One of the era's most melodically tasteful figures was Mick Ronson (1947-93), guitarist on David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972). Ronson features on "Moonage Daydream" using long, wailing sustain and is remembered for the popular "Ziggy Stardust" with its distorted classical chordal introduction. Other highlights include the discordant acoustic opening, soul-style fills and vocal-style riffs on Bowie's 1972 single "Starman". Phil Manzanera (b. 1951) adds complementary guitar parts to Roxy Music's eccentric pop rock on albums such as For Your Pleasure (1973). Another significant player was Bill Nelson (b. 1948) of Be Bop Deluxe, whose playing displays characterful intensity and is full of variety.

Brian May

Brian May (b. 1947) of Queen stands out in the period for his ideas about the arrangement of guitar parts. The group combines pop and hard rock with classical influences. Their first single "Seven Seas of Rhye" (1974) displays a wide range of sophisticated rock-guitar overdubs and a new approach to recording guitar tones. The sound for "Brighton Rock" (1974) was originally developed by modifying echo units to create timed delays in a live situation. "Killer Queen" (1974) reveals original futuristic muted tones and a liquid suppleness with its inter weiving parts and harmony lines, while "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975) features a well-thought-out compositional solo and sections built up with overdubs to create orchestrated harmony lines. May uses the guitar to build the measured grandeur of the anthemic "We are the champions" (1977), with this delicate touches switching to thick-added textured distortion for the riffs, with added scaring fills.

Gary Moore

The emergent guitar virtuoso in the 1970s is Gary Moore (b. 1952), with the surging creativity and articulation. He join Thin Lizzy in 1974 and work with the group periodically, recording solo such as " Still in love with you" (1974) and "The toughest street in town" (1979), "Black Rose" (1979), with its fast melodic exercises, highlights his sharply defined style of playing. On this solo album back on the street (1979), the title track is memorable for hard rocking riffs and a solo with wah wah. In contras, “Don’t believe a word" is a slow blues, highlighting delicate fills. One of the best Known track was released as a single ─ "Parisienne Walkways". The melody and chord sequence, inspired by Latin-jazz standards, supports lyricism heightened by colorful and rich sustain.

New wave & pop

In the mid-1970s, the antithesis of arranged pop and progressive rock punk started to break through. The move toward raw power and simplicity, and direct, undisciplined expression brought new invigoration to the role and sound of the guitar.

To some extent, the music stems from the combination of influences such as rock 'n' roll with the nihilistic approach of anarchic groups in the US in the 1960s and 1970s. From an instrumental viewpoint, however, punk reasserts the primeval simplicity and raw, unfettered power of basic rock. It has a refreshing energy and an irreverent aggression and is characterized by high-energy, distortion and simple harmonies. Many punk guitarists played with chaotic urgency and little technique. There are few fast solos or delicate touches and dynamics, but they make up for it in commitment and excitement.

The first major band was The Sex Pistols with Steve Jones (b.l955).The album Never Mind The Bollocks, featuring recordings from 1976 to 1977 such as "Pretty Vacant", "Anarchy In The UK" and "God Save The Queen", showcases savagely intense, repetitive, driving riffs and rhythms using fuzz distortion and feedback. Jones' guitar style stems partly from the rock 'n' roll of Chuck Berry mixed with the power chords of heavy rock.

Mick Jones

The Clash were formed in 1976 and started recording in 1977. They had a far more highly developed instrumental side than the Sex Pistols. With Joe Strummer on rhythm guitar, Mick Jones (b. 1956) contributes lead work complementary to the vocal line, using countermelodies and fills. His playing style encompasses rock, with linear and two-note fills, colorful chordal harmonies with effects, and reggae techniques, as on "White Man (In Hammersmith Palais)" (1978). The album London Calling (1979) demonstrates this wide range of influences.

New wave & pop

Members of the Sex Pistols and the Clash teamed up with Keith Levene on guitar in 1977 to form Public Image Ltd. Their album Metal Box (1979) features Levene in an adventurous role, combining the aggression of punk with a left-field approach that uses a more experimental way of contributing to songs. Other guitarists with an individual voice and musical talent include John McGeoch with Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Andy Partridge with XTC, one of the progressive melodic groups from the period. Of the experimentalists, Bernard Sumner stands out for his minimalist work on the Factory label with Joy Division and New Order in which the guitar's identity is defined by nihilism.

Alongside punk emerged a "new wave" of pop groups. One of the most prominent was The Jam, formed in 1976 with Paul Weller (b.l958). His style, based on seminal 1960s groups The Who and The Small Faces, is well represented on one of The Jam's finest albums, All Mod Cons (1978).

In this period, talented and thoughtful players were working in disparate areas, including mainstream pop. James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders plays an exceptional solo on "Kid" (1979), and Elvis Costello and The Stranglers used guitar to enhance and complement their songs.

Andy summers

In 1977, Andy Summers (b. 1942) joined the Police, with Gordon "Sting" Sumner on bass and Stewart Copeland on drums. In this setting, summers moves away from standard rock approaches and tends not to take extended solos. Instead, he constructs arpeggiated sheets of sound with multilayered effects that emphasize chorus and echo. He also uses phasing, reverb, delay, and controlled distortion. A controlled textural player who uses the guitar to add color to songs using harmonics, artificial harmonics, and muted percussive figures to fill space, his vocabulary owes very little to any particular guitar style. Chords are often voiced minimally with upper sections anchored by roots from the bass guitar, and rhythmically he positions them inventively in relation to accents and beats. Minimalist ideas and repetitive motifs with lines and sparse voicings are processed to create interesting backdrops within a subtle rhythmic framework, often using displacement.

The Police recorded their first single, "Roxanne," and album Outlandos d' Amour in 1978.Their early music combines elements of punk with reggae, and highlights summers' individual approach to chords that are picked and voiced without roots, and the use of block power chords for solidity.

On "Message in a bottle" (1979), he creates a dry timbre using unusual voicings combined with his own effects. "Walking on the moon" (1979) has shatteringly bright opening chords and spatial effects with echo. A guitar synthesizer further enlarges the sonic horizons on "Don't Stand So close To Me" (1980).
"Every breath you take" (1983) bears the hallmarks of his groundbreaking innovations, and in the 1980s he developed his ideas further on albums with Robert Fripp, / Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984).

Mark knopfler

When Knopfler (b.1949) started the group Dire Straits in 1977, their relaxed instrumental approach was a complete break from styles prevalent at the time. With a smooth, flowing technique and laid-back rhythms, Knopfler established a synthesis unusual in Britain by reworking traditional material and integrating blues and country techniques. Playing fingerstyle, he gives the impression of restrained finesse with understated fills that are often played with excellent dynamic control. With a light, relaxed feel, he uses bending for solos and intricate chordal elements with hammering and bends to create rhythm fills and solos; for added detail, he combines harmonics and picked notes for chords and arpeggios.

The band's first album, Dire Straits (1978), features his tasteful chordal playing and slide guitar. The rhythm-guitar playing is melodic and percussive, and he creates a clear, ringing sound for solos. There are occasional effects, such as a volume pedal to mimic steel-guitar sounds, and subtle use of delay and echo. The song "Sultans Of Swing" has a fine country-influenced solo with chordal elements, arpeggios and hammer-ons and pull-offs for the single-note passages. "Wild West End" displays a wide range of sounds with rhythm played on a resonator, chords played with harmonics, electric additions with a volume, and single note and chordal fills. On subsequent albums, Knopfler develops his range and depth as a player with skillful work on solos such as "Tunnel of Love" (1980) and long instrumental passages on tracks like "Telegraph Road" (1982). By the time he recorded Brothers In Arms (198S), Knopfler had broadened his range, producing tracks on which the guitar floats across dreamy reflective landscapes. Away from Dire Straits, Knopfler has played in The Notting Hillbillies and worked extensively with other artists.

Rock & heavy metal

The 1970s saw an increasing interest in heavy metal, a style characterized by high volume and fast tempos. Groups record and perform with a dramatic physicality channeled into the music, characterful vocals, and a multitude of riffs, often with unison parts. Guitar solos form a high point in the music as it reaches the peak of its crescendo, and the content is made up of fast, blues-based licks, scales and hypnotic, repeating motifs. One of the finest players in this intense, high-powered genre is the German guitarist.

Michael Schenker (b. 19SS) He played with The Scorpions, recording albums from 1973 onward, and worked with UFO in the 1970s. Schenker formed his own group, producing albums such as One Night In Budokan (1982). His playing has depth and taste and manages to be effective across the board.

During the 1970s, Status Quo, with guitarists Francis Rossi (b. 1949) and Rick Parfitt (b. 1948), played unpretentious music with straightforward rocking rhythms and riffs. Driving boogie rhythms, honest and infectious simplicity, and a pood-time feel made "Rockin' All over the World" (1977) and "Whatever You Want" (1979) enduringly popular.

At the end of the 1970s, the archetypal heavy metal bands, Iron Maiden, were formed, with Dave Murray (b. 195S) as guitarist. Among their most popular work is the melodramatic riff for "The Number of the Beast" (1982). Def Leppard, with Steve Clark (1960-91) and Phil Collen (b.l9S7) on guitars, recorded albums that were painstakingly put together over long periods in the studio, with elements such as power chords being recorded one note at a time.