The newest legends of rock music have been chosen – and you can learn their songs. 

Cyndi Lauper, White Stripes, and Soundgarden are among the musicians chosen for this year’s honor. You can learn their most famous songs step-by-step with Fret Zealot lessons.

Cyndi Lauper

Time After Time 

Cyndi Lauper’s signature song “Time After Time” was written after the rest of her debut album She’s So Unusual (1983) was already written – including “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “She Bop”, and “All Through the Night”. The writing started with the title, which Cyndi had seen in TV Guide – the 1979 action movie Time After Time. 

Soundgarden

Black Hole Sun

“Black Hole Sun” originated during a car ride. Released in 1994, it’s considered to be Seattle-based grunge rock band Soundgarden’s signature song. Lead singer Chris Cornell wrote the song – he said in 2014 that he came up with the concept and the melody while driving home from the studio after he thought he heard a radio news anchor say “Black hole sun”.

White Stripes

Seven Nation Army 

White Stripes singer and guitarist Jack White originally wrote the iconic riff for “Seven Nation Army” in a Melbourne hotel room while on tour in Australia. He showed it to a label executive, who didn’t see much potential in the riff. White planned to save the riff for a James Bond theme song – if he ever had the opportunity to write one. Eventually, he incorporated the riff into “Seven Nation Army” after giving up on that dream – only to write and perform “Another Way to Die” ft.  Alicia Keys five years later as the theme for 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace. 

Carol Kaye

These Boots are Made For Walkin‘

Legendary session musician Carol Kaye is known as the most-recorded bassist in history‘. She played on the tracks of some of the most notable artists of all time, including Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, fellow 2025 RRHoF inductee Joe Cocker, and The Beach Boys. Carol provided the sliding bassline hook for “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”, Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 hit. 

Outkast 

Hip hop duo Outkast achieved both critical admiration and commercial success in the early 2000s with albums like Stankonia (2000) and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) dominating airwaves and making waves in the sonic landscape of America.

You can learn their smash hit Roses with these Fret Zealot tabs.
Roses (fingerstyle)

Find the full list of 2025 RRHoF inductees here. 

Music has been used for protest for centuries – especially in America. According to the First Amendment Museum, some of the earliest protest songs in the United States were popular songs with altered lyrics to reflect the sentiments of the time, since there was no recording technology available. 

When radio, records, and other recording technology in the early 20th century helped bring popular music to the forefront of culture, music became an outlet for expressing protest against racism, sexism, war, pollution, and other systems. 

Here are some famous protest songs you can learn with Fret Zealot. 

Blowin’ in the Wind

One of legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s best-known songs, “Blowin’ in the Wind” became one of the signature tracks of the 1960s and cultural revolution taking place among young people, including the protest against the Vietnam War. The music was derived from the African-American spiritual song, “No More Auction Block.” 

Sunday Bloody Sunday

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” is one of iconic Irish rock band U2’s signature songs, and it’s one of their most political songs. The lyrics are from the point of view of “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, focusing on the “Bloody Sunday” event of 1972 when British military shot and killed unarmed protesters in Derry. 

Another Brick in the Wall, pt. 2 

Part of a three-part composition on Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall, “Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2” is a a protest song against corporal punishment and rigid and abusive schooling. The song was used by Black students in South Africa to protest their education under apartheid, leading to the song and its album to be banned there in 1980. 

Buffalo Soldier

The term “Buffalo Soldier” refers to a member of the Black U.S. cavalry regiment known as the “Buffalo Soldiers, who fought in the Native American Wars (expanding American territories) after 1866. Those soldiers were given less than optimal supplies and even less recognition for their work. Bob Marley linked the fight of those soldiers to a fight for survival, and cast them as a symbol of Black resistance. 

Crazy Train 

While not a traditional protest song, the lyrics of “Crazy Train” reflect the Cold War and the pervasive fear of nuclear annihilation that defined that time period. 

When you’re starting out playing guitar, tablature and chord charts can look like another language. They’re fairly easy to learn and understand – and they’ll make playing guitar so much easier for you.

Chord charts 

In a chord chart, the six vertical lines represent the guitar strings, from low E on the left to high E on the right. 

The horizontal lines represent the frets, starting with the second one from the top (the top of the fretboard is called the nut). 

There will be circles on the fretboard that represent where your fingers go. Sometimes, they will include numbers. Each number corresponds to a finger – 1 for pointer, 2 for middle, 3 for ring, and 4 for pinky. 

At the top of the chart, you’ll see Xs and Os. They don’t stand for “kisses and hugs” – they tell you whether or not to play the strings that are “open” – not fretted. X stands for “don’t play” and O stands for “play”. 

A sidebar on barre chords 

If you see a horizontal line over more than one fret, it represents a barre chord, where you put your pointer finger horizontally across the fret and hold down however many strings are indicated. Sometimes, there will be letters on the right hand of the diagram that says “[number]fr”. This indicates that the barre is played on a certain fret – in this case, the fourth fret, and the circles underneath it are played on the sixth and fifth frets. 

Public domain

Barre chords can be challenging, so don’t worry if it takes you a while to master this skill!

Tablature 

Tablature makes it easy to play solos, riffs, and other song parts without having to understand sheet music. 

Also known as “tabs”, tablature is easy to find for many songs (including in the Fret Zealot app). 

A tab consists of a graph with six horizontal lines, each representing a guitar string. The bottom line represents the low E string and the top represents the high E string. Numbers on each line indicate that the string is played, and the numbers correspond to each fret. A zero means that the string is played open. 

Tabs are read from left to right, and when multiple numbers are stacked on top of each other, that indicates a chord. 

Tablature makes it possible to learn even the most complicated riff simply by reading it.

Learn these songs on guitar to take you to a warmer place 

It’s February, you probably haven’t seen the sun in months, and it’s still cold out. What do you do?

Learn these warm-weather inspired songs to transport you to a warmer place – at least until spring shows up! 

Havana

This salsa-inspired 2017 hit will transport you to its Cuban city namesake – at least mentally. 

Island in the Sun

This 2001 hit from Weezer is like a 3:20 long trip to sunny Southern California. 

Hotel California

You may not be able to leave the mythical hotel this Eagles’ track is about, but at least you won’t need a parka. 

Californication 

“Californication” is the title track of the RHCP’s 1999 album. Its lyrics are full of SoCal imagery. 

Santeria

“Santeria” is also full of SoCal imagery, and will take you to Long Beach wherever you play it!