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Genre
instrumental rock
Parent Genre: rock

Instrumental rock music is a genre that features electric guitar as the main instrument, often accompanied by drums and bass. The music is characterized by its emphasis on instrumental virtuosity and technical proficiency, with complex melodies and intricate solos. The genre has roots in blues and jazz, but has evolved to include elements of metal and progressive rock. The lack of vocals allows for a greater focus on the music itself, and allows the listener to fully appreciate the skill and creativity of the musicians.


Top artists of instrumental rock genre

Polyphia
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Frank Zappa
Jeff Beck
King Crimson
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Plini
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instrumental rock music timeline

Explore instrumental rock history by listening to songs from every decade. Click on the decade to view songs.

2020s 2010s 2000s 1990s 1980s 1970s 1960s 1950s 1940s 1930s

Similar Genres to instrumental rock

Discover more related genres to instrumental rock genre. This list is ordered by similarity from left to right.

neo classical metal shred djent metal guitar jazz fusion math rock math pop instrumental math rock jazz metal post-rock symphonic rock progressive metal progressive jazz fusion progressive rock art rock space rock stoner rock post-hardcore stoner metal psychedelic doom
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instrumental rock playlist created by Chosic

Enjoy this playlist of popular instrumental rock music. We made this playlist using an algorithm created by our team.

Play on spotify

List of instrumental rock artists

Here is a list of instrumental rock artists on Spotify, ranked based on popularity, who exemplifies the instrumental rock genre. You can find out what instrumental rock genre sounds like where you can preview artists or sort them the way you want, just click the headers to sort.

#namePopularity instrumentalnessdanceabilityenergyacousticnessHappinesstempofollowers
1
Polyphia
65 70 52 83 2 41 126 910939
2
Stevie Ray Vaughan
62 25 45 61 15 63 123 2312511
3
Frank Zappa
57 22 45 65 25 57 124 853045
4
Jeff Beck
57 44 46 64 20 48 119 688238
5
King Crimson
55 28 39 46 22 31 121 1012662
6
Joe Satriani
53 75 45 75 9 40 129 607928
7
Steve Vai
52 57 42 80 5 41 130 524811
8
Plini
51 82 49 67 15 37 124 281799
9
Animals As Leaders
50 82 38 86 4 27 136 484582
10
Chon
50 74 50 73 7 39 127 294791
11
Buckethead
49 74 50 61 29 33 129 362829
12
Yngwie Malmsteen
48 33 37 79 10 31 120 388343
13
Eric Johnson
46 37 44 58 36 51 118 228644
14
Intervals
46 72 40 92 0 43 138 176639
15
Guthrie Govan
46 54 47 71 15 47 131 147644
16
Russian Circles
45 81 27 60 14 12 116 230597
17
Covet
45 79 45 75 30 45 132 167126
18
John Petrucci
41 75 37 89 1 40 126 189297
19
Marty Friedman
40 82 26 78 17 20 126 116423
20
John 5
40 83 44 82 15 26 130 91696
21
Steve Hackett
39 29 34 46 28 24 118 143835
22
Nick Johnston
39 82 39 77 11 40 134 58319
23
Andy Timmons
39 78 43 72 8 39 129 100127
24
Andy James
38 73 38 81 8 25 138 53819
25
The Algorithm
38 76 47 89 4 31 126 94908
26
Jan Cyrka
38 0 0 0 0 0 0 6372
27
Jakub Zytecki
38 61 48 76 6 28 124 48960
28
Cloudkicker
37 83 39 56 40 29 122 70235
29
Liquid Tension Experiment
37 75 31 78 18 41 113 194961
30
Mahavishnu Orchestra
37 68 35 75 15 39 117 139190
31
Walking Across Jupiter
36 77 47 90 0 32 131 18304
32
Tony Levin
36 22 40 56 11 32 101 24738
33
Jason Becker
36 73 30 64 34 26 115 107154
34
And So I Watch You from Afar
36 76 36 79 0 21 130 78060
35
Greg Howe
36 76 47 77 15 48 129 57273
36
Jeff Loomis
35 71 39 94 0 19 114 42339
37
The Aristocrats
35 77 45 67 6 40 124 102962
38
Kiko Loureiro
35 80 41 80 15 28 129 95890
39
Derek Sherinian
35 90 46 81 3 48 113 26101
40
Earth
34 79 25 33 53 12 107 96268
41
Neal Schon
34 68 38 59 4 28 120 22391
42
Brand X
34 65 36 48 38 34 112 42138
43
Arch Echo
34 68 47 96 0 39 123 49903
44
Ozric Tentacles
34 74 43 68 5 48 137 71821
45
Earthless
34 59 22 88 0 26 114 84095
46
Hella
33 62 30 95 7 19 109 66351
47
Vitalism
33 87 34 94 0 25 136 64556
48
Scale The Summit
32 77 47 84 4 44 134 98107
49
Los Straitjackets
32 68 50 79 15 69 140 42993
50
Yawning Man
32 80 30 71 3 41 126 33374
51
Pelican
32 78 29 75 8 25 122 105693
52
LITE
31 84 50 71 18 54 122 56433
53
Vinnie Moore
31 70 39 90 6 41 122 73392
54
Grails
31 88 29 44 48 12 109 38924
55
Toubab Krewe
31 84 44 61 28 47 97 25694
56
Don Caballero
31 71 35 85 4 38 126 63415
57
Anup Sastry
30 90 35 96 0 36 126 45035
58
Steve Morse
30 70 44 63 25 63 118 59552
59
Man Or Astro-Man?
30 65 31 90 3 51 149 38152
60
Marco Sfogli
30 69 30 72 12 29 118 32490
61
Karma To Burn
29 66 30 86 0 35 136 47884
62
Giraffes? Giraffes!
29 70 35 78 11 29 109 44682
63
Tony MacAlpine
28 86 36 87 1 31 127 58369
64
Haunted Shores
28 81 42 92 0 13 119 33278
65
Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet
28 73 44 78 0 69 122 8952
66
Mattias IA Eklundh
27 63 54 82 10 66 121 30037
67
Maserati
27 81 51 75 16 36 124 29946
68
The Mermen
27 79 43 74 3 66 132 10924
69
Billy Sheehan
27 86 48 93 1 64 116 18797
70
Daniele Gottardo
27 57 31 58 31 21 125 6545
71
Chimp Spanner
26 78 37 84 0 18 140 31260
72
Neil Zaza
26 79 44 82 0 41 122 25634
73
Outrun The Sunlight
25 85 37 82 0 16 121 16565
74
FORQ
25 85 56 63 15 51 135 22374
75
Tribal Tech
25 63 54 61 25 55 128 40310
76
Widek
25 93 33 87 1 20 107 24096
77
Cosmosquad
24 75 54 69 17 48 126 22102
78
For Giants
24 85 44 92 0 38 124 18147
79
Shawn Lane
24 71 44 68 31 39 112 26497
80
Michael Lee Firkins
24 58 42 71 14 46 136 12728
81
The Helix Nebula
24 84 36 94 0 28 127 38821
82
Pomegranate Tiger
24 73 39 75 23 31 100 32317
83
John Paul Jones
23 65 41 75 26 28 119 66661
84
Evan Brewer
23 92 46 53 71 39 157 21337
85
Secret Chiefs 3
23 70 39 61 31 35 121 30895
86
Three Trapped Tigers
23 58 28 88 2 25 136 24986
87
Dweezil Zappa
22 22 49 84 10 69 122 16486
88
Mattrach
21 83 39 87 1 28 117 12607
89
T.R.A.M
21 74 36 72 2 16 82 19781
90
Mr. Fastfinger
21 81 61 70 13 44 117 7010
91
Blotted Science
20 83 39 87 0 52 127 33238
92
Conquering Dystopia
20 87 47 99 0 15 133 24048
93
Jennifer Batten
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 4553
94
Adebisi Shank
20 83 51 79 0 40 129 17038
95
Here Lies Man
20 92 50 50 81 37 111 11846
96
Unwed Sailor
19 81 44 61 42 25 131 8103
97
Friends of Dean Martinez
19 66 54 49 10 64 153 4772
98
The Redneck Manifesto
19 77 50 53 30 52 121 11319
99
Laika & The Cosmonauts
18 76 33 79 4 66 150 7620
100
David T. Chastain
17 91 24 99 1 7 121 4257
101
Polarization
17 89 41 92 0 28 145 11475
102
Liquorworks
17 85 41 93 0 26 126 4990
103
The Fucking Champs
17 58 28 79 1 48 136 6622
104
Blind Idiot God
17 82 42 68 1 34 116 3593
105
Bozzio Levin Stevens
17 81 45 80 5 49 128 14056
106
Sleep Terror
16 79 37 94 0 38 116 7635
107
Sean Ashe
15 84 41 72 12 35 130 4840
108
Hedvig Mollestad Trio
14 81 24 71 2 33 167 7334
109
Exivious
14 69 43 83 11 15 128 13290
110
The Hellecasters
14 88 42 71 26 68 129 5082
111
By The End Of Tonight
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 6078
112
Brett Garsed
13 0 0 0 0 0 0 11876
113
Rob Balducci
12 83 35 50 15 27 95 1887
114
Happy the man
12 68 45 60 41 35 104 9018
115
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster
12 81 48 57 1 21 119 4339
116
Pat Mastelotto
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 2828
117
Stick Men
11 81 30 67 4 20 138 10097
118
Gordian Knot
11 87 55 62 4 26 110 11221
119
Joey Tafolla
10 84 31 88 2 34 112 3632
120
Behold... The Arctopus
10 81 25 95 0 13 103 10352
121
The Bakerton Group
10 89 45 77 0 84 125 6302
122
Irepress
9 74 29 77 0 23 111 4812
123
Sleeping People
8 41 51 83 3 69 96 6866
124
Astrosaur
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 3104
125
Counter-World Experience
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 3750
126
Dysrhythmia
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 7981
127
George Bellas
8 94 44 95 0 38 147 5098
128
Marc Rizzo
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 2982
129
Theodore Ziras
7 93 31 93 0 16 165 2657
130
Euphone
6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1469
131
Trey Gunn
6 84 57 75 37 46 132 7799
132
OXES
6 25 33 81 1 29 78 4505
133
Mindflayer
6 60 31 99 5 9 106 4121
134
Ethan Brosh
5 88 46 87 0 64 135 1690
135
Ahleuchatistas
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 3161
136
Minibosses
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 4485
137
Marcel Coenen
5 90 47 89 1 43 135 2157
138
Canvas Solaris
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 5904
139
Serpent Throne
4 80 28 75 0 42 122 1893
140
DC Slater
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1180
141
Dave Sharman
4 86 21 96 43 18 139 1573
142
Rumah Sakit
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1476
143
SubArachnoid Space
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2137
144
The Cancer Conspiracy
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1220
145
Crime In Choir
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1743
146
Djam Karet
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1542
147
Electro Quarterstaff
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1650
148
Sons of Alpha Centauri
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 856
149
Landforge
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 325
150
Ghosts and Vodka
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2875
151
Upsilon Acrux
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 991
152
Chris Francis
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 53
153
We Be The Echo
0 74 34 78 0 49 119 855