As a guitarist, I loved this video! The shred stuff is respectable but, even as a player, I cant listen to it for that long. I still feel the best guitar solos are the ones with the most melody, that can get stuck in a non-guitar players head. Eddie Van Halen was able to seamlessly combine technique, without sacrificing melody.
Dead on yes. Also as a guitar player it’s hard to always play the shred contest. However, I can listen to EVH all day. Honestly one of my favorites even to this day.
I agree!! That's a big reason I love Metallica's solos. Kirk has a great blend of shredding and melody, its not just how many notes per measure he can play lol
I love Eddie, Randy Rhoads and many of the other greats. But my main guitar inspiration is Alex Lifeson from Rush because he can do just about everything. He can play shredding solos, heavy rock riffs, nerdy prog stuff, tasteful acoustic bits, etc. He understands complexity and simplicity. Obviously, Rush isn't for everyone but I truly think Alex deserves respect as a well rounded axeman.
It definitely never died in Japan! I’m not a guitarist but grew up in a guitar family and I’m super grateful for how mainstream and alive guitar solos remain in Japanese music. You’ll find guitar solos even in genres where it isn’t typical to have one because they have become such a staple of Japanese music. So many cutesy jpop songs with absolutely shredded guitar solos in them.
One of the reasons that made me fall in love with Bullet For My Valentine's early music were their really well conceived and melodic, yet somewhat thrashy guitar solos. They didn't just shred for the sake of shredding, they actually made the solos fit the vibe of the songs, adding value to them, rather than taking away from their structure
@@franciscoreal5147 I don't know, I guess their relevance has somewhat decayed over time. Sure, they're still big, but they haven't been very inventive in terms of bringing something new to the scene, which they absolutely did with their first two albums. Maybe we'll get a "History of..." video of them?
I mean this is just like A7X… A7X was all over MTV in the mid 2000s, as long as the solo fits the songs, it can still be worked into more “popular” rock style music.
@@franciscoreal5147 He said multiple times that he’s no fan of the band due to their “hard rock sounding”. I guess he mentions this when he made a video about Trustkill Records.
@@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770 Your point about the ... point is correct. Which is unfortunate considering the contributions of folks like Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and even Ike Turner (for his art, not his life choices).
I think you nailed it. Basically once Rap overtook Rock, solos went underground. Rhythm surpassed melody. Now the next generation of guitarists are combining the two and it’s exciting if you love guitar.
One thing I don't think he mentioned is that in Pop songs (especially in the last 10 years), used rap interludes rather than a guitar solo. The two that kill me are Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" and Selena Gomez's "Good For You". Juicy Jay and Asshat Rocky are just kind of thrust in there, and they aren't even technically proficient or lyrically interesting. The equivalent of a gratuitous uninteresting solo forced into a song that didn't need it. On the other hand Nuno did tour with Ke$ha, in the last 7 years or so.
@@echindod I think they see the value of giving musicians solos in a live context. It’s exciting and a bit unexpected if you’re used to the recordings. Seeing how Stormzy brought Rabea Masaad to that festival to add hype and spectacle to his performance gives me hope that guitar and pop or at least hip hop/rap can get together again in some way. There’s a waxing and waning for any instrument in pop culture. Eventually, an instrument’s meaning gets distilled to a couple of things. Piano is for singer/songwriters, violin/cello/etc. is for ballads, and distorted guitar is for a hint of attitude. They all still have roles in other contexts, but that’s what they are in pop culture.
overuse definitely killed it. a great solo from 2009 is The Used's Kissing You Goodbye. beautiful, emotional, one of the only solos in band's discography and its very impactful.
The overuse of guitar solos during the 80s killed guitar solos, not other genres. There are plenty of good music genres that don't require guitar solos to be enjoyable to listen to!
@LeadMe2TheBliss. While I agree that is true however I think by the time Nu-Metal arrived the guitar solo was dead by that point and bands wanted to sound groovy and funky. So I do think Nu-Metal was pretty much the burial of the guitar solo. But the guitar solo would return with Dragonforce and Avenged Sevenfold bringing it back.
By the end of the 80's hair metal had gotten really stale. I remember the era and I remember bands just all looking the same, with the same basic formula and sound. People were ready for a change. Guitar solos going away was a result of rock going in the opposite direction, much like the punk movement of the late 70's was trying to go in the opposite direction of the prog rock that was around at the same time.
I mean, Shrapnel Records did put out some of the most interesting 80's shred stuff. RacerX's Technical Difficulties, for example, is pretty badass. But like anything else, it got overused and beaten to death. But by the same token, rhythm and riff-based stuff like nu metal, punk and hardcore can get played out as well. Me, I just like good memorable guitar work, regardless of the genre or subgenre.
I loved that you showed a clip of Prince, because too many people don't realize how absolutely amazing he was as a guitarist. From blues to funk to flat out shredding, his purple highness is (imho) one of the most versatile musicians of the last half century.
Even though I’m not a big Prince fan (he was before my time), I would agree with this. Truthfully, I think a lot of rock fans could learn how to be a pure artist that’s also a mainstream legend from the guy.
@@luke_cohen1 I'm an old fart that's been a Prince fan my entire life, and I think he was a mainstream legend BECAUSE he was a pure artist. From what I understand, Prince made music for Prince, and if other people liked it, then cool. How metal is that? Lol.
Being 31 I was lucky to see Prince twice. Having been to a lot of metal, rock and punk concerts, Prince was easily the best all round guitar player I’ve seen.
@@jamesgarner2516 and an amazing songwriter to boot. He's written hits for Chaka Kahn, Sheila E., Sheena Easton, Stevie Nicks, Morris Day, and (most famously?) Sinead O'Connor, to name a few. Yeah, I'm somewhat of a Prince fan boy, but goddamn what a talent.
Honestly, the nerdy math rock clean guitar style has massive potential combined with upcoming genres such as hyperpop. Brakence's punk2 album is a great example of how this kind of solo can be implemented with so many other genres like emo rap, electro pop, punk, and r&b. There's plenty of potential with guitars of you're willing to get absolutely weird with it.
Also on the simpler side, stoner and doom metal is having a big resurgence right now. Fat heavy groove riffs are pretty popular right now too. Or maybe I just think that cause I listen to mostly metal😂😂
Grunge killing the guitar solo is a myth. Grunge bands have always had metal influences. Especially with that sludgy sound that is clearly influenced by Black Sabbath.
Janes addiction....P4P had tasty solos.. Definitely not over the top shredding. And don't get me started on SP and Billy Dorgan...that dude could play a solo and it fit the song.
Guitar solos are still present in rock sub-genres like prog where technicality is a characteristic, but in mainstream terms the rise of textural styles like Post-Rock and Shoegaze, where creating an atmosphere is the focus, had something to do with guitar solos becoming less prominent I think
Solos were always alive in the Metal scene, including the 90s. Power Metal was massive in the 90s and early 00s, and that's a genre that always had shred solos. Melodeath and "regular" DM also had a lot of shred solos back then, even if they did have a song here and there without it. People did not start playing solos again after Children Of Bodom hit the scene.
I am definitely not a “guitar nerd” but G.O.A.T by Polyphia absolutely slaps. Prog metal is very difficult to make accessible and you gotta give certain bands props for breaking out of the niche like Periphery and Protest the Hero
That kind of, almost percussive, guitar playing is dope. Polyphia dudes can definitely shred. Protest the Hero is such a nerdy band though, I feel like they are so underrated. Love that band.
Pearl Jam had some badass solos.... Alive especially....also, Alice in Chains had solos and so did Chris Cornell's bands. When people say grunge had no solos, they don't know what they are talking about. And talking about Nu Metal, Static X had some great solos, Deftones had a few, and even Korn did. Glad you made this video, Finn.
One thing Finn didn't mention here is the garage rock revival in the early 2000s which saw a bunch of indie bands achieve mainstream success. Bands like the White Stripes, The Killers and the Strokes all had hit songs with iconic lead guitar solos eg: Seven Nation Army, When You Were Young, Last Nite etc. The lead guitarists may not have had the same star power as the 80s hair metal bands but it still formed a key part of the sound which made it so popular. Just my two cents
Great video. For an example of extremes, I would cite Eddie Van Halen vs. Yngwie Malmsteen. Eddie was the best shredder possible who could take complex stuff and make it fun and accessible. His solos always seemed to fit perfectly into fun, catchy Van Halen songs, and he was also the man behind the monster solo in "Beat it" one of the most successful songs from one of the most successful albums ever. On the other hand, Yngwie is the ultimate flash for flash sake, guitarist who only impressed nerds. You pretty much summarized it perfectly: Something is cool when it impresses girls, something is nerdy if it can only impress other dudes.
Dave's moves and outfits impressed the girls. After Sammy joined, the mega popularity of that band came from older nerds. Sammy was mega popular with nerds that liked rock. Eddie must of sold his soul because he wasn't as highly regarded as the mainstream media of today portrays him - and they were never metal and he was never in the league of Randy Rhodes...
Thank you for pointing out that grunge didn’t kill solos! It’s such a common fallacy but all the grunge bands totally had solos in their songs. Yeah, they weren’t like hair metal solos and served the song instead of being the point of the song, they were still there. I agree for sure that it was rap and nu metal that took the solo out of mainstream music. But, like, imagine how corny a Korn song would sound with someone shredding over it or something. Freak on a Leash except instead of Johnathon Davis doing his vocal thing it is a bunch of sweep picking and tapping! 🤣
I don't know what metal bands you listen to, but with the ones I listen to, a solo is conspicuous by its absence in any single song. And I'm not talking about obscure bands you wouldn't have heard of, I'm talking about huge bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Guitar solos haven't gone anywhere, nor should they.
Loved this video. You got a subscriber out of me! A very appealing shred solo that I think would be accessible, "palatable" and enjoyable by common folk is the solo in technical difficulties by racer x. As a guitarist I often get tired of listening to straight shred songs, ironically, but I can listen to tech difficulties endlessly. Paul Gilbert is a genius at combining shred and emotion
When I was in the car today I heard the Screaming Trees -- I Nearly Lost You. I love the soloing all throughout that song. Sometimes I discover bands who do good solos, but not as often as I'd like.
I've never been terribly picky about lead guitar work. Shreddy solos or minimalist punk-ish solos can both be enjoyable or both be boring. Riffs always come first for me.
Can we acknowledge that Dimebag Darrell was a weird anomaly that somehow managed to be a guitar hero in the 90s/early 00s through the height of nu-metal? Btw, great video yet again, I loved this.
@@deductivereasoning4257 that's a fair point. But he is still known for his solos as well though. Walk, Mouth for War, Cemetery gates, etc. Are all well known solos. But I get your point because over all he was known for his riffing and breakdowns.
exactly! his solos were some of the most groovy easily accessible solos ever, that’s why i think he has success in that time. god i never get tired of his solos on TGSTK, some of the bluesiest stuff ever i love it
I miss the epic shred days. Children Of Bodom kept shred alive. I'm also in a punk band and I make sure there's some shred, but like you said. Nobody want a 34 bar solo in a punk song. But a 4 bar shred is pretty awesome. See ya Finn.
Guitar solos are not dead, but is not mandatory to include them anymore, some genres don't care about them because don't need them, but other styles like techdeath have guitar solos all the time. The novelty factor is gone, so, now solos are just another tool in songwriting, not a must.
The guitar solo is actually now more alive than any time since nu metal blew up. There’s now tons of raps songs even with guitars and solos. Plus the nerd prog bands like polyphia, intervals, etc really brought it back.
The “what killed…” titles are self-confessed click bait. It’s much catchier than “why are solos less popular and prevalent than they used to be”. But no, they are are not “more alive”. I haven’t watched the video yet but solos have been on the decline for decades, unless all you listen to is specific sub-genres of metal.
@@goneonholidaybymistake84 Black Metal even in The 90s had overall very limited use of solos. Also Power Pop and 77 Punk in The 70s and 60s Garage Rock even was more sparing. The Pop Rock of The 80s was another likely factor.
@@timsunderland5153 Probably the most alive it's been since the 80s. Metal bands always had solos, so that's not a surprise, but guitar is on the rise in the world of pop music, and that includes solos. I sometimes switch over to mainstream pop radio at work, and during the last 2 years or so, there has been a massive increase in random pop songs having actual guitar solos, something that would never have happened 5 years ago.
As a very very niche guitarist myself, I've always found there is an audience ready and waiting for anything you're passionate in playing, that was something that changed was that guitarists started doing solos not for the passion of music but just for standing out and it doesn't resonate at all with audiences, it's inauthentic
I always loved David Gilmore's solos-great phrasing and pauses/sustain to build the tension and release. he never "shreds" but you really feel those notes in your gut.
Im surprised you didn't mention it but even Pantera started soloing less for a while or at least traditional solos, because songs like becoming and strength beyond strength have "solos" but its more so for aesthetic and atmosphere like you said. Far Beyond Driven really focused on breakdowns way more than any other Pantera album AND went #1.
The last "guitar album" for me, where it was pretty much all about the guitar and dang near nothing else mattered was "The Discovery" by Born of Osiris... 2011... And I'm not saying there hasn't been any good guitar playing since then, but I used to listen to albums FOR the guitar. Now it's like vocals and drums take precedence for me. I'm still waiting for that guitar driven band in shining armor, to come *literally* sweep me off my feet. Sigh...
Guitar nerd music really is thriving. I ran into a “normie” friend from high school recently (she is a musician but in the choir kid sense rather than the metal bro sense), and she mentioned being into animals as leaders now. Absolutely shocked me
@@godwarrior3403 It's definitely thriving. It might not be on your radar, but it is bigger now than it was in the 80s and 90s. You just wont find it on the radio or on TV, which is for the best imo.
@@matthewirizarry8467 Which means it's not thriving. Mainstream is the standard of thriving when you're talking about music. It used to be thriving, now it's niche and seen as nerdy more than anything.
I think people are starting to be fed up by the bland pop music and want something "real". I've recently taken up listening to metal again after being away from for a while, and it's astounding how much better those singers are vocally than the top 40 singers. For me it's the auto tune or other pitch correcting devices. It's staggering how many songs use it, and even when just used sporadically, I still notice it, and I get pissed off frankly.
I recall watching Zak Wylde playing a self-indulgent 'solo' at a festival with BLS, and he went on...and on...and on and totally killed the sets vibe. (His band mates even left the stage for a while)
Being raised on bands like Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Van Halen and more, I've always been blown away by a killer guitar solo and wish they would make a comeback! I love a killer shredding solo 🤘🏼🤘🏼
Comfortably numb, while maybe overplayed or whatever... Is one of the coolest, best sounding solos on one of the best sounding albums of all time. You just can't argue with it.
You nailed it with this video. I've been playing guitar for 20 years, write my own music that includes guitar solos (tastefully to suit the song and relatively short), have seen all the modern instrumental guitar bands live, and watch all the RUclipsrs you mentioned in the video. Bands like Polyphia and CHON are evolving what guitar instrumental music can be. And it's exciting. Good stuff!
As a bassist, I would say we should all be grateful bass solos never became mainstream, especially slap bass solos. I know my place and that is building a heavy groove that makes the rest of the band sound great.
For me as a kid bassist, everyone wanted to sound like Flea or Les Claypool for a good two or three year period(or in the case of me, Billy Gould from Faith No More). Then Korn blew up with Fieldy and his clackity-clack, and suddenly those slappers collectively thought "Naah..." and all moved on to fingerstyle or picking.
A few names keeping it alive: Brandon Ellis from TBDM, Josh Middleton from Sylosis, Samy and Arttu from Lost Society, Christian and Max from Falling in Reverse, Jake from Greta Van Fleet, Wes Hauch from Alluvial, Joonas and Arttu from the first iteration of Santa Cruz...incredible players.
I love a great solo from Trivium or A7X or Tim Henson on Goat but Brakedowns just hit harder. Domination by Pantera is a sweet spot for a 30 year old song.
Years ago I saw a guitar tutorial video by the guy shredding on the 4-necked guitar at 7:19 where he says in the intro "This is where we give YOU the keys to the Lamborghini!" and then rips into a solo. I would pay good money for a physical copy of that video.
Absolutely solid points. I always loved solos myself but even in my own song writing, they typically suck up more unneeded space than really add to anything. And I'm by no means even an awesome guitarist either.
Plini is an amazing all-instrumental band from Australia people have been sleeping on for far too long when it comes to shred but still has grooves that make you move. The main dude even uses the same headless guitar that Paul Masvidal of Cynic used.
Never got into Yngwie too much, but I did like Joe Satrioni in the 80's. He did a pretty good job blending the solos with some catchy riffs and hooks that made it more accessible to layman like me.
I saw Phish play to crowds of nearly 50,000 for three nights last year, definitely makes me happy that there are still people who appreciate the noodly stuff I like
I really loved the guitar in Threat Signal - Counterbalance and Devin Townsend - Stagnant is one of my all time favourite cheesy solos, so good! I also really liked Avenged Sevenfold - Sidewinder for the guitar too.
@@MrShadez810 these guys, Silent Civilian, as I lay dying, through the eyes of the dead and it dies today. An 89 Cadillac brougham and a stereo system worth more than a car.
@@nicholasdonin1465 some super shredders in there. I was always super into Parkway Drive - Horizons as a full album, more shredder than the leader of the foot clan 😂
My favorite guitar solos now often come from Billy Strings, his band also does great breakdowns. It's not a rock act but the rock influences are definitely there.
I was in Tampa in the last days of the dm scene and this was a common topic at Morris Sound and the brass mug , rehearsal studios... You nailed it sir !!!
Not that it matters too much but two of the best solos from the grunge era come from Alice In Chains “Jar of Flies” within the songs “No Excuses” and “Nutshell”.
I don’t mind a guitar solo when they are trying to be bluesy, (for example great guitar solos in Come As You Are by Nirvana, and imo the greatest guitar solo of all time in Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult), but when a band is trying to be groovy and funky I don’t think a guitar solo works. That’s why Nu-Metal bands didn’t want to do guitar solos because Nu-Metal bands wanted to sound groovy and funky and a guitar solo wouldn’t work well with a groovy and funky tone. But yeah the guitar solo was so overused in the 80’s that by the 90’s bands wanted to get away from that flashy guitar solo that was so overused back in the 80’s.
Unpopular opinion: guitar nerds killed it by making the wank really fucking obvious and making playing guitar all about how many notes you can play. It'll always have its place, I love me a good guitar lead but the weird culture around fretwank made the whole thing simultaneously silly and impenetrable. Who wants to woodshed for like 8 hours a day to get good enough to keep the gatekeepers happy anyway?
I don't know maybe because all the bands in the 90s that did drop D and just riffed where called great guitar players. Just to note rock and metal are not the only places that had solos. But some of the best guitar players were great because they added the melody and harmony in music. These days mainstream music for the most part sucks because they dropped much of the melody and harmony. You know the thing that makes music music. That's why I laugh when people say Dojo cat or MGK, etc make good music. OK where is the melody and harmony? Why do bands like Dark Tranquillity or Epica have more melody and harmony in there music and yet people like Finn crap all over them?
As a guitar player of 20 years, I’ve gotten over shredding. It was cool when I first started and is still impressive, but it’s most often musically nonsensical. If someone can make it musical/interesting like EVH did, then it’s so much more palatable. Making this comment less than a minute in and have a feeling this is the point you’re going to make, but everything works like a pendulum. People got tired of hair metal and shredding rock stars which is why Nirvana and grunge got so popular. We see newer guitarists doing crazy stuff like Tim Henson and I think shredding or its bastard offspring will come back at some point until people grow tired of it again
What about Guitar Hero and Rockband and Rocksmith! I know that I started learning to play bass guitar, but originally started trying to learn guitar because I was playing those games. I mean I always wanted to play the drums or the guitar, but I never thought I could actually learn how to play the guitar until I started playing those games.
I love the guitar solos from Meshuggah, especially on the older albums like "Chaosphere", so unique. In general I prefer melodic solos in the style of David Gilmour or Steve Rothery. Absolute worst solos are from Slayer ;)
Their solos aren't that unique, Fredrik is majorly inspired by Holdsworth. Now their rhythm... I still can't get my head around the fact these guys invented a whole genre and there's no band that sounds like them.
This vid is pretty much spot on👌 I still love a guitar solo if it serves the vibe of the song. The shred solo however does nothing for me, but the immense talent of such guitarists is undeniable. For me that's what's great about music; there's something for everyone. And I feel the solo will never go away, like you say; just because soloing isn't mainstream doesn't mean people don't care -there's a healthy space for 'solo enthusiasts' & guitarists - long may that continue🤘
I've always appreciated melody WAY more than rhythm or percussion so... The breakdown was never for me. I'm one of those people sad to see the way popular music has gone in the past 20 years. 🤷
I agree regarding shredding being as something that “killed” solos. I still write old-school thrash metal & write solos for the songs I write, but I’m not a shredder. Shredding is something that should be limited to short runs/phrases, but not the basis of an entire solo.
I first saw Polyphia back in 2019 on the Beautiful Oblivion tour supporting Issues. I'd never heard of them before and they were amazing. 2 years later they were supporting DGD on the Afterburner tour and now I feel like I hear their name come up all the time. That tour really blew them up
i was never fond of guitar solos until i heard Avenged Sevenfold... City Of Evil brought them back into the mainstream and rightfully so. They proved a good guitar solo can still blow you away and add to the music instead of draining you.
Phenomenal job! I’m an underground musician of a WAY underground genre 😅…Dirty Punk. It’s like The Misfits meets Jimi Hendrix…blues punk. It’s not everyone’s thing, especially according to my analytics on RUclips and SoundCloud but it’s made me a great deal happier. And I know the folks who tune in to listen actually dig what they hear. Which makes it a whole lot more gratifying.
Fully agreed. I enjoyed the guitar-based instrumental stuff (Joe Satriani in particular) in the early 00s, but it kinda lost me. I like a good guitar solo, but it needs to serve the song. And I fully agree that way more bands are striking that balance better these days than they ever have before. My partner, a non-guitarist, absolutely loves Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and even Dream Theater (IMO one of the few older bands that generally managed to be hugely technical without sacrificing the song). If I’m honest though, what really grabbed me about guitar in the first place was metal rhythm guitar. The enormous Rammstein riffs, James Hetfield’s super tight playing on their older thrash stuff, Dimebag’s riffing all over the place etc. I appreciate that modern metal really embraces rhythm guitar and doesn’t view it as the easy shit for the guitarist in the band who can’t solo.
Shoutout to Plini. Phenomenal modern guitarist and musician. In my opinion he puts the song above technique. He's music is like a majestic waterfall... devestatingly Powerfull but with a beauty that can bring you to tears
Hey Finn I kinda notice the lighting kinda fades in and out when you move your hands, are you an X-Men? Lol ajsjs Jokes aside, still a pretty cool videos
Guitar solos never went away, but they did get pushed underground by dumbed down fans and guitarists who couldn't shred their way out of a wet paper bag talking about how important songs are while downplaying techniques they're too lazy or unskilled to wield.
This is a pretty lazy take. Breakdowns are just more fun to be a part of in a crowd. So what if you have all the technical abilities in the world. If the music is boring or just some self indulgent jerk-off-fest for the sake of it, no one cares guy
@@Ninjametal I don't. But, again, just because someone has all of the chops; it doesn't mean they're a good song writer. And if you can't write/compose a good song, the music Business is gonna be tough
Finn, I feel that a lot of the points you make ignore the state of indie being a mainstream genre. Mac Demarco and Peach Pit, for example, both use guitar solos's pretty often.
One of the best quotes I’ve heard about rock guitars and solos came from Dave Navarro talking to Dave miustaine years ago” there are a million better guitar players then the two of us, but can they write a song people want to hear?”
I do remember hearing a fair few guitar solos in some pop/pop rock songs in the 90s, and 00s, but it did feel like it was declining by the end of the 00s. In 2009 though, I was blown away to hear a guitar solo in a mainstream song, in the form of Orianthi's pop rock song, According to You. I feel like that's the last guitar solo I heard on mainstream radio, but it would be interesting to see it come back in one way or another.
excellent explanation and rundown!!! I graduated High School in 1988 so you can imagine that I was heartbroken when EVH died in 2020...fortunately, as you touched on, with the explosion of self-publishing and social media I can go on in life imagining that the guitar hero never died...oops, I gotta go check my feed for Steve Vai's latest!😁
Finn, off topic, but seeing those Born Against and No Comment flyers behind you has me wanting a video on that weird late 80s/early 90s power violence/raw diy/crusty hardcore/brutal scene. Bands like those and Man is the Bastard, Infest, Spazz, Rorschach, ect. A little obscure, but an important sub sub genre in HC that gets forgotten.
Well the jam band scene (which is still really really big) is largely based on extended guitar solos (which are generally more melodic than pure shredding).
Finn! You really nailed it here! A lot of people tend to look down on the pop-metal bands of the '80s, but if you really look at it, the players were more accomplished than most other rock genres, including other types of metal and heavy rock. I would also argue that when grunge and the new alternative scenes came about in the '90s, the public not only lost interest in pop-metal, but also in much of the metal landscape at large, as well as classic rock and some of the original post-punk bands. I think it was just a changing of the guard. Pop-metal reigned supreme for about 10 years, and it was time for a change regardless of sub-genre.
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Great video, but The Offspring might not be the best example, they had plenty of solos. Ex. The Kids Aren't Alright. Peace and love.
Jason Richardson can kill solos until there dead. He smashes solos in the face👊🤘
@@chachorolas923 sold me too
How do you not mention the funniest shredder if all Stevie T?
As a guitarist, I loved this video! The shred stuff is respectable but, even as a player, I cant listen to it for that long. I still feel the best guitar solos are the ones with the most melody, that can get stuck in a non-guitar players head. Eddie Van Halen was able to seamlessly combine technique, without sacrificing melody.
Dead on yes. Also as a guitar player it’s hard to always play the shred contest. However, I can listen to EVH all day. Honestly one of my favorites even to this day.
all the queen guitar solos?
🤌🤌🤌
I agree!! That's a big reason I love Metallica's solos. Kirk has a great blend of shredding and melody, its not just how many notes per measure he can play lol
I love Eddie, Randy Rhoads and many of the other greats. But my main guitar inspiration is Alex Lifeson from Rush because he can do just about everything. He can play shredding solos, heavy rock riffs, nerdy prog stuff, tasteful acoustic bits, etc. He understands complexity and simplicity. Obviously, Rush isn't for everyone but I truly think Alex deserves respect as a well rounded axeman.
@@WhiteDiamondBand seriously? I’ve always found that Kirk sounds like a dude trying out wash pedals at Guitar Center than a melodic soloist.
It definitely never died in Japan! I’m not a guitarist but grew up in a guitar family and I’m super grateful for how mainstream and alive guitar solos remain in Japanese music. You’ll find guitar solos even in genres where it isn’t typical to have one because they have become such a staple of Japanese music. So many cutesy jpop songs with absolutely shredded guitar solos in them.
It never dead at all. Finn is just dumb on the topic.
can you list some examples? i feel TUYU definitely fits the vibes you're talking about. i just love jpop guitar solos 🙏
I’m learning Japanese
Yes! Here’s hoping J-rock breaks way more into Western mainstream~🔥
I like that japanese metalcore bands still have a standard tuned guitar in it. It has a nostalgic 2000s anime feel to it. Haha
One of the reasons that made me fall in love with Bullet For My Valentine's early music were their really well conceived and melodic, yet somewhat thrashy guitar solos. They didn't just shred for the sake of shredding, they actually made the solos fit the vibe of the songs, adding value to them, rather than taking away from their structure
Why Finn never talk about BFMV ? Not it's a popular band on united states' ?
@@franciscoreal5147 they are known but I don't know why they don't get mentioned that much, guys are insanely talented and have a good career
@@franciscoreal5147 I don't know, I guess their relevance has somewhat decayed over time. Sure, they're still big, but they haven't been very inventive in terms of bringing something new to the scene, which they absolutely did with their first two albums. Maybe we'll get a "History of..." video of them?
I mean this is just like A7X… A7X was all over MTV in the mid 2000s, as long as the solo fits the songs, it can still be worked into more “popular” rock style music.
@@franciscoreal5147 He said multiple times that he’s no fan of the band due to their “hard rock sounding”. I guess he mentions this when he made a video about Trustkill Records.
I remember on Chapelle Show, John Mayer was about to do a guitar solo at a barber shop and everyone was like, "cut that shit out!" LOL
Not the whites 😂😭
@@robertbhatt LOL, yeah during the business lunch they all wrecked the restaurant!
@@cqtaylor Imagine what a break down woulda done to the place 😆💥
Yeah, but the point of that was that black people didn’t like guitar, not that guitar wasn’t popular. White people loved it
@@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770 Your point about the ... point is correct. Which is unfortunate considering the contributions of folks like Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and even Ike Turner (for his art, not his life choices).
Man, seeing Morello in the thumbnail reminds me how damn good the solo is in “Like a Stone”. Then I remember how much I miss Chris Cornell😔
Doesn’t remind me has a killer solo too. There’s a lot of good solos in audioslaves work.
I've never heard Morello play anything impressive, I don't like his guitar playing at all... But damn "like a stone" has a great solo. Excellent song.
Chester missed him
I think you nailed it. Basically once Rap overtook Rock, solos went underground. Rhythm surpassed melody. Now the next generation of guitarists are combining the two and it’s exciting if you love guitar.
One thing I don't think he mentioned is that in Pop songs (especially in the last 10 years), used rap interludes rather than a guitar solo. The two that kill me are Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" and Selena Gomez's "Good For You". Juicy Jay and Asshat Rocky are just kind of thrust in there, and they aren't even technically proficient or lyrically interesting. The equivalent of a gratuitous uninteresting solo forced into a song that didn't need it. On the other hand Nuno did tour with Ke$ha, in the last 7 years or so.
@@echindod Jay-Z's verse in Holy Grail was pretty awful too.
Nothing today comes close to touching the Neo-Classical Metal boom of the 80s
@@echindod I think they see the value of giving musicians solos in a live context. It’s exciting and a bit unexpected if you’re used to the recordings.
Seeing how Stormzy brought Rabea Masaad to that festival to add hype and spectacle to his performance gives me hope that guitar and pop or at least hip hop/rap can get together again in some way.
There’s a waxing and waning for any instrument in pop culture. Eventually, an instrument’s meaning gets distilled to a couple of things. Piano is for singer/songwriters, violin/cello/etc. is for ballads, and distorted guitar is for a hint of attitude. They all still have roles in other contexts, but that’s what they are in pop culture.
i feel like rapping is like soloing
overuse definitely killed it. a great solo from 2009 is The Used's Kissing You Goodbye. beautiful, emotional, one of the only solos in band's discography and its very impactful.
We dude they had a lot of solos tbh
My favourite solo is from Demolition Lovers by My Chemical Romance - emotional, not complex, simply fits the vibe of the song
The overuse of guitar solos during the 80s killed guitar solos, not other genres. There are plenty of good music genres that don't require guitar solos to be enjoyable to listen to!
@LeadMe2TheBliss. While I agree that is true however I think by the time Nu-Metal arrived the guitar solo was dead by that point and bands wanted to sound groovy and funky. So I do think Nu-Metal was pretty much the burial of the guitar solo. But the guitar solo would return with Dragonforce and Avenged Sevenfold bringing it back.
@@nu-metalfan2654 Yep, that is true. A lot of the funk/hard rock bands before Nu Metal really didn't focus too much on playing guitar solos either.
By the end of the 80's hair metal had gotten really stale. I remember the era and I remember bands just all looking the same, with the same basic formula and sound. People were ready for a change. Guitar solos going away was a result of rock going in the opposite direction, much like the punk movement of the late 70's was trying to go in the opposite direction of the prog rock that was around at the same time.
I mean, Shrapnel Records did put out some of the most interesting 80's shred stuff. RacerX's Technical Difficulties, for example, is pretty badass. But like anything else, it got overused and beaten to death.
But by the same token, rhythm and riff-based stuff like nu metal, punk and hardcore can get played out as well. Me, I just like good memorable guitar work, regardless of the genre or subgenre.
The end of your statement kinda proves that other genres killed the solo
I loved that you showed a clip of Prince, because too many people don't realize how absolutely amazing he was as a guitarist. From blues to funk to flat out shredding, his purple highness is (imho) one of the most versatile musicians of the last half century.
I’d like this twice if i could
Even though I’m not a big Prince fan (he was before my time), I would agree with this. Truthfully, I think a lot of rock fans could learn how to be a pure artist that’s also a mainstream legend from the guy.
@@luke_cohen1 I'm an old fart that's been a Prince fan my entire life, and I think he was a mainstream legend BECAUSE he was a pure artist. From what I understand, Prince made music for Prince, and if other people liked it, then cool. How metal is that? Lol.
Being 31 I was lucky to see Prince twice. Having been to a lot of metal, rock and punk concerts, Prince was easily the best all round guitar player I’ve seen.
@@jamesgarner2516 and an amazing songwriter to boot. He's written hits for Chaka Kahn, Sheila E., Sheena Easton, Stevie Nicks, Morris Day, and (most famously?) Sinead O'Connor, to name a few. Yeah, I'm somewhat of a Prince fan boy, but goddamn what a talent.
Honestly, the nerdy math rock clean guitar style has massive potential combined with upcoming genres such as hyperpop. Brakence's punk2 album is a great example of how this kind of solo can be implemented with so many other genres like emo rap, electro pop, punk, and r&b.
There's plenty of potential with guitars of you're willing to get absolutely weird with it.
Also on the simpler side, stoner and doom metal is having a big resurgence right now. Fat heavy groove riffs are pretty popular right now too. Or maybe I just think that cause I listen to mostly metal😂😂
I agree with this. Math rock is usually pretty great.
Math rock is interesting, but every math rock video on RUclips feels like a flex.
Grunge killing the guitar solo is a myth. Grunge bands have always had metal influences. Especially with that sludgy sound that is clearly influenced by Black Sabbath.
agreed...I was hoping he'd mention Jerry Cantrell...master guitarist and solo player!
Agreed
Janes addiction....P4P had tasty solos.. Definitely not over the top shredding. And don't get me started on SP and Billy Dorgan...that dude could play a solo and it fit the song.
Guitar solos are still present in rock sub-genres like prog where technicality is a characteristic, but in mainstream terms the rise of textural styles like Post-Rock and Shoegaze, where creating an atmosphere is the focus, had something to do with guitar solos becoming less prominent I think
It’s a little off topic but I saw Deafheaven live two days ago and they were fantastic (and they sprinkled in a few solos).
As a drummer who has never really played guitar I love the idea of the whole band turning into a percussion instrument.
NuMetal for life!!
It's cool, but that can't be the whole song or every song. It gets ridiculously boring fast.
@@urphakeandgey6308it’s literally every rock song now. I don’t play in drop d
I hate the 0-0-1-0-0-1
Be creative
Alexi Laiho damn near single handedly “saved” guitar in the early-mid 00s in the metal scene.
I feel like Hatebreeder, released in '99, was Alexi Laiho planting a flag in the ground and saying 'shredding will surive the 21st century'
Solos were always alive in the Metal scene, including the 90s. Power Metal was massive in the 90s and early 00s, and that's a genre that always had shred solos.
Melodeath and "regular" DM also had a lot of shred solos back then, even if they did have a song here and there without it. People did not start playing solos again after Children Of Bodom hit the scene.
100%. For him to say that shred was on it's way out in the 80's is pretty redacted.
I am definitely not a “guitar nerd” but G.O.A.T by Polyphia absolutely slaps. Prog metal is very difficult to make accessible and you gotta give certain bands props for breaking out of the niche like Periphery and Protest the Hero
That kind of, almost percussive, guitar playing is dope. Polyphia dudes can definitely shred. Protest the Hero is such a nerdy band though, I feel like they are so underrated. Love that band.
@@danielnelson4881 polyphia said that they try to "rap with their guitars" so thats super interesting
Pearl Jam had some badass solos.... Alive especially....also, Alice in Chains had solos and so did Chris Cornell's bands. When people say grunge had no solos, they don't know what they are talking about. And talking about Nu Metal, Static X had some great solos, Deftones had a few, and even Korn did. Glad you made this video, Finn.
And Alice In Chains? Jerry Cantrell still does such crazy stuff!
@@spd7693 I never said he didn't lol...
@@shuruff904 I liked Tom Morelo's (RATM) solos. They were original and interesting, based on DJ's scratching sound
Dinosaur Jr too.
@@DukeOfChevo yeah he had his own sound that was trippy, yet funky. Plus he could adapt to whatever band he was playing in at any given time...
One thing Finn didn't mention here is the garage rock revival in the early 2000s which saw a bunch of indie bands achieve mainstream success. Bands like the White Stripes, The Killers and the Strokes all had hit songs with iconic lead guitar solos eg: Seven Nation Army, When You Were Young, Last Nite etc. The lead guitarists may not have had the same star power as the 80s hair metal bands but it still formed a key part of the sound which made it so popular. Just my two cents
Joji's song Run features a nice solo, a very rare thing for "Pop" music as you said. Being such a rare thing makes me like it even more.
“Run” is a great track. Another great solo in recent pop is the one from “The Sound” by The 1975.
Great video. For an example of extremes, I would cite Eddie Van Halen vs. Yngwie Malmsteen. Eddie was the best shredder possible who could take complex stuff and make it fun and accessible. His solos always seemed to fit perfectly into fun, catchy Van Halen songs, and he was also the man behind the monster solo in "Beat it" one of the most successful songs from one of the most successful albums ever. On the other hand, Yngwie is the ultimate flash for flash sake, guitarist who only impressed nerds. You pretty much summarized it perfectly: Something is cool when it impresses girls, something is nerdy if it can only impress other dudes.
well said...good example
Dave's moves and outfits impressed the girls. After Sammy joined, the mega popularity of that band came from older nerds. Sammy was mega popular with nerds that liked rock. Eddie must of sold his soul because he wasn't as highly regarded as the mainstream media of today portrays him - and they were never metal and he was never in the league of Randy Rhodes...
Thank you for pointing out that grunge didn’t kill solos! It’s such a common fallacy but all the grunge bands totally had solos in their songs. Yeah, they weren’t like hair metal solos and served the song instead of being the point of the song, they were still there. I agree for sure that it was rap and nu metal that took the solo out of mainstream music. But, like, imagine how corny a Korn song would sound with someone shredding over it or something. Freak on a Leash except instead of Johnathon Davis doing his vocal thing it is a bunch of sweep picking and tapping! 🤣
Kim Thayil and Jerry Cantrell could bring it, so could Mike McCready
I don't know what metal bands you listen to, but with the ones I listen to, a solo is conspicuous by its absence in any single song. And I'm not talking about obscure bands you wouldn't have heard of, I'm talking about huge bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Guitar solos haven't gone anywhere, nor should they.
Loved this video. You got a subscriber out of me! A very appealing shred solo that I think would be accessible, "palatable" and enjoyable by common folk is the solo in technical difficulties by racer x. As a guitarist I often get tired of listening to straight shred songs, ironically, but I can listen to tech difficulties endlessly. Paul Gilbert is a genius at combining shred and emotion
When I was in the car today I heard the Screaming Trees -- I Nearly Lost You. I love the soloing all throughout that song. Sometimes I discover bands who do good solos, but not as often as I'd like.
I love the old Discharge solos. They were quick and to the point. Not too flashy but still added to the song.
fuck yea!
Hell yes. Dbeat solos that repeat the main riff couple of octaves higher is what I live for
Discharge was really in a class by itself. They were loud and brash, but could also play far beyond many of their peers.
@@therowanmorrison Agreed, they had a unique, raw sound that appealed to punks and metalheads
I've never been terribly picky about lead guitar work. Shreddy solos or minimalist punk-ish solos can both be enjoyable or both be boring. Riffs always come first for me.
Can we acknowledge that Dimebag Darrell was a weird anomaly that somehow managed to be a guitar hero in the 90s/early 00s through the height of nu-metal?
Btw, great video yet again, I loved this.
And how Dream Theater had a radio hit in 92 with Pull Me Under and have had growing success since.
He's proof technical solos aren't as popular as his early stuff is filled with technical solos...
@@deductivereasoning4257 that's a fair point.
But he is still known for his solos as well though. Walk, Mouth for War, Cemetery gates, etc. Are all well known solos.
But I get your point because over all he was known for his riffing and breakdowns.
Just like his buddy Jerry Cantrell
exactly! his solos were some of the most groovy easily accessible solos ever, that’s why i think he has success in that time. god i never get tired of his solos on TGSTK, some of the bluesiest stuff ever i love it
I miss the epic shred days. Children Of Bodom kept shred alive. I'm also in a punk band and I make sure there's some shred, but like you said. Nobody want a 34 bar solo in a punk song. But a 4 bar shred is pretty awesome. See ya Finn.
Bodom kept it alive so Dragonforce could melt our faces
Alexi was absolutely a phenomenally talented guitarist; I remember first hearing him in Sinergy and losing my fucking mind.
@@thejapanarchocommunist I saw Bodom live three or four times. The guy never missed a note.
I will always love the solo in bad brains banned in dc. I always felt like solos don’t really fit in punk songs but that proved me so wrong
@@cinnamoncigarettes Ya Dude. Bad Brains have awesome leads.
man you're killing it, you are releasing a video almost every day !
Thank you for watching!
@@ThePunkRockMBA dude ur vids are great
Guitar solos are not dead, but is not mandatory to include them anymore, some genres don't care about them because don't need them, but other styles like techdeath have guitar solos all the time. The novelty factor is gone, so, now solos are just another tool in songwriting, not a must.
The guitar solo is actually now more alive than any time since nu metal blew up. There’s now tons of raps songs even with guitars and solos. Plus the nerd prog bands like polyphia, intervals, etc really brought it back.
Really?? More than ever before..??? Hahahaha yeah na
The “what killed…” titles are self-confessed click bait. It’s much catchier than “why are solos less popular and prevalent than they used to be”. But no, they are are not “more alive”. I haven’t watched the video yet but solos have been on the decline for decades, unless all you listen to is specific sub-genres of metal.
@@goneonholidaybymistake84 Black Metal even in The 90s had overall very limited use of solos. Also Power Pop and 77 Punk in The 70s and 60s Garage Rock even was more sparing. The Pop Rock of The 80s was another likely factor.
@@timsunderland5153 Probably the most alive it's been since the 80s. Metal bands always had solos, so that's not a surprise, but guitar is on the rise in the world of pop music, and that includes solos.
I sometimes switch over to mainstream pop radio at work, and during the last 2 years or so, there has been a massive increase in random pop songs having actual guitar solos, something that would never have happened 5 years ago.
@@timsunderland5153 have trouble reading? Pretty sure I said since nu metal blew up, not ever smart guy
Some 90’s hardcore bands were doing solos, few and far between though. Awesome video Finn!
Leeway
All Out War
Pro-Pain
Merauder
Biohazard
Murphy's Law
Killing Time
As a very very niche guitarist myself, I've always found there is an audience ready and waiting for anything you're passionate in playing, that was something that changed was that guitarists started doing solos not for the passion of music but just for standing out and it doesn't resonate at all with audiences, it's inauthentic
I always loved David Gilmore's solos-great phrasing and pauses/sustain to build the tension and release. he never "shreds" but you really feel those notes in your gut.
Im surprised you didn't mention it but even Pantera started soloing less for a while or at least traditional solos, because songs like becoming and strength beyond strength have "solos" but its more so for aesthetic and atmosphere like you said. Far Beyond Driven really focused on breakdowns way more than any other Pantera album AND went #1.
Far Beyond Driven is such a good album. I don’t think Pantera released a bad album though.
@@HotStrange All their albums are definitely S Tier, even pre phil stuff was still good
Pantera’s breakdown in ‘Domination’ is perhaps my favorite ever. It gets me pumped like nothing else.
@@NotDaveGahan the ending of throes of rejection and the middle of use my third arm are also close contenders
The guitar solo really needs to come back imo. It's usually my favorite part of the song.
Power metal, prog, and melodic death metal are calling your name.
There are tons of subgenres where the guitar solos never dissapeared
The last "guitar album" for me, where it was pretty much all about the guitar and dang near nothing else mattered was "The Discovery" by Born of Osiris... 2011... And I'm not saying there hasn't been any good guitar playing since then, but I used to listen to albums FOR the guitar. Now it's like vocals and drums take precedence for me.
I'm still waiting for that guitar driven band in shining armor, to come *literally* sweep me off my feet.
Sigh...
If by "come back", you mean become more mainstream? Sure. But we don't need to just hear wankery. We need melody, precision, memorable licks, etc.
I still love guitar solos 🤷♂️ guess I’m just too old now I dunno?!
Guitar nerd music really is thriving. I ran into a “normie” friend from high school recently (she is a musician but in the choir kid sense rather than the metal bro sense), and she mentioned being into animals as leaders now. Absolutely shocked me
It is not really thriving. It still exists. Those are different things
@@godwarrior3403 It's definitely thriving. It might not be on your radar, but it is bigger now than it was in the 80s and 90s. You just wont find it on the radio or on TV, which is for the best imo.
@@matthewirizarry8467 Which means it's not thriving. Mainstream is the standard of thriving when you're talking about music. It used to be thriving, now it's niche and seen as nerdy more than anything.
I think people are starting to be fed up by the bland pop music and want something "real". I've recently taken up listening to metal again after being away from for a while, and it's astounding how much better those singers are vocally than the top 40 singers. For me it's the auto tune or other pitch correcting devices. It's staggering how many songs use it, and even when just used sporadically, I still notice it, and I get pissed off frankly.
I recall watching Zak Wylde playing a self-indulgent 'solo' at a festival with BLS, and he went on...and on...and on and totally killed the sets vibe. (His band mates even left the stage for a while)
You should see when he played with Les Paul. He just noodles the whole time with total disregard for the band and even called him "Lou Paul".
Zak is always self indulgent. The worst was him playing with Ozzy in 2019 and putting his own spin on Randy Rhodes solos.
Being raised on bands like Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Van Halen and more, I've always been blown away by a killer guitar solo and wish they would make a comeback! I love a killer shredding solo 🤘🏼🤘🏼
Comfortably numb, while maybe overplayed or whatever... Is one of the coolest, best sounding solos on one of the best sounding albums of all time. You just can't argue with it.
Listen to turnstile! New album has some gorgeous solos
Adam Jones of Tool still does solos - hell, even Justin (bassist) has one in the new album track Invincible.
You nailed it with this video.
I've been playing guitar for 20 years, write my own music that includes guitar solos (tastefully to suit the song and relatively short), have seen all the modern instrumental guitar bands live, and watch all the RUclipsrs you mentioned in the video.
Bands like Polyphia and CHON are evolving what guitar instrumental music can be. And it's exciting.
Good stuff!
Those bands use guitars but they’re so doused in production it sounds nothing like a guitar. It’s also nerdy and boring.
As a bassist, I would say we should all be grateful bass solos never became mainstream, especially slap bass solos.
I know my place and that is building a heavy groove that makes the rest of the band sound great.
Somewhere, Adam Neely is smiling.
For me as a kid bassist, everyone wanted to sound like Flea or Les Claypool for a good two or three year period(or in the case of me, Billy Gould from Faith No More). Then Korn blew up with Fieldy and his clackity-clack, and suddenly those slappers collectively thought "Naah..." and all moved on to fingerstyle or picking.
God damned slap bass.
That reminds me of an old Iggy Pop saying: "Slap that Bass and the Bassist gets slapped."
Refused to do the Korn style, but everybody wants to hear My name isud whenever I pick up my bass! That and Ace of Spades lol!
A few names keeping it alive: Brandon Ellis from TBDM, Josh Middleton from Sylosis, Samy and Arttu from Lost Society, Christian and Max from Falling in Reverse, Jake from Greta Van Fleet, Wes Hauch from Alluvial, Joonas and Arttu from the first iteration of Santa Cruz...incredible players.
I love a great solo from Trivium or A7X or Tim Henson on Goat but Brakedowns just hit harder. Domination by Pantera is a sweet spot for a 30 year old song.
Years ago I saw a guitar tutorial video by the guy shredding on the 4-necked guitar at 7:19 where he says in the intro "This is where we give YOU the keys to the Lamborghini!" and then rips into a solo. I would pay good money for a physical copy of that video.
Absolutely solid points. I always loved solos myself but even in my own song writing, they typically suck up more unneeded space than really add to anything. And I'm by no means even an awesome guitarist either.
Plini is an amazing all-instrumental band from Australia people have been sleeping on for far too long when it comes to shred but still has grooves that make you move. The main dude even uses the same headless guitar that Paul Masvidal of Cynic used.
"There are no guitar solos in punk"
Bad Religion: hold my PhD!
EVH’s solo in “Beat It” is my favorite solo he ever did. So. Good. So melodic.
Hooo boy, i hope you survive the incoming guitarists
Never got into Yngwie too much, but I did like Joe Satrioni in the 80's. He did a pretty good job blending the solos with some catchy riffs and hooks that made it more accessible to layman like me.
I saw Phish play to crowds of nearly 50,000 for three nights last year, definitely makes me happy that there are still people who appreciate the noodly stuff I like
That is why I love Domination by Pantera. Breakdown and guitar solo at the same time! Ultimate mosh time! lol
I really loved the guitar in Threat Signal - Counterbalance and Devin Townsend - Stagnant is one of my all time favourite cheesy solos, so good!
I also really liked Avenged Sevenfold - Sidewinder for the guitar too.
Haha I just made a comment and Threat Signal doing solos right. That whole album was my life when I was 17
@@nicholasdonin1465 same for me when I was like 15 😂
@@MrShadez810 these guys, Silent Civilian, as I lay dying, through the eyes of the dead and it dies today. An 89 Cadillac brougham and a stereo system worth more than a car.
@@nicholasdonin1465 some super shredders in there. I was always super into Parkway Drive - Horizons as a full album, more shredder than the leader of the foot clan 😂
@@MrShadez810 ahhh back when parkway was good
The Helix ad marks the first time I’ve seen full body Finn
I feel like I'm the only guitarist who is happy rock is back on the fringes of society and that the solo is much more rare.
Shred guitar solo < Metalcore breakdown < Fred Durst yelling “GET THE FUCK UP” followed by some sick scrizzity scratching from DJ Lethal
My favorite guitar solos now often come from Billy Strings, his band also does great breakdowns. It's not a rock act but the rock influences are definitely there.
I was in Tampa in the last days of the dm scene and this was a common topic at Morris Sound and the brass mug , rehearsal studios... You nailed it sir !!!
I love the thought that “Breakdowns basically turn the whole band into a percussion instrument”
Such a great description
I remember being in high school in the mid 2000’s and every kid wanted to be Alexi Laiho.
the comparison between Solo and breakdown is interesting, and both tend to be overused to the point where it becomes boring
Will there be Parts 2 for Album art and Band logo videos? Those were great!
Not that it matters too much but two of the best solos from the grunge era come from Alice In Chains “Jar of Flies” within the songs “No Excuses” and “Nutshell”.
Heaven Beside You is my fave AIC solo.
You forgot Criss Oliva from Savatage who’s the most underrated shredder of the 80’s
I don’t mind a guitar solo when they are trying to be bluesy, (for example great guitar solos in Come As You Are by Nirvana, and imo the greatest guitar solo of all time in Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult), but when a band is trying to be groovy and funky I don’t think a guitar solo works. That’s why Nu-Metal bands didn’t want to do guitar solos because Nu-Metal bands wanted to sound groovy and funky and a guitar solo wouldn’t work well with a groovy and funky tone.
But yeah the guitar solo was so overused in the 80’s that by the 90’s bands wanted to get away from that flashy guitar solo that was so overused back in the 80’s.
I love that your one shred pick was Marty and Jason in Cacophony 🙏🏼
Unpopular opinion: guitar nerds killed it by making the wank really fucking obvious and making playing guitar all about how many notes you can play. It'll always have its place, I love me a good guitar lead but the weird culture around fretwank made the whole thing simultaneously silly and impenetrable. Who wants to woodshed for like 8 hours a day to get good enough to keep the gatekeepers happy anyway?
You just described every Italian guitar player in the 80's and 90's🤷♂️
thats true, it just became a competition to see who can masturbate more fast your instrumet
I don't know maybe because all the bands in the 90s that did drop D and just riffed where called great guitar players.
Just to note rock and metal are not the only places that had solos. But some of the best guitar players were great because they added the melody and harmony in music.
These days mainstream music for the most part sucks because they dropped much of the melody and harmony. You know the thing that makes music music.
That's why I laugh when people say Dojo cat or MGK, etc make good music. OK where is the melody and harmony?
Why do bands like Dark Tranquillity or Epica have more melody and harmony in there music and yet people like Finn crap all over them?
I've been subscribed since August 2020 and your content is still on point, great job homie.
Thank you!
As a guitar player of 20 years, I’ve gotten over shredding. It was cool when I first started and is still impressive, but it’s most often musically nonsensical. If someone can make it musical/interesting like EVH did, then it’s so much more palatable.
Making this comment less than a minute in and have a feeling this is the point you’re going to make, but everything works like a pendulum. People got tired of hair metal and shredding rock stars which is why Nirvana and grunge got so popular. We see newer guitarists doing crazy stuff like Tim Henson and I think shredding or its bastard offspring will come back at some point until people grow tired of it again
What about Guitar Hero and Rockband and Rocksmith! I know that I started learning to play bass guitar, but originally started trying to learn guitar because I was playing those games. I mean I always wanted to play the drums or the guitar, but I never thought I could actually learn how to play the guitar until I started playing those games.
The general direction of rock. Mostly these days its all a 'core' derivative
Meanwhile in the jam band scene you have Billy Strings pushing boundaries mixing his bluegrass, rock, and psychedelic roots together.
I love the guitar solos from Meshuggah, especially on the older albums like "Chaosphere", so unique.
In general I prefer melodic solos in the style of David Gilmour or Steve Rothery. Absolute worst solos are from Slayer ;)
Their solos aren't that unique, Fredrik is majorly inspired by Holdsworth. Now their rhythm... I still can't get my head around the fact these guys invented a whole genre and there's no band that sounds like them.
This vid is pretty much spot on👌
I still love a guitar solo if it serves the vibe of the song.
The shred solo however does nothing for me, but the immense talent of such guitarists is undeniable.
For me that's what's great about music; there's something for everyone.
And I feel the solo will never go away, like you say; just because soloing isn't mainstream doesn't mean people don't care -there's a healthy space for 'solo enthusiasts' & guitarists - long may that continue🤘
Avenged sevenfold is the most mainstream hard rock band and they do solos.
I don't know how mainstream they're considered, but Alter Bridge do too.
Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Claton , Slash, Greg Howe, Dream Theatre, Kick Hammet, Dimebag, list goes on and on and on .. so many good guitarists
Bedroom djent progressive metal
I've always appreciated melody WAY more than rhythm or percussion so... The breakdown was never for me. I'm one of those people sad to see the way popular music has gone in the past 20 years. 🤷
I agree regarding shredding being as something that “killed” solos.
I still write old-school thrash metal & write solos for the songs I write, but I’m not a shredder. Shredding is something that should be limited to short runs/phrases, but not the basis of an entire solo.
I first saw Polyphia back in 2019 on the Beautiful Oblivion tour supporting Issues. I'd never heard of them before and they were amazing. 2 years later they were supporting DGD on the Afterburner tour and now I feel like I hear their name come up all the time. That tour really blew them up
i was never fond of guitar solos until i heard Avenged Sevenfold... City Of Evil brought them back into the mainstream and rightfully so. They proved a good guitar solo can still blow you away and add to the music instead of draining you.
Phenomenal job! I’m an underground musician of a WAY underground genre 😅…Dirty Punk. It’s like The Misfits meets Jimi Hendrix…blues punk. It’s not everyone’s thing, especially according to my analytics on RUclips and SoundCloud but it’s made me a great deal happier. And I know the folks who tune in to listen actually dig what they hear. Which makes it a whole lot more gratifying.
Maybe just vomiting notes and taking away from the song killed the music
Fully agreed. I enjoyed the guitar-based instrumental stuff (Joe Satriani in particular) in the early 00s, but it kinda lost me. I like a good guitar solo, but it needs to serve the song. And I fully agree that way more bands are striking that balance better these days than they ever have before. My partner, a non-guitarist, absolutely loves Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and even Dream Theater (IMO one of the few older bands that generally managed to be hugely technical without sacrificing the song).
If I’m honest though, what really grabbed me about guitar in the first place was metal rhythm guitar. The enormous Rammstein riffs, James Hetfield’s super tight playing on their older thrash stuff, Dimebag’s riffing all over the place etc. I appreciate that modern metal really embraces rhythm guitar and doesn’t view it as the easy shit for the guitarist in the band who can’t solo.
Travis barker and mgk
Shoutout to Plini. Phenomenal modern guitarist and musician. In my opinion he puts the song above technique. He's music is like a majestic waterfall... devestatingly Powerfull but with a beauty that can bring you to tears
Breakdowns, it was breakdowns
Hey Finn I kinda notice the lighting kinda fades in and out when you move your hands, are you an X-Men? Lol ajsjs
Jokes aside, still a pretty cool videos
Guitar solos never went away, but they did get pushed underground by dumbed down fans and guitarists who couldn't shred their way out of a wet paper bag talking about how important songs are while downplaying techniques they're too lazy or unskilled to wield.
Bingo! Behold the rise of mediocrity.
@@wankchung6268 For sure!
This is a pretty lazy take. Breakdowns are just more fun to be a part of in a crowd. So what if you have all the technical abilities in the world. If the music is boring or just some self indulgent jerk-off-fest for the sake of it, no one cares guy
@@yo-sefakimbey7009 Seems like I hit a nerve. I bet you have great chops
@@Ninjametal I don't. But, again, just because someone has all of the chops; it doesn't mean they're a good song writer. And if you can't write/compose a good song, the music Business is gonna be tough
Finn, I feel that a lot of the points you make ignore the state of indie being a mainstream genre. Mac Demarco and Peach Pit, for example, both use guitar solos's pretty often.
One of the best quotes I’ve heard about rock guitars and solos came from Dave Navarro talking to Dave miustaine years ago” there are a million better guitar players then the two of us, but can they write a song people want to hear?”
Bro you got me with this one. I saw the title and clicked immediately can't wait to watch.
I do remember hearing a fair few guitar solos in some pop/pop rock songs in the 90s, and 00s, but it did feel like it was declining by the end of the 00s.
In 2009 though, I was blown away to hear a guitar solo in a mainstream song, in the form of Orianthi's pop rock song, According to You.
I feel like that's the last guitar solo I heard on mainstream radio, but it would be interesting to see it come back in one way or another.
excellent explanation and rundown!!! I graduated High School in 1988 so you can imagine that I was heartbroken when EVH died in 2020...fortunately, as you touched on, with the explosion of self-publishing and social media I can go on in life imagining that the guitar hero never died...oops, I gotta go check my feed for Steve Vai's latest!😁
Finn, off topic, but seeing those Born Against and No Comment flyers behind you has me wanting a video on that weird late 80s/early 90s power violence/raw diy/crusty hardcore/brutal scene. Bands like those and Man is the Bastard, Infest, Spazz, Rorschach, ect. A little obscure, but an important sub sub genre in HC that gets forgotten.
I did one a few years ago! Search for power violence
@@ThePunkRockMBA Just watched, awesome. I know Born Against played with those bands but was more hardcore than PV. One of my favorite bands ever.
The ads man, the ads are straight up energy vampire style.
Glad that intervals got a shout-out. They're really underrated.
Love that you included the clip of Kirk in Some Kind of Monster. I mentioned this in your community post when you said you were doing this video.
Well the jam band scene (which is still really really big) is largely based on extended guitar solos (which are generally more melodic than pure shredding).
Finn! You really nailed it here! A lot of people tend to look down on the pop-metal bands of the '80s, but if you really look at it, the players were more accomplished than most other rock genres, including other types of metal and heavy rock. I would also argue that when grunge and the new alternative scenes came about in the '90s, the public not only lost interest in pop-metal, but also in much of the metal landscape at large, as well as classic rock and some of the original post-punk bands. I think it was just a changing of the guard. Pop-metal reigned supreme for about 10 years, and it was time for a change regardless of sub-genre.