Especially in 80s there were quite a few pop songs with high level guitar playing in them. Troy discussed this briefly in Episode 6 of Cracking the Code. Post some pop songs with high level guitar playing in them. (Or shredding in genres not known for technical guitar playing)
The ones that come to mind for me are
This isnât a formal release, but Rihanna performing âRockstar 101â live with Nuno Bettencourt:
Aww yeah that scene was a lot of fun to make. Here for anyone who hasnât seen it yet 
Starts at around 8:40
I actually went to a Rihanna show a few years ago, surprisingly great! Nuno was there and got A LOT of solos!
He gets a good amount of solo-ing goodness in this track. âTechnicalâ may not be the right word, but itâs pretty good!
Michael Jackson and Slash on this one:
Allan Holdsworth is all over the Level 42 album Guaranteed:
Two great solos in Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears For Fears:
Chesney Hawkes - I Am The One and Only -
The great Alan Murphy (RIP) with Go West -
Cool interview with Nuno where he talks about the Rihanna gig:
Brett Garsed played guitar on several of John Farnhamâs albums, including Whispering Jack. The hit single âYouâre The Voiceâ has a pretty tasty outro solo, though itâs quite low in the mix.
Donât know a specific song, but Mateus Asato really rips it up with Tori Kelly - I know he gets to solo live but donât know if the studio recordings have much rippage.
Justin Derrico-with Pink- is a great player, although I canât point to any specific tunes right now.
Ok, which one of you is a reporter for Rolling Stone?
One of my favourite solos ever. Not much picking but I love the saxophone like legato tone here. Solo starts at 2:44.
In honor of @BubbaMcâs new Buckethead thread, I was reminded of the first solo from GnRâs song âBetterâ off of Chinese Democracy. Itâs a pretty cool little shred moment courtesy of Buckethead on the most expensive album ever made(?)âŚ
Bucketheadâs solo starts around 2:24:
How has Mr. Big not gotten a single mention in this thread? 
@Montreal543 good call
Hereâs my favourite guitar work from the album (and surprisingly from the entire GnR catalogue), Bucketâs lengthy solo starting at 4:20:
Iâm a big Racer X fan but the only Mr. Big song I ever heard was To Be With You. Is that typical of most of their songs, or were their other songs heavier?
Listen to Daddy Brother Lover Little Boy or Addicted To That Rush.
OK, I will make that a priority! Thank you!
I donât listen to a ton of their music, to be honest, but Mr. Big had Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan, so you know they were going to be technical. Theyâre more rock than metal, IMO, and while there was always a bit of tongue in cheek to Racer X, Mr. Big seemed a lot more light-hearted to me.
âTo Be With Youâ is a fairly simple song, but has a deceptively simple-sounding, seriously cool acoustic solo.
Interestingly (and unusually, for a âguitar rockâ record), Paul only has songwriting credit on 6 of the 11 songs on their breakthrough album âLean Into Itâ. Paul doesnât have writing credit for âTo Be With Youâ, though must have written at least the solo, because Iâve heard him tell a story about how one of the low Es (or the timing or accent of it) was a âmistakeâ he liked and decided to leave in. It seems like Lean Into It was a concerted effort to do put out something more accessible and commercial. The inclusion of âTo Be With Youâ (which wiki says lead singer Eric Martin had written years earlier) seemed like a deliberate attempt to mimic Extremeâs breakthrough with âMore Than Wordsâ, which itself was an attempt to mimic the success of Poisonâs âEvery Rose Has Its Thornâ.
I just watched the video for Addicted To That Rush. itâs not my favorite style (I preferred Paul Gilbertâs songs in Racer X) but still itâs good. One thing I do like about it is you can tell theyâre all really enjoying themselves. That has a carryover effect to the audience: When the audience sees a band onstage enjoying themselves, the audience tends to feel good too. When a band onstage looks like theyâre angry or upset, that often has a similar effect on the audience whether itâs in the form of vandalism, destruction of property, or violent mosh pits. I was at an Ozzfest which featured Pantera and when Pantera played their fans starting actually tearing up sections of sod from the lawn area of the outdoor venue and throwing it towards the stage. Of course most of it ended up hitting people who were in the area that had seats. I didnât pay $70 for a ticket to be hit with flying chunks of dirt while trying to enjoy a concert. Speaking of Pantera, after Darrell Abbott was murdered onstage, Dave Mustaine was interviewed on the news. While I donât remember word for word everything he said, the gist of it was that he said that bands in their genre needed to seriously think about their lyrics, the message they were sending to their fans and the effects they might be having on people.
There was a level of optimism in our culture in the 80s and very early 90s that I donât think weâve had since.
It seems to me that if youâre living your lifeâs dream, making your living as a musician, and a good living at that, you should be happy about it. Yet I have heard so many stories about the heroin addiction problems in 90s bands and beyond, that it does make you wonder what is it that theyâre missing in their lives that makes them sound so miserable to the point that the anger and misery comes out in their lyrics and even the way they look when theyâre performing. They were getting paid and paid well to play music, they often had wives and children, they had success both artistically and financially and yet there was still something in their lives they needed and didnât have. Weâve had practically an epidemic of suicides in the music industry, starting with Kurt Cobain and continuing on, most recently with Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park.
This seriously needs to be looked into. Accidental deaths have always been part of the music industry from people partying excessively, but these deaths were intentional. On average, Iâd say the guys from the 70âs and 80s bands seem to be outliving the guys from 90s bands and when you do hear about a guy who was famous in the 70s or 80s dying prematurely, it tends to be accidental or something unavoidable such as cancer, but rarely is it suicide.