CEO Gabe Dalporto drills down on his customers’ go-tos, from Metallica’s monolithic “Master of Puppets” to Deep Purple’s elemental “Smoke on the Water”

Few sounds in music are more distinct and compelling than the rich, textured din of a Guitar Center. Riffs stacked upon riffs, noodling tangled up in more noodling, shredders going wild while, in the background, you might also chance to hear the clatter of drums, some punchy keys, or the rumble of a bass. The cacophony though isn’t exactly random. And recently, Guitar Center brass decided it was time to parse the chaos for the patterns buried deep within. 

“We went out to our stores leadership with survey and said, ‘Write your most overplayed songs and tell us about any anecdotes, whatever you have,’” Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto tells Rolling Stone of the recent endeavor. “It actually turned out to be a really consistent list. What you see is, across stores, across regions, people are generally playing this type of song.” 

The results of this fun, scientific-enough survey are largely what one would expect, though with a couple surprises scattered here and there. At the top of the list — no, it’s not Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” but Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” followed three other big riff classics: Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” 

Metallica and Nirvana were the only artists to place two songs on the list, with “Enter Sandman” and “Come As You Are” also making the cut. The two other expected entries were Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and Deep Purple’s perennial “Smoke on the Water,” which has been “That’s been “torturing our associates for decades,” Dalporto quips. (Both “Crazy Train” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” also appear on Rolling Stone‘s new list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.)

The two more left-field entries were Tool’s “Schism” and John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” While Mayer is obviously no slouch at guitar, his tender 2006 tune definitely stands out on a list that as, Dalporto notes, otherwise “leans towards harder rock.” 

What also stands out are the songs missing from the list. Dalporto said he was surprised not to see any Jimi Hendrix, or a song like Pearl Jam’s “Alive.” And of course, most glaring, is the absence of “Stairway to Heaven,” the song Wayne’s World famously made synonymous with being overplayed in guitar shops.

This wasn’t just a bit, either. Dalporto says for years there were signs up in Guitar Center warning players off “Stairway.” But last year, the musician/YouTuber Døvydas — who’d made his own bit out of playing the “forbidden riff” in public — invited Dalporto to officially lift the ban by playing “Stairway to Heaven” together. 

It was this experience that inspired Dalporto to survey Guitar Center store leadership about their most-played songs. Dalporto, who also hosts his own podcast, Inside the Noise, says he has “a lot of empathy for store employees who hear the same song played over and over, and sometimes not so greatly,” but he also points out that the Guitar Centers are designed to encourage loud experimentation. (“You know, just like I’ve learned to tune my kids screaming out, I think you just kind of tune out the things you hear over and over,” he jokes.) 

And this atmosphere also makes thrilling, impromptu musical moments happen. Sometimes, Dalporto notes, the riff and lick chaos crumbles and from it comes an unexpected cohesion: “Someone will start playing one of these songs and other people will join in,” he says. “And one of the standout memories was when two pretty accomplished guitarists started playing ‘Master of Puppets’ together. It brought the house down.”

He continues: “These songs are played a lot. 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.” 

The 10 Most-Played Riffs at Guitar Center
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. Metallica – “Enter Sandman”
7. Tool – “Schism”
8. Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”
9. Nirvana – “Come As You Are”
10. Deep Purple – “Smoke on the Water”