Guitar Center Reveals Its 10 Most-Played Riffs, and ‘Stairway’ Isn’t No. 1

Metallica leads the chain's first-ever survey of overplayed in-store riffs, with a few surprising omissions.

Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto surveyed store leadership teams across the United States to identify the riffs customers play most often when testing instruments, and the results put Metallica's ‘Master of Puppets' at the top of the list. Led Zeppelin's ‘Stairway to Heaven,' long the unofficial symbol of guitar-shop cliché, did not crack the top 10 at all.

How Guitar Center Built the List

Dalporto described the process as a direct outreach to store managers rather than a formal data pull. ‘We went out to our store leadership with a survey and said, “Write your most overplayed songs and tell us about any anecdotes — whatever you have,”‘ he told Rolling Stone. The consistency of the responses surprised even him: ‘It actually turned out to be a really consistent list. Across stores and across regions, people are generally playing the same types of songs.'

The survey is informal by design, but the uniformity of answers across different regions gives the results a certain credibility. Dalporto acknowledged the list ‘leans towards harder rock,' which tracks with the demographics that have historically driven electric guitar sales.

The Full Top 10

Metallica and Nirvana were the only artists to place two songs each. The complete list, as reported:

• 1. Metallica — “Master of Puppets”
• 2. Guns N' Roses — “Sweet Child O' Mine”
• 3. The White Stripes — “Seven Nation Army”
• 4. Nirvana — “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• 5. John Mayer — “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”
• 6. Tool — “Schism”
• 7. Metallica — “Enter Sandman”
• 8. Nirvana — “Come As You Are”
• 9. Ozzy Osbourne — “Crazy Train”
• 10. Deep Purple — “Smoke on the Water”

The Notable Absences

The omissions are as telling as the inclusions. Dalporto said he was surprised not to see any Jimi Hendrix on the list, or a song like Pearl Jam's ‘Alive.' Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Hendrix are all absent entirely. Of the entire classic rock era from the 1970s, Deep Purple's ‘Smoke on the Water' is the sole representative still pulling regular in-store duty.

The most glaring absence, of course, is ‘Stairway to Heaven.' Guitar Center had posted signs in its stores for years warning customers off the song, a real-world echo of the famous Wayne's World bit. That tongue-in-cheek ban was officially lifted last year after YouTuber Døvydas invited Dalporto to play the song with him. The lift apparently did not send customers rushing to play it; the riff still failed to crack the top 10.

Dalporto expressed genuine empathy for staff who absorb these riffs on a loop. ‘These songs are played a lot,' he said. ‘They're often not played well. So you hear the songs over and over, but when someone nails it, you can tell. And the store staff really appreciates it when someone is awesome.' He also noted that ‘Smoke on the Water' has been ‘torturing our associates for decades.'

What the List Says About Guitar Culture Right Now

A few entries carry clear cultural timestamps. Guitar World noted that ‘Master of Puppets' likely benefited from its prominent placement in the Netflix series Stranger Things, which introduced the song to a new generation of players. Tool's ‘Schism' ranking highly is notable given the song's technical complexity; its hammer-on lick is a genuine challenge for intermediate players, suggesting Guitar Center customers are at least attempting something difficult.

John Mayer's ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room,' his 2006 ballad, stands out as the most contemporary and stylistically distinct entry on an otherwise hard-rock-dominated list. Dalporto acknowledged it as a left-field inclusion on a list that otherwise skews heavy.

Dalporto also hosts his own podcast, Inside the Noise, and said the idea for the survey grew directly out of his experience playing ‘Stairway to Heaven' with Døvydas after the ban was lifted. He noted that the chaotic, multi-riff atmosphere of Guitar Center stores occasionally produces something genuinely musical: ‘Someone will start playing one of these songs and other people will join in,' he said.

What we know

• Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto surveyed store leadership teams across the US to compile the list of most-played riffs.
• Metallica's ‘Master of Puppets' ranked first on the list.
• Metallica and Nirvana were the only artists with two songs each on the top 10 list.
• Led Zeppelin's ‘Stairway to Heaven' did not appear on the list despite Guitar Center having posted in-store signs warning customers not to play it for years.
• Guitar Center lifted its informal ban on ‘Stairway to Heaven' last year after YouTuber Døvydas invited Dalporto to play the song with him.
• Dalporto said he was surprised not to see any Jimi Hendrix on the list, or a song like Pearl Jam's ‘Alive.'
• Dalporto described ‘Smoke on the Water' as having been ‘torturing our associates for decades.'
• John Mayer's ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' is from 2006 and was noted by Dalporto as standing out on a list that otherwise leans toward harder rock.

The take

The generational shift embedded in this list is hard to miss. The complete absence of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Hendrix from a Guitar Center most-played survey would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. Those artists defined the aspirational vocabulary of the guitar shop for decades. What replaced them is a mix of '90s alternative, post-grunge, and a couple of tracks with strong recent cultural boosts, whether from streaming algorithms, TikTok virality, or a Netflix show.

The Stranger Things effect on ‘Master of Puppets' is a useful case study in how legacy catalog gets reactivated for new players. Metallica had never gone away, but the show's Season 4 climax put that specific song in front of an audience that may have been picking up a guitar for the first time. That kind of cultural moment translates directly to what gets noodled in music stores.

The Mayer entry is genuinely interesting from a craft perspective. ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' is a sophisticated blues-influenced piece that rewards players who have moved past power chords. Its presence suggests at least a portion of Guitar Center's floor traffic skews toward players with some real technique. Tool's ‘Schism' tells a similar story. Neither song is a beginner's first choice.

The ‘Stairway' situation is almost poetic. Guitar Center spent years posting signs about it, Wayne's World immortalized the joke, and now the song has effectively been replaced in the cultural imagination by a Metallica track that a generation of kids learned from a TV show.

Why it matters

For anyone tracking where guitar culture is heading, this list functions as an informal generational census. The near-total disappearance of 1970s classic rock from everyday in-store play suggests that the genre's grip on new players is loosening, even as legacy acts continue to sell out arenas. The artists dominating Guitar Center floors right now are mostly from the 1990s and early 2000s, with a few contemporary outliers. That has real implications for which catalogs stay commercially vital and which ones become museum pieces appreciated by older fans but no longer driving new players to pick up an instrument.

What's next

Dalporto's survey was conducted informally and there is no announced schedule for a follow-up. His podcast, Inside the Noise, is an ongoing project where he has discussed Guitar Center store culture and the music industry. Both ‘Crazy Train' and ‘Sweet Child O' Mine' were also cited as appearing on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos, which was published alongside this coverage.

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