You know the narrative. Once upon a time, when terrestrial radio reigned supreme, jockeys, DJs, and programmers handpicked which artists had a shot of breaking through to the masses. Like The Claw in Toy Story, or Got Talent judges. This old school business pokes its head during a scene from last year’s Oscar-winning Queen film Bohemian Rhapsody.
While gathered in a dimly lit label office, the legendary band shares the song that gave the film its name — a lengthy, operatic opus — with their record exec for the first time. He’s not pleased. “It goes on forever! Six bloody minutes! Not possible. Anything over three minutes and the radio stations won’t program it. Period.”