Queen

Freddie Mercury's operatic tenor, Village People mustache, leather pants, bared hairy chest, suspenders, and microphone-as-baton were the focal points of a band buttressed by Afro-haired guitar maven Brian May and the fat-bottomed rhythm section of bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen's legendary 1985 Live Aid concert performance — as Mercury led the fist-pumping throngs like some crazed cross between a fascist dictator and a police chief — saw them at their peak . . . that is, of course, if you don't count their unfathomable life-after-death career resurgence (see Next Steps).

Since Mike Myers and Dana Carvey performed their unforgettable lip-sync of "Bohemian Rhapsody" to their car radio in Wayne's World, Queen's stacked harmonies, funk flavor, and flick-your-cell phone sing-alongs have gone on to influence a lineup of post-modern-day rockers, from the Killers and Green Day to My Chemical Romance and Panic! At the Disco. Lesser-known songs, like "I'm In Love With My Car," perfectly capture the four-piece's campy, irony-laden approach, while "Las Palabras de Amor" merely hints at their worldwide appeal.

Steeped in the British music-hall tradition, Queen were capable of poking fun at themselves, whether it was a tongue-in-cheek take on the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen," or the old-fashioned show business values of "Let Me Entertain You." While their baroque approach seems to contradict the streamlined punk-rock that followed, the band was equally adept at the speed-metal blast of "Sheer Heart Attack" and the roots rockabilly of their leering cover of Elvis Presley's "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care."

Queen's theatrical approach leaps the stylistic divide between rock and opera, metal and funk, spare rockabilly and over-the-top bombast. "We Are the Champions" has become a staple booming over arena public address systems at sports events, as have "We Will Rock You" and "Another One Bites The Dust." The complex vocal arrangements of "Bohemian Rhapsody" have inspired a new wave of karaoke tributes, just as "Fat Bottomed Girls" pokes fun at sexuality and "Radio Ga Ga" nods to the old-fashioned power of the airwaves. Now name-checked by hip bands as a seminal influence, Queen perfected a wry, English sense of humor and operatic exaggeration that have been embraced by a whole new generation.