Why don't 90's guitar players get talked about here?

[steve_k]

Probably because most people posting here weren't born yet.

 

[Dingleberries]

I hated almost every thing that came outta the 90s. All my favorite guitarist/bands went on to "experiment in new directions" and turned out total crap. To this day most of the guitarists/bands I like will put out a cd with 12 garbage tracks and 1 or 2 good tracks. I stayed drunk through the entire 90s and bought very little new music.

 

[Gitfiddler]

Was winger 80s or 90s? This is an awesome solo. https://youtu.be/zGNWiOSsDNs

 

[Racerxrated]

Probably because most people posting here weren't born yet.

Exactly. These threads always turn to shit because it becomes a pissing contest of what shit you listened to while growing up. Us 40-somethings will always say that the virtuoso guitar players we liked in the 80s ruled. If you couldn't shred you sucked. Then here comes the 90s and Jerry Cantrell/Kim Thayil, non-shredders supreme ruled rock radio with other non-shredders. And I liked all of it. 80s, 90s, even current stuff today I enjoy. I don't enjoy the tone of some stuff I hear on rock radio, sounds like a bass playing through a metal zone pedal. Terrible guitar tone IMO but so be it. It's their thing and that's the way they like it. One thing I will say in defense of the 80s shredders..if you asked some modern lead players to cover 80s stuff note for note very few could probably do it. But the 80s players could cover anything out nowadays. Guitar players from the 80s had to be virtuosos for the most part or no gig for them. Not so much nowadays. NOT that it's that damn important anyway, and yes there are some REALLY good young players out there. But it was a REQUIREMENT back in the 80s with few exceptions. Just my opinion of course..

 

[Mailman1971]

Not a lot of talk about Pete Klett. This is a great tune.

Yup....when I think of 90's (for me)....its Candlebox.

 

[SFW]

I didn't start playing guitar until 1988. So my habits were forged during the "gotta be able to play" era. With that said, I do feel like there were some great guitar players during the 90s. Jerry Cantrell, Pete Klett (Candlebox), Jason Beiler (Saigon Kick), Brother Cane, Pearl Jam, STP, Nuno hit his stride in the 90s. Some of the 80s bands put out some really good stuff in the 90s. Queensryche's Promise land comes to mind. Cinderella's Still Climbing was great as well. There was good music to be found... you just had to look a little harder.

 

[stompboxfreak72]

SRV died in 1990. After that what really mattered.........

 

[bulletproof_funk]

Because people don't identify shred/guitar heros with the 90s, it's just not the first thing that comes to mind. Even though there were guys like John Petrucci, Vai, Satriani, Shawn Lane in their prime, and the G3 tours. Technically proficient guitarists who were coming into their own and doing their own thing, and to some degree they're somewhat "timeless" since they are still around.

Also, there were other forms of rock/guitar that stood out more as shown in the bands that come to peoples' minds so far in this thread. For me, I remember more of industrial and some mixed with electronica (NIN, Ministry, Rammstein, Fear Factory, Marylin Manson, Rob Zombie). And aside from Cantrell and Dimebag, there weren't many defining 90s guitar tones that stuck with people IMO (or maybe I forget because of all the brown sound EVH type threads? ). Wasn't Slayer also 90s? I still like them.

A bit OT, but I'm curious how people remembered guitarists of the 2000s now.

 

[Ayrton]

For me, listening to people solo for 30 minutes is torture. I don't care about all the meedley meedley meedley meedley. I want to hear good music, not good solos. It's like listening to a pop singer do runs for a whole song. Who the fuck cares about that. People get all wet for EVH. Van Halen has maybe two or three good songs. And people really only want to hear that shit as a background track in a funny buddy-cop parody movie where a black guy and a white guy team up to kick ass and take names: cue the synth line from Jump.

Yngqie? Please. Nobody outside of internet forums knows who he is, let alone knows how to pronounce his stupid name. Might as well be called Nguyen.

Vivian Campbell? Devo had like one good song and they've held onto those stupid tiered hats for ever. Jesus, let it go already.

Jake E Lee wishes he were Ozzy. Because people have actually heard of Ozzy. Who the fuck is Jake E Lee.

Never heard of Nuno. Lynch is more shred wankery that nobody outside of internet forums listens to, Schenker sounds like a brand of shitty fake German beer, Randy is the creepy dude working the CVS pharmacy, and Ratt? Really... Ratt? I've never met anybody in real life that actually liked Ratt. That had a job and could support themselves.

 

[ChadVanHalen]

Okay, so I just went next door to the neighborhood market and asked like 8 random people if they could name a Van Halen song. Their ages ranged from like mid 20s to like 38 or 40 years old.

One person was able to name 1 song: "Uhmm.... hmmm.... oh oh... like... Jump? Yeah... Jump."

Nobody was able to name more than 2 EVH songs. Jump was the one most people knew. The other songs people were able to name were Panama and Hot For Teacher. But those were the only three songs.

And nobody could sing or hum them other than "Jump!" or "Panama! Panama-ah-ah-ah!"

I'm starting to think the people on this lonely corner of the internet are overestimating the importance of Van Halen... Not that they weren't talented. But people really just don't care anymore unless it's karaoke night. Not that any other band from the '80s or '90s would fair any better. But it's music. Only musicians like the us on internet forums care that much about this stuff.

I see your fake supermarket poll and raise you any Steel Panther show nowadays. Most of the people there are about my age. There may not be a lot be there is definitely a scene throughout the world that actually like 80's metal and travel great distance to see the one band playing it.

But why does it matter? I like AIC, SOAD, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Halestorm, MCR, Used, Macklemore etc who cares if I also add Motley Crue and shit on that list? People nowadays are so divided on such subjective things as genre. "Hey, I hear a guitar solo... Exactly how tight are the pants of the singer and how high the hair of the bassist before I can deem if I like it or not"
Look at fucking Download; Slipknot, Steel Panther, GWAR, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden... The crowd sings along to each band because outside the internet people don't give a shit what genre something is. If it's good it is good. One hour they are all singing to Community Property the next People = Shit.

 

[Soulstealer]

These bands and their guitarists were vital to me in the '90s-

STP
Jeff Buckley
Radiohead
Korn
Pantera
AIC
Dream Theater
FNM
Tool


Great songs, great playing, great tones

 

[Purpleibby]

The 90's fuckin ruled. Get over your hairspray loving asses.

They fuckin' sucked, get over your goatee, horse parade shitbag baggy pants sportin' skullcap n' flannel wearing bullshit and learn to play that guitar..... Starting with how to tune it, and take a bath for god's sake.

 

[guitarobert]

Some of my favorite albums are from the 90s. But for the most part you need to look beyond what got radio play. These are some to look at: Fear Factory (Demanufacture), Sepultura, Kyuss, AFI (Black Sails, Art of Drowning), Suicidal Tendencies, Machine Head, Unbroken (Ritual), Corrosion of Conformity, Bad Religion, Rancid, Far, Deftones, Korn, Therapy, Sprung Monkey, Nailbomb. It wasn't a decade big on solos, but I think the focus on songwriting and tones was excellent.

 

[Spaceboy]

And aside from Cantrell and Dimebag, there weren't many defining 90s guitar tones that stuck with people IMO (or maybe I forget because of all the brown sound EVH type threads? ).

Maybe not in popular music, but there are entire genres of music built upon guitar tones and writing styles of bands like Mudhoney, My Bloody Valentine, Entombed, Dinosaur Jr., Godflesh, etc. The '90s was the polar opposite of the '80s, so it's understandable that '80s rock fans wouldn't get into the simplified, more expressive music of the '90s. Yeah, the numetal and post-grunge periods sucked, but if someone is listening to the radio, what else would they expect?

 

[steve_k]

The 90's fuckin ruled. Get over your hairspray loving asses.

LMAO.....

 

[Racerxrated]

The 90's fuckin ruled. Get over your hairspray loving asses.

They fuckin' sucked, get over your goatee, horse parade shitbag baggy pants sportin' skullcap n' flannel wearing bullshit and learn to play that guitar..... Starting with how to tune it, and take a bath for god's sake.

 

[Red_Label]

The 90's fuckin ruled. Get over your hairspray loving asses.

The 90s was good in terms of songwriting being focused-on over technical flashiness.

The 80s was good in terms of MUSICIANSHIP and SKILLS on one's instrument being paramount.

I lived and gigged through it all and I can tell you that there is NO substitute for the woodshedding that I was inspired to do because of the high mark that was set in the 80s. Yes, by the end of the 80s it was all style and pretty much no substance. It bored and disgusted even those of us who grew-up loving the [early-mid] 80s. As usual, the soulless "suits" that run the entertainment industry took something great and defiled and contorted it, and then rammed it down our throats to the point of trying to drink from a fire hose (whether we wanted to or not).

And then, when the wind started blowing a different direction, they took the new "it's SO cool to be completely incompetent at our instruments and be all the talk of the shit-rag Rolling Stone Magazine" and shoved that down our throats beyond the point of gagging as well. And now they're taking the "it's cool to churn-out shitty party songs from Nashville and blur the line between country music and hipop and auto-tune everything" road and choking music lovers on that. It all disgusts me once it becomes just another formula to be overdone like human whale eats McRibs.

So if some of us old folks who lived through several eras sometimes wax poetic about "the good ole days" it's because we had our apples, and then we had our oranges... and sometimes we miss our shiny apples! (Or these days... our applesauce...)

 

[Red_Label]

But why does it matter? I like AIC, SOAD, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Halestorm, MCR, Used, Macklemore etc who cares if I also add Motley Crue and shit on that list? People nowadays are so divided on such subjective things as genre. "Hey, I hear a guitar solo... Exactly how tight are the pants of the singer and how high the hair of the bassist before I can deem if I like it or not"
Look at fucking Download; Slipknot, Steel Panther, GWAR, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden... The crowd sings along to each band because outside the internet people don't give a shit what genre something is. If it's good it is good. One hour they are all singing to Community Property the next People = Shit.

Agreed! I dig plenty of stuff from all eras. Each one has its positives and negatives. But what's good rises to the top and will stick.

I'm lucky in that I have teenage kids who know GOOD music when they hear it. My sons and daughters plug in their iPods to the car stereo when we drive and I'll hear a Mumford & Sons song, followed by a Rush or Maiden song. All FIVE of my kids dig music new and old. Sure, there's some things that they like (M&M, and some "cookie monster" stuff) that I HATE... but I'm just happy that they do dig bands that I deem "worthy" and it gives me hope at least for SOME of the younger generation.

 

[rupe]

Bottom line is that there is great music and shitty music from all eras. Each era tends to earn a stereotype (well deserved in many cases) but there are always those who either started that party and were copied or never fit it to begin with. Enjoy what you enjoy, and piss on the haters.
Anybody who saw my music collection would have no way to pinpoint a genre...it's all over the place.

But Limp Bizkit does suck

 

[Red_Label]

I rest my case.

Well... there you have it... show a couple of extreme examples and paint it with a broad brush. I'm convinced!


I was going to post up a shit-ton of vids from the likes of Gary Moore, John Sykes, Eric Johnson, SRV, EVH, Rik Emmit, etc but you're right... Kravitz is just SO much cooler than them, what with all the chicks, nose ring, and everything. What a bunch of worthless wankers! I have seen the light!!!


Btw... in case you haven't realized it... you're confusing the late 80s with the early-mid 80s. They may as well have been two completely different eras in terms of substance.