Game-changers Pt.4: Tom Morello

Parental Advisory: this video contains profanity.

History will show the Pop music of the 90s as being defined by Grunge, BritPop and Rave. By the end of the decade, all of these forms of music would have become somewhat homogenised or just outright dead. This is not a new phenomenon for an art form that demands change or where new artists often get touted as being 'the new **********'. Even if ********** is still alive / recording / performing / relevant!

Kurt Cobain is often credited with single-handedly changing the course of Pop music and, in particular, guitar-based music. Whether one man alone can do this, and whether it was even necessary will long be debated. Certainly, his work struck a chord (sorry!) with young persons and his band made some great music. History will show that his music had a lasting effect on an entire generation - as listeners and as burgeoning musicians. However, he is not the Game-changer I want to talk about.

To my mind, one man was plying his trade in the Grunge / Alt. Rock arena with all the rebellion and aggression associated with the times but also breaking new ground technically. Tom Morello played a beat-up guitar through a modestly priced amp and demonstrated a very DIY approach to generating the sounds he wanted to achieve with a guitar. And, boy did he make sounds with a guitar! His non-conservative approach would not appeal to everyone: was he a guitar player's player?

The first time I heard his playing (and the band, Rage Against The Machine) was while watching this very clip. It's definitely grungy, it definitely has a superb and solid groove that invites sonic experimentation, it definitely has a belter of a riff in the classic rock style...but is it guitar playing? The album from which it comes is a masterclass in Alternative Rock guitar playing - raw honest guitar tone, bruising riffs, shredding solos, anti-solos, effect-laden soundscapes and even silence.

The effect can still be heard in modern music 2 decades later.

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