Electric guitars come in many different shapes and sizes. Like their acoustic counterparts, the size and shape of an electric guitar can impact their sound and playability.

Here are some of the most common varieties of electric guitar bodies:

Type of body:

Each type of guitar can have a variety of shapes and styles. Most guitars fall under either solid body, semi-hollow body, or hollow body. 

Solid body: Solid body guitars have no internal chambers – sound is generated solely from the pickups. Solid body guitars are also made out of a solid piece of wood. As a result, they’re usually fairly heavy. 

Solid body guitars were introduced in the 1950s. They offer more sustain than their hollow-body counterparts, and are less impacted by feedback. 

Here are some of the best-known solid body guitars: 

Stratocaster

Designed by Fender, the Stratocaster features a double-cutaway design with one side extended into a “horn”, which provides balance. The double cutaway allows the player better access to the guitar’s highest frets. Though this is the shape most people picture when they think “electric guitar”, it was a revolutionary design when it was first introduced in the mid-1950s. 

Telecaster

Also designed by Fender, Telecaster was the world’s first commercially successful mass-produced electric guitar. Also known as “Tele”, it was originally called “Broadcaster”. The telecaster design features a flat asymmetric single-cutaway body. 

Les Paul

Gibson Les Paul Tribute

The Les Paul was designed by Gibson in 1952. Les Paul guitars are generally made of mahogany with a maple top and feature a single cutaway. 

 

Gibson SG 

Gibson SG Standard Tribute

The SG Standard is Gibson’s best selling model of all time. It has a contoured design with a double cutaway to make the upper frets more accessible. 

“Superstrat”

With deeper cutaways, longer fretboards, and overall pointier bodies, guitar variations known as “Superstrats” became popular with rock stars in the 1980s. 

Semi-hollow body

Semi-hollow body guitars have chambers cut into the wood which makes them lighter and gives them a slightly warmer tone. Semi-hollow body guitars work well across many genres of music. 

 

The best known of semi-hollow body guitars is: 

Gibson ES-335

The Gibson ES-335 was the first semi-hollow guitar on the market. It features two bouts that are hollow and two violin-style f-holes cut over the hollow chambers. Its best-known user was the King of Blues, B.B. King. 

Hollow body

The original electric guitar, Rickenbacker’s Electro-A22, was a hollow body guitar. Hollow body guitars were favored by big band and jazz musicians in the 1930s – however, their hollow bodies created a lot of feedback when they were played at higher volumes. 

Gibson ES-150

The Gibson ES-150 was the world’s first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. ES stands for “electric Spanish”. 

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For some movies, the soundtrack is more iconic than the film itself! Here are some songs that are permanently associated with their feature film. 

“Moon River” – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961 

Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer composed this song for Audrey Hepburn to sing in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. A Paramount producer suggested cutting the song – and Hepburn famously said they could cut it “over my dead body”. The song cleaned up during awards season, winning a 1961 Academy Award for Best Original song and the 1962 GRAMMY award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. 

 

“Mrs Robinson” – The Graduate, 1967

Simon & Garfunkel wrote “Mrs. Robinson” specifically for The Graduate. It became the first rock song to win “Record of the Year” at the 1969 GRAMMYs. 

 

“Live and Let Die” – Live and Let Die, 1973 

The film producers of this 1973 James Bond flick tapped Paul McCartney to write the movie’s theme song. McCartney worked with his wife, Linda, and former Beatles producer George Martin on the song, recording it with his band Wings. It has been famously covered by Guns ‘n Roses. 

“Stayin’ Alive” – Saturday Night Fever, 1977 

The Bee Gees were asked to record some songs for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack before the film had a name, or even a script. The band penned the track over a couple of days at a French recording studio. Though the song is a disco bop, the lyrics are pretty dark and deal with the subject of surviving on the streets of New York. 

“Don’t You (Forget About Me) – The Breakfast Club, 1985

“Don’t You (Forget About Me)” was a huge hit for The Breakfast Club’s soundtrack and for the band that recorded it, Scotland’s Simple Minds. Simple Minds didn’t write the track however – it was written by Breakfast Club producer Keith Forsey and guitarist Steve Schiff. The band originally turned the song down – along with Billy Idol, Corey Hart, and The Fixx. The band recorded it following persuasion by the label and Chrissy Hynde, who was married to the band’s lead singer at the time. 

“La Bamba” – La Bamba, 1987

Most bands put their own spin on cover songs. However, for this 1987 biography of Chicano rock and roll star Ritchie Valens (who was tragically killed at only 17 in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper) Los Lobos kept their version faithful to Valens’ 1958 version. Valens had adapted a Mexican folk song from the state of Veracruz in his version of “La Bamba”. 

 

“My Heart Will Go On” – Titanic, 1997

Composer James Horner came up with the melody of “My Heart Will Go On” for the film’s score, and had the idea of developing it into a song. Director James Cameron initially resisted the idea of having a pop song in the film’s soundtrack, but changed his mind after hearing the song’s demo. It was recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion and became her signature song – it’s the second best-selling physical single by a woman of all time. 

“Shallow” – A Star is Born, 2018 

“Star is Born” star Lady Gaga wrote the film’s signature song along with Andrew Wyatt, Anthony Rossomando and Mark Ronson. The track is one of the world’s best-selling singles of all time, and it won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song. 

 

What do you think is the most iconic soundtrack song of all time? Let us know in the comments! 

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Picture this… you turn on the radio and hear a ridiculously catchy song. You know the one. An hour later, it’s still in your head – and you can’t get it out! 

Certain factors can make a song an “earworm” – a memorable piece of music or sound that stays in the listener’s head well after hearing it. 

Earworms tend to lodge themselves into the brain’s auditory cortex, a group of researchers from Dartmouth College found. The auditory cortex is where much of the brain’s sound processing happens, and also where musical memory is stored. 

The scientists did an experiment where they conducted brain scans of people listening to familiar songs – and then interrupted the songs. The scans showed that the auditory cortex stayed active after the music stopped, imagining the rest of the song. 

The same fragment of the song can get stuck in the ‘phonological loop’, which is a system of memory that constantly and temporarily stores sound information. Earworms are typically 12 to 30 seconds long, and usually well-known to the listener. 

If you’re a songwriter or in a band, you might have a special interest in what makes a song an earworm – to write one of your own! 

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews created a list of the top 20 earworm songs. (Three of them are by Queen!) 

The team found that there are five components to an earworm – surprise, predictability, rhythmic repetition, melodic potency and receptiveness. They even worked out a formula to calculate the earworm potency of a song! 

The formula is receptiveness + (predictability-surprise) + (melodic potency) + (rhythmic repetition x1.5) = earworm. 

BONUS: Need to get rid of an earworm? Try engaging your brain in a different task like solving a puzzle or an anagram, or sing a commonly known song like “Happy Birthday” or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. 

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