Queen (soundtrack)

Queen is the soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi, to the 2014 Hindi film of the same name directed by Vikas Bahl and starring Kangana Ranaut in lead role. The album features eight tracks in a different array of genres. It was released digitally on 30 January 2014, and physically on 2 February 2014 at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, attended by the cast and crew of the film and preceded by Trivedi's performance.

Trivedi travelled to European cities like Amsterdam and Paris in search of inspiration for the album, while also working on four different film projects at the time. The album received positive reviews from critics. All the tracks are composed by Trivedi and written by Anvita Dutt, with the exception of "Ranjha" written by Raghu Nath, composed by Rupesh Kumar Ram and the producer of the film Anurag Kashyap.

Development

Amit Trivedi composed the music soundtrack simultaneously working on four other ones like Ghanchakkar, Lootera, Bombay Talkies and Kusar Prasad Ka Bhoot in a time span of 5 months. The film based on a woman's self-discovery while travelling; Trivedi also travelled to Europe in Amsterdam, the film's shooting location so that he could understand the vibe and musical demand of the place in accordance with the local philosophy of "free living [..] especially in their [European] nightclubs". During the visit he also spent time in Paris and bonded with the locals there while working over music. Trivedi completed Ghanchakkar and Lootera before Queen.

Queen bee

The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her.

The term "queen bee" can be more generally applied to any dominant reproductive female in a colony of a eusocial bee species other than honey bees. However, as in the Brazilian stingless bee Schwarziana quadripunctata, a single nest may have multiple queens or even dwarf queens, ready to replace a dominant queen in a case of sudden death.

Development

When conditions are favorable for swarming, the queen will start laying eggs in queen cups. A virgin queen will develop from a fertilized egg. The young queen larva develops differently because it is more heavily fed royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion from glands on the heads of young workers. If not for being heavily fed royal jelly, the queen larva would have developed into a regular worker bee. All bee larvae are fed some royal jelly for the first few days after hatching but only queen larvae are fed on it exclusively. As a result of the difference in diet, the queen will develop into a sexually mature female, unlike the worker bees.

Queen: The Story of an American Family

Queen: The Story of an American Family is a 1993 partly factual historical novel by Alex Haley and David Stevens.

It brought back to the consciousness of many white Americans the plight of the children of the plantation: the offspring of black slave women and their white masters, who were legally the property of their fathers.

A miniseries adaptation called Alex Haley's Queen and starring Halle Berry in the title role aired on CBS on February 14, 1993.

Historical background

The noted author Alex Haley (1921–1992) was the grandson of Queen, the illegitimate and unacknowledged daughter of James "Jass" Jackson III (the son of a friend, but not a relative, of Andrew Jackson) and his slave, Easter.

The novel recounts Queen's anguished early years as a slave girl, longing to know who her father was, and how it gradually dawned on her that he was her master. After the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 and the subsequent abolition of slavery, Queen was cast out. Jass Jackson would not acknowledge her as his daughter, afraid of compromising the inheritance of his legitimate children and goaded by his wife, who despised Queen. After many adventures, often unpleasant, she married a reasonably successful former slave by the name of Alec Haley, and had one son by him (Simon Haley). Both, Alec and Queen, had a son, each from previous relationship.

Consolidated (band)

Consolidated was an American radical activist recording and performing group, formed in 1988 and best known in the early 1990s as an alternative dance/industrial music band. They were distinguished by left-leaning political activism and politically radical lyrics, as well as their innovative sonic collages which blended industrial and hip-hop styles. An entry on a previous version of Consolidated's official website noted that all their albums have combined to sell over 500,000 copies.

Between 1989 and 1994, their instrumental style evolved from industrial, to hip-hop, to hard rock and funk with mixtures of 'live' instruments and electronic instruments. Their music often focused upon the following topics: vegetarianism, women's rights, animal rights, fighting racism and homophobia, the unity of oppression, World War II and the Holocaust, the dangers of capitalism, and the evils of American Nationalism.

Although often criticized as having strident and confrontational lyrics, Consolidated tempered the intensity of their songs with many instances of self-deprecating humor. They admitted to their own struggles with addressing complex social issues within the constraining structures of pop music, an artistic form they referred to as "a neutralized medium," but explained that they did so because they felt that it might be their only chance to reach a mass audience with progressive messages of social justice.