GitaartabsPlaylist · 29 songs
The 29 best guitar songs of the 90s
The decade in which the guitar was allowed to sound raw again: from Smells Like Teen Spirit to Wonderwall, alongside the Dutch rock of Van Dik Hout, Anouk and Bløf that came of age in the same years. Twenty-nine songs in order of year. Many need only four chords — in the nineties that was rather the point.
1990. Percussive fingerstyle: you tap the rhythm on the strings as you play.
1990. Blues phrasing with an enormous tone — every note gets vibrato.
1991. Open strings and bare fingers; you can play the opening tonight.
1991. Four power chords that set the decade in motion. It is all in loud versus soft.
1991. Frusciante's intro: chords with open strings ringing through them.
1992. Warm chords with runs in between, played with your fingers.
1992. D and G in arpeggios. Calm, and surprisingly hard to play beautifully.
1992. Four chords and those three dead strokes before them.
1994. Four minor chords, and a chorus everyone lets loose on.
1994. Power chords at tempo from start to finish — a test for your wrist.
1994. Arpeggios over a progression the lyrics themselves spell out.
1994. The power ballad in its purest form: start quiet, end big.
1994. A huge chorus on a simple progression — ideal for your dynamics.
1995. Four open chords with a capo. Singing and playing at once is the exercise here.
1995. Capo on 2, five shapes, and the most requested song at any party.
1995. The piano intro on guitar, and a chorus made for shouting together.
1995. Built on one atmospheric chord loop — learn the strum, not the notes.
1995. Dutch rock with an intro everyone recognises.
1996. Four chords and an entire country that knows the chorus.
1997. Two minutes, one riff, and the loudest woo-hoo of the nineties.
1997. Four chords in a loop with a capo — almost impossible to get wrong.
1997. A build from whisper to roar. Play the first verse softly.
1997. The Dutch rock breakthrough, with a riff that bites immediately.
1998. Built on an unusual tuning; entirely doable in standard as well.
1998. Story first, guitar underneath — Dutch songwriting at its best.
1998. Calmly built up and rewarding to accompany.
1998. Driving and recognisable; the ProTab shows the guitar layers.
1999. A restrained verse, a huge chorus, and an intro everyone knows.
1999. Frusciante plays few notes and lets them hang forever.
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