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Sharing in the romantic ideology of the 1960s, the "guitar god" (the virtuoso lead rock guitarist), epitomized by Clapton, Townshend, and Hendrix, emerged as a result of technology-the electrification of the guitar and high-powered amplification-which made the instrument a competitor to the singer and made possible the creation of a mystique of musical prowess fused with effects of emotional authenticity and masculinism. As a romantic hero, the guitar god presents a case that contests egalitarianism and promotes an ideal of power based on personal distinction and exceptionalism in skill and dramatic performance, sustained by a complex commercial support system. The guitar virtuosi of the sixties provided a model for future generations of lead guitarists in rock bands and an inspiration to fans who buy their guitar brands and accompany their heroes on air guitar and Guitar Hero(TM). The guitar god both challenges and flaunts the sixties youth culture.
Guitar gods. Guitar heroes. Guitar virtuosi. These are not simply descriptive terms; they betray a cult of the guitarist in rock. Not the rhythm guitarist, but the riff-making, soloing lead guitarists, who are usually the most accomplished musicians in rock bands and are expected to evince artistry. Guitar gods are absent from genres that eschew-at least in name-romantic ideology and artistry, especially punk. They are ubiquitous in blues-rock and the genres it sired, from psychedelia, through hard rock, heavy metal, and all of their offspring. In those genres, the lead guitarist is the prime focus of the band. Guitar gods were bom of the sixties and could not have appeared as cultural icons until then. This figure is also a phenomenon of that much storied decade, integral to its guiding romantic ideas. Guitar gods represent a strand of romanticism that is often slighted by or altogether absent from accounts of the culture of the sixties, teaching us that the latter is polysémie and cannot be understood adequately in terms of any single theme or grand narrative. How did the guitar god come to be? What are the components of the icon? What does the guitar god tell us about sixties culture and its legacy that continues through the present?
Technology
One of the conditions that made guitar gods possible, though not inevitable, was a complex of...