Another best guitarist voting

[Jimi75]

Here's BBC's list of the best guitarists of the past 30 years. You should also check the guitarists that had been up there in the initial list for voting (link in the text).

John Frusciante - best player - of the past 30 years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/04_april/09/axefactor.shtml

[Lev]

I'm guessing the radio show that conducted the pole plays a lot of RHCP, Radiohead etc.. I'm not sure if I'd agree with most of the top ten but I guess if you conducted this pole amongst guitarists you'd get a completely different top ten compared with the general public.

[Spudman]

The full top ten:

1. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
2. Slash (Guns 'n' Roses)
3. Matt Bellamy (Muse)
4. Johnny Marr (The Smiths)
5. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine)
6. Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
7. Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
8. Prince
9. Jack White (White Stripes)
10. Peter Buck (REM)

Looks like the radio station and it's listeners are bathed in a lot of pop music. My guess is that there is a limited range of music being played and this is mainly what the voters draw their nominees from. I don't feel that it's reflective at all of who the great players are of the last 30 years. Just another ho-hum for me. So many of these "best' polls are really skewed.

[marnold]

Here's the complete top 40. It's more like "Top guitarists of the past 30 years as voted by people who listen to too much Morrissey."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/theaxefactor/

[Jimi75]

See that frustrated looking smiley besides my thread title? I had my reasons to put it there...

[Spudman]

Here's the complete top 40. It's more like "Top guitarists of the past 30 years as voted by people who listen to too much Morrissey."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/theaxefactor/

OMG! That is horrible. It's Brittan and no mention of Jeff Beck, Richie Blackmore, or David Gilmour. :thwap :thwap

This kind of crap has got to stop. :mad

[Tibernius]

OMG! That is horrible. It's Brittan and no mention of Jeff Beck, Richie Blackmore, or David Gilmour. :thwap :thwap

This kind of crap has got to stop. :mad

To be fair, they did say how they chose the nominees:


So to do that, what would the criteria be? Well, year zero then would be 1980. To be included the guitarist in question needed to make his debut in or after that year. Also the guitarists had to be regular to the type of music 6 Music plays - so no Steve Vai or Joe Bonamassa. And influence mattered more than technical ability, hence the presence of The Edge.

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/2010/03/the_axe_factor.html

I don't really agree with the results, but then again I wouldn't anyway. There's probably about 5 guitarists in that top 40 I'd have even considered for it.

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, best of lists are kinda silly in general. But, as I like very much expressive guitar work that is not at all in the same category as Vai, SRV Bonamassa, Gilmour, etc., and given that those sorts of names are generally on all the guitarist best of lists, I kinda like a list that states its criteria as excluding those guys (by when they got started), and by type of music.

Though I listened to Morissey, (just a bit) though more when he was with The Smiths, I am not a huge fan, so can't say I like their list entirely. I would like to see a punk/alternative/indie type list.

Don't get me wrong, I love SRV and Gilmour, etc., but I left that music for a long time because I was bored with it in 1981, and found out about some stuff that seemed more fun to me at the time coming out of the UK and CBGBs, etc. I like seeing the work done in those genres recognized a bit, without having to be compared to the normal guitar gods.

[MAXIFUNK]

From 1980 to now. LOL

[Eric]

Here's the complete top 40. It's more like "Top guitarists of the past 30 years as voted by people who listen to too much Morrissey."
I'm going to admit it: I kind of dig this list. A lot of the bands with which these people are associated are in regular rotation for me music-wise. There were maybe 10 names I didn't immediately recognize, and perhaps 3 total with whose music I am not familiar (i.e. when I found out what their association was, I knew the group).

I've been known as overly-analytical for a long time, and whenever someone would talk about how great some guitarist or bassist was, I would ask why. I wanted to know what made someone great. Finally, someone just said, "Because he writes and plays music that sounds good." I couldn't argue with that, and it's probably my strongest argument for why this list doesn't suck.

[markb]

No Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa, SRV, etc. because, on the whole, 6 music plays song based material and NOT guitar hero music (at least until they're shut down later this year).
A reasonable list IMO given the demographic.

[bigG]

No comment. :what :crazyguy

[deeaa]

Makes sense, I'd disagree with all of the people on the list pretty much, but I can understand the lack of guitar heroes. I don't think any normal person would listen to Bonamassa, Beck, SRV etc. but only other players, if those even. I dislike them all equally much and I am a player even :-)