A guitarist fires off riffs. A drummer pounds out primal rhythms. Fans scream along to a booming chorus. These are the sounds of rock. When rock 'n' roll first shook up young audiences, parents and politicians screamed in protest. But artists soon used the music to make protests of their own. Since rock's birth in the 1950s, its sounds have been blasted from garages to stadiums. The music can be the soundtrack to rebellion, a tool for self-expression, or just a way to bang your head. Find out what inspired rock pioneers to pick up their guitars. Discover the stories of outrageous punks and grungy alternative rockers. And learn more about legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Metallica, and Green Day.

(Book). This book is a virtual encyclopedia of great electric guitar players, with 35 chapters examining the major players in each important era of rock. The book begins with rock's birth from the blues, covering masters like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. It proceeds to cover rockabilly greats like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly; through the mop tops and matching suits of the British Invasion; to the psychedelia of the Dead and Hendrix; glam rock's dresses and distortion; fusion virtuosos like Metheny, Gambale, and Henderson; metal masters; shred stars; grunge gods; grindcore; and much more. Legends of Rock Guitar is not only a great resource for guitar fans, but an interesting and well-researched chronology of the rock idiom.

Featuring over 150 of the world's greatest guitar superstars, this updated edition of our successful Rock Guitar Heroes is a definitive guide to those guitarists whose talents helped change the face of music forever and touched the lives of millions. From the heroes of classic blues rock with the likes of Hendrix, Clapton, Page and Beck to modern artists such as Jack White and Muse's Matt Bellamy, this comprehensive catalogue of guitarists covers a wide range of musical styles. Learn what inspired them to create the music that led to their legendary status, how they achieved such greatness and the tools they used to get to the top. Supported by over 200 superb images that bring each page to life and capture the power and emotion behind the music, this is the ideal book for any aspiring guitar hero, and will satisfy even the most die-hard of music fans.

From choosing and tuning your first electric guitar through to forming a band and getting your first gig—here's a crash course in rock guitar technique, which will have you riffing like a pro in record-breaking time! Using speed learning techniques to master the essential basics of rhythm and lead guitar technique, you will also gain an understanding and practical knowledge of music theory—all taught in a fun and irreverent style. With all essential chords and scales included, as well as dozens of the riffs, licks, and tricks used by rock's hottest lead guitarists, this book teaches you everything you need to get out of your bedroom and onto the stage. The accompanying CD includes more than 20 riffs inspired by world-famous rock and metal classics, and dozens of hot licks covering essential techniques: bending, sliding, vibrato, and phrasing; two-handed tapping, harmonics, arpeggios, and speed picking are all broken down step by step in an easy-to-follow fashion that will ensure you are never at a loss when the time comes to take to the spotlight!

Featuring over 180 of the world's greatest guitar superstars, "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes" is a definitive guide to those guitarists whose talents helped change the face of music forever and touched the lives of millions. From the heroes of rock - the likes of Hendrix, Clapton, Page and Beck - to classical maestros such as John Williams and Latin legends such as Paco de Lucia, this comprehensive catalogue of guitarists covers a wide range of musical styles. It will allow the reader to discover legendary players from the earliest blues pioneers right up to today's indie icons and everyone in between.Grouped into seven chapters based on the genre of music each guitarist is most closely associated with, each chapter is then organised chronologically according to the guitarists' birth dates, making the book easy to navigate. Written by an expert team of music writers and musicologists, the informative text tells the story of how each of these axemen rose up to stand out from the crowd, carving themselves a place in the history books. Learn what inspired them to create the music that led to their legendary status, how they achieved such greatness and the tools they used to get to the top.Supported by over 400 superb images that bring each page to life and capture the power and emotion behind the music, this encyclopedia is the ideal book for any aspiring guitar hero, and will satisfy even the most die-hard of music fans. The comprehensive reference section includes an extensive listing of a further 500 of the greatest musicians ever to pick up an axe, recommended further reading and a host of website links, all of which provide a further gateway into the lives of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known.

The most complete and authentic guide to the greatest classic rock guitar licks ever played! In this book, the licks, styles, and techniques of the classic rock generation of guitarists are completely revealed and explained. The included CD contains every music example, performed with the authentic tones, techniques, and equipment as the original artists. All of the music is presented in standard notation and tab. Includes the licks, styles, and techniques of: Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Johnny Winter and more.

“A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar’s amplified sound—Leo Fender and Les Paul—and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into rock ’n’ roll—and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender’s tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an “axe” that would make Fender’s Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Paul—whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought—to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world’s most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo. While Fender was a quiet, half-blind, self-taught radio repairman, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s—including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton—adopted one maker’s guitar or another. By 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable. In “an excellent dual portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), Ian S. Port tells the full story in The Birth of Loud, offering “spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars” (The Atlantic). “The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new” (The Washington Post).