There are so many differnt categories of guitar playing. there is clasical, jazz, blues, blues based rock, rock based blues etc.. some players cover a broad spectrum. Satriani's "chords of life" is an example. it starts out more clasical then goes into more modern rock riffs. Vai's "tender surrender" starts out with jazz then progressed into a soaring rock instrumental ballad. Stevie ray vaughn's playing is so energetic and you can sense what is comming next in his solos, they are so melodic and pleasing to the ear. al di meola is a great acoustic player(very technical and based on great composition). Blues players like bernard allison and kenny wayne sheppard are starting to bridge the gap between blues and rock. PS.. Download some bernard allison stuff off kazaa..if you are are a fan of rockin blues of just great music all together i highly reccoment the following BERNARD ALLISON songs
JUST CAME BACK TO SAY GOODBY
THE RIVERS RISING
IVE BEEN DOWN SO LONG
ACROSS THE WATER