= shred	= rock	= pop
xˆ .xˆ..xˆ2006-11xˆ2006-12xˆ2007-01xˆ2007-02xˆ2007-03yˆ2007-04yˆ2007-05#yˆx 2007-06		0

In the pantheon of classic debates, sandwiched somewhere between Atari vs. Intellivision, Dick York vs. Dick Sargent, and Chocolate in My Peanut Butter vs. Peanut Butter in My Chocolate, sits a laser-guarded display case containing a vintage white Stratocaster covered in the fingerprints of anyone who's ever pretended to the title of The Greatest. While this is not a debate anyone actually enjoys, ending it is about as likely as curbing the desire to pop every last blister on a sheet of bubble wrap. Whether it's Guitar One magazine's oft-quoted Top-Ten Fastest Shredders of All-Time list, or Rolling Stone's ham-handed attempt at the 100 greatest guitarists, we can't seem to keep our grubby little mitts off it.

Even if a qualitative ranking of guitar stardom can thankfully never be compiled, I have long been fascinated by the ability of Yahoo / Overture's keyword inventory tool to quantitatively mirror the guitaristic zeitgeist. Type in a player's name, get back the number of searches conducted for that player last month. With relatively few exceptions, the numbers it produces fairly accurately reflect my own impression of the hierarchy of guitar popularity. An addictive internet time-waster if there ever was one.

And so the Shred, Rock, 'n' Pop List was born. The SRP reflects the number of monthly searches received by a selection of key names from the world of guitar. As benchmarks, I've thrown in some pop culture icons to give you an idea just how much easier it'll be to mortgage the yacht if you choose something with lyrics, dialogue, or preservatives for your next creative project.

Shred:  Loosely defined herein as guitarists with hot technique from any genre -- many notes per second, fanbase composed mostly of dudes, your girlfriend never heard of them, etc.

Rock:  Have guitar, will fill arena.

Pop:  Equally at home in your iPod or your refrigerator.

The SRP is automatically updated every month, and you can pull up previous months to track the progress of your musical and consumer product heroes. Rock on.

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Category:	shred rock pop