10 Greatest Hard Rock Guitarists Of The '90s
9. Billy Corgan - Smashing Pumpkins
During the grunge heyday, there was no time for real guitar heroes. While there were some great players emerging from the city of Seattle, the focus for many instrumentalists was to play from the heart without regard for any loftier ambitions. However, a bald-headed savior from Chicago made the guitar nerd look cool once again.
When first starting out, Billy Corgan was proving himself to be a musical genius, with home videos of him shredding it up like Yngwie Malmsteen. As the rock scene started to slowly move towards downtempo material, Corgan's work with the Smashing Pumpkins on the albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness show that he understood the importance of restraint. As opposed to being bombastic, the sounds of these records are extremely tasteful, with Corgan calling back to the classic rock sounds of the 70's to create some of the most beautifully simple guitar lines ever written.
That's not to say that the band was short of heavier moments, with songs like "Quiet" and "Jellybelly" showing the band had the chops to compete with the heavier crowd. He could probably blow away fans with his pure technique, but many fans are happy this music prodigy found his calling writing some of the most enduring tales of angst the decade would ever produce.