10 Guitarists That Changed Rock Music Forever

Not everyone who had a guitar slung across their back in the '90s had to be a virtuoso. After bands of the hair metal scene made the rapid fire scale runs seem like the coolest thing in the world, it was a different playing field once Nirvana hit the scene, looking to have solos that made a statement, whether that be through noise or writing a compelling melody. If you listen to what Jonny Greenwood was doing though, you'd swear that he was deconstructing what made guitar cool in the first place.

Outside of their fluke hit Creep, the rest of Radiohead's career in the '90s seemed to be defined by what Jonny could put his guitar through, from his different uses of digital whammy pedals to running through scales that shouldn't work and somehow finding a way through on songs like Just. For every solo that the guy plays, his mission seems to make his guitar sound as un-guitar-like as possible, like when he's practically trying to wring as much emotion out of it as he can on Paranoid Android or turning it into the sound of a cello on Airbag.

Even though the '00s era of the band was defined by more synthetic textures than the traditional rock and roll lineup, Jonny had already come into his own as the sonic craftsman behind the band, putting together orchestral touches and finding ways to use delays to create sounds that no one would have thought could come out of a guitar. Much like his heroes like the Edge and Andy Summers, Jonny Greenwood seems to be a student of the more eccentric side of what this little stringed instrument has to offer.