Who killed the guitar solo?

Music these days is less experimental and sounds just the same generally (well, that's what I feel about it).^^

 

I think if you listen to a lot of pop based music these days the place where a guitar solo would go is often replaced by a non lyric humming or some other melodic device. Take, for instance, Phillip Phillips' "Home": there's a perfect opportunity for one there but it wasn't done. Instead just kind of a melodic almost chanting instead (not sure what to call it exactly).

 

The gist of this article certainly supports that there are no more guitar Gods. Whether this led to the death of the guitar solo, or vice versa is up for debate. Take notice to what the CEO of Fender has to say about Taylor Swift. Quite revealing.

The slow death of the electric guitar

 

This may have had a hand in its demise:

 

Who was the first guitarist (in a band with only one guitar) to simply abstain from any kind of solo? Johnny Ramone? It became clear to me during the punk era that good rock songs and great performances could exist without any kind of guitar solos.

 

But 1989:

 

This certainly drove home a point:

 

⬆︎ Hahaha! That would do it!

 

IMO no one in particular killed it; guitarist achieving unprecedented technique killed it. I saw Eddie Van on his very first tour and we were floored. Now it's all become so boring (not just Eddie). Now you can see little girls playing Clapton's Crossroads on youtube, and playing it like it is nothing. Tapping was once cool, now it's "so what". We're in the less is more age, not that that is new either. Good blues guys can still bring it, as long as they don't over play. Again this is just my opinion.

 

The guitar solo is not gone, neither is the Instrumental break...What has gone is totally instrumentational craft...

Why learn an instrument if you can sit on your laptop and program a song..Kids don't need to put any time into being the next star if DJs can upload a song without leaving their bedroom and with a pirated copy of Pro Tools...

The expense, the craft, the understanding of songwriting has been replaced by analytical lowest common denominator jingles designed to be streamed - this is just pure barriers to market...Learning an instrument will slow you down...

How many pop songs nowadays even feature a chord sequence? let alone a guitar.... or even live drums?

Guitar Music is now Dad Music to anyone I know under 25 unless it's Ed Sheeran strumming with his feedback loop or Taylor Swift holding a guitar and posing.

A guitar resurgence will kick it back - it always does.....I cannot wait....

 

Vai's solo on Zomby Woof on the Zappa plays Zappa DVD still does it for me, virtually every trick he knows in about 3 minutes and still within the confines of the song...nowt wrong with that!

 

The rap.

 

I like a good melodic succinct guitar solo on record if it contributes to the song. I like some extended improv solos live from a player than can stretch out without overdoing it. David Davidson from Revocation can drop a tasty melodic almost pop solo right in the middle of a death metal tune, I love that. I can't access you tube at the moment, but look up just about any Revocation song, great stuff.

I could listen to Zappa solo forever.

As to who killed it. I'd say grunge killed it in rock, which was fueled by the overabundance of solos in 80s Metal.

 

I think it was a combination of various hair metal/pop metal overkill and a grunge/thrash/death metal retrenchment. The skill to solo became a pointless unmoored deadend exercise unrelated to a good song, and the music moved on without it. Though it rose to prominence in country music and jam band music.

 

Can't really argue with that. I dabbled in the 80s shred and hair metal scenes much later on as a young teen in the late 90s/early 00s because the flashy guitars kind of caught my attention. But after a while, it just seemed like a pointless charade and all the noodling didn't really amount to anything. Those genres have arguably aged very badly for the most part except for a handful of bands, especially the ones who got in the game early before the scene was littered with caricatures trying to outplay everyone else on the block.

 

There are still plenty of solos in lots of forms of pop/rock, particularly live e.g. Nuno Bettencourt has been Rhianna's guitar player and musical director for years. The guy who plays guitar for Katy Perry is pretty tasty too, same goes for Pink's guitarist.

 

All good points. There's compositional and studio craftsmanship and instrumentation, which I fervently hope does return to vogue - nothing in music stays dead forever - and there's the endless solos of live performance, which I thought of first when reading the OP. Many players have said they can't or couldn't stand doing what felt to them like obligatory standalone solo turns in live settings. This naturally is a different animal from instrumental contribution within song.

 

Monte Pittman in Madonna's band still gets plenty of chances to shine as well.

 

The current "solo killer" is Nigel Godrich, no guitar solo(s) on Roger Waters "is this the life we really want".

 

Green Day would be more great to put in (more) guitar solos in their songs. For example, I remember 'Basket Case' which should have a guitar solo part, but they played the chords simply 'copied' from the earlier verses (just without vocals).
When I covered that song I always (tried to) play a solo after the 'so you better hold on' part, so it has a more full sound overall. The original version just sounds 'unfinished' to me.

 

Nick Jonas

 

At this point, threads titled "the death of XXX" or "who/what killed XXX" are just a form of bait.

 

They're rarely dead anyway!

 

Here a pastiche by the Dead Kennedy's on whatever is wrong in the rockworld of 1980, including punk bands starting to be new wave bands, payola, macho behaviour, including guitar solos (at 3.47 min).

 

when you look like Nick Jonas, you can get away with sucking on a solo lol