The guitar. What’s in a guitar? It’s an instrument. It’s a symbol. The guitar is the symbol of rock, to be sure, but beyond that it’s essentially emblematic of popular music in general (at least in the past century). It means youth and sound and excitement and rebellion. It symbolizes sonic possibilities and is a shorthand for “cool.” Weilding a six-string transcends music and becomes emblematic of an entire worldview.

That’s the reason why rock fans love to talk about guitarists. Besides being the primary musical driver in most bands, a guitarist’s style and sound also helps define the musical and aesthetic values of the listener. Whom do you like, and why do you like it?

Last month we lost one of the true titans of rock n’ roll, Eddie Van Halen. He was the embodiment of the guitar shredder archetype, who’s flash, technique, and energetic performance fundamentally reshaped how people conceived of the guitar as an instrument and as an icon. Along with the rest of his namesake band, Van Halen almost single-handedly defined the sound of hard rock for the entirety of the 1980s, and in doing so altered the path of popular music. Not bad for a career retrospective, right?