"guitar solos are about as revelant as VCRs....

[Y0UNGBL00D]

do you even play LEAD, bro?

[Bucksstudent]

do you even play LEAD, bro?

 

Led.

[The Anomaly]

There's no money above the 5th fret.

[draelyc]

There's no money above the 5th fret.

 

'Splains mah salary...

[PDbyS]

Originally Posted by The Anomaly

There's no money above the 5th fret.

I've only heard that in reference to bass players.

If you want to know the difference between wanker and a musician that contributes just install a fleshlight in their guitar.

[Mike LX-R]

 

Originally Posted by justcrash

Can you imagine someone telling Mozart how a solo piano piece is just wankery?

 

Funny you say that JC. Many critics and colleagues of the time did actually accuse Mozart of being a flashy wanker.

[buddhapaugh]

I was thinking about how the inception of the Grunge-era is often seen as being synonymous with the death of the guitar solo. Not sure that view holds water upon a closer analysis. If it does hold water, then someone must have forgotten to tell Jerry Cantrell of AIC and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam about it.

[buddhapaugh]

I wonder if Kurt Cobain was prescient and killed himself because of this thread.

[chrispsullivan]

 

Originally Posted by buddhapaugh

I was thinking about how the inception of the Grunge-era is often seen as being synonymous with the death of the guitar solo. Not sure that view holds water upon a closer analysis. If it does hold water, then someone must have forgotten to tell Jerry Cantrell of AIC and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam about it.

 

I was going to say the same thing.

[draelyc]

 

Originally Posted by buddhapaugh

I was thinking about how the inception of the Grunge-era is often seen as being synonymous with the death of the guitar solo. Not sure that view holds water upon a closer analysis. If it does hold water, then someone must have forgotten to tell Jerry Cantrell of AIC and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam about it.

 

Fwiw, I never got why Pearl Jam was lumped into the Grunge category, other than geography. Their first album, especially, doesn't track as "grunge" to me. More like, neo-classic rock.

[The Anomaly]

Originally Posted by buddhapaugh

I was thinking about how the inception of the Grunge-era is often seen as being synonymous with the death of the guitar solo. Not sure that view holds water upon a closer analysis. If it does hold water, then someone must have forgotten to tell Jerry Cantrell of AIC and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam about it.

Good point, but that's 2 bands out of how many?

You have to admit, there was a SHARP decline in the 1990s compared to the 80's and even the 70's. Skip the 80's altogether, and go to the 70's, KISS, Kansas, Yes, Rush, Styx, Foreigner, Bad Company, Eagles, Led Zep, Van Halen, Journey (insert classic rock band here), and solos were just part of the song.

It's not even close.

['63-Strat]

Originally Posted by The Anomaly

Good point, but that's 2 bands out of how many?

You have to admit, there was a SHARP decline in the 1990s compared to the 80's and even the 70's. Skip the 80's altogether, and go to the 70's, KISS, Kansas, Yes, Rush, Styx, Foreigner, Bad Company, Eagles, Led Zep, Van Halen, Journey (insert classic rock band here), and solos were just part of the song.

It's not even close.

Ok so let's expand that a bit, some of the biggest 90s bands for me were: AIC, Soundgarden, STP, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana. All had guitar solos, even Nirvana

[telephant]

 

Originally Posted by '63-Strat

Ok so let's expand that a bit, some of the biggest 90s bands for me were: AIC, Soundgarden, STP, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana. All had guitar solos, even Nirvana

 

Yep. The "solos are lame" thing started with Nu Metal, and as someone already pointed out, people quickly realized that was a terrible idea.

[Riffraff12571]

If not overdone and done melodically to fit the tune I say good. Short and sweet is best. Sometimes just a few well placed notes with a bend into a chord change a few times in a tune is all that is required.

The '80s gave solos a bad rap. It was a retarded time in music. I loved some of the tone I heard dudes getting at that time but the solo thing got WAY out of hand and you really need to discount that era when discussing this. I can think of a lot of cringe worthy solos from that time....dumb pointless tapping {censored} just shoe horned in for the sake of having a flashy guitar solo. It was the "I can play like Eddie too" era and it was sad. Many solos from the '70s I can remember note for note in my head just like the melody of the song. There is a huge contrast between those decades.

I find most people that bash them are guys that suck at doing them.

[guitarbilly74]

 

Originally Posted by buddhapaugh

I was thinking about how the inception of the Grunge-era is often seen as being synonymous with the death of the guitar solo. Not sure that view holds water upon a closer analysis. If it does hold water, then someone must have forgotten to tell Jerry Cantrell of AIC and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam about it.

 

I agree. The death of shred, yes. But not the death of guitar solo.

[ke2]

Relevant to what?
Radio air play, probably not.
Young guitar loving kids looking for a new favorite band, naaah..Thie generation is on the whole more interested in djent than wank.
A quirky way of recreating the melody line in a different way? Yes.
The intro of "The trooper" and "Aces high"? Hell yes.
The ending of "Hotel california"? Double hell yes!

[teemuk]

Come on folks... Let's face it: this day and age guitars are about as relevant as VCRs. ...and actually they went out of fashion around the same time.

[rushtallica]

Originally Posted by guitarbilly74

so how do you separate what's wanking to what works for the song? Obviously the player thought it would work for the song, that's why he put it there
what's the criteria? Does it have to follow the vocal line? Is there a maximum amount of notes? What is it?

I am seeing a lot of replies talking about wanking and stuff but what is that? Most solos are pentatonic/ modes noodling, even famous solos like Hotel California, Smoke on the Water, Comfortably Numb.. they're just jamming on a scale, not following a vocal line or anything. So what separates wanking from good soloing? Or "wanking" is just something you say when you don't like or can't play that solo i.e. hating on it?

If the solo helps progress the song without walking all over it, or sounding very out of place, then it's probably going to be a good thing.

Sometimes a song may call for fast soloing, such as a lot of thrash and other fast styles of music, but probably most of the time, except for with shred, and monster jazz fusion, etc., if a solo spot just seems like an excuse to put as many notes and guitar-gymnastics as possible, it may be more likely to distract from the song -- a bit similar to people having a conversation and being on the same page when suddenly some obnoxious moron butts in and tries to get all the attention.

Some counter soloing (like throwing a dynamically different-sounding solo in, such as a very fast solo over a slow song) can be pretty cool and create dynamic balance in a song, but IMO it's not easy to create a great solo that contrasts with the song and yet still makes a good song any better than it was. To me it's probably more usually the type of thing that makes the song a vehicle to showcase a solo, like a backing track instead of a good song. But a solo that has a range of dynamics and builds up to being a 'monster solo' of sorts can be epic.

[rushtallica]

 

Originally Posted by teemuk

Come on folks... Let's face it: this day and age guitars are about as relevant as VCRs. ...and actually they went out of fashion around the same time.

 

True. Still, something much better came along to replace VCR's. People generally just lowered their standards regarding music, though.

[The Anomaly]

Another thing that I think factors into this is, peoples' attention spans, which have become MUCH shorter.

Hotel California keeps being brought up, there was a time when people, including girls/women, would actually listen to that and groove to the soloing as part of the song. I think Frampton comes alive is still the best selling live album of all time? Listen to "Do You Feel Like I Do" live, it's nothing but a guitar solo with a song wrapped around it

People used to actually sit listen to that, but at some point we decided that to be easy to listen to, songs should be no more than 3.5 minutes.

[Cibyl]

Originally Posted by charveldan

I'll take this over drop tune stuff anyday.

Not me,...boring as {censored}.



Nice playing though.

["sasquatch"]

country music = guitar solos everywhere

it (country) is the most popular music in the USA. guitar solos are more than relevant; they are prevalent.

[HKSblade1]

Originally Posted by The Anomaly

Another thing that I think factors into this is, peoples' attention spans, which have become MUCH shorter.

Hotel California keeps being brought up, there was a time when people, including girls/women, would actually listen to that and groove to the soloing as part of the song. I think Frampton comes alive is still the best selling live album of all time? Listen to "Do You Feel Like I Do" live, it's nothing but a guitar solo with a song wrapped around it

People used to actually sit listen to that, but at some point we decided that to be easy to listen to, songs should be no more than 3.5 minutes.

Yeah but you are talking about artist anthem type songs. Many songs are noted for the solo work.

As much as my guy friends liked the Allman Bros, the chicks would say turn that {censored} off. The long guitar intro to Sweet Jane they hated, but loved the medley. I'd play Frankenstein and they would say turn it off. Rush intros? Forget it!

Otoh they'd sit through 10 or more minutes of American Pie while I cringed. Go figure.

My GF once got real upset when we were watching Song Remains The Same. I said GTFO

When Metallica came out, it was actually pretty hard to find chicks that would listen to it. They took a long time to grow on the females. Most of the guys played that {censored} in their cars when the chicks were not with them. {censored}ing chicks would change the station to some pop {censored}. Poon was more important though.

[HKSblade1]

Originally Posted by "sasquatch"

NEW country music = guitar solos everywhere. OLD country = pedal and lap steel solos and fiddle solos.

it (country) is the most popular music in the USA. guitar solos are more than relevant; they are prevalent.

fixed

[teemuk]

 

Originally Posted by HKSblade1

When Metallica came out, it was actually pretty hard to find chicks that would listen to it. They took a long time to grow on the females. Most of the guys played that {censored} in their cars when the chicks were not with them. ...

 

And then came the black album and thus Metallica was literally "pussyfied".