# Technical term for guitar rape **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247 "2011-09-14T03:35:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/21 "2011-09-14T15:34:41Z")
> [@Chef\_Troy](#): > > [Here’s the scene.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCXK8yB4T6M) > > Are you talking about what he’s doing around 2:16, where he’s lying on the stage and pushing himself along with his feet? I can see how that might be characterized as “humping the guitar,” but I really think he’s just lifting his hips so he can push himself along sliding on his shoulders. It’s not the humping his guitar bit, although that contributes; it’s the start-with-Chuck-Berry-licks-move-to-Hendrix-and-Van-Halen-(badly)-licks-and-then-stop-and-realize-you-lost-the-rest-of-the-band-and-audience bit. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/22 "2011-09-14T16:24:34Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > [Michael and friends](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1055495424/nm0870228). > > The question is, did Michael learn from Pete, or did Pete copy Marty? 😃 Both. He learned it from Pete in the original timeline, who learned it from Marty in the modified timeline. The same thing happened to Chuck Berry. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/23 "2011-09-14T16:29:58Z")
Yeah, my nomination of shredding doesn’t apply here - he’s not playing all that fast or doing a ton of notes. It’s just wanking. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/24 "2011-09-14T18:00:22Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > In Back to the Future Marty is rocking Johnny B Goode on his guitar, starts a solo, and then it turns into some kind of guitar molestation. I’ve been told Jimmy Hendrix was known for doing this too. Is there some official musical terminology for this? Lack of talent. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/25 "2011-09-14T18:02:03Z")
Feeling up the G string. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/26 "2011-09-14T18:11:04Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > …\*count me as one of those folks who normally enjoys Michael J. Fox and '80’s-type movies, but finds the thought of the scene where “Chuck Berry’s cousin” tips Chuck onto Marty’s guitar moves as over-the-line offensive…on a few levels. You know, I was never really sure what to make of that. Is it really offensive? I can only gather that since Marty learned it from Chuck Berry, then Berry _had_ to have been the originator. Marty wouldn’t have known it otherwise, so the scene simply takes place before Berry had conjured his innovation. Right? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/27 "2011-09-14T18:24:48Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > You know, I was never really sure what to make of that. Is it really offensive? I can only gather that since Marty learned it from Chuck Berry, then Berry _had_ to have been the originator. Marty wouldn’t have known it otherwise, so the scene simply takes place before Berry had conjured his innovation. Right? There are any number of ways one can hand-wave it away, and it _is_ a silly little moment in a fun, silly movie. I have no substantive reason for my beef… But, alternatively, to insinuate that some 80’s suburban white boy Terminator’d back in time to influence Chuck Berry just rankles me (speaking as a late 70’s/early 80’s suburban white boy myself). What Chuck Berry did to build on T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan, adapting horn lines from jump blues to fit into a country/blues/boogie rhythm - and cross over to be one of the first Brown-Eyed Handsome Men to make it in mainstream music right at the birth of rock? To be THE genesis of rock n’ roll licks as we know it, per John Lennon’s famous quote and Keith Richards’ famous adulation, and be held out as a cute little reference in a movie like that - I dunno, it just bugs me. I have no idea why this example bugs me more than, say, Bill and Ted kidnapping Socrates by dropping quotes from bad soap operas (“like sands of the hourglass…”), but it does… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/28 "2011-09-14T21:28:17Z")
Showmanship. Guitarists aren’t the only ones to do it: [This Drummer Is At The Wrong Gig - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E) ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/29 "2011-09-14T21:46:11Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > But, alternatively, to insinuate that some 80’s suburban white boy Terminator’d back in time to influence Chuck Berry just rankles me (speaking as a late 70’s/early 80’s suburban white boy myself). What Chuck Berry did to build on T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan, adapting horn lines from jump blues to fit into a country/blues/boogie rhythm - and cross over to be one of the first Brown-Eyed Handsome Men to make it in mainstream music right at the birth of rock? To be THE genesis of rock n’ roll licks as we know it, per John Lennon’s famous quote and Keith Richards’ famous adulation, and be held out as a cute little reference in a movie like that - I dunno, it just bugs me. Yeah, well, at least he didn’t rape his mom, or perform his own skateboarding stunts. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/30 "2011-09-16T03:51:38Z")
In his song “I Can’t Drive 55”, Sammy Hagar calls it “metal mastrubation”. I don’t have a cite, and I’m pretty indifferent to Hagar, but I’ve always liked this phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/31 "2011-09-16T04:47:10Z")
I’m with shredding as a term. Also +1 about Chuck Berry – “his” pianist Johnnie Johnson deserves a hell of a lot of the credit for those classic tunes, even though he never got any AFAIK. And that’s a cat who didn’t even like playing in B-natural, according to his Homespun concert with Jimmy Vivino helping out on guitar – all that stuff lies fine in Bb, but everybody plays “Johnny B Good” for example in B, and those famous riffs are pretty much all straight piano stuff AFAIC just taken over to guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/32 "2011-09-16T05:09:03Z")
“shredding” is when you’re good and can rip up a solo like your fingers are robotic and your mind is a melody machine on overdrive. “wanking” is what the OP describes. And yeah, I think that Jack Black nailed it in that scene in _School Of Rock_. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/33 "2011-09-16T08:17:39Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Yup, wanking, or possibly noodling. I’ve always thought of ‘noodling’ being nothing like wanking. Compare what the McFly character does in the BTTF scene, to a guitar solo by someone like Frank Zappa, who considered himself a ‘noodler’. Big difference, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/34 "2011-09-16T22:31:09Z")
Fretty Sanchez ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/35 "2011-09-16T22:59:46Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > I’m with shredding as a term. > > Also +1 about Chuck Berry – “his” pianist Johnnie Johnson deserves a hell of a lot of the credit for those classic tunes, even though he never got any AFAIK. And that’s a cat who didn’t even like playing in B-natural, according to his Homespun concert with Jimmy Vivino helping out on guitar – all that stuff lies fine in Bb, but everybody plays “Johnny B Good” for example in B, and those famous riffs are pretty much all straight piano stuff AFAIC just taken over to guitar. All good and true. I play JBG in A simply because of the pull offs and hammer-ons on guitar, so know that Johnson was an influence in the choice of a non-guitar key. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/36 "2011-09-16T23:59:11Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Showmanship. > > Guitarists aren’t the only ones to do it: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E) Band seeking drummer. Must be able to [grimace musically](http://www.quidplura.com/qp-images/grimmus1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/37 "2011-09-17T07:21:26Z")
Thanks for the suggestions! 😃 I think I was going for terms to describe what Marty was doing specifically, as well as terms to describe whatever real life musician he was parodying was doing. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/38 "2011-09-17T07:44:04Z")
I think it was a movie conscious shred, in the Satriani style… very composed and technical. Fox’s solo was a deliberate and cynical play on the Chuck berry, and coming sixties style, a bit before its time in the 50’s. It was an indulgent overeach of “modern times” and historical nostalgia as imposed by the director. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/39 "2011-09-17T07:52:23Z")
Maybe he was supposed to start the Geetar Revolution by exposing up and commers to the sound… typical time travel insertion and influence on the future. Violating the prime directive. Everything about back to the future seems to be about making sure he was born and subsequently born into the “right time”. Past quantum and temporal movements having larger impacts in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247/40 "2011-09-17T14:55:09Z")
I was serious about the skronk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technical-term-for-guitar-rape/596247.md?page=3)