Rick Beato says this Chappell Roan song heralds the “return of the guitar solo” in 2025
Many prominent voices in the industry have been debating the guitar solo’s place in modern music for years. Thankfully, one of the world’s biggest pop stars is embracing solos.
Last year, Chappell Roan topped the UK charts with her 2023 debut, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, with the record also becoming the 5th most streamed album on Spotify in the US. And, as YouTuber Rick Beato points out, Roan’s track Pink Pony Club boasts pair of solos.
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“Is this the return of the guitar solo in pop songs?” Beato ponders, as he listens to one of the track’s climactic solos.
Beato breaks the guitar work down, noting that the first example throughout the verses in the G major pentatonic scale. “It’s on G, Am, Em, C,” he explains. “So it’s I, ii, vi, IV.”
When we get to the full-blown solo, the guitar sits in the E minor pentatonic scale tuned down a half step. Beato also explains how it uses four of the five pentatonic positions, spanning the A, G, E and D caged shapes.
By the time the second extended solo hits, it uses the E minor pentatonic and G major scale. The guitar also closes the track out on a fade, the ethereal sound perfect for the disco-ready track. “No songs go out on fades!” Beato notes. “This is actually kind of a rarity.”
Roan isn’t the only pop star who is embracing the storytelling power of a good solo. In one poll, Taylor Swift was even voted as the 8th best guitarist of the last two decades.
To date, Pink Pony Club has been streamed over 460 million times on Spotify. She also performed it at the Grammy Awards this year. So, if anyone ever doubts the sanctity of the guitar solo, at least Chappell Roan has given the mainstream world a reminder of its importance.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
