10 Guitarists That Changed Rock Music Forever

If you were looking to become a guitar legend in the '60s, you had to do some serious blues homework. As much as some bands like the Beatles fit into the realm of pop music most of the time, some of the greatest musicians in the world seem to have the same starting point in the sounds of the Mississippi Delta, with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton being raised on that sound. There was more to rock than just the blues though, and Jimmy Page blew the entire scene wide open when he left the Yardbirds for Led Zeppelin.

While the first handful of Zeppelin records do have their feet still firmly planted in the blues rock tradition, some of their greatest works are what they're able to do outside of their normal wheelhouse, like Page's different Celtic sounding guitar parts on tracks like the Rain Song or The Battle of Evermore. Though there are still some bluesy stuff to be found on Led Zeppelin II, Page has to be the one responsible for giving the world their proper introduction to the guitar riff.

There may have been different motifs that guitarists would use from Chuck Berry onward, but the more modern version of what constitutes a guitar riff normally stems from tracks like Whole Lotta Love and Rock and Roll. The old school of rock and roll may have had the attitude mixed in with blues, but it took Jimmy to actually turn it into an actual style of guitar playing.