![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/QKxVkYr6aZtx4j3oaJ9z8C.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n(Image credit: Leon Neal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly a decade ago, YouTube commentators were furiously debating whether Taylor Swift was \u201cthe new Eddie Van Halen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t because their guitar styles are remotely similar. The comparison was simply due to their ability to inspire. Here was a hugely visible musician, motivating a new generation of players \u2013 especially young girls \u2013 to pick up the guitar, in the same way that Eddie Van Halen did in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could make the case that every subsequent generation has had its own EVH figure. Kurt Cobain was the catalyst for \u201990s guitarists. Tom DeLonge for Noughties players. And if Tay-Tay was the 2010s\u2019 guitar hero, Olivia Rodrigo is the Eddie Van Halen for the 2020s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was made abundantly clear during her headline spot at Glastonbury 2025 last night (June 29). Closing out one of the biggest music festivals in the world, Rodrigo stormed through an hour-and-a-half set that showcased her songwriting range \u2013 from Warped Tour-channeling anthems to TikTok-era ballads \u2013 but also her profound love for guitars and the music it inspires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10 songs in, she brought out bona fide goth legend Robert Smith for a pair of spellbinding Cure covers. Indeed, Rodrigo has immense respect for all the artists who came before her: she joined No Doubt on stage for their Coachella reunion, collaborated with St. Vincent, and has previously cited Rage Against the Machine as her favorite band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For her GUTS<\/em> world tour, she insisted on bringing \u201990s stalwarts the Breeders in as a support act, introducing them to a far younger demographic than their typical audience. \u201cShe likes loud guitars \u2013 in this day and age!\u201d band leader Kim Deal later said. \u201cShe finds loud guitars exciting and wants to be around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Swift, Rodrigo is a world-class songwriter, but she\u2019s no technical virtuoso. She leaves that to her stellar band. Daisy Spencer handles the biting riffs of bad idea right?<\/em> and provides the chonk behind the savage live renditions of brutal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her guitar foil is LA session vet Arianna Powell, whose dextrous and melodic leads hark back to EVH more than you might expect from a pop-punk show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cycling through a collection of Jackson and Charvel Superstrats, dropping two-hand tapping, legato and some cheeky diminished arpeggio panache into her extended solos, she\u2019s the Jennifer Batten to Rodrigo\u2019s Michael Jackson. The Nita Strauss to her Alice Cooper. A guitar hero for people who didn\u2019t realize they needed a guitar hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is where Rodrigo deserves serious praise from the guitar community: not only does she herself play guitar for half the set \u2013 picking up a Fender Mustang and Jazzmaster, plus Gretsch and Martin acoustics \u2013 but she makes sure to spotlight the musicians surrounding her. It feels more like a band than a solo act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That band is made up entirely of women, and they\u2019re playing to an audience that \u2013 if the BBC\u2019s Glastonbury footage is anything to go by \u2013 is predominantly made up of young girls. If even a small percentage of that audience walks away inspired to pick up a guitar, that leaves the future of the instrument in safe hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, I hope to take my own daughter to see Rodrigo, and I\u2019m confident she will leave that experience inspired \u2013 if not to pick up the guitar, at least more receptive to guitar-based music in general (if her uncool dad hasn\u2019t already put her off for life at that stage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n People will complain, as they always do \u2013 and lord knows I\u2019ve written about the problem of gatekeeping in the guitar community \u2013 but they would do well to remember how vital it is to have new voices in the guitar world. The kinds of players who make kids run to their parents to ask for a guitar. And once that desire to play takes root, who knows where it will take them. It\u2019s the initial spark that creates a lifelong obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And hey, I\u2019d wager Eddie Van Halen would be in favor of the world having more guitarists \u2013 no matter what kind of music inspired them to pick it up. As he once told GW<\/em>, \u201cThere is no such thing as bad music. There may be music that you personally don\u2019t like, but if you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t listen to it and shut the fuck up!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forget the glitter and heartbreak ballads \u2014 Olivia Rodrigo didn\u2019t just show up at Glastonbury, she detonated it.…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-musician"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/PkdBUaAKTYEiWaurSTNet3.jpg\")
![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/PjeMFCRNcWGSUoHA3gL2v3.jpg\")
![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Cs7XxtdbgYFtTo6yLWifs3.jpg\")