It feel like music has abandoned the guitar. Not entirely, obviously, but certainly the guitar that birthed rock and roll. Popular artists for generations found their music centered around the six-string and it drove an entire era of popular sound.
As rock music has faded from the popular spotlight, so has the guitar. As they say, guitar is dead, long live the guitar. As tribute, we wanted to look back at the iconic rock guitar players of every decade. We know many of you will not like this list. We get it. These are always controversial. Just ask Rolling Stone.
Anyway, we present to you our list, albeit a bit more brief. In our case, we are focused on the iconic status of the guitar players, not who is the best. We’re not getting down in the weeds with a bunch of metal shredders or fusion wankers for this. Our goal is to find the player everyone knows, everyone respects and would be a no doubter on anyone’s list of the Who’s Who of rock guitar playing.
We doubt you’ll be able to argue that everyone on this list certainly belongs. Whether they are the most iconic of a particular decade, well, that’s for you to complain about on social media. Enjoy!
1960s – Jimi Hendrix
He could be the greatest guitar player of all time, but he certainly was one of a kind. As unique as it was to see a black guitar player in the ’60s playing rock music, Hendrix brought a style and feel to music no one had even thought of before. No one influenced more players and probably no one ever will.
Runner Up: Eric Clapton
Setting aside his racist weirdness and bizarre anti-vax stance, people used to spray paint Clapton is God on walls for a reason.
1970s – Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin was the pinnacle of monster rock music with insanely talented musicians, a brilliant bluesy wailer of a singer and a huge presence on stage and in the studio. Page, who began as a session musician, brought that aesthetic to the music with a flare for sound as much as instrumental dynamic prowess. He wrote virtually every great riff ever recorded.
Runner Up: David Gilmour
There are obviously a lot of guys that could make runner up easily — it was the ’70s — but Pink Floyd’s guitar player shaped an entire generation of soloists…and stoners.
1980s – Eddie Van Halen
When it comes to hard rock guitar, there was the time before Eddie and the time after him. Not only did his signature tapping style of guitar playing ignite a host of shredders (and imitators), it propelled guitar to a new level of celebrity in music. It could be argued that the peak of guitar as the center of the music universe was in the hands of Van Halen, the player and the band.
Runner Up: Johnny Marr
Given that the ’80s was a metal fest, Marr stands alone as one of the most influential and iconic of the new wave world and is still mentioned as an influence among guitarists today.
1990s – Tom Morello
Rage Against the Machine did something very few imagined could ever happen, they blended almost seamlessly the world of rock and hip hop. In the middle of all that funkiness was Morello, a Harvard-educated artist who used the guitar as much as a canvass for his sonic palette as an instrument. His influence as an instrumentalist and as an educated voice for the guitar is unmatched.
Runner Up: Slash
When Appetite for Destruction came out (admittedly in the ’80s), it reintroduced the world to plain old hard rock (and the Gibson Les Paul) and Slash was its epicenter.
2000s – Jack White
Love him or hate him, White obliterated what most people thought of as guitar and rebuilt it for a new era, injecting blues and noise into the world of indie garage bands. Uncompromising and radically original, he drove a stake through the heart of traditional rock guitar while still somehow paying homage to it at the same time.
Runner Up: Syn Gates
This is where rock music began its slide into relative obscurity, but Avenge Sevenfold continued to carry its torch with Gates as the blistering throwback shredder.
2010s – Gary Clark, Jr.
The first time we heard the Austin guitarist we thought, “Maybe guitar will actually make a comeback.” Clark leans hard on the blues influences of his youth like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray. His soulful approach on the fretboard coalesced with modern millennial indie rock sounds to produce something distinctive yet completely familiar.
Runner Up: St. Vincent
Our only woman on this list, St. Vincent absolutely deserves it for her innovative playing and teaching a generation of young indie wannabes that guitar is most definitely cool…and for girls.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
