0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19MUSIC: "Back In Black" by AC/DC
0:00:25 > 0:00:30The guitar riff. Unsophisticated, mindless and primitive.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34The Neanderthal on music's evolutionary scale. Right?
0:00:34 > 0:00:35Wrong.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40They are little anchors in the song,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43something that you always come back to.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46It's almost inside you when you're listening to the song.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Things that are simple aren't easy.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54To do something that's rhythmic and compelling, melodically,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57is a very sophisticated artform.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03It cuts through all the bullshit and just gets to people's feet
0:01:03 > 0:01:05as well as their heads at the same time.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11The riff, to me, is the most important part of pop music.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15From the riff, everything grows out.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18MUSIC: "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks
0:01:20 > 0:01:23# Girl, you really got me goin'... #
0:01:23 > 0:01:25The riff is the DNA of rock'n'roll,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29a double helix of repetitive simplicity and fiendish complexity
0:01:29 > 0:01:32on which the history of rock'n'roll has been built.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34A riff is very much a physical thing.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36# Da-da-da, da-da. #
0:01:36 > 0:01:39They come out of your gut somehow and you have to catch them.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41HE PLAYS "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY"
0:01:42 > 0:01:45The whole concept of doing these guitar riffs
0:01:45 > 0:01:47were to grab the listener's attention,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49to make your ears go, what is that?
0:01:49 > 0:01:52SHE PLAYS "BEAT IT"
0:01:52 > 0:01:56MUSIC: "Beat It" by Michael Jackson
0:01:56 > 0:01:58They are like little musical guitar quotes, really,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01that you want to hear again and again.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03HE PLAYS "THIS CHARMING MAN"
0:02:04 > 0:02:08So plug-in, tune up and turn it up...
0:02:08 > 0:02:11HE PLAYS "SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT"
0:02:11 > 0:02:15As we track and celebrate The Joy Of The Guitar Riff.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18MUSIC: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
0:02:25 > 0:02:27So you can think about riffs in a very limited way,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29like, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
0:02:29 > 0:02:32contains one of the great riffs of all time.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Beethoven
0:02:37 > 0:02:43- The riff has always been here. - HE SINGS "1812 OVERTURE"
0:02:43 > 0:02:46MUSIC: "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky
0:02:46 > 0:02:48It's a riff!
0:02:48 > 0:02:50The riff, by its very nature, is repetitive, so you get it
0:02:50 > 0:02:53again and again, you get it reinforced,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and the rest of the song gets built around it,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58like the riff was the skeleton of the song.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Musically, the guitar riff may have lofty classical ancestry
0:03:06 > 0:03:10but it wasn't until the late '40s, when mass-produced electric guitars
0:03:10 > 0:03:13were picked up by young blues men and women,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17that elements of the guitar riff as we know it today began to emerge.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21You have Muddy Waters and people and they are quite riffy. Think of...
0:03:21 > 0:03:23# Da-da, da-da. #
0:03:23 > 0:03:25MUSIC: "Manish Boy" by Muddy Waters.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33To me, the guitar is one of the most expressive instruments ever invented.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36You hit it, you know. You don't blow it, you don't bow it.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39You pick it up and you use it almost like a weapon.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44The potential of the guitar as a weapon of riff destruction
0:03:44 > 0:03:47was first realised by an ambitious young guitarist from St Louis, Missouri.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53In April 1958, he unleashed the mother of all riffs.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56When I was a boy growing up in Detroit,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58I heard this record on the radio
0:03:58 > 0:04:03and this fellow was playing the guitar with such velocity
0:04:03 > 0:04:06and such excitement and exuberance...
0:04:06 > 0:04:09I thought, "Oh, my God! What is going on here?"
0:04:09 > 0:04:11He was so good at what he did.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Just the guitar playing was just out of this world.
0:04:14 > 0:04:20- I fell in love with it immediately. - HE PLAYS "JOHNNY B GOODE"
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Chuck Berry! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:04:30 > 0:04:33MUSIC: "Johnny B Goode" by Chuck Berry
0:04:49 > 0:04:52# Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
0:04:52 > 0:04:55# Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
0:04:55 > 0:04:57# There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
0:04:57 > 0:05:01# Where lived a country boy named Johnny B Goode
0:05:01 > 0:05:04# Who never ever learned to read or write so well
0:05:04 > 0:05:06# But he could play the guitar just like a-ringing a bell
0:05:06 > 0:05:09# Go, go... #
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" shot the guitar riff
0:05:12 > 0:05:14into the heart of the pop mainstream.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16The track packed not one,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19but two hugely influential pieces of guitar magic.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23# Johnny B Goode. #
0:05:23 > 0:05:26He played sort of an intro, like, most of his intros started...
0:05:26 > 0:05:28HE PLAYS INTRO TO "JOHNNY B GOODE"
0:05:32 > 0:05:35All that. But then his riff would be...
0:05:35 > 0:05:38PLAYS RIFF FROM "JOHNNY B GOODE"
0:05:38 > 0:05:40And it sort of rolls it along, you know?
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Until Chuck Berry, rock'n'roll's primary medium had been the piano,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54but by transposing his band pianist Johnny Johnson's boogie woogie style
0:05:54 > 0:05:58into a guitar riff, Berry changed the course of popular guitar music.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02He really was the first rock'n'roll guitar player.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05People had probably heard those kind of riffs a lot in piano,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07with boogie stuff, you know.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09And when they heard it on the guitar, that was,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11for the time, quite loud,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13it must have blown people's minds.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16It still does blow my mind now.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21It's so blindingly original and unforgettable and, of course,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23influenced everybody.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Just by putting that sixth on and off, the...
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Suddenly the guitar feels like it's doing something
0:06:30 > 0:06:35and that dead simple little shuffle riff, that has never gone away.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38- Status Quo. - HE PLAYS "WHATEVER YOU WANT"
0:06:38 > 0:06:42It's also the bottom end of Get It On by T Rex.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45I don't think there's a guitarist who honestly could say
0:06:45 > 0:06:48they weren't influenced by Chuck Berry.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53# His mother told him Someday you will be a man
0:06:53 > 0:06:55# And you will be the leader of a big old band... #
0:06:57 > 0:07:01"Johnny B Goode" was a huge hit with both black and white teenagers.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Chuck Berry's revved-up blues riffs
0:07:04 > 0:07:07were reflecting a faster, freer America.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Chuck Berry's genius was that he was, in his own way,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20post-racial in America.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23He wrote songs that spoke to young people -
0:07:23 > 0:07:27white young people, black young people, it didn't matter -
0:07:27 > 0:07:30about the things young people care about.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33We have ignition and we have lift-off.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40The importance of the Johnny B Goode riff is such that, in 1977,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42it was included on the Voyager spacecraft
0:07:42 > 0:07:47as one of four songs representing humanity's finest cultural achievements.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Have guitar, will space travel.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56My only issue is why aren't there four Chuck Berry songs on that?
0:07:56 > 0:07:59He speaks more to me about humanity in his songs
0:07:59 > 0:08:01than half of the stuff that'll be on that.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06I also heard that we heard back from another planet and they said,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08"Send more Chuck Berry!"
0:08:13 > 0:08:16As Johnny B Goode was soundtracking
0:08:16 > 0:08:18a young, aspirational America in 1958,
0:08:18 > 0:08:22a different breed of guitar riff was emerging simultaneously
0:08:22 > 0:08:26that reflected the darker underbelly of teenage America.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45I think I heard that round at my Uncle Frank's first time,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49on a seven-inch single, and it just made me want to smash everything up.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55MUSIC: "Rumble" by Link Wray
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Link Wray's "Rumble" was born out of a spontaneous blues jam
0:09:02 > 0:09:05which a rabid audience demanded four repeats of.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08If Johnny was good, Link Wray was bad.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11He, I believe, damaged a lung
0:09:11 > 0:09:15in a tuberculosis episode and couldn't sing any more,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18which is why he started releasing instrumentals.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22It's a key moment in the development of the guitar riff
0:09:22 > 0:09:26because it's got a primitive sense of excitement about it.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37I had the great fortune to meet him once.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40He was playing an early show at the El Rey Theatre in Philadelphia.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44He'd got these impenetrable kind of shades on and this big
0:09:44 > 0:09:47ponytail, playing the absolute bollocks out of this guitar.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55He was vicious, and the sounds that he got out of the guitar were...
0:09:55 > 0:09:57out of this world.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04The riff oozed menace and sex appeal,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08a sound so terrifying to picket-fence American suburbia
0:10:08 > 0:10:11it became the first rock'n'roll instrumental
0:10:11 > 0:10:13to be banned from US radio.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15When that record came out,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18it sounded unlike anything else on the radio.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21It was incredibly exciting.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The word "rumble", as well, it kind of has connotations.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Do you know what I mean? It is quite a savage track.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32You know, it certainly wasn't Perry Como, you know?
0:10:40 > 0:10:45Chuck Berry and Link Wray's riffs had electrified '50s America
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and it wasn't long before Britain began to have a go.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56The electric guitar was deposing the saxophone
0:10:56 > 0:10:58as the kids' instrument of choice.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Why I wanted to play guitar, I think, was it was just a bit more rugged.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07I liked the sound of it. I liked...
0:11:07 > 0:11:10Certainly when The Shadows came out, that sound really appealed to me.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13I liked the classy sound they had, you know?
0:11:13 > 0:11:16MUSIC: "FBI" by The Shadows
0:11:23 > 0:11:27In 1959, out of Cliff Richard's backing band emerged The Shadows,
0:11:27 > 0:11:32a band that contained Britain's first bone fide guitar hero,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Hank Marvin.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36HE PLAYS "FBI"
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Hank Marvin is magic. You know, you can play great...
0:11:44 > 0:11:47You can play very fast and play all sorts of stuff
0:11:47 > 0:11:49but if it doesn't sound right, you're wasting your time.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Hank was the master of sound.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55He was influential to all of our generation.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04First of all, I got my first Stratocaster in 1959.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Cliff bought it for me.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Strats have a particular clean sound.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15The second thing was this - your vibrato bar.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18For example, you get...
0:12:18 > 0:12:20HE PLAYS A CHORD
0:12:21 > 0:12:26Those components coming together helped me create a sound
0:12:26 > 0:12:29and a style which, fortunately, people liked.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Hank would always come up with something amazing.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Hank came up with... HE SINGS "APACHE"
0:12:35 > 0:12:37HE PLAYS "APACHE"
0:12:43 > 0:12:45MUSIC: "Apache" by The Shadows
0:12:45 > 0:12:47CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:12:53 > 0:12:57The inspiration for Hank's sound on breakthrough hit "Apache"
0:12:57 > 0:13:01came from a unique reimagining of the American West,
0:13:01 > 0:13:02via the local Odeon.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06When we recorded Apache, I was thinking, I want to try to
0:13:06 > 0:13:10really get some kind of feel in my mind, like a vision.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14I had this vision of these Apache Indians riding across
0:13:14 > 0:13:17that dry landscape that we see so often.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23I felt it might give me some extra feeling for this piece of music.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29It was so fresh, it was new. It was a unique sound in 1960.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39In the early '60s, a good guitar sound was a clean guitar sound.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43People tended to expect to hear clean sounds
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and even a record producer would say, "That's distorting a bit.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49"Can you pull back on that?
0:13:49 > 0:13:52"Distortion, it's nasty. People won't like that."
0:13:54 > 0:13:57But while Hank Marvin's shimmering clean tone soundtracked
0:13:57 > 0:13:59the dreams of early '60s Britain,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02something scandalous was bubbling beneath the surface
0:14:02 > 0:14:05of sophisticated swinging London.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09I was looking for a sound that's more grittier.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13There was a lot of things going on in my life, you know,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15a young kid growing up.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17A lot of frustration
0:14:17 > 0:14:20and not knowing how to really express myself.
0:14:20 > 0:14:26There must be a sound that represents the way I feel inside.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31In an act of frustration, a 17-year-old Dave Davies
0:14:31 > 0:14:34was about to change the sound of the electric guitar forever.
0:14:34 > 0:14:41I got this little amp and I cut the speaker cone with a razor blade...
0:14:42 > 0:14:46..just out of anger of it not sounding right.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49When I heard that tone, that sound,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53it transformed my whole idea about rock music.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03# Girl, you really got me goin'
0:15:03 > 0:15:07# You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'
0:15:08 > 0:15:10# Yeah, you really got me now
0:15:10 > 0:15:13# You got me so I can't sleep at night
0:15:14 > 0:15:17# Yeah, you really got me now... #
0:15:17 > 0:15:20You Really Got Me was a massive breakthrough.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25That's the first time I was aware of what a riff could be.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27HE PLAYS "YOU REALLY GOT ME"
0:15:31 > 0:15:33It saturates.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35It goes into a kind of overdrive
0:15:35 > 0:15:38and that's a big part of what makes the riff so exciting.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48You Really Got Me was a lobotomised monster of a riff.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Never before had anyone heard a guitar
0:15:50 > 0:15:52with such growling distortion,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56and for a generation, this was sonic psychotherapy.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Distortion is kind of the sonic equivalent of anger.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03It adds venom to the simplest of riffs.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08When we first started to perform it live,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10you could tell there was a different feeling in the room.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14The whole energy of the place was charged.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30Young people picked up on the tone because, you know,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33that intangible kind of, "I know that.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37- "I can relate to that." - CHEERING
0:16:43 > 0:16:46This distorted riff's influence was immediate.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48The Who's Pete Townshend unleashed a near carbon copy
0:16:48 > 0:16:52with 1965's I Can't Explain...
0:16:55 > 0:16:59While Keith Richards went in search of a similarly sleazy sound
0:16:59 > 0:17:02on Satisfaction.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12By 1969, Led Zeppelin had registered a ten on the Riff-ter Scale
0:17:12 > 0:17:14with Communication Breakdown.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21# Hey girl Stop what you're doing... #
0:17:28 > 0:17:30But the expression of adolescent energy
0:17:30 > 0:17:32through a distorted guitar riff
0:17:32 > 0:17:35would be taken to its extreme conclusion
0:17:35 > 0:17:37by a band from Aston, Birmingham.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40In 1965 a 17-year-old factory worker
0:17:40 > 0:17:44and aspiring blues guitarist would have a fateful accident.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50I used to do sheet metalwork, so I'm pushing my hand...
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Pushing the pieces of metal under the thing and it went bang!
0:17:55 > 0:17:58The machine came down.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01The reaction of it trapping my hand, I just pulled the ends off.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05God, it was... That changed my life in a big way.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08So I got a Fairy Liquid bottle and melted it down to a ball
0:18:08 > 0:18:12and then made a hole in it and stuck it on my finger
0:18:12 > 0:18:14and made a shape like this.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Then I, sort of, was able to play.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Tony Iommi's accident forced him
0:18:23 > 0:18:26to develop a distinctive guitar style,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28and from it a riff so colossal was born
0:18:28 > 0:18:32that it would birth an entirely new musical genre.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45When we played that, there was nothing else like it.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49And we didn't know what it was.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52HE PLAYS "BLACK SABBATH"
0:18:52 > 0:18:55When we could go and try it at a blues club,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57we were doing all 12-bar blues
0:18:57 > 0:19:01and we threw that one in and it was quite different!
0:19:07 > 0:19:11The riff that gave birth to heavy metal is...
0:19:11 > 0:19:13HE SINGS "BLACK SABBATH"
0:19:15 > 0:19:17It's the devil's chord.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20MUSIC: "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Those notes were banned many years ago.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36It was supposed to have been a satanic thing.
0:19:36 > 0:19:42It's the atonality, the dissonance of that third note that rubs against
0:19:42 > 0:19:46the first two chords that just causes this unbelievable tension.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57A lot of people were frightened when we played that
0:19:57 > 0:20:01because they thought we were Satanic and going to put spells on them.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05People also were frightened to meet us.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07You could see the fear on their face,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10as though we were going to turn them into stone or something.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13It's a powerful three notes.
0:20:24 > 0:20:31# What is this that stands before me? #
0:20:32 > 0:20:36The first concert I ever went to was Black Sabbath.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41I was 13 years old and it changed my life.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46All I could see on stage were these black figures with gold crosses
0:20:46 > 0:20:50and to me they looked like something from another planet.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54They didn't look like human beings. They were like gods.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57# Oh, no! #
0:21:05 > 0:21:11Sabbath were slow and behind the beat and just...nasty!
0:21:11 > 0:21:14# Oh, lord, yeah... #
0:21:14 > 0:21:17MUSIC: "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Within one song there may be three or four
0:21:25 > 0:21:28of the greatest riffs of all time with Black Sabbath songs.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32The riffs are a key component of the diabolical,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36deeply rhythmic evil that makes Black Sabbath a great band.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Black Sabbath, put simply, invented heavy metal.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46An obsession with the darker side of spirituality, the cult lyrics,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49operatic singing, the devil's interval.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52This is definably heavy metal and this is where it starts.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03- Thank you very much. - CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:22:03 > 0:22:06As the '70s dawned,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09more rock guitarists like Tony Iommi were becoming increasingly
0:22:09 > 0:22:13inspired by less bluesy, more experimental approaches.
0:22:14 > 0:22:20I wasn't Muddy Waters in Chicago in the late 1940s.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22It wasn't authentic for me.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25The riff was no doubt part of what King Crimson did
0:22:25 > 0:22:29but it was only one part of it. There was a lot more going on.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32MUSIC: "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson
0:22:45 > 0:22:49King Crimson's 1969 debut, In The Court Of The Crimson King,
0:22:49 > 0:22:54was the sound of rock'n'roll casting off into uncharted waters.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Before long, the band would leave
0:22:56 > 0:22:59the musical vocabulary of the blues behind altogether.
0:23:00 > 0:23:08My own musical voice began to emerge in 1971 with material that appeared
0:23:08 > 0:23:11in Larks' Tongues In Aspic, parts one and two,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14which weren't blues.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18They were rock, kind of, but something else.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Robert Fripp is undoubtedly a genius.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41His early work with King Crimson, it's so technically proficient,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44it's so hard to get a handle on what he's doing.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58It's all about finding new ways, almost on a mechanical level,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01finding new ways to get the guitar to work.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05I don't think in terms of a riff.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I might think in terms of a phrase or a motif.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14You have various forms of developing variation...
0:24:18 > 0:24:20..retrograde motion...
0:24:23 > 0:24:27- ..unusual time signatures. - HE IMITATES BEAT
0:24:32 > 0:24:35It will always keep you wondering...
0:24:36 > 0:24:38What's happening here?
0:24:48 > 0:24:52The boundaries were... They weren't boundaries for me.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57In the wake of King Crimson
0:24:57 > 0:24:59and the progressive rock bands that followed,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01riffing got sophisticated.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Everything from classical to jazz and folk music
0:25:07 > 0:25:09was now influencing rock guitarists.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12Some riffs could even be operatic.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14The electric guitar can imitate a human voice.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17When we sing, we have a natural vibrato, we go...
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Some people have a lot of vibrato,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21like a lot of opera singers, you know.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39There's almost nothing the guitar can't do that a human voice can.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42# Is this the real life?
0:25:42 > 0:25:45# Is this just fantasy? #
0:25:45 > 0:25:49In 1975, an operatic vision would collide with a unique guitar style
0:25:49 > 0:25:53to create one of the most famous moments in riffing history.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55That song is really completely unique.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58It's like a ballad at the beginning, then all this opera stuff.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00We were sort of calling it mock-operatic.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02# Thunderbolts of lightning
0:26:02 > 0:26:04# Very, very frightening me
0:26:04 > 0:26:05- # Galileo - Galileo
0:26:05 > 0:26:07- # Galileo - Galileo
0:26:07 > 0:26:09BOTH: # Galileo, Figaro. #
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Freddie was sort of trying to play the riff on the piano...
0:26:11 > 0:26:15But it wasn't until we tried it on the guitar that it really took shape.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25It was a great moment.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28I remember doing it. We did it, then we double-tracked it and suddenly it was, "Wow!"
0:26:28 > 0:26:30# Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia
0:26:30 > 0:26:32ALL: # Mamma mia, let me go
0:26:32 > 0:26:36# Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
0:26:36 > 0:26:38# For me
0:26:38 > 0:26:41# For me!
0:26:49 > 0:26:54# So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? #
0:26:54 > 0:26:55Originally, it went...
0:26:55 > 0:26:58# So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
0:26:58 > 0:27:01# So you think you can love me and leave me to die? #
0:27:01 > 0:27:02It didn't go... HE LIFTS THE NOTE
0:27:02 > 0:27:04# ..die?
0:27:04 > 0:27:07# Oh, baby... #
0:27:07 > 0:27:11He kind of improvised that on the basis of what we'd done.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14He felt he wanted to push it further. And that's a great moment, I think.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16It really takes it into the stratosphere.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38One of the secrets of Brian May's inimitable guitar sound
0:27:38 > 0:27:40was his home-made guitar,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43cobbled together from an 18th-century fireplace!
0:27:43 > 0:27:45This is what I made with my dad, yes.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48It took about two years and we designed it absolutely from scratch.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51So there's a lot of things in this which didn't exist at the time.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54My guitar was possibly the first electric guitar
0:27:54 > 0:27:57designed so that it would feedback very deliberately,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59cos it had this acoustic pocket in it.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Everything was done empirically and by hand in my dad's workshop,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14so there's no power tools at all,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16it's just planes and sandpaper and saws.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18And it was very experimental.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24# All your love tonight... #
0:28:24 > 0:28:28While some guitar playing was being remodelled in the early '70s,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32another, more elemental, school of riffology co-existed.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35In 1972, a virtuoso guitarist
0:28:35 > 0:28:39played a riff that sounded so simple even a child could play it.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45It was one of the first things I learned
0:28:45 > 0:28:49when I plugged in to an amp and I actually knew how to play a chord.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51I figured out...
0:28:51 > 0:28:53# Da-da-da, da-da-da-da... #
0:28:53 > 0:28:56You can play it with your thumb.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09And the end of it, you can play with no hands, you know.
0:29:09 > 0:29:10HE LAUGHS
0:29:10 > 0:29:12It just had balls!
0:29:12 > 0:29:14And when people heard it, they were like...
0:29:14 > 0:29:18It was almost like Frankenstein. You could picture Frankenstein
0:29:18 > 0:29:21walking down the street with this great big monstrous riff.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23It was a huge, huge riff!
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Come on!
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Every guitar centre in the world,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47at any time during the day or night,
0:29:47 > 0:29:48somebody's playing Smoke On The Water.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54Inspired by a devastating fire
0:29:54 > 0:29:57during a recording session on Lake Geneva,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00the primal simplicity of Richie Blackmore's riff
0:30:00 > 0:30:02has made Smoke On The Water a rite of passage
0:30:02 > 0:30:05for every aspiring rock guitarist.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08The moment he starts that,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11you can hear, over the racket we're making, the reaction from the audience.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15They're on their feet, the air guitar comes out and people doing this.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19It's crazy how such a simple riff elicits such a response from them.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30It's very primal. It just gets you straightaway.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32I think people will still be playing Smoke On The Water
0:30:32 > 0:30:34when we're in the old people's home.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38# We all came out to Montreux
0:30:38 > 0:30:42# On the Lake Geneva shoreline... #
0:30:42 > 0:30:45You can get too technical and play too fancy stuff.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47I think the idea of a riff
0:30:47 > 0:30:50is not to try and build a song round this...
0:30:50 > 0:30:53all this stuff, because it doesn't mean anything,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55you've got to have something simple
0:30:55 > 0:30:57that sort of drives home and registers into the brain.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00It's very simple and yet it will sound different
0:31:00 > 0:31:03every time somebody different plays it, you know.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05That's one of the nice things, they're kind of transparent riffs,
0:31:05 > 0:31:07they let your personality come through.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11The great...appeal of a lot of great riffs of the '70s
0:31:11 > 0:31:14is that the song that comes afterwards
0:31:14 > 0:31:16is not necessarily that important.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18It's all there in the first few moments.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21It's like starting an engine, it's like pulling a throttle.
0:31:21 > 0:31:22CHEERING
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Smoke On The Water's minimalist genius
0:31:31 > 0:31:33marked the beginning of an era
0:31:33 > 0:31:36when everything seemed to start with a riff.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38MUSIC: "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith
0:31:40 > 0:31:43A golden age of stadium rock was dawning.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53This age of the killer riff, however,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56could have been mistaken for an amped-up stag-do.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59But as the '70s progressed, a generation of women emerged
0:31:59 > 0:32:02that would challenge the riffing patriarchy.
0:32:02 > 0:32:08I think they wanted to see us in sandals and acoustic guitars.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13People's perception of rock as riff rock, as very male
0:32:13 > 0:32:16and very testosterone fuelled,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19but girls have testosterone too.
0:32:21 > 0:32:22# Can't stay at home
0:32:22 > 0:32:24# Can't stay at school... #
0:32:24 > 0:32:28In 1975, a young Joan Jett
0:32:28 > 0:32:30set about forming an all-girl rock band.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35Before long The Runaways were tearing gender stereotypes apart.
0:32:35 > 0:32:36# Hello, Daddy
0:32:36 > 0:32:38# Hello, Mom
0:32:38 > 0:32:42# I'm you're ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb
0:32:42 > 0:32:43# Hello, world
0:32:43 > 0:32:45# I'm your wild girl
0:32:45 > 0:32:49# Like a ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb! #
0:32:49 > 0:32:51I just wanted to form an all-girl band
0:32:51 > 0:32:53because there was nobody out there.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57And I figured if I wanted to play in a band, there had to be
0:32:57 > 0:33:00other girls out there like me who wanted to do the same thing.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05I really didn't look at myself and say, "You're a girl, you shouldn't be doing this."
0:33:05 > 0:33:07It didn't enter my mind.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13The Runaways were rebellious, jailbait, teenage rock.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15We were hell on wheels.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28When you had musicians like Joan Jett come along,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30I think she was quite significant in saying
0:33:30 > 0:33:33that it was perfectly all right for a woman to be standing still
0:33:33 > 0:33:35and doing something with her hands
0:33:35 > 0:33:37instead of cavorting round at the front of the stage.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39I'd put us up against any band.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43And I'd put Lita Ford up against most any, you know, lead guitar player.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46She could really...rip up a riff.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01The Runaways may have riffed with the best of them,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05but they often met with abuse from male rock crowds.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08I figured we wouldn't have a problem,
0:34:08 > 0:34:10because to me I thought rock'n'roll was freedom.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12I was really wrong about that.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16People started calling us names. You know, everything you could call a woman.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19A whore and a dyke, you know.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23I really don't understand where the hatred came from.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26# Wasted lives of wasted drives
0:34:26 > 0:34:29# Wasted days and wasted nights... #
0:34:29 > 0:34:33the runaways took a lot of abuse from a lot of different people
0:34:33 > 0:34:37and they weren't all from the audience, they weren't all fans.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Some of 'em were inside the music industry itself.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Industry sexism would be the catalyst
0:34:51 > 0:34:54for one of the signature American Rock riffs of the '70s,
0:34:54 > 0:34:57when Heart's Wilson sisters wrote a brutal response
0:34:57 > 0:35:00to a rumour implying they were lesbian lovers,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03started by their own record label.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07We were so offended that some record company type guy
0:35:07 > 0:35:10would insinuate anything sexual to us,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14especially with each other at the time.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16We were just scandalised!
0:35:16 > 0:35:20The industry was, like, pretty much packed full of those type of guys
0:35:20 > 0:35:24and people that were just trading on sexuality instead of quality.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38# You lying so low in the weeds
0:35:38 > 0:35:41# I bet you wanna ambush me
0:35:41 > 0:35:47# You'd have me down, down down on my knees
0:35:47 > 0:35:50# Now wouldn't you, Barracuda? #
0:35:50 > 0:35:56A lot of people were like, "Wow! It's just so strange to see women up there doing that."
0:35:56 > 0:35:59We were like, "Why?! Who said we couldn't?"
0:36:03 > 0:36:08Can women be just as oestrogen toxic as men could be testosterone toxic?
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Yes, we can. We can be bitches too.
0:36:12 > 0:36:13SHE LAUGHS
0:36:17 > 0:36:20But not all the game-changing riffs of the '70s
0:36:20 > 0:36:22were borne out of hard rock.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26When a young jazz guitarist from New York City met a funk bassist,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29an entirely new riffing template was born.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33My style developed as a result
0:36:33 > 0:36:36of me meeting this incredible guy named Bernard Edwards.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39To him, all music had to be funky.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44So he taught me a style that was not particularly familiar to me,
0:36:44 > 0:36:46what we call chucking.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54All those in-between notes. I built my whole house on that.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57# Ah, freak out
0:36:57 > 0:36:59# Le freak, c'est chic. #
0:36:59 > 0:37:02What Nile plays is not actually funk.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05I mean, yeah it's funky, but what Nile plays is actually disco.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10One doesn't really think in terms of disco as being a guitar-hero form.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15# All that pressure got you down... #
0:37:15 > 0:37:18When disco exploded in the late '70s,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21it seemed to pose a threat to the health of the guitar riff.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26It was uptown pop built on strings and horns, but Nile Rodgers
0:37:26 > 0:37:30bucked this trend with something truly original, the disco riff,
0:37:30 > 0:37:34a sound most perfectly realised with 1979's Good Times.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39I actually really wrote the foundation of it only a few hours before we recorded it.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42And when Bernard walked in, he heard us playing it,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44he just instinctively went...
0:37:44 > 0:37:46HE HUMS THE TUNE
0:37:54 > 0:37:58The riff was written first and then the bass happened after the riff.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01His bass parts were written to complement my guitar part
0:38:01 > 0:38:04and it just seemed magical right on the spot.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07And I screamed to our engineer, "Make it red!"
0:38:07 > 0:38:11# These are the good times. #
0:38:11 > 0:38:13And we just recorded it right there on the spot.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15It was a one-take recording session.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25# Good times
0:38:25 > 0:38:28# These are the good times... #
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Good Times was the riff that never stopped.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Its influence was vast,
0:38:33 > 0:38:37inspiring not just artists, but entire new musical genres.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41# Good times. #
0:38:41 > 0:38:45When hip-hop came out, a lot of people say that, of course, it evolved from Good Times.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48I mean, the first big hip-hop record was Rappers Delight.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50# Bang bang, the boogie to the boogie
0:38:50 > 0:38:53# Say, up jump the boogie, to the bang bang boogie, let's rock. #
0:38:53 > 0:38:56How many songs sound like Good Times?
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Queen. Another One Bites The Dust.
0:38:58 > 0:38:59# How do you think I'm going to get along
0:38:59 > 0:39:01# Without you when you're gone?
0:39:01 > 0:39:05The Clash. # This Is Radio Clash. #
0:39:08 > 0:39:12# This Is Radio Clash from pirate satellite... #
0:39:12 > 0:39:14INXS. I Need You Tonight.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16HE MIMICS BEAT
0:39:21 > 0:39:24This little...
0:39:24 > 0:39:26has served me very well.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37While Nile Rodgers was riffing outside the rock template,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39another artist with roots in R&B
0:39:39 > 0:39:41was about to harness the power of the rock riff.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45In 1981, one of the most respected session guitarists in the world
0:39:45 > 0:39:48received a fateful call.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Eight o'clock in the morning I get this call,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53"Hello, Steve, this is Michael."
0:39:53 > 0:39:55And I'm like, "Right, who is this?" You know.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00"Which one of my asshole friends is calling me on the phone right now, waking me up at eight o'clock?"
0:40:00 > 0:40:03And I hung up the phone. About 11 o'clock that morning,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05I get a call from Quincy Jones' office.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07And Quincy goes, "Hey, man, that was Michael.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09"You should probably call him back."
0:40:09 > 0:40:12I went, "No! You're kidding me?!"
0:40:12 > 0:40:16So he gives me the number and I call the house and he answers the phone!
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And I go, "Michael this is Steve. Look, I'm really sorry, man."
0:40:19 > 0:40:21He goes, "Oh, it's OK, happens all the time."
0:40:21 > 0:40:22HE LAUGHS
0:40:36 > 0:40:40Hard rock was new territory for both Michael Jackson and producer Quincy Jones.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44And the recording session with Steve Lukather produced a guitar riff
0:40:44 > 0:40:47that would boldly go where no riff had gone before!
0:40:51 > 0:40:52It was kind of a weird riff.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01It was kind of...that was not a guitar player coming up with that riff that was Michael singing it.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05So, you know, I got out the stacks of Marshals and I quadrupled it.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11It was really shouting like this, big, almost metal.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15And I sent it back to Quincy and he goes, "It's great, but it's too much."
0:41:15 > 0:41:20"I've got to be able to have a crossover from rock and pop and R&B."
0:41:25 > 0:41:29In 1981, a new rock music channel, MTV, was launched,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33and Michael Jackson had seen its huge crossover potential.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35Jackson was ready to rumble.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38When MTV started up, they said this is a rock'n'roll channel
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and we don't want R&B artists on it.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Yeah. So he almost didn't get on it.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Never before had there been a soul hit that rocked so hard
0:41:55 > 0:41:57or a rock hit with so much soul.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02Michael Jackson had begun to merge the black and white pop markets.
0:42:02 > 0:42:03# Just beat it
0:42:03 > 0:42:05# Beat it
0:42:05 > 0:42:07# No-one wants to be defeated. #
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Being able to cross over and get the rock people
0:42:10 > 0:42:14interested in somebody that had only been on the R&B charts previously,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18and pop charts, it was a big deal. That's not easy to do.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23You can't just throw a distorted guitar on a tune and expect it to cross over.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26They went from the Jackson 5, all these sweet pop songs, you know, Ben.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29It was a sensation that nobody could have predicted.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33# Beat it
0:42:33 > 0:42:35# Beat it... #
0:42:37 > 0:42:39As if the riff alone wasn't enough,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42in the middle of the song, Jackson deployed his secret weapon,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Eddie Van Halen, with an absolute face-melter of a solo.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48I remember the first day I heard the Beat It solo,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53I was at a band rehearsal and we had the radio on while we were setting up equipment.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56And that came on and everybody just stopped,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59cos it was such a different solo.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01This was just raw.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03He came in from nowhere, just...
0:43:20 > 0:43:24All these squeals and harmonics are just beastly.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30# Beat it
0:43:30 > 0:43:31# Beat it
0:43:31 > 0:43:34# No-one wants to be defeated. #
0:43:34 > 0:43:39The early 1980s was becoming the age of the "look at me" guitar player.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Big hair and spandex were increasingly the order of the day...
0:43:49 > 0:43:52..as the guitar became a symbol of...manhood!
0:43:59 > 0:44:05The riff had taken a wrong turn into a cock rock cul-de-sac.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Guitar culture just took on this very corny,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11you know, sexist sort of posturing.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14There was a lot of stuff that needed throwing out, really.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39In 1983, a 20-year-old Johnny Marr's
0:44:39 > 0:44:43reductive post-punk approach on This Charming Man,
0:44:43 > 0:44:47harked back to a cleaner, more melodic era of guitar riffing.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Johnny Marr placed severe restrictions on himself,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56he wasn't allowed to look at heavy metal for inspiration,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59he wasn't allowed to look at classic rock.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01And it was the conflict, the battle
0:45:01 > 0:45:05between his innate ability and talent, and these restrictions.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08And that's where the sparks come from.
0:45:16 > 0:45:23# Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate... #
0:45:23 > 0:45:26It is a useful device...
0:45:26 > 0:45:32to pare down, get rid of, and then just find out what you're left with.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35And then do something within those sort of narrow...
0:45:35 > 0:45:38sort of constraints.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Long solos were out. Distortion was out, really.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43You know, rockisms.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46You know, that was the real...
0:45:46 > 0:45:48You know, you don't want to do anything rockist.
0:45:48 > 0:45:56# He knows so much about these things. #
0:46:03 > 0:46:05The sound is almost political, really.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08I was trying to write just as melodically as I could,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11but not use kind of big rock chugging chord changes.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17But I wanted to make a big sound.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22It was like this constant kind of arpeggioing to fill out the sound.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28# All men have secrets and here is mine
0:46:28 > 0:46:30# So let it be known... #
0:46:30 > 0:46:33He's like that the master of the clean tone.
0:46:33 > 0:46:34Not many guitar players
0:46:34 > 0:46:37can make a riff sound heavy without distortion.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40He did that really, really well.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43The riffs have so much drama to it and they're quite pregnant riffs,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45you don't really know where they're going,
0:46:45 > 0:46:47but you know they're going somewhere.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Marr's approach formed part of an emerging anti-rockist trend.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04The age of the Indie band was dawning.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10# And when I'm lying in my bed... #
0:47:10 > 0:47:13He had a huge influence on the development of indie music.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15The sort of wash of sound that Marr gets,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18that lovely meshed sound of many notes jangling away together,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20they call it the Rickenbacker jangle,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23sort of weaving around the vocal line,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25I think was hugely influential.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30By the late '80s, a whole generation of underground bands
0:47:30 > 0:47:33were blowing guitar music wide open.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine,
0:47:36 > 0:47:41The Pixies, they were all breaking
0:47:41 > 0:47:44the last of the undiscovered territory for the rock band.
0:47:44 > 0:47:49Sonic Youth were using crazy tunings,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52so, you know, they were using guitars with only three strings on
0:47:52 > 0:47:56that were tuned in a very avant-garde style.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59They sounded like they were really sort of
0:47:59 > 0:48:01almost trying to destroy rock'n'roll.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04What they were doing with guitars was a lot more interesting.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06Just seeing a guitar for what is.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09You know, it's a piece of wood with strings on it,
0:48:09 > 0:48:10there's no rule book attached to it.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13DISTORTION
0:48:16 > 0:48:19This re-appraisal of the guitar's role in rock music
0:48:19 > 0:48:22was giving birth to new guitar methodologies.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24The riff was getting experimental again.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28- How many pedals have you got, do you know?- No, I don't know.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33A good few hundred. It's sort of various types of distortion, really.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35It shouldn't work, but it really works.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49At the vanguard of this fresh wave of sonic experimentation
0:48:49 > 0:48:52was a band from Dublin, My Bloody Valentine.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03You hear My Bloody Valentine for the first time
0:49:03 > 0:49:07and nothing prepares you for it. It's like, "What is this?!"
0:49:07 > 0:49:10It's like a mermaid falling into a black hole or something.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12I think those early My Bloody Valentine records
0:49:12 > 0:49:14are ground-breaking sonically.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19Just with adding these little bends and things with his whangy bar,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23it just causes these beautiful swells.
0:49:23 > 0:49:24Instead of just going...
0:49:24 > 0:49:26You know, I'd go...
0:49:27 > 0:49:31And that really creates all these juxtapositions of tone.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Kevin Shields' guitar riffs were drowned in an ocean of feedback,
0:49:42 > 0:49:45played at a volume designed to shake buildings ...
0:49:45 > 0:49:47and make a few ears bleed.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00I was never interested in particularly standard rock guitar sounds.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03The sound we were going for in our heads was so loud
0:50:03 > 0:50:06and everything squashed together.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10It's a bit like an infinite horizon, it just goes on and on as far...
0:50:10 > 0:50:12And unlike horizons where your eyesight stops,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15with sound you can imagine it infinitely.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25That whole volume extreme thing,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29at a certain point your brainwave changes to around seven hertz
0:50:29 > 0:50:32and that basically creates a trance state.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35The first time we did it, we just did it for an hour
0:50:35 > 0:50:36and at the end of the hour,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39we were just laughing hysterically, we were like little kids.
0:50:39 > 0:50:40We were just high.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43And so we wanted people to experience that.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51But then, of course, one third of the audience has left by that point
0:50:51 > 0:50:54really angrily and they haven't had a meditative experience.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59At the dawn of the '90s, alternative bands like My Bloody Valentine,
0:50:59 > 0:51:00on both sides of the Atlantic,
0:51:00 > 0:51:04continued their exploration of the riff beneath the radar.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07Meanwhile, back on Planet Rock...
0:51:10 > 0:51:14The lead guitar playing in American rock becomes like Grand Prix racing.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18It becomes like all these incredibly focused individuals,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20incredibly highly trained,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23operating these unbelievably precision-crafted instruments.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27And the fact that this is all supposed to be tunes gets completely lost.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33People got so...
0:51:33 > 0:51:37out of control with the recording process in the '80s.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42They were like, "What are we doing?! Are we thinking too hard?"
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Or like, "Have another line. Jeez, dude!" You know.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51But finally, in 1991, a riff exploded from the underground
0:51:51 > 0:51:53whose rawness and simplicity
0:51:53 > 0:51:58reconnected a generation with the primal power of rock'n'roll.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01To a 13-year-old kid it was just everything you'd been waiting for.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04You know, it was absolutely perfect.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24Here are these guys that were rocking far, far, far harder
0:52:24 > 0:52:29on just, you know, cheap pawnshop guitars and three chords.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40Smells Like Teen Spirit really affected...kids.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43I think there were a lot of people like me that was like,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46"God dammit! I want something fucking real and noisy!
0:52:46 > 0:52:49"I want someone to break their shit in front of me."
0:53:00 > 0:53:05At a time when you would have thought all the great guitar riffs have been invented,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09along comes this guy who just puts his passion into it, his physicality.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Kurt's ability to...
0:53:13 > 0:53:17play a riff that was easy to play,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20easy to hum along, but so original,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23he had a really unique...
0:53:23 > 0:53:26sonic palette.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28I was just knocked out.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32First of all, that guitar riff just grabs you right away,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36and then it comes right back with that powerful, powerful chorus.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40# With the lights out it's less dangerous
0:53:40 > 0:53:44# Here we are now, entertain us
0:53:44 > 0:53:49# I feel stupid and contagious... #
0:53:49 > 0:53:52The inspiration for this anti-mainstream anthem
0:53:52 > 0:53:54came from a TV ad.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57The title actually came from a friend of ours.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00We got all fucked up one night and came back to the apartment,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04kind of trashed the place, and she spray-painted on Kurt's bedroom wall,
0:54:04 > 0:54:06"Kurt smells like Teen Spirit."
0:54:06 > 0:54:09- It's a physical sensation - # New Teen Spirit #
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Anti-perspirant made for you and your generation.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14Teen Spirit was like this teen deodorant
0:54:14 > 0:54:18that was...that had just come out and had these ridiculous ads
0:54:18 > 0:54:21of teens like, "Yay," but their armpits smelt or whatever, you know.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25And it just seemed really funny to us.
0:54:25 > 0:54:26Cos we wanted to start a revolution
0:54:26 > 0:54:30but it wasn't going to happen with this deodorant ad, you know.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Nirvana's Teen Spirit had connected with '90s teenagers
0:54:33 > 0:54:37in a way that corporate America could only dream of.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41# With the lights out It's less dangerous
0:54:41 > 0:54:44# Here we are now, entertain us... #
0:54:44 > 0:54:47What alternative bands like The Smiths, Sonic Youth
0:54:47 > 0:54:49and My Bloody Valentine had started,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52the Smells Like Teen Spirit riff finished off.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Hair bands went from being par for the course
0:54:55 > 0:54:59to looking extremely silly in the space of about 48 hours.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02The era just like guillotined off.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14It was really Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit
0:55:14 > 0:55:17that kind of broke that door down
0:55:17 > 0:55:21and all of a sudden made it possible for all these underground bands
0:55:21 > 0:55:22to explode into the mainstream.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33The past 60 years has seen the evolution of the riff
0:55:33 > 0:55:37relentlessly ebb and flow between the elemental...
0:55:41 > 0:55:43..and the experimental.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53And as the 21st century unfolds, the power of the riff
0:55:53 > 0:55:58continues to transcend the sum of its profound but limited parts.
0:55:58 > 0:56:04The idea of the riff that has its own life outside of the song
0:56:04 > 0:56:10is most easily demonstrated by what has happened to Seven Nation Army.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16CROWD CHANTS RIFF
0:56:23 > 0:56:28You've got, like, 40, 50, 60,000 football fans singing that riff when they score a goal.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30That is like a mega riff.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36It just makes people go absolutely ape shit.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41It's a simple riff that feels less like someone wrote it than that it was unearthed.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43You know, it's something that's always been there
0:56:43 > 0:56:47and it's something that really speaks to the reptilian brain of rock listeners.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07We live in an age where advances in music software and technology
0:57:07 > 0:57:09could see the guitar riff under threat,
0:57:09 > 0:57:14but some force repeatedly draws us back to the DNA of rock'n'roll
0:57:14 > 0:57:16and the primordial power of the riff.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27Anybody now can get a laptop and tap in single notes
0:57:27 > 0:57:30or program beats and create music, and that's amazing,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34but there's something about that physical connection
0:57:34 > 0:57:40with strapping on a guitar and trying to play a guitar riff.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43And that's always going to be with us.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46The more everything's virtual,
0:57:46 > 0:57:48people are going to ache for something
0:57:48 > 0:57:51like holding a guitar and playing a riff,
0:57:51 > 0:57:53because that's going to be like an orgasm.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59As long as pop and rock music is going to be around, the riff will be around.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02They'll always be popular, always.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05Any kid can pick up a guitar and get something out of it.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10And the something that he gets out of it will be very related to how he feels unconsciously.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12That's the great thing,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15you can hear the guitar and it will kind of express you in some way.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20You can tell the world who you are, what you care about.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23The great riff is the key to unlocking
0:58:23 > 0:58:25the mysteries of the universe.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28MUSIC: "Johnny B Goode" by Chuck Berry