"You Really Got Me" by The Kinks became one of the most influential rock songs of the 1960s partly thanks to a moment of deliberate destruction in the studio. Frustrated that studio engineers had smoothed away the raw energy of their live sound on an initial take, guitarist Dave Davies slashed his amplifier's speaker cone with a razor blade, producing a distorted, gritty tone unlike the polished guitar sounds typical of London rock at the time. The resulting recording helped launch both hard rock and garage rock as genres, and the technique influenced generations of guitarists who followed.

The Kinks, formed by brothers Ray and Dave Davies after abandoning the name "The Ravens," had struggled commercially with two cover singles before turning to an original song Ray had written years earlier about a girl he once saw dancing at a gig. Ray Davies also damaged bassist Pete Quaife's preamp speaker in a similar way, and together the modifications let the band recreate their chaotic live energy in the studio. The re-recorded version became a major hit in 1964, giving The Kinks their breakthrough and shaping the sound of rock guitar for years to come.