10 Perfect Rock Albums For Guitar Players

Rock and roll seemed to really be at a crossroads during the late '70s. While you still had the era of guitar heroes like David Gilmour and Ritchie Blackmore looming over everyone's heads, you also had the emergence of punk, which focused more on the attitude behind your playing rather than being able to play scales. And as both of those genres clashed heads, one kid out of California changed the entire rock scene on Van Halen's debut.

Though most of the cameras may have focused on David Lee Roth's electric personality onstage, you couldn't turn away from Eddie Van Halen's solos, making for little mini symphonies in every song that he made. While it's easy to just call out Eruption for shifting the entire world of rock in just under 2 minutes, the rest of the record doesn't let up either, like the off kilter rhythm on I'm the One or when Eddie gets weird sounds out of his guitar on a song like Atomic Punk.

Even with all of that flashiness, you can't really get around his technique for rhythm either, always locking in with his brother Alex to create absolute chaos on every single song. Just like Hendrix had done a decade earlier, this was the record that made thousands of guitar players want to step up their game. Hendrix had his softer moments, but this was the kind of stuff that hit you like a battering ram.