-by-side is hardly a strong argument.
Not sure why we're still going on about this... Nothing really matters.
NOTE: "Run The World" missed out on our "Hot Mix 2011," although we happily included "Party" from the same album at #61. WE have yet to post an official 70's mix, although "Bohemian Rhapsody" was included on a "bored at work 70's list" at #48 a couple years back.
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