Does anybody know particular examples of Queen being influenced by contemporaries in the 80s and 90s?
For instance, I Want It All's speed-up after the bridge is very reminiscent of Paradise City, which turned out to be quite popular at the time Brian wrote IWIA (1987)
Innuendo's rhythm pattern is a (conscious or not) rip-off from Diamond Heads' Am I Evil, and several structural ideas could have been taken from Tesla's Love Song, like the way they recycled a chord progression and used it in different sections.
Coincidentially, they put an acoustic solo precisely when acoustic had become trendy, partially thanks to Tesla, and also by some other singles by hard-rock bands like Extreme, Kiss and Guns, and all those MTV Unplugged things.
I think that the drum and rhythm progressions in songs like Radio Ga Ga and Breakthru were a reflection of the dance scene in Britain at the time. I don't see the Tesla influence in Innuendo, and as far as the Unplugged influence, the acoustic solo is Spanish influenced, whereas the whole Unplugged movement was strummed acoustic versions of songs not initially played on acoustic guitars.