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The slow death of the electric guitar

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Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#101

Post by ojosilva »

One can't just look at revenue, debt and Moody's rating of guitar makers and dealers and proclaim the guitar, the most popular instrument today by a huge margin, is dying.

But the lack of prominence of the guitar in the top charts and the way social pop culture influences people today does have a significant impact in new guitar purchases. When I was a kid learning the guitar, dad's old Fender wouldn't do. I HAD to have a Satriani-style Ibanez, my guitar hero at the time. I have a friend that, throughout the years, has invested over $100K getting himself each and every one of his heroes guitars over and over. As guitars are not as prominent in mainstream music anymore guitar sales dwindle.

Add to that a huge "installed base" of used guitars, a good that is unparalleled in durability, and you have a very stale market for new guitars that will generate a gap for years to come.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#102

Post by Zarath »

SwellJoe wrote: post #59
ThomPete wrote: post #2

Software eating the world. As a guitarist, for some of my years professionally I can only say that this is mostly because you can emulate a lot of things today which normally required different guitars to bring out special sounds and because well most music today don't have guitar solos and thus it's hard to imagine guitar heroes coming out of music which doesn't put guitar in the front. It's not just guitars though…

I for one, welcome the death of the guitar solo. I say this as a guitarist of more than three decades, and as a lover of great guitar playing. Rock and roll guitar solos are, by and large, the wankiest and most pointless waste of notes I can imagine. If we never get another, say Eruption , in exchange for no more awful weedly-deedly musical maelstroms I believe it is a more than fair trade. Even the good rock and rol…

Totally agree, I find nearly no guitar solos that add anything to the song. A few exceptions I can think of are Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Maudlin of the Well.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#103

Post by coldtea »

cyberferret wrote: post #32

> “John Mayer?” he asks. “You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.” Sorry, but my 17 year old son was so inspired by Mayer about 5 years ago that he invested a LOT of time learning how to play guitar and sing like him, and other artists with similar styles. [0] He is now building quite a steady music career even while finishing high school…

>Sorry, but my 17 year old son was so inspired by Mayer about 5 years ago that he invested a LOT of time learning how to play guitar and sing like him, and other artists with similar styles.

I'm sure we can find kids into Foxtrot too, but I don't think we'll see a Foxtrot revival.

Emulating Clapton, or Hendrix, or Page, etc was a mass phenomenon, which is what the "bunch" alludes to.

The last to inspire anything of that kind in a mass way would be someone like Jack White, and even that is was more subdued and fragmented that what it used to be.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#104

Post by agumonkey »

jacquesm wrote: post #99
agumonkey wrote: post #89

Allan Holdsworth, one of the most innovative guitar player passed not long ago. If you feel like discovering a new way around an instrument, and even music in general, and are not repelled by 70s/80s synth feel, enjoy youtubing his name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXSd-WyrtfA The man was an extraordinary among extraordinaries. The guitarit's guitarist as they say. Beside music, the notion of culture itself chang…

Oh that sucks, I totally missed that. :( I especially love the work that he did with Jean Luc Ponty, and UK's Rendez-Vous 6:02.

I missed it too by a week, he has always been in the shadow.

I don't think I've listened to Ponty with him, onto it.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#105

Post by fredley »

ojosilva wrote: post #101

One can't just look at revenue, debt and Moody's rating of guitar makers and dealers and proclaim the guitar, the most popular instrument today by a huge margin, is dying. But the lack of prominence of the guitar in the top charts and the way social pop culture influences people today does have a significant impact in new guitar purchases. When I was a kid learning the guitar, dad's old Fender wouldn't do. I HAD to h…

Really what you want to look at is sales of guitar strings as an indicator of how much guitar is being played.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#106

Post by coldtea »

aguynamedben wrote: post #42
cyberferret wrote: post #32

> “John Mayer?” he asks. “You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.” Sorry, but my 17 year old son was so inspired by Mayer about 5 years ago that he invested a LOT of time learning how to play guitar and sing like him, and other artists with similar styles. [0] He is now building quite a steady music career even while finishing high school…

Been playing guitar for 20 years, and this is spot on! The John Mayer comment is ridiculous, he's a great guitarist. Even many of John Mayer's biggest pop radio hits have great chord voicings and writing built-in (No Such Thing, Why Georgia, Neon, Daughters). The YouTube factor you mention is also amazing. This article was probably right, but it's so focused on the good ole days that it's sad. Times change. Art chang…

>Diplo and TSwift are as legit as SRV and Dylan. Rock on.

First, if they are, then that's part of the focus of the article. That guitar and guitar rock is waning -- and surely Diplo and TSwift are not bringing it back.

Second, no Diplo and TSwift are not as legit as SRV and Dylan. Not because they are different genres, but because they are inferior artistically (regardless of genre).

They might be equally entertaining or whatever, in a "it's a free country and I can listen to whatever I like", but artistically they're not even close (and SRV is not in the same league for cultural impact as Dylan anyway).

It's not about the past. There are contemporary electronic, edm, r&b, hip hop etc artists that are on par with SRV and Dylan on creative merits, but TSwift and Diplo are not them -- like the Monkeys weren't as good as The Beatles, and Frankie Avalon was no Elvis.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#107

Post by aries1980 »

ThomPete wrote: post #2

Software eating the world. As a guitarist, for some of my years professionally I can only say that this is mostly because you can emulate a lot of things today which normally required different guitars to bring out special sounds and because well most music today don't have guitar solos and thus it's hard to imagine guitar heroes coming out of music which doesn't put guitar in the front. It's not just guitars though…

At some places, it is the other way round :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwAj-jzeedw

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#108

Post by coldtea »

ojosilva wrote: post #101

One can't just look at revenue, debt and Moody's rating of guitar makers and dealers and proclaim the guitar, the most popular instrument today by a huge margin, is dying. But the lack of prominence of the guitar in the top charts and the way social pop culture influences people today does have a significant impact in new guitar purchases. When I was a kid learning the guitar, dad's old Fender wouldn't do. I HAD to h…

>One can't just look at revenue, debt and Moody's rating of guitar makers and dealers and proclaim the guitar, the most popular instrument today by a huge margin, is dying.

The "most popular instrument today" is misleading, considering modern R&B, Hip Hop (and to a lesser degree) EDM dominate everything charts and sales wise, and they use mostly computer DAWs and plugins, something that wont register in "instrument sales" lists or music schools.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#109

Post by SwellJoe »

srean wrote: post #77
SwellJoe wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This made you a much better player than just looking up a video or tab though." I disagree. Not about the "just looking up a tab" bit, but about the general gist of your argument that "the hard way teaches you better". Easier access to knowledge is always better when you want to learn things, and the internet is absolutely the best access to knowledge that has ever existed. I've been playing guitar since long before…

I dont think he meant "better because you did it the hardway" but "better because you spent time on the finer details of the phrasing" That said, it seems you had a lot on your chest and it feels good to get it off

So, I tied an onion to my belt, which was the fashion at the time.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#110

Post by coldtea »

agumonkey wrote: post #87
kaoD wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO there will not be a next Miles Davies or a next Jimmy Hendrix. Or rather, they've already been. The last 40 years of music have experienced such a revolution, we've already had many of those (most of them relegated to obscurity through sheer volume and industrialization of music). But now that I've re-read your comment you've already mentioned the niche-ization :) Hip-hop was a revolutionary genre like rock musi…

I don't listen to much electronic music, but I find no subtleties or sensitivity in what I hear. I understand that dismissing the new for no other reason is useless but I just don't feel it.

>I don't listen to much electronic music, but I find no subtleties or sensitivity in what I hear.

Probably because you don't listen much.

There are subtleties in electronic music pieces that go several levels beyond jazz even -- in timbre, rhythm, harmony etc. Compared to something like 70s rock, there's no contest even.

You wont find those in EDM charts though.

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