Resilience can be defined as persevering in achieving one’s desires despite the numerous challenges that arise that make it difficult. “We Will Rock You” by Queen was a song that built community through its use of lyrics that show this resilience. These resilient lyrics are evident in the most famous lines of the song in the chorus: “We will we will rock you // We will we will rock you”. Rocking someone is not a phrase that is used commonly in contemporary music, however in the past it meant to either fight someone/something or move the audience in an inspiring manner. In this case, the term “rock” could serve to inspire the audience to keep pushing for their desires despite the challenges they will face, just like the main character does throughout the song — resilience. This theme of resilience is shown not just in the incredibly well known chorus, but also throughout every verse.
In the first verse, Queen holds this theme of resilience with their meticulous choice of phrases that include: “make a big noise”, “mud on your face”, “you big disgrace”. All of these phrases demonstrate resilience because kicking a can on the ground, a loud disturbance, and playing in mud making a mess of oneself are both actions that people are expected to refrain from, but nonetheless, the main character is resilient against this rejection and does it anyways. Then, in the second verse, this resilient theme is continued with the phrase “blood on your face”, “gonna take on the world someday”, and “waving your banner all over the place”. These phrases also paint a picture of resilience because having blood on one’s face shows the challenge of taking on the world, and presumably waving a banner all over the place. These phrases imply that the main character fought a hard battle despite the numerous challenges, hence the blood. At this point, rationally speaking, one would be expected to stop, as someone with blood on their face is not in good condition. For the main character however, this is not the case. This is shown in the final verse where Queen uses the phrase “You got mud on your face” one last time and adds “Somebody better put you back into your place, do it!” This line is the last line of verse lyrics in the song. The fact that there is an emphatic “do it!” placed onto the end of this line is significant because it shows that despite going through all the stages of life and facing adversity in achieving his peace, said person is not any less enthusiastic in the end despite the challenges, shown by the exclamatory nature of this line.
Generally, the theme of resilience against opposition/obstacles is one historically that rallies people together and gets them to fight/join as a unit. For example, during the American Civil War, when the North wanted abolition of slavery but the South did not, the South gathered together and were resilient against the anti-slavery ideals of the North. Their resilience caused them to join together and form a community to get what they wanted — this community forming is not exclusive to the war, it happens repeatedly historically as a result of resilience. This resilience common among the song, and the war, consequently shows how Queen was able to uplift their audience and build this community using lyrics of resilience.
The hit’s ability to build community is enhanced through not just the resilient nature of the song alone, but also its lyrical appeal to audiences of different stages of life. One way Queen does this through the use of lyrics is by speaking to every age group in their own verse. In the first verse, the song is speaking to a “boy”. Next, in the second verse it’s a “young man”. Lastly, in the final verse it makes one last switch to an “old man”. According to Simon Frith popular music isn’t necessarily about what it reveals about people, but rather how it constructs them. If one was to argue that this popular song does anything to construct people, it would be that it constructs resilient individuals by using resilient lyrics, and as a result, a resilient community of listeners with its all-inclusive lyrical age appeal (Frith 261).
Figure 1: Presence of resilience in “We Will Rock You” and its appeal to all ages. In the image above, the highlighted text shows the resilient nature the song depicts through it’s lyrics that uplift its audience to come together and fight. While, the blue underlined text show the appeal to all age groups. It’s important to note that both the underlined text and highlighted text are present throughout the entire song.