10 Greatest Guitar Riffs Of The 90s
6. 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
The rise of alternative rock was a long time coming back in the '90s. After being known as the kind of music that only gets played on college rock stations every once in a while, this was the moment where everything clicked and any kind of left of the dial artist had a shot of getting on the airwaves. Even though there was a lot going on in the here and now, it was never a bad thing to get a little bit nostalgic.
Outside of the great songs on albums like Siamese Dream, Billy Corgan really outdid himself with the backing track to 1979, which practically acts as a time machine whenever you listen to it. Although the song itself is already about Billy growing out of his adolescence, you can get that impression from the backing track alone, almost like you're hearing the remnants of a dream that's slipping away.
It also has a lot to do with the fact that the guitar is practically the main draw of the song here. If you really listen to it, Billy's vocal is almost taking a back seat on this track, answering the main guitar riff and letting the instrumentation do a lot of the heavy lifting. Granted, when you have something this potent to work with, you need to just let it work the magic on its own.