10 Perfect Rock Songs That Changed Music History

Playing rock and roll doesn't have to be the most complicated thing in the world. This was meant to be the kind of music that got people moving at parties, and as long as you can play some decent blues over a solid rhythm, some of the best rock and rollers got by just fine. Freddie Mercury always knew there was more to rock than just the basics though, and Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the first times where rock and roll was taken to the opera.

Originally constructing three different song fragments, Freddie's frustration turned into Bohemian Rhapsody, taking these fragments and merging them together into their own episodic piece, pairing the ballad in the beginning with an operatic mid section, where the rest of the instruments practically drop out and leave room for the different vocal tracks to collapse in on each other. This is still a rock song though, and the emphasis never stops being on the driving energy of the song, giving way to a massive riff to close the song out before bringing us back down to Earth with a slow piano as Freddie sings about how nothing really matters to him.

Playing rock and roll may live and die on your attitude, but Bohemian Rhapsody may be one of the first times where progressive rock actually began to infiltrate the charts. Chuck Berry may have laid the groundwork for rock and roll, and Led Zeppelin may have shown us what can be done in the rock format, but Queen showed us what could actually be done when you throw out all the rules.