History Main / RockersSmashGuitars

* An ''MST3K'' invention exchange featured "The Rock & Wreck Guitar," a guitar which could be reassembles after being smashed, for garage bands who can't afford to keep buying new equipment.

-->-'''{{Music/Cake}}''', ''Rock and Roll Lifestyle''

* An ''{{MST3K}}'' invention exchange featured "The Rock & Wreck Guitar," a guitar which could be reassembles after being smashed, for garage bands who can't afford to keep buying new equipment.

* {{Older than Radio}}: Paganini is probably the Ur example of instrument destruction. After some claimed his skill was only due to his Stradivarius, he played a concert with a cheap violin without anyone noticing it, and smashed it afterwards.

* {{Music/Muse}}'s performance at Reading Festival 2011 features Matt Bellamy repeatedly throwing his guitar at the drums before finally hurling it into the air. The drums were probably hurt worse than the guitar.

* In the original ''{{Back to the Future}}'', Marty McFly ends his guitar performance in the year 1955 by kicking over an amplifier. His audience of audience, who had been enjoying the new (to them) kind of music up until that point, reacted with shock.
* In the ''{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' episode "The Camping Episode", where at the end of Spongebob's campfire song, Spongebob smashed his guitar, while Patrick smashed the drums that he had been playing.

* In ''[[{{Discworld}} Soul Music]]'', the only time the band variously known as Insanity, Suck, and And Supporting Bands got a positive reaction from their audience was when one of them smashed his guitar on-stage. But only because he'd smashed it on another band member.

** The John Hiatt song "Perfectly Good Guitar" that was the former page quote was inspired by an incident at the MTV Music Awards, where Krist Novoselic tried to do this... only to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8oT9ag631Q accidentally hit himself over the head with his bass guitar instead]].

* Possibly parodied in WeirdAlYankovic's video for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjRs9O36g4 "You Don't Love Me Anymore"]], where the (filled with LyricalDissonance) ballad ends with Al smashing his acoustic guitar to pieces (and [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/weird-al-yankovic,58244/ apparently]] not only it was an expensive instrument, but it was also hard to break). He does this in concerts after singing "You Don't Love Me Anymore" as well. Additionally, the opening of ''The Compleat Al'' shows Al destroying his accordion with fire, ala Jimi Hendrix.

** The John Hiatt song that provides the page quote was inspired by an incident at the MTV Music Awards, where Krist Novoselic tried to do this... only to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8oT9ag631Q accidentally hit himself over the head with his bass guitar instead]].

* TheWho are the TropeCodifier, if not the TropeMaker. One story has it that the band were playing on a stage with a low ceiling and Townshend unthinkingly raised his guitar whilst playing, driving the headstock into the ceiling and snapping it off. He proceeded to destroy the rest of the guitar, [[CrazyAwesome Keith Moon]] followed suit with the drums, and the audience liked it so much that the band started regularly smashing their gear- even when it got to the point where [[EpicFail they did more damage then their shows paid for]].

** Yoshiki is known to be a ''very'' passionate player, so it's only to be expected. He once headbanged so hard that he ''[[BeyondTheImpossible dislocated his neck]]''.

* One of Nikki's Personal Techs in ''ChronoCross'' has him smash his guitar over an enemy's head.

* TheWho are the TropeCodifier, if not the TropeMaker. One story has it that the band were playing on a stage with a low ceiling and Townshend unthinkingly raised his guitar whilst playing, driving the headstock into the ceiling and snapping it off. He proceeded to destroy the rest of the guitar, [[CrazyAwesome Keith Moon]] followed suit with the drums, and the audience liked it so much that the band started regularly smashing their gear.

-->-'''{{Cake}}''', ''Rock and Roll Lifestyle''

->''Oh it breaks my heart to see these stars\\
Smashing a perfectly good guitar\\
I don't know who they think they are\\
Smashing a perfectly good guitar''
-->--'''John Hiatt'''

* Possibly parodied in WeirdAlYankovic's video for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjRs9O36g4 "You Don't Love Me Anymore"]], where the (filled with LyricalDissonance) ballad ends with Al smashing his acoustic guitar to pieces. (and [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/weird-al-yankovic,58244/ apparently]] not only it was an expensive instrument, but it was also hard to break)

* ''KidsInTheHall'' spoofed this with Dave trying to play folk on a standard acoustic guitar, the strings kept breaking, and in the end, Dave said "What the hell. Long live Rock & Roll" and smashed the guitar.
* In the original ''{{Back to the Future}}'', Marty McFly ends his guitar performance in the year 1955 by kicking over an amplifier. His audience of audience, who had been enjoying the new (to them) kind of music up until that point, reacted with shock.
* In the ''{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' episode "The Camping Episode", where at the end of Spongebob's campfire song, Spongebob smashed his guitar, while Patrick smashed the drums that he had been playing.

* This happens with Tommy in an episode of ''ThirdRockFromTheSun''. But the guitar isn't his.

* Discussed in ''ApolloJustice''. Trucy asks Klavier if he'd ever smash his guitars, and he says he wouldn't because he thinks of them as his lovers. He's also extremely upset when one of them (albeit one with high sentimental value) gets burned during a performance.
* Parodied in the opening scene of ''WrongfullyAccused'', to make [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome violin concerts seem awesome]].
* Jeff Beck, with TheYardbirds, in the movie ''Blow-Up''.

[[caption-width-right:308:''[[TheClash Rock the Casbah!]]''.[[hottip:*: Funny thing, it is a bass, not a guitar.]]]]

* The Dillinger Escape Plan are quite fond of smashing guitars, setting guitars on fire, smashing microphones and PA equipment, [[UpToEleven setting drumkits on fire...]]

A rock star gets so into the hardness of the music, that he/she actually [[PercussiveTherapy destroys instruments]]. Typically this is smashing a guitar (hence the trope name) on the stage as hard as possible, pounding it to fragments with a few whacks. Some rock bands take it UpToEleven and set their instruments on fire. And these aren't fictional works trying to make [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll rock seem bad]]. This is ''TruthInTelevision''.

Now this might seem like a waste of a perfectly good instrument, and sometimes it was, but smashing a guitar is much harder than you'd expect from seeing this trope in fiction. Many a young guitarist have gotten frustrated with their instrument in the middle of the show and decided to smash it to please the audience, only to find out that their instrument is MadeOfIron (or plywood). Bands where the instrument destruction is more planned and theatrical will often rig an instrument to smash apart easily in order to please the audience.

A rock star gets so into the hardness of the music, that he/she actually destroys instruments. Typically this is smashing a guitar (hence the trope name) on the stage as hard as possible, pounding it to fragments with a few whacks. Some rock bands take it UpToEleven and set their instruments on fire. And these aren't fictional works trying to make [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll rock seem bad]]. This is ''TruthInTelevision''.

Now this might seem like a waste of a perfectly good instrument, and sometimes it was, but smashing an electric guitar is much harder than you'd expect from seeing this trope in fiction. Many a young guitarist have gotten frustrated with their instrument in the middle of the show and decided to smash it to please the audience, only to find out that their instrument is MadeOfIron (or plywood). Bands where the instrument destruction is more planned and theatrical will often prepare an instrument to smash apart easily in order to please the audience.

* Parodied during one of the musical games on ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' At the end of a song, Wayne Brady begins to do this with an imaginary guitar - before putting it gently back on its stand instead.