Top 10 Genres that Usually Have Shredding

Guitar shredding could be seen in any music genre. But these genres usually have most shredding comparing to other music genres.
The Top Ten
1 Neoclassical Metal

Yes, and love these guys. Playing neoclassical metal takes the most talent and practicing.

Almost every neoclassical metal guitarist is a shredder. In fact shredding was developed most by neoclassical metal guitarists.

Examples - Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Michael Angelo Batio etc.

2 Progressive Metal

After neoclassical metal, prog metal has most shredders. John Petrucci, Michael Romeo, Fredrik Thordendal, Jeff Loomis, Tosin Abasi etc.

3 Flamenco Instrumental

I don't know exactly name of this genre. But a lot of Spanish classical guitarists shred while playing guitar. Fingerstyle shredding. Paco de Lucia was one of the best of them.

There's a reason instrumental flamenco goes very well with instrumental metal, like the metal band Flametal does it (check out the list Top 10 Flametal Songs)

4 Technical Death Metal

Because its mixed with death and neoclassical metal. Muhammed SuiƧmez, Ron Jarzombek, Christian Muenzner etc.

5 Power Metal

So true what zxm said about power metal: "If you add vocals to neoclassical metal, a lot of people will think its power metal."
Yngwie Malmsteen songs that aren't instrumental prove it (they are power metal): Rising Force; As Above, So Below; Liar; Anguish and Fear

Alexi Laiho, Herman Li, Luca Turilli etc. If you add vocals to neoclassical metal, a lot of people will think its power metal.

6 Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is seen by many as "America's classical music".

I wanna add that shredding is found only in more technical forms of jazz (usually instrumental jazz). Popular forms of jazz have no shredding - for example Ella Fitzgerald songs have no shredding. In terms of quantity most of the jazz songs have no shredding and we can't say that almost every jazz song has shredding.
I mean shredding isn't very typical for jazz and I would put it lower than #3.

Jazz was one of the first popular music genre that helped to develop shredding. John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Frank Gambale, Shawn Lane etc.

7 Thrash Metal Thrash Metal is a Heavy Metal subgenre developed during the early 1980s and an early precursor of Extreme Metal. Thrash Metal features a faster and more aggressive guitar work than Traditional Metal with shredding and double-bass drums and can range from melodic singing to loud shouts.

The English band, Venom is credited for laying the groundwork for Thrash Metal with their debut album "Welcome... read more

Most of the thrash metal solos are from genres like speed metal, heavy metal, neoclassical metal. So, sometimes they shred. Alex Skolnick, Marty Friedman, Eric Peterson, Kirk Hammett etc.

Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet, Herman Li, Sam Totman, all thrash metal shredders. But that's not all. There are of course a bunch more I don't know.

8 Experimental Rock/Metal

Experimental metal/rock is experimental. So it depends on the guitarist. If he is a guitarist like Buckethead.

9 Technical Thrash Metal

More frequent shredding is one of the things that makes Technical Thrash Metal different than ordinary Thrash Metal - Tommy Vetterli (aka Tommy T. Baron of Coroner), Jeff Waters (Annihilator). Tommy Vetterli plays like a neoclassical metal guitarist most of the time.

10 Hard Rock Hard Rock is a subgenre of rock music known for having heavier guitar riffs/solos. It originated around 1964-1965 with various Garage Rock bands.

Guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen etc.

The Contenders
11 Jazz Fusion

Its basically jazz. Mixed with other genres.

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