More than a week ago, Rolling Stone Magazine had released their coveted ‘250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’ list, which you may have already heard or read. As per as being a compilation that honours the most eloquent and influential musicians to ever pick up the Guitar, this list is a definite improvement over their last ‘100 Greatest Guitar Players’ list, which felt like it only toyed around it’s theme and barely even scratched the surface, consequently leaving out many greats who more than deserved to be featured.
On the other hand, the new list is far more diverse and includes a lot more players who have genuinely made their mark in playing the instrument that simply can’t be ignored by anyone, and it’s a real treat seeing so many virtuoso players featured alongside other musical innovators who’ve explored whole new sonic territories on the Electric Guitar.
But still, the new list can’t completely avoid the pitfalls of being part of the forefront media outlet of a corporatized industry that just can’t help repeating itself—which inevitably led this new ‘greatest ever’ list to completely (and unfairly) overlook some of the most prolific and genre-defining players in favor of massive cultural icons and instantly recognizable names. Phenomenal players with an immortal body of work on the Electric Guitar like Buckethead, the Late Great Shawn Lane, Guthrie Govan and most of all, Yngwie Malmsteen are all completely left out which would perplex anyone who have actually played the Guitar at any point in their lives.
And among all of the super-virtuoso players with an immaculate track record of composing and playing the Guitar, the one who should, without fail, never be overlooked by any such ‘greatest ever’ list is, the great Yngwie Malmsteen, and this is what this article will be all about.
Many players and critics tend to classify Yngwie Malmsteen as a super shredder Guitar deity who usually goes for face-melting technical extravaganza rather than musical richness, and while that’s a purely subjective take on both his playing and his music, what simply cannot be denied, is how much of a footprint Malmsteen has left on the Guitar World as a whole. Doesn’t matter what you feel about his music, but Yngwie is every bit as game-changing and ‘revolutionary’ on the Guitar as many of the more well known Guitar Heroes who are featured in the above-mentioned list. I’d wager that the whole fast-picking sub-genre in the vocabulary of the Guitar simply wouldn’t exist without Yngwie, he was perhaps the one who had brought it to the forefront and popularized this newer, more visceral way of playing the Guitar which completely changed the landscape of the music that’s made with the instrument, in a way that’s pretty much unmatched in terms of sheer influence.
And I reckon that the whole flavour of Neoclassical-infused hard rock that Yngwie had unleashed with his first album Rising Force, is every bit as ‘revolutionizing the sonic spectrum of the Guitar’ as it can get. Like it or not, but there’s no denying the originality and the unique-ness of this particular blend of music that Yngwie had brought to life.
So however way you may look, Yngwie Malmsteen does check the boxes of being ‘groundbreaking’ from both technical and musical standpoints, which should make him more than qualified to be featured in Rolling Stone’s ‘Greatest Ever’ list or similar compilations like this. And perhaps why he isn’t, is a bit too obvious than one realizes.
Because what Yngwie or his music simply isn’t, is accessible. And that, is perhaps the sole (and hidden) determining factor in lists like these that leaves out many great players like Yngwie, Buckethead, Plini and many others. As much as Rolling Stone tout or make themselves appear to be, they seem to value accessibility over ingenuity and everything else, and nowhere is this as self-evident as lists like these, which really speaks for itself how these giant publications see music as—consumables rather than crafts.
And that’s why, sadly, many great players will always be ‘overlooked’ by lists like these, simply cause their music don’t really cater to the broader spectrum of music that can be consumed like fast-foods but are actual evocative pieces of powerfully composed art that moves you in ways that’s impossible to replicate.
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