Maybe I should expand this a little: Stratocasters are immensely popular guitars, currently (this was not always the case), but saying that a Stratocaster is used in a wide variety of music is not the same thing as saying the Stratocaster has a wide variety of
sounds.
Of course, you can get nearly anything to sound like anything else with enough effects, processing, amp diddling and soforth, but if you really want to know what a guitar sounds like and what
you sound like as a player, you use a plain guitar cable and an amp set clean with plenty of headroom. Scary, huh?
When I talk about a Stratocaster of any vintage, I mean the basic US-made standard model, not an import, a Double-Fat, a Delonge,
a Stagemaster, Dipsy-Doodle or any other variant, just the plain-vanilla item. Currently, that's the "American" series.
A Stratocaster straight into an amp doesn't really have that much range. What it has is a few unique, powerful, high-frequency sounds that everyone knows. It has no low end.
The Stratocaster is popular for a couple of reasons that I see. One, it has a limited range of distinctive bright tones can cut through any amount of mush onstage and in recordings. If it's there, you can tell. For that, it's hard to touch (a Telecaster's bridge pickup will also cut through, but it's a lot thinner than the Stratocaster's "quack" 2 & 4 settings).
The other reason is that it's about the cheapest widely accepted pro electric guitar there is. You watch the sales and catch an AmSe for $599.99 at Musician's Friend, set it up right and you can go on any stage in the world and nobody's going to look down on your choice of axe.
These two reasons are very persuasive.
