What happened to the guitar solo?

[OtterMan68]

The 60s. 70s, and 80s had plenty of popular songs with guitar solos and memorable riffs.

There were "guitar gods" like Hendrix, Clapton, Gilmour, Beck, and Van Halen

Then in the 90s, guitar rock seemed to wane in popularity and guitar solos started to disappear from popular music.

What happened? Why aren't they as popular? Why are there no new guitar gods?

[FunkyMonkee]

Because music, today, is manufactured, pre-fab. All you do is push a few buttons and a computer plays it for you. NOBODY does solos, anymore! Most of the "musical" background is bastardized clips from somebody else's records and the "drums" are no more than electronic finger snaps, hand claps and somebody playing an electric typewriter. How can anybody take solos using that gear?

[MysticDevice]

*cracks knuckles* ahem:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-VHmluDUw1chttps://www.youtube.com/embed/Fc9Ojq04P6shttps://www.youtube.com/embed/nTwwX1lvu1Ihttps://www.youtube.com/embed/uqXFtGsijpQhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/424QNvF0tfwhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/R6NgMxqLu40

My work is done.

[OtterMan68]

but... why is the guitar solo less popular in popular music? How many top 40 songs have guitar solos as compared to 40 or 50 years ago?

[MysticDevice]

Cause pop music doesn't use guitars lol. In any case, Rock n Roll isn't meant to be mainstream. It's meant to fight the mainstream

[rachel776]

The did a joke about this with Sebastian Bach on Gilmore Girls.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMNTMD8zhLo

[OtterMan68]

South Park when the boys were playing guitar hero, and Stan's dad showed he could play some of those songs on his guitar. "Real guitars are for old people!"

[exitseven]

Music today is not the same. The great guitarists, are all in their 70s and 80s. Today music is done in a studio with electronics.

[Dargil]

Guitar solos require skill and creativity. Can't do that with a computer. Nothing exotic about Keith's intro to Gimme Shelter. No clever tricks. It just IS.

[jahaims]

There is plenty of new music out with guitar solos. You have access to the internet. If you listen to more than what the radio force feeds you, you would find more music like that.

[OtterMan68]

I'm not saying it died completely. I'm asking why it's no longer popular

[jahaims]

It's plenty popular unless you don't think millions of fans are popular. There are way more genres and styles of music now, so it's easier to think the way you are due to it seeming diluted. If you have more than three flavors at an ice cream shop, you are going to sell less of the classics like vanilla.

[OtterMan68]

I try to listen to new music, mostly rock and roll, and I don't hear the solos, nor do I see any guitarists out front just rocking long solos on stage. The "solos" of today are just riffs

[jahaims]

You just don't know how to use the resources at your disposal.

[OtterMan68]

you're saying it's just as popular as it was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s?

[Phoenix98]

Guitar solo's are still pretty common in hard rock n metal music.

[IknowthatIdontKnow09]

Heavy metal still have lot of guitar solos...