Let me just say this about Yngwie:
Yngwie is easy to hate. He is a huge fucking douchebag. He puts Ferrari stickers on his Strats. I think they help him play faster or something...
I am not old enough to have legit listened to Yngwie Malmsteen in the 80s. I came to know him when I got into the electric guitar and turned to Youtube to satisfy my thirst.
Watching Youtube it is extremely easy to hate Yngwie. He's such a pudgy self-righteous bastard. He wears a ridiculous amount of bling. I'm usually wishing there was more gratuitous guitar playing in a song, but when I watch Yngwie on Youtube, it's just too much. I get burned out on harmonic minor so fast listening to Yngwie.
Maybe Yngwie always was a douchebag, but he wasn't always such a douchebag musically. If you've only given Yngwie a chance on Youtube, try out some of his earlier studio efforts. Before I got into rock music I was a devout classical fan (and player). Yngwie, for a while, did the whole neo-classical shred thing with a lot of heart and talent. I found his studio work to be a lot more convincing and compelling.
Check out this music video to see how hard he used to rock!
http://www.rocktube.us/bgll757Nf0T/Y...t_Tonight.html
The weirdo singer you see there is Jeff Scott Soto, some Steve Perry replacement nowadays.
At this point I don't know what to say about Yngwie. Remember when he did G3 in 2003 with Satriani and Vai? Lol, that was a match made in hell.
Well, I have to go do laundry. I'm going to spur some more electric guitar conversation when I get back.