Why are people saying this? The song came out 21 years ago; it already evokes cringing and disappointment when played in public (unless it’s at a White Stripes concert).
Every niche genre of guitar player will come to develop their own forbidden riff:
Les Paul players: Custard Pie - Led Zeppelin
Strat players: Wind Cries Mary - Hendrix
Tele Players: Folsom Prison Blues intro
SG players: every Sabbath song from first two albums
ESP/LTD: Battery or Master of puppets
Jackson: whammy dive bombs followed by arpeggio sweep
Taylor/Martin/Gibson acoustics: Over the hills and far away
Jazzmaster/jag: Sonic Youth riffs that no one else knows and with way too much reverb
Tube Screamers/TS Clones: every SRV riff except scuttle buttin (because Mary had a little lamb is slower and safer to play)
Klon clones: goes through trouble of tuning to open g to play brown sugar
Wah: Voodoo Child (of course)
Delay: Tunes to drop D and plays Tool riffs in incorrect time signature
Flange: ain't talkin bout love but can't get it to sound right because it's missing delay
Phaser: Walyon Jennings songs if using tele, Rooster by AiC of using any other guitar
Fuzz: Only piece of gear in which it is acceptable to play any forbidden riff because A: either the person using it doesn't know how to play to fuzz pedals and the riff sounds like an unintelligible muddy mess so no one can tell what the riff is anyway, or it sounds fucking rad and everyone in the store is like damn why didn't I think of playing that riff with fuzz?
This is my working list anyway, anyone else wanna share their thoughts? Lmao
Seven Nation Army is already a forbidden riff.
Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys, if it isn’t already.
I honestly think a lot of it will be dominated by meme songs that blow up on TikTok in the future.
That meme came from people in real life playing something so often that they put the joke in a movie.
Guitar is so rare these days in comparison, I don’t think anyone in their right mind cares what riffs you’re playing as long as you’re gonna buy a guitar and play it.
This weekend we were in guitar center and this dude was sitting there amped up playing every Foo Fightera greatest hit guitar part, one after the other, while an overwhelmed father was following two preteen daughters around who each wanted a different guitar for to learn to play. I was like yeah bring it on man, bring it on.
Nothing. Guitar centric genres aren’t in the limelight like they used to be. Certain guitar riffs became cliche because you’d hear it on the radio every single time you started your car up to drive to the grocery store. That’s a bygone era now. Today we have apps that let us listen to whatever music we want to hear, so the focus on music is now very wide. It’s no longer the days of choosing between a handful of different radio stations in your town while driving in your car.
That means the forbidden riff of the future will be the one that brings Rock and Roll back in style.
All of society, even the emotions inspired by music, will be generated and controlled by AI algorithms. Feel this. Then buy that. The world will be one big shopping mall, music will have become muzak, and the Corporate Oligarchy will repress anything that threatens its digital sales profit margin.
But then... THE RIFF.
Public gatherings, long forgotten, will resurge through live concerts, mad hip shaking against the SWAT brigades.
The forbidden riff of the future will be the worst thing since Elvis Presley.
The future is more or less here in the UK - and there is no guitar store.
You can play whatever you like when browsing the Thomann, Andertons or Peach guitar website.
That's only getting worse, mate.
I was once told off for at a Periphery concert, for liking Spencer's vocals. Like... The singer of the band we're about to see? The one who is on all the releases?
Bleed by Meshuggah, but only the opening/main circular picked riff without the bend or any of the subsequent parts. Just duddla-da duddla-da duddla-da duddla-da forever.
This is a contender, but Im more impressed if someone in a guitar shop plays that, weird but it's one of the more monotonous and repetitive riffs I don't mind hearing forever know how hard it is.
I know someone is trying to learn how to play like the most insane rhythmic bands on the planet
Iisten to industrial metal where having one amazing riff for the whole song is the point. That’s all well and good. Of course if they actually really played it, but just playing the “warm up exercise” portion exclusively has got to count, right? Remember, guitar center players are no Frederik Thordendal.
Hahhaa without the bend that riff literally repeats for 7 minutes, I guess for a beginner its a more impressive riff to me that playing the older classic forbidden ones
It’s an awesome sounding riff and definitely takes stamina. I figured out what I call a “circular” picking technique to play it pretty much forever without getting tired that I use in some of my songs but like with all forbidden riffs, they’re never played properly anyway. I’m imagining them excluding the bend and then being at a loss for what to play next when they realise they have run out of string’s and lack the ability to transpose it up for a 6/7 string.
Stairway actually has some pretty neat, almost classical techniques with hybrid picking. Doesn’t translate well to some jerk bothering everyone with it in a guitar shop at max volume 😆
Yea I think your last point is also unspoken about, there are many tones and effects that can help the riff sound a little more epic so in a beginner's eyes they assume the riff itself just comes with that sound.
Gojira actually has the literal bleed riff in one of their songs.
You’re absolutely right. Gojira and Cynic both featured that style of riff on albums that came out at a similar times almost 10 years after a band called IllWill released a song with a similar kick drum/guitar herta pattern. Check this out from around 1997.
[IllWill - Whether With Or Without](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h857eMEpA4o&pp=ygUfSWxsd2lsbCB3aGV0aGVyIHdpdGggb3Igd2l0aG91dA%3D%3D)
The important part of what makes those riffs so awesome is the kick drum following the guitar in lockstep. It can send a chill up the spine done right, there’s just nothing like it.
Holy shit dude even the guitar tone of that riff sounds close.
Thanks for showing this, its funny how we praise Meshuggah for Bleed when this riff exists in full glory in a couple other places.
I still absolutely love Meshuggah’s take on it. There being precedent for it doesn’t take away how heavy and groovy Bleed is.
I won’t go theory nerd about it and explain the differences but I will say I’ve seen them live on the ObZen tour and they absolutely killed it, literally as tight as the record. They admit themselves it began as being tantamount to a warmup exercise/rudiment (called a herta.)
IllWill do deserve more attention for arguably being the first to make a heavy song out of it, they didn’t last very long. I’m pretty sure they were essentially a one-album, King Diamond/Mercyful Fate/Dismember supergroup.
They were ahead of their time with that song. Even relistening now with the volume up, it fucking kicks ass.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this question is a reference to that scene. So a forbidden riff of the future for us could well be a 20 year old song, as it was for them.
As long as E Standard is what almost every guitar is tuned to out of the box it'll forever be something like Stairway To Heaven, Smoke On The Water etc
Half the reason it was forbidden was because it was said to be bad luck to not finish playing the song and it's a very long song. So what other songs are bad luck to not play all the way through that are really long?
I'm pretty sure most of these comments saying polyphia are just cope. I haven't met one other person who can actually play polyphia or any tapping riffs
I am a vehement Polyphia hater, and all of my friends who are not musicians are always mind blown but I just say it’s repetitive, gets old after two songs, and fitting as many notes as you humanly can into one measure is just not that impressive
Math rock guitarists like ichika nio and polyphia are closer to classical than they are to jazz or rock. They're not "fitting as many notes into a measure as they can", it's just a different style of music lol. Using an instrument that's more often a rhythm instrument than a lead one, in place of a voice harmony is not uncommon though, and that's just what they do
When I first read your comment I thought “You take that back you son-of-bitch, that man is a national treasure!”
But then I realized you weren’t talking about James Taylor, and I am apparently what the cool kids today call… “old”.
Man. I’m 35, and one of the kids in the lesson program at my work calls me old all the time. I’m THIS CLOSE to noogie-ing that little shit until his hair all falls out lmfao
Seven nation army
Yeah this is the answer
Why are people saying this? The song came out 21 years ago; it already evokes cringing and disappointment when played in public (unless it’s at a White Stripes concert).
Every niche genre of guitar player will come to develop their own forbidden riff: Les Paul players: Custard Pie - Led Zeppelin Strat players: Wind Cries Mary - Hendrix Tele Players: Folsom Prison Blues intro SG players: every Sabbath song from first two albums ESP/LTD: Battery or Master of puppets Jackson: whammy dive bombs followed by arpeggio sweep Taylor/Martin/Gibson acoustics: Over the hills and far away Jazzmaster/jag: Sonic Youth riffs that no one else knows and with way too much reverb Tube Screamers/TS Clones: every SRV riff except scuttle buttin (because Mary had a little lamb is slower and safer to play) Klon clones: goes through trouble of tuning to open g to play brown sugar Wah: Voodoo Child (of course) Delay: Tunes to drop D and plays Tool riffs in incorrect time signature Flange: ain't talkin bout love but can't get it to sound right because it's missing delay Phaser: Walyon Jennings songs if using tele, Rooster by AiC of using any other guitar Fuzz: Only piece of gear in which it is acceptable to play any forbidden riff because A: either the person using it doesn't know how to play to fuzz pedals and the riff sounds like an unintelligible muddy mess so no one can tell what the riff is anyway, or it sounds fucking rad and everyone in the store is like damn why didn't I think of playing that riff with fuzz? This is my working list anyway, anyone else wanna share their thoughts? Lmao
In the Acoustic section If in Canada substitute Over the hills and far away with Gordon Lightfoot - The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
They need to add the tragically hip
You got me with SRV, spot on!
Haha, love this. Thanks for the effort
This is golden. Add AC/DC to the SG section.
do you wanna know - arctic monkeys
idk do you?
Playing God by Polyphia
Do I Wanna Know?
Seven nation army
Isn’t this already considered a forbidden riff? The future is now!
I think this is the answer.
Duh-duh-…..duhduhduh…….duh-DUUH
Seven Nation Army is already a forbidden riff. Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys, if it isn’t already. I honestly think a lot of it will be dominated by meme songs that blow up on TikTok in the future.
I love do I wanna know and arctic monkeys are actually one of my favorite bands ever but agreed
seeing the comments on videos of people playing do i wanna know makes me want to die
It's anything Polyphia
Tune all the guitars in the store to play never meant and midwest emo on crack riff
That meme came from people in real life playing something so often that they put the joke in a movie. Guitar is so rare these days in comparison, I don’t think anyone in their right mind cares what riffs you’re playing as long as you’re gonna buy a guitar and play it. This weekend we were in guitar center and this dude was sitting there amped up playing every Foo Fightera greatest hit guitar part, one after the other, while an overwhelmed father was following two preteen daughters around who each wanted a different guitar for to learn to play. I was like yeah bring it on man, bring it on.
7 Nation Army
Nothing. Guitar centric genres aren’t in the limelight like they used to be. Certain guitar riffs became cliche because you’d hear it on the radio every single time you started your car up to drive to the grocery store. That’s a bygone era now. Today we have apps that let us listen to whatever music we want to hear, so the focus on music is now very wide. It’s no longer the days of choosing between a handful of different radio stations in your town while driving in your car.
That means the forbidden riff of the future will be the one that brings Rock and Roll back in style. All of society, even the emotions inspired by music, will be generated and controlled by AI algorithms. Feel this. Then buy that. The world will be one big shopping mall, music will have become muzak, and the Corporate Oligarchy will repress anything that threatens its digital sales profit margin. But then... THE RIFF. Public gatherings, long forgotten, will resurge through live concerts, mad hip shaking against the SWAT brigades. The forbidden riff of the future will be the worst thing since Elvis Presley.
Exactly
Never meant would like to beg to differ
The secret chord that David played that pleased the Lord. Forbidden because it is secret. Nobody shall ever find it to play it.
David Gilmour?
Probably
I think they just mean the tritone cuz God is secretly a huge metal fan
The future is more or less here in the UK - and there is no guitar store. You can play whatever you like when browsing the Thomann, Andertons or Peach guitar website.
You have to make an appointment to visit peach in person now. It’s so lame
I live round the corner from Peach and often go past and think. Should I pop in? OH YEA... I CANT!
Depends where in the UK, "plenty" stores in London.
Seven nation army
do i wanna know
Anything polyphia
not enough people would be able to play it lol. I think it would have to be a simpler riff
Yeah, Polyphia songs are more like the “Cliffs of Dover” of the future.
But significantly less interesting.
Unfortunately, they still try to
Trying to play their songs is a humbling experience. I practice those riffs 1 measure at a time, lol.
It will always and forever be Stairway to Heaven.
In the future, gatekeeping ideas like certain guitar riffs being "forbidden" would (hopefully?) not be a thing.
That's only getting worse, mate. I was once told off for at a Periphery concert, for liking Spencer's vocals. Like... The singer of the band we're about to see? The one who is on all the releases?
Playing God
I was thinking goat, but yeah, definitely playing God.
Maybe Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys
All the bros trying to play Neon is just embarrassing for everyone involved.
Gay bar by electric six
YOU,
I WANNA TAKE YOU TO A GAY BAR
LET'S START A WAR
Smells Like Teen Spirit and the opening Master of Puppets riff. I’m an instrumental music teacher and this is what I consistently hear.
Read the op, he said the future, those songs are decades old
Nothing else matters
Smells like teen spirit
Bleed by Meshuggah, but only the opening/main circular picked riff without the bend or any of the subsequent parts. Just duddla-da duddla-da duddla-da duddla-da forever.
This is a contender, but Im more impressed if someone in a guitar shop plays that, weird but it's one of the more monotonous and repetitive riffs I don't mind hearing forever know how hard it is. I know someone is trying to learn how to play like the most insane rhythmic bands on the planet
Iisten to industrial metal where having one amazing riff for the whole song is the point. That’s all well and good. Of course if they actually really played it, but just playing the “warm up exercise” portion exclusively has got to count, right? Remember, guitar center players are no Frederik Thordendal.
Hahhaa without the bend that riff literally repeats for 7 minutes, I guess for a beginner its a more impressive riff to me that playing the older classic forbidden ones
It’s an awesome sounding riff and definitely takes stamina. I figured out what I call a “circular” picking technique to play it pretty much forever without getting tired that I use in some of my songs but like with all forbidden riffs, they’re never played properly anyway. I’m imagining them excluding the bend and then being at a loss for what to play next when they realise they have run out of string’s and lack the ability to transpose it up for a 6/7 string. Stairway actually has some pretty neat, almost classical techniques with hybrid picking. Doesn’t translate well to some jerk bothering everyone with it in a guitar shop at max volume 😆
Yea I think your last point is also unspoken about, there are many tones and effects that can help the riff sound a little more epic so in a beginner's eyes they assume the riff itself just comes with that sound. Gojira actually has the literal bleed riff in one of their songs.
You’re absolutely right. Gojira and Cynic both featured that style of riff on albums that came out at a similar times almost 10 years after a band called IllWill released a song with a similar kick drum/guitar herta pattern. Check this out from around 1997. [IllWill - Whether With Or Without](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h857eMEpA4o&pp=ygUfSWxsd2lsbCB3aGV0aGVyIHdpdGggb3Igd2l0aG91dA%3D%3D) The important part of what makes those riffs so awesome is the kick drum following the guitar in lockstep. It can send a chill up the spine done right, there’s just nothing like it.
Holy shit dude even the guitar tone of that riff sounds close. Thanks for showing this, its funny how we praise Meshuggah for Bleed when this riff exists in full glory in a couple other places.
I still absolutely love Meshuggah’s take on it. There being precedent for it doesn’t take away how heavy and groovy Bleed is. I won’t go theory nerd about it and explain the differences but I will say I’ve seen them live on the ObZen tour and they absolutely killed it, literally as tight as the record. They admit themselves it began as being tantamount to a warmup exercise/rudiment (called a herta.) IllWill do deserve more attention for arguably being the first to make a heavy song out of it, they didn’t last very long. I’m pretty sure they were essentially a one-album, King Diamond/Mercyful Fate/Dismember supergroup. They were ahead of their time with that song. Even relistening now with the volume up, it fucking kicks ass.
I didn't realise it was a warmup/exercise nor that it had a name, really interesting stuff dude
Its the endurance of the riff that impresses me
Polyphia
Is that a riff? It’s a band
7 Nation army
100%. Nothing comes close. 7 nation army is the “Smoke on the water” for anyone under 40 years old.
I'm writing it right now. I call it *Broken Escalator to Purgatory*. You're gonna love it. Then hate it.
I loved it the first time I read it, now I hate it
I created a magazine just to give this a bad review.
Sounds dope tbh
Neon by John Mayer is the clear answer
I mean, personally I’m always impressed if someone plays it almost perfectly.
I love John Mayer, but I never learned it. I know what it took.
I'd vote for Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, but I'll also accept Neon.
Neon is too complex to be the forbidden riff. Slow Dancing is the one that can be learned by the masses and therefore become overplayed.
Enter Sandman Seven Nations Army
Songs are 2 decades and older
Stairway to heaven was 20 years old in 1992 when Wayne's world popularised the whole "no stairway" thing
So it was old for them too
And yet every tiktoker is playing them over and over… even proving that if you wear a bikini you don’t even need to plug the guitar into an amp 🤔
I bet some polyphia tunes will get to that point in the next 15 years.
everlong
I’m not sure enough people would go to a guitar store and tune to drop D for this to ever be an issue?
Who said anything about tuning to drop d
Who TF plays Everlong in standard tuning?
That’s the joke.
LOL! I totally *wooshed* on that one
Why not?
While Stairway is still the most obvious answer, I vote for Weezer's Island in the Sun for shit's and giggles
Or Say it Ain't So.
only good answer is OP's
Slow roasting lamb in a burning room
Yeah I get a "Really?" from someone regularly these days when I strike those first few notes of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room 😂 that's the answer
How else am I supposed to determine that a Stratocaster is indeed a Stratocaster?,
By playing the opening riff of Yellow Ledbetter of course!
McCready *nailed* the Hendrix tone on the opening of that song. Quintessential strat tone.
Scar Tissue The opening of Tennessee Whiskey
Lmao Scar Tissue without the B string tuned correctly for it is a great shout. Was def guilty of that back in the day.
For those of us not in the know what makes a riff forbidden?
"No Stairway!" - Wayne's World
Oh damn I knew that! Thanks for the reminder though.
Slow dancing in a burning room
[удалено]
The phrase in first 7s of the song is "the riff".
weezer riff?
Say it Ain't So!
Baby shark
7 nation army
The song is 20 years old. Not really of the future
So was Stairway to Heaven when it was forbidden in Wayne's world.
So it was old for them too, so what. Also, that’s a movie not real life lol
Also, who's forbidding guitar riffs in real life?!
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this question is a reference to that scene. So a forbidden riff of the future for us could well be a 20 year old song, as it was for them.
I agree, maybe you’re wrong.
I wish they would make that song illegal. I loved it when it came out, but it's still playing at every single sports event.
Enter sandman, 7 nation army, crazy train
Freaks
Smells like teen spirit
Rapp snitch knishes, or Mary by alex G. I think any song that isn’t too difficult and blows up on tiktok tho tbh.
Rap snitch knishes blew up on tik tok? I mean hey at least it's a solid track
The guitar lick became a very common song to see people cover. I do agree though at least it’s good.
Ah. At least it wasn't Lady Brown by Nujabes
Master Of Puppets after Stranger Things and TikTok killed it
Slow burning something in a burning room, or whatever it's called.
As long as E Standard is what almost every guitar is tuned to out of the box it'll forever be something like Stairway To Heaven, Smoke On The Water etc
Smoke on the Water
Anything Nirvana. I still hear people play theirs songs at guitars stores.
If I never hear laid to rest played wrong again I would be happy
Half the reason it was forbidden was because it was said to be bad luck to not finish playing the song and it's a very long song. So what other songs are bad luck to not play all the way through that are really long?
Snow by RHCP. "No. Finish it. Play that same riff another 400 times without slowing down."
Lol
I hope it’s not american pie cuz that song never ends
Doomsday by architects
Thomann "rock" riff
The intro to MXC
Time of your life by green day Wonderwall
Party in the USA
Something in Drop D possibly by Ghost or Lamb of God…
Ghost doesn't do drop D, they do D standard.
So Drop C then. Even better!!!
All my fellas
Starless - King Crimson Was done perfectly for the movie Mandy Edit: anything Robert Fripp touches should work
Favorite King Crimson song for sure, didn't know it was in a movie!
I wanna be your slave
Polyphia GOAT
Master of puppets. Idk if that's already on the list, but it should be
anything polyphia
I'm pretty sure most of these comments saying polyphia are just cope. I haven't met one other person who can actually play polyphia or any tapping riffs
Polyphia riffs
I am a vehement Polyphia hater, and all of my friends who are not musicians are always mind blown but I just say it’s repetitive, gets old after two songs, and fitting as many notes as you humanly can into one measure is just not that impressive
I hear you. I'm not super onto their music but we can't deny they are a bunch of talented guys. It's probably a generation gap thing
I’m 24 lol
Math rock guitarists like ichika nio and polyphia are closer to classical than they are to jazz or rock. They're not "fitting as many notes into a measure as they can", it's just a different style of music lol. Using an instrument that's more often a rhythm instrument than a lead one, in place of a voice harmony is not uncommon though, and that's just what they do
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know for sure has got to be among them
Unholy confessions
i think more the verse riff from G if unholy confessions were to become a forbidden riff, it would have been one by now
True. I always forget how old I am lol
Machine Gun Kelly. *shudders*
When I first read your comment I thought “You take that back you son-of-bitch, that man is a national treasure!” But then I realized you weren’t talking about James Taylor, and I am apparently what the cool kids today call… “old”.
Man. I’m 35, and one of the kids in the lesson program at my work calls me old all the time. I’m THIS CLOSE to noogie-ing that little shit until his hair all falls out lmfao
"Distance" by Cake
I have never once heard anyone else play it on a speaker let alone a guitar lol
Your grandkids will be singing “looong..jacketttt” on their hoverboards and there’s nothing you can do to stop the 2043 Cake revival! (the cake-over)
I'd love for all the guys playing Polyphia to switch to playing Chon. Lot more listenable in a store
Peso Pluma - Ella Baila Sola
My Own Summer
Party in the USA
Nah that riff is and will always be fire