Honestly in my opinion rock has gone downhill with new artists. Anything past 1995 is like total crap. I mean the old artists keep it real but all these new and upcomming artist are like terrible. Thats just my opinion. I like the classics such as The Beatles, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin..etc.

If you are into lead guitar playing I suggest Iron Maiden. Their songs have great solos and they aren't that hard to learn. My first solo i learned was from Jimi Hendrix's version of hey joe. Learn blues guitar first and then if you want to be one of those metal maniacs learn some theory and practice those scales!!! Im a pretty good improviser at soloing. One thing you can never get enough of is practice making up solos and phrasing. Jam along to a good backing track. You can usually find some mp3s online that you can download. Keep it original and have fun with it.