10 Perfect Rock Songs That Changed Music History

10. Eruption - Van Halen

Rock and roll has always been built on the 'don't bore us, get to the chorus' mentality. It's not about using the song as an opportunity to grandstand, and you always have to make sure that there's an actual melody in between the notes to actually get the crowd moving. If you're Eddie Van Halen though, you don't even need too many lyrics to blow minds everywhere.

Around the time when the Sunset Strip was just starting to come into its own, Eruption was when the entire guitar world changed, with Eddie tearing through one of the greatest solos in just under 2 minutes. While this was originally used as a lead in to their cover of the Kinks' You Really Got Me whenever they played live, this would become the blueprint for what the shred era of rock guitar was going to be, taking the bluesy sounds of people like Zeppelin and turning it on its head, all leading up to Eddie's signature tapping licks that he played with both of his hands on the neck of the guitar.

This wasn't just soloing for the hell of it either, always having a sense of melody with lines that were hooks by themselves, like the fast tremolo sections and the almost classical sound of the last few seconds. The guitar may have been the most important instrument in the band, but in these few seconds, the era of Chuck Berry style rock and roll was dead. There was a new guitar god in town.