Eddy Van Halen’s Legacy Has Lasting Impact
Van Halen continues to inspire guitarists across generations with his techniques that changed music forever.
Eddie Van Halen shreds on his guitar at the New Haven Coliseum in 1979 (Wikimedia Commons fair use)
In a one minute and 42-second-long song called “Eruption”, Edward Van Halen achieved something that most people spend their entire lives doing, achieving some measure of immortality.
Eddie Van Halen, guitarist and American original, died Oct. 6, 2020 at the age 65, leaving behind him a legacy that changed rock music forever.
“The list of Van Halen acolytes and influenced players is very long and cuts across genres,” said Noe Gold, editor for the Classic Rocker magazine.
While Van Halen was first inspired by the ringing, melodic syncopation of Jimi Hendrix, his signature sound involves a technique known as tapping. The music community acknowledged how he pioneered this new method and sound.
“By using the technique used by Hendrix of holding the pick between the thumb and middle finger, Edie was able to diddle with the strings with his index finger simultaneously giving a haunting harmonic tone to his songs and his live performances” David Wild, chief editor for Rolling Stone magazine, said.
Van Halen rocked the music industry with his inventive musical approach. It was on Van Halen’s first album during the song “Eruption” when fans first heard the newly created sound.
“This odd little album interstitial, both in its crushing, previously unheard guitar tone and innovative technique, is probably the most significant instrumental in the history of rock, and there’s a strong case to be made it’s the most influential piece of rock music of the last 42 years, but it was “Eruption” that single-handedly invented guitar-shredding,” Mark Hemingway, book editor at The Federalist, said.
This sound that he had created was able to keep a fluid contrast between the use of palm-muted riffing and soloing in higher registers while maintaining a heavy tone. It was his sound that influenced bands like Metallica and Slayer in the 80’s, The Black Keys and The White Stripes in the late 90’s, and Greta Van Fleet in 21stcentury. Van Halen will forever be remembered by everyone as nothing short of a legend who changed the world of rock and roll forever.
“He was the foundational element of the hair metal that dominated the airwaves in the decades to come.” said Hemingway.
