10 Best Female Guitarists Of All Time
Sometimes you need a bit of girl power with your shredding!
Ever since their heyday in the 1950s and '60s through charismatic personalities such as Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, guitarists have always been seen as the cool guys of the music industry.
Whilst a great drummer might set your heart racing and an amazing lead singer can grab all the limelight and attention, a guitarist conveys their whole personality in the way they hold their instrument and carry a song.
It has sadly been a mostly male game, historically speaking. However that isn't to say there hasn't been plenty of female guitarists taking our collective breaths away through the years. And, with social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and Facebook available to a huge swathe of humanity, it has never been easier to bring exposure and openness to the talent within the industry. This has massively helped women gain representation and recognition in the field.
(It also means you can now host a whole concert right from your bed in your pyjamas, which is also really cool.)
Who are the best female guitarists of all time though? Get these women on that aforesaid YouTube playlist.
10. Lita Ford
Playing guitar since the age of 11, Lita Ford had been picked up and recruited into a hugely successful band all by the time she turned 16. Personally picked out by the legendary record producer Kim Fowley to be a member of the equally bad ass all-female band The Runaways in 1975, Lita has been involved with the rock community for over 40 years now.
With Lita conjuring up some seriously impressive riffs, The Runaways would become one of the best epitomes of 1970s rock, always sounding at their best when blowing away huge outside audiences during a booming summer concert.
The Runaways would break up in 1979, but Lita was far from done with rock. Launching with Mercury Records initially, whilst her debut release Out For Blood was something of a mix bag, Lita would really find her flow with its follow up, Dancin' On The Edge. Fire In My Heart broke into the top 10 in countries outside of the US and Gotta Let It Go even made it to number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.
Lita is also exceptionally close with the famous Osbourne family, hiring Sharon Osbourne Management as her management team and collaborating with Ozzy on Close My Eyes Forever in 1988.