Guitar Rock (Time-Life Music)

"Guitar Rock" was first issued in 1993, although two "prototype" volumes that are considered to be part of the series were issued beforehand. Those albums were titled Guitar Rock (issued as a two-CD set in 1990) and Guitar Rock Monsters (1992, also as a two-CD set). The original Guitar Rock volume was the only one known to be available as a vinyl album. The first volume in the series proper was issued in the summer of 1993 and titled Guitar Rock: 1974-1975.

As was the case with Time-Life's other series, "Guitar Rock" was advertised in television and magazine advertisements. The series was available by subscription (by calling a 1-800 number); those who purchased the series in that fashion received a new volume roughly every other month (on the format of their choice), and had the option of keeping the volumes they wanted.

Each volume was also offered for individual sale. When the series was fully issued, a customer could purchase the entire series at once (or a group of albums, as packaged by Time-Life as part of a promotion), often at a discounted price.

New volumes continued to be issued through 1996, the final one being a volume covering rock from the first half of the 1990s. Two additional volumes, spotlighting power ballads and edgier pop music of the 1980s, were released in 1999.

Time-Life continued to offer "Guitar Rock" through the mid-2000s (decade), after which it was replaced by other series.

As with many of Time-Life Records' multi-volume releases, the volumes were not issued in a logical, sequential order by date or era of the subject; that is, issuing volumes covering the 1960s before progressing to the 1970s. In the track information section, the volumes will be listed sequentially by era; the following list is the order in which the volumes were released.

• Time-Life Music official site – for a listing of current products
• Time-Life Album Discography, Part 26: Guitar Rock