Queen drew artistic influence from British rock acts of the 1960s and early 1970s, such as the Beatles, the Kinks, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, Black Sabbath, Slade, Deep Purple, David Bowie, Genesis, and Yes,with Mercury also inspired by the rock and roll singers Little Richard,Elvis Presleyand the gospel singer Aretha Franklin.On the Beatles, Brian May stated they “built our bible as far as musical composition, arrangement and production went. The White Album is a complete catalogue of how you should use a studio to build songs.”Mercury said, “John Lennon was larger than life, and an absolute genius. Even at a very early stage when they were the Beatles, I always preferred John Lennon’s things. I don’t know why. He just had that magic.”May and Mercury were influenced by Jimi Hendrix, with Mercury saying “he really had everything any rock ‘n’ roll star should have”,and May saying “Jimi is, of course, my number one. And I’ve always said that […] I never stop learning from Jimi.”Mercury’s thesis for his Ealing College diploma was on Hendrix, and Mercury and Taylor closed their Kensington Market stall on 18 September 1970 to commemorate his death.

At their outset in the early 1970s, Queen’s music has been characterised as “Led Zeppelin meets Yes” due to its combination of “acoustic/electric guitar extremes and fantasy-inspired multi-part song epics”.Although Mercury stated Robert Plant as his favourite singer and Led Zeppelin as “the greatest” rock band, he also said Queen “have more in common with Liza Minnelli than Led Zeppelin. We’re more in the showbiz tradition than the rock’n’roll tradition”.In his book on Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Eddie Trunk described Queen as “a hard rock band at the core but one with a high level of majesty and theatricality that delivered a little something for everyone”, as well as observing that the band “sounded British”.Rob Halford of Judas Priest commented, “It’s rare that you struggle to label a band. If you’re a heavy metal band you’re meant to look and sound like a heavy metal band but you can’t really call Queen anything. They could be a pop band one day or the band that wrote ‘Bicycle Race’ the next and a full-blown metal band the next. In terms of the depth of the musical landscape that they covered, it was very similar to some extent to the Beatles.”While stating they were influenced by various artists and genres, Joe Bosso of Guitar World magazine writes, “Queen seemed to occupy their own lane.”Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music, often with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.The music styles and genres they have been associated with include progressive rock (also known as symphonic rock),art rock,glam rock,arena rock,heavy metal,operatic pop,pop rock,psychedelic rock,baroque pop,and rockabilly.Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by diverse musical styles which are not typically associated with rock groups, such as opera,music hall,folk music,gospel,ragtime,and dance/disco.Their 1980 single “Another One Bites the Dust” became a major hit single in the funk rock genre.Known for their anthemic songs which are a staple of sports arenas and stadiums the world over,several Queen songs were written with audience participation in mind, such as “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”.Similarly, “Radio Ga Ga” became a live favourite for the band because it would have “crowds clapping like they were at a Nuremberg rally”.In 1963, the teenage Brian May and his father custom-built his signature guitar Red Special, which was purposely designed to feedback.May has used Vox AC30 amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long-time hero Rory Gallagher at a gig in London during the late 1960s/early 1970s.He also uses a sixpence as a plectrum to get the sound he wants.Sonic experimentation figured heavily in Queen’s songs. A distinctive characteristic of Queen’s music are the vocal harmonies which are usually composed of the voices of May, Mercury, and Taylor best heard on the studio albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. Some of the ground work for the development of this sound is attributed to the producer Roy Thomas Baker and engineer Mike Stone.Besides vocal harmonies, Queen were also known for multi-tracking voices to imitate the sound of a large choir through overdubs. For instance, according to Brian May, there are over 180 vocal overdubs in “Bohemian Rhapsody”.The band’s vocal structures have been compared with the Beach Boys.