Bowie isn ' t widely regarded as on the same level of vocal talent as FM . You may not LIKE queen , but what is it that you use to define an artist as talented ? Maybe your definition of talent is too dependent on personal taste . Like I said , in addition to range , FM was able to hit notes with more clarity than almost any other vocalist , with more power for lack of a better word , and across more styles . Those are traits that can ' t be said to nearly the same degree for he others you named , which doesn ' t make them not great . For example , I like both the Beatles and Queen , but I would say I like Queen more . That doesn ' t mean I can ' t recognize that the Beatles had a much broader number of melodies that had mass appeal , and influenced culture much more , meaning even though I might prefer to listen to Queen , I can still recognize that the Beatles were the better band overall . Similarly , despite being able to recognize that , just because they are better overall doesn ' t mean they are better on all individual levels . Freddie is a more talented vocalist individually than Lennon or McCartney . Hell I would probably argue that individually all of Queen ' s members were more musically talented , but the sum of the parts didn ' t create the same volume of quality that the Beatles did , so the individual talent was outweighed , but that ' s slightly more arguable .