Are Guitar Solos Disappearing for Gen Z? Looking into This Phenomenon for Japanese Hit Songs!

Recently, an article published by The New York Times in early April 2022 has been causing a stir on social media.

“most of the Grammy nominees in the rock song and performance categories* this year did not even include guitar solos.
*Including Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song”
- Quote from The New York Times web article
(BAKU Official Website)

It seems that even Grammy-winning songs these days barely feature guitar solos, but what about Japanese hit songs?
There’s been Japanese news coverage, like reports about how J-pop intros are getting shorter, signaling a shift in how Generation Z listens to music.
Yahoo! News: “The Hidden Intent Behind Short Intros: Masamichi Torii’s In-depth Analysis of Talking Heads Tracks")

So, I decided to investigate the length and usage of guitar solos in popular songs from the past few years.

1. 2021 Kohaku Uta Gassen

If you want to know the hit songs, look no further than Kohaku Uta Gassen. I took a look at the content of the 2021 year-end Kohaku Uta Gassen, including the release dates, intros, guitar solos, and solo-like sections, and timed them. I used a stopwatch to measure everything, so there may be slight discrepancies—please forgive any minor inaccuracies.

*Release dates are referenced from Wikipedia.
*“Excluding interludes” refers to the exclusion of those that cannot be clearly called solos due to ensembles, etc. Even if the performance is like an interlude, it will be counted as long as it can be called a solo instrumental performance.

Nearly 70% of the songs had no guitar solos, and not just guitar solos—almost half of the songs didn’t have any solo parts at all. As for the intros, around 40% were within 10 seconds. I believe this trend is partly because last year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen featured a lot of past songs.
Next, let’s take a look at recent hit bands in a similar way.

2. Focusing on Recent Rock Bands

How about measuring the same for up-and-coming rock bands?
Please don’t point out if I missed your favorite band... I’m not too familiar with recent songs. I measured about two hit songs from each band using the same criteria.

*Release dates are referenced from Wikipedia.
*“Excluding interludes” refers to the exclusion of those that cannot be clearly called solos due to ensembles, etc. Even if the performance is like an interlude, it will be counted as long as it can be called a solo instrumental performance.
*The hit songs were referenced from JOYSOUND’s popular song rankings.

When limited to J-rock, guitar solos seem to still be going strong, surprisingly. This is purely subjective, but I feel that many Japanese people love hard rock, which might be influencing this trend. While it’s harder to see this pattern in the above songs, King Gnu, which is closer to a mixture band by definition, gives the impression of having longer intros and solos compared to other bands.

If I summarize songs released after 2010, including the ones performed at the Kohaku Uta Gassen mentioned above, I could see the following results: only about 20% of the songs have guitar solos that last 20 seconds or more.

As for the length of the intros, it seems fairly evenly distributed. While shorter intros seem to be the mainstream, it might also be that longer songs are getting more attention again.

3. 1990s J-Rock

Finally, let’s explore whether guitar solos have actually gotten shorter. As I did in the second section, I picked a few rock bands and measured the length of the intros and guitar solos in their songs (In some cases, I chose just one song purely based on personal preference, haha.)
Also, I wanted to include X Japan’s “Kurenai”, but given its clear outlier status in this context, I decided to exclude it as a special case—sorry about that.

*Release dates are referenced from Wikipedia.
*“Excluding interludes” refers to the exclusion of those that cannot be clearly called solos due to ensembles, etc. Even if the performance is like an interlude, it will be counted as long as it can be called a solo instrumental performance.
*The hit songs were referenced from JOYSOUND’s popular song rankings and releases from the 2000s onward are excluded.

My honest reaction was, “Wow, these guitar solos are long!” In fact, most of the songs have guitar solos lasting over 20 seconds. Compared to the songs from 2010 to 2020, the difference is striking (though, since the sample sizes are so different, it might not be a definitive conclusion).
When you compare the two graphs side by side, the difference is clear. Songs with 0 seconds of guitar solos increased from 25% to 64.3%, while those with over 20 seconds of solos decreased from 66.7% to 21.4%.

Although guitar solos are still very much alive in Japan, it’s possible they’ve shortened compared to the past. What could be the reason for this? In the 2020s, solos seem to be expanding beyond just guitar, incorporating instruments like brass or synthesizers. Additionally, in genres like idol music, where the focus is on the vocals and visuals, there seems to be a tendency to minimize solo parts, possibly to feature more vocal performance. On a related note, it feels like instrumental music itself is being spotlighted less often. As someone who enjoys listening to film scores, it feels like I’ve been pushed to the sidelines...
That said, there are still bands out there playing solid guitar solos like before. However, the sound seems less sharp than before, with more emphasis on crunch and overdrive rather than heavy distortion.
For people thinking about starting a band, the focus may no longer be on heavy guitar sounds.

By the way, Sound House offers a wide variety of beginner sets. This might be a good opportunity to try out an instrument you haven’t explored before!

⇒ Sound House: List of Beginner Sets

That’s not all! We also have a wealth of content called ‘Toranomaki’ for those just starting out with an instrument, so if you’re getting into music, this is a great resource.
Let’s aim for the best startup experience with Sound House!
And who knows, maybe we can bring back the era of gritty guitar sounds...

⇒ Sound House: Toranomaki