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In step with rock's expanding horizons, Hendrix's riffs were more elaborate than their predecessors – also making full (and pioneering) use of the new pedals and effects that rock guitarists now had at their disposal, including wah-wah, rotary cabinets, delay and fuzz.

It's at this point that rock split, for the first time, between those who saw it as a form that should progress – using ever-more ambitious arrangements – and those who espoused the back-to-basics ethos of the blues revival and the beginnings of what would become known as heavy metal. Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were two prominent names in this later development, with Sabbath's Tony Iommi breaking new ground by detuning his guitar and coming up with a succession of distorted riffs heavier than anything before them.

It was another new genre, punk, that further put paid to any trend towards increasing complexity, and while most punk bands took a dim view of riff-based music, that's not to say the era didn't see any memorable punk riffs at all. The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and Holidays In The Sun could easily have been played by Chuck Berry, though, of course, Steve Jones's guitar was heavily distorted and fattened with effects.

"Rock split between those who thought the riff should progress and those who espoused the back-to-basics ethos of the blues revival and the beginnings of what would become known as heavy metal"

The post-punk generation took the rock re-think even further, emphasising other instruments such as bass and percussion and often demoting the guitar from the foreground. The major innovations of this era were the choppy, spiky riffs bands like Gang Of Four used, where Andy Gill's guitar is often used more as a percussive rather than a lead instrument.

But while the post-punkers were re-inventing the wheel, heavy rock was going through a renaissance. Nearly all of AC/DC's most memorable songs of this period are based around Angus Young's brutal power riffs. Again, the likes of Back In Black and Hells Bells are simply old rock 'n' roll riffs, but slowed down and simplified for maximum effect.

If AC/DC were refining their back to basics approach, their cousins in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal groups – Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Judas Priest et al – were rediscovering the joys of the fret-abuse. This reached its apotheosis with the rise of Metallica in the mid '80s. Based around the fast intricate riffing of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, Metallica rebooted metal music for a new era.

Next page: A retrenchment and into the '90s...

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