There?s a moment halfway through Nickelback?s massive 2005 hit Photograph in which singer Chad Kroeger?s voice fades away and a chiming acoustic-guitar passage plays out over a couple of bars. Older music fans ? those familiar with the performers Nickelback has been accused of ripping off ? might have felt a twinge of expectation: if this song had come out 10 years ago, this is where the guitar solo might have begun.
Instead of some fretboard sizzling, Photograph returns to another verse of Kroeger?s musings on visually inspired nostalgia. The fact that Nickelback, a defiantly un-hip band that hews closely to the dictates of mainstream radio, would forsake a guitar solo indicates how much this longstanding rock-music staple has fallen out of favour.
Not long ago, an instrumental guitar passage was a prerequisite for any respectable rock song; tracks like Guns N? Roses? Sweet Child O? Mine, AC/DC?s Back in Blackand the theme to Top Gun felt like threadbare excuses for extensive axe-wielding. Eighties pop hits like David Bowie?s Let?s Dance or Michael Jackson?s Beat It featured guest appearances from noted soloists ? Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Van Halen, respectively ? to attract a rock audience. Nirvana?s 1991 anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit might have signalled a plate-shift in the pop-culture landscape against corporate rock, but it wasn?t revolutionary enough to eschew a solo.
These days, it?s hard to find much six-string noodling in any rock music. In the 1990s, even indie rock had guitar heroes, like Dinosaur Jr.?s J. Mascis, whose solos were long and sloppy but full of reckless charm, and the Pixies? Joey Santiago, whose inspired, angular playing suited singer Black Francis?s abstract, Magnetic Poetry lyrics. Now, indie-ish guitar bands like the White Stripes or Franz Ferdinand go solo-free. Even the bands you?d most expect to feature extensive lead-playing ? hard-rocking all-guy groups like Audioslave and Slipknot ? don?t bother with them.
?It?s not trendy enough to do guitar solos,? suggests Mike McCready, lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. ?Maybe people aren?t writing songs that they think need guitar solos, or people are telling them not to do that. I want them to come back.?
The issue arises in one memorable scene in Some Kind of Monster, the 2004 documentary about the making of Metallica?s album St. Anger. In an unintentionally hilarious discussion, the iconic metal band argues about leaving out guitar solos entirely from the album. ?We started talking about the idea of the guitar solo as... something that?s a little outdated,? drummer Lars Ulrich informs lead guitarist Kirk Hammett.
?That?s so bulls---,? replies Hammett, obviously wounded. ?If you don?t put a guitar solo in one of these songs, it dates it to this period.? (Hammett would lose the fight; no solos ended up on St. Anger.)
Some, like Warren Kinsella, author of the punk history Fury?s Hour, are shedding no tears over this development. According to Kinsella, lead-guitar breaks are no longer in fashion ?because they suck. They represent the zenith of rock ?n? roll onanism. Because they are boring. Because they add nothing to the melody. Yuck.?
Solos endured for decades because they served practical purposes. They provided the listener a break from the singer?s voice; the singer, conversely, wouldn?t have to think up another verse ? or, God forbid, write an entirely new bridge ? to fit between choruses. They allowed a band?s guitar player time in the spotlight.
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Instead of some fretboard sizzling, Photograph returns to another verse of Kroeger?s musings on visually inspired nostalgia. The fact that Nickelback, a defiantly un-hip band that hews closely to the dictates of mainstream radio, would forsake a guitar solo indicates how much this longstanding rock-music staple has fallen out of favour.
Not long ago, an instrumental guitar passage was a prerequisite for any respectable rock song; tracks like Guns N? Roses? Sweet Child O? Mine, AC/DC?s Back in Blackand the theme to Top Gun felt like threadbare excuses for extensive axe-wielding. Eighties pop hits like David Bowie?s Let?s Dance or Michael Jackson?s Beat It featured guest appearances from noted soloists ? Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Van Halen, respectively ? to attract a rock audience. Nirvana?s 1991 anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit might have signalled a plate-shift in the pop-culture landscape against corporate rock, but it wasn?t revolutionary enough to eschew a solo.
These days, it?s hard to find much six-string noodling in any rock music. In the 1990s, even indie rock had guitar heroes, like Dinosaur Jr.?s J. Mascis, whose solos were long and sloppy but full of reckless charm, and the Pixies? Joey Santiago, whose inspired, angular playing suited singer Black Francis?s abstract, Magnetic Poetry lyrics. Now, indie-ish guitar bands like the White Stripes or Franz Ferdinand go solo-free. Even the bands you?d most expect to feature extensive lead-playing ? hard-rocking all-guy groups like Audioslave and Slipknot ? don?t bother with them.
?It?s not trendy enough to do guitar solos,? suggests Mike McCready, lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. ?Maybe people aren?t writing songs that they think need guitar solos, or people are telling them not to do that. I want them to come back.?
The issue arises in one memorable scene in Some Kind of Monster, the 2004 documentary about the making of Metallica?s album St. Anger. In an unintentionally hilarious discussion, the iconic metal band argues about leaving out guitar solos entirely from the album. ?We started talking about the idea of the guitar solo as... something that?s a little outdated,? drummer Lars Ulrich informs lead guitarist Kirk Hammett.
?That?s so bulls---,? replies Hammett, obviously wounded. ?If you don?t put a guitar solo in one of these songs, it dates it to this period.? (Hammett would lose the fight; no solos ended up on St. Anger.)
Some, like Warren Kinsella, author of the punk history Fury?s Hour, are shedding no tears over this development. According to Kinsella, lead-guitar breaks are no longer in fashion ?because they suck. They represent the zenith of rock ?n? roll onanism. Because they are boring. Because they add nothing to the melody. Yuck.?
Solos endured for decades because they served practical purposes. They provided the listener a break from the singer?s voice; the singer, conversely, wouldn?t have to think up another verse ? or, God forbid, write an entirely new bridge ? to fit between choruses. They allowed a band?s guitar player time in the spotlight.
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