A new study has identified The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army as the world’s most Googled guitar riff.
For Wood and Fire Studio’s statistics, the studio analyzed a total of 271 songs and 2,314,336 Google searches to discover the world’s most-played riffs, and Jack White’s iconic 2003 foot-stomper has claimed the crown. The rest of the list is rather predictable, too.
“This is where the famous ‘forbidden riff’ joke on the guitar comes from,” the studio observes. “The first 4 songs are played so often that the staff in the guitar departments of music stores can no longer hear them.”
The White Stripes song, which sees a Kay K6533 archtop put through an octave-down DigiTech Whammy pedal, racks up 39,750 Google searches every month, scoring higher than guitar store staples Stairway to Heaven (30,375), which comes in second, and Smoke on the Water (15,750), which sits in 10th.
Interestingly, Nirvana claims the third spot, with Come As You Are (28,750) out-Googling Heart Shaped Box (14,000) and Smells Like Teen Spirit (13,625), which come in 11th and 12th, respectively.
Metallica prove to be the most popular riffmeisters collectively, with four tracks – Nothing Else Matters (4th), Enter Sandman (7th), Master of Puppets (9th), and Fade to Black (20th) – ranking in the top 20, more than any other artist.
When it comes to players wanting to strum along to their favorite chord progressions, Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah outranks the rest.
The cut, covered by everyone from Buckley to Michael Bolton, tops the Google search charts for songs in the USA, Australia, France, and Sweden with 163,453 searches per month. The fact it's been covered so often no doubt had a big impact here.
Ed Sheeran's Perfect (147,479) ironically has to settle for second best, while Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here makes it onto the podium with 135,979 searches.
The study has highlighted that nearly all the songs share a similarly romantic theme, arguing that love songs are the most universally appealing.
The Beatles’ classic Let It Be tops the UK (21,877) and German (24,026) listings, but has to settle for 4th place on the global scoreboard with 131,336 searches per month.
Elvis Presley, meanwhile, has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in South America. Can’t Help Falling In Love is the most-played song in 12 countries, including Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia.
Head to Wood and Fire Studio to dissect the full survey results.
