This has happened in most songs when it came before the final chorus.

It seems to have disappeared recently though. What happened to it?

My first thought would be that DJs don't play guitar!

Are you talking about in mainstream music? Usually there's a rap verse, an instrumental section or a sung part used as the bridge/middle 8 now. But I think this has been the norm for quite a long time.

I'm sure guitar solos are still common in rock music though.

Red Light Special by TLC has my most favourite guitar solo ever....and it was by Slash no less or so the rumour goes.

There's a great guitar solo just before the final chorus in Further Away (Romance Police) by Lissie.

Francis Rossi still playing them on Quo albums over 300 now

They are. Solos, riffs, hooks - they are all present in good rock music.

..Iron Maiden albums are still full of them, god bless them.

Guitar solos?

They've been played by jazz musicians, "for ever."

Here's one from almost sixty years ago, still sounds as fresh today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrakx9Cezs

Well perhaps mostly because commercial radio doesn't like to play rock songs anymore, but...

Before we go entirely blaming current pop acts for the guitar solo's demise, I would have to say when you see a lot of the various pop acts like for example, Rita Ora, play live on festival TV coverage they almost always have some shred master general session guitar player come on at some stage and do a bit of wild fret w*nking Van Halen style over one of their tracks. So ironically although it could be perceived that modern pop has killed the guitar solo, its actually modern pop stars that are keeping it alive in their stage shows.

Also has to be said that in the Indie world nobody plays guitar solo's because many of the bands feed off the punk ethic that solo's are self indulgent & get in the way of the song. So that's another reason why you rarely here them outside of hard rock circles now.

I think Muse's Matt Bellamy stands out as one of the few alt rock bands around these days that will play big solo's and yep if people slag off Muse its usually for self indulgence.

"Gaps" or instrumental parts in songs usually tend to be filled with a rent-a-rapper rather than a guitar solo nowadays.

Although there are still guitar solos out there, just not in what is played on the radio or music channels right now because dance is more popular right now.

My favourite singer is JPop singer Ayumi Hamasaki. She doesn't play guitar or anything but a lot of her songs feature a guitar solo.

Maybe the time of the guitar solo will come round again. Although as previously mentioned you tend to get a lot of them at live concerts as opposed to studio recordings.

Even rock music is void of any rockin guitar solos these days.

Every song has the same 4 chords being played by a guitar player. Gone are the days of face-shredding solos.

I quite like listening to riff-based rock, or guitar music which is really expressive. I also find some of post-rock music has some interesting guitar sounds. But I don't find a lot of the modern heavy metal bands with their 'complex' rhythms and growling particularly interesting guitar wise.

Not even Dragonforce?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s

Joke!

If it weren't for Guitar Hero, no one would know who Dragonforce are

Agreed. Hence the 'Joke!'

Guitar solos are often cheesy.
It's very rare to hear a good guitar solo that is catchy and memorable, not just technically brilliant and cramming about a million notes into 1 bar.

I hate that type of playing. It has got no soul.

It's hard to beat the soulful guitar mastery of players like Carlos Santana and Neal Schon.

Tbh, that's the sort of thing that sends me to sleep. Yes, it's technically brilliant but I find it extremely dull.

I just love the soulful intensity of it.

I have really fallen in love with Gary Clark Jr's guitar playing. Bluesy and soulful.

Of course, I also love me some straight up riff laden stoner rock

I actually know Dragonforce (from my daughter).
Oh dear, they're like a parody of a parody, bereft of creativity apart from a sense of humour ( I don't think they take themselves seriously, do they?).

I agree with a couple of people above. Do you get guitar solos which are actually expressive rather than just technical expertise these days?

I'm not really a Pink Floyd fan but I heard the live version of Another Brick in the Wall this morning and I had forgotten how creative yet laid back Dave Gilmour's guitar work was on that track.

Some great soulful/expressive guitar solo examples over the years.:

Sultans Of Swing - Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
Man Of The World - Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac)
Comfortably Numb - Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
Summer Breeze - Ernie Isley (Isley Brothers)
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
I Don't Know Where I Stand - Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention)

Riff-driven, expressive, melodic, (slightly) self-indulgent , frenetic and with Phil Collins on drums! Layla - Derek and the Dominos

And everyone's favourite Beatle George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Or simplicity itself, I Will Follow - U2

Here's an example of modern rock...dark, rhythmically 'complex', fairly traditional guitar solo with more notes but limited expressiveness, Slipknot - Psychosocial (actually a bit tame).

Compare a more traditional, riff-based rock band, actually sounds more exciting, AC/DC - Thunderstruck