10 Greatest Guitar Solos Of The '90s

10. Larger Than Life - Backstreet Boys

So this is probably one of the last places that you would look for one of the greatest guitar solos of all time or anything. Even though the likes of nu metal didn't delve into guitar solos that often in the late '90s, the boy band buzz felt like the exact opposite of what rock and roll represented, with pin ups that were more focused on dancing than writing any good songs. For all those millions of vocal layers though, the Backstreet Boys didn't skimp out on some amazing session players.

While Larger Than Life might be more known these days as the kind of song that you whip out during '90s night karaoke, the actual guitar in the back is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, taking the opportunity to grandstand right before any of the vocals come in. Coming out of the old school of shredding, the runs on this track are actually far more intricate than even some of the grunge rockers of the day could have matched, feeling like a relic from the days of virtuosos like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

This is a party song though, and the solo doesn't forget that freewheeling vibe, almost like they're taking all of the complexity that comes with an Eddie Van Halen lead break and sprinkling in the care free vibe that you would find in an AC/DC song. Even though the next guitar god is probably not going to come out of One Direction or anything, sometimes the music world can play a few clever tricks on you as well.