Level 3 UNIT 4: God Save The Queen


God Save The Queen by Sex Pistols


Im about to go through each musical context of this track and discuss the different contexts of this track.


Historical Context

God save the queen was released in 1977 and was a single off of their album "Never mind the bollocks, heres the sex pistols". The song was taken and inspired directly from the British national anthem and was seen as controversial at the time for lyrics such as "There is no future in England's dreaming. The Sex Pistols track was made in rebellion to the monarchy or anyone who enforced an obligation onto people.


Cultural and Social Context

The general audience of the track was for Britain in rebellion against the monarchy; they wanted to protest through music. God save the queen was made to inspire people to make their voice heard and have their opinions voiced


Technological Context

The tools used to create this song are your basic rock band; guitar, bass, drums, and vocalist. A distortion pedal was used for the guitar and the vocalist used a standard microphone. Drums follow a simple 4/4 beat and it doesn't really change throughout the song


Performance Context

The performance is quite informal with the band members jumping around, screaming lyrics, and kicking drum kits. The Sex Pistols punk image is never really formal and cant be taken too seriously. We never see where they are in the music video but we can only assume this was shot in a rehearsal space of some sorts or a bar/club.

Musical/Theoretical Context

This band uses basic instruments and chord to construct this song; simple power chords and a basic pentatonic scale solo. The tempo is at 152bpm and does not change at all throughout the whole song-- drums use a simple 4/4 beat.

Personal and Emotional Context

The song displays that it has strong feelings of disregard and disliking to the monarchy, but one of the band members said that it was made for a laugh. The listeners perception of the song will come across as a protest song with passion and aggression and will associate this with the same thing. It plays a role of aggression and disregard to those who stand above all else and can get away with seemingly anything.

Political Context

The song is obviously about the Queen and the monarchy and how the Sex Pistols don't agree with it and as well as I, they don't think there is a need for them. The song comes across as a protest song with there being a union jack flag in the background with the Queens face censored over it which displays that they want to suppress them as they would suppress us.

Environmental/Geographical Context

The band is based in the United Kingdom (presumably in England) so I can presume that this song was written and recorded in the UK somewhere. The music video takes place in some sort of club/music venue or rehearsal space.

Religious/Spiritual Context

The Monarchy is like a religion in a way, you either believe in it or you don't, and maybe that gave great inspiration for this track. There is nothing really religious about this, it's just a bunch of white guys singing about their dismay for the queen and other figures of the Monarchy.



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