I love me some Freddy Mercury but wouldn't Bo Diddly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard more like the elders of rock or at least it's progenitors. Then there's the popularization (Elvis, Buddy Holly), surf (Surfaris, The Ventures) and doowop, then the invasion (Beatles, Monkees, Rolling Stones), blues rock and stuff (Fleetwood Mac, Muddy Waters, Led Zepplin (they fit into a lot of places)), psychedelic (Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors) advent of metal and glam rock (Queen, Bowie, Aerosmith, AC/DC), Punk (Sex Pistols), New Wave/Post-Punk (Joy Division, The Police)
And that's pretty much til the 80s I guess and everyone knows what happens now but I doubt you wanna be that exact or specific but it covers a lot of styles of rock.