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The slow death of the electric guitar

washingtonpost.com

331–340 of 343 posts

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#331
It's obvious why:

1. How much does an electric guitar cost? Comparatively, how much does it cost to pirate music software on the device you already own?

2. How many people do you need to form a rock band? Comparatively, how many people do you need to start producing?

3. How many sounds can an electric guitar make? Comparatively, how many sounds can a computer make?

Using a computer is cheaper, easier, more versatile, and more original than an electric guitar. Let it die.

The only argument to be made for the electric guitar is that you actually play it, and this applies to every other instrument, so I see no reason to mourn for the electric guitar in particular.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#332
post #27

I think it's a bit naive to believe that guitar heroes can bring the interest for the guitar back. People look back at the guitar heroes time with a nostalgic fondness for a time that doesn't exist anymore. This was already visible in Wayne's world and became more than obvious in school of rock. Guitar-heavy rock has become a geek genre. Pop has moved on. There are obviously various reasons for this: 1. Technological…

> I think die hard rock fans need to get over it, guitar heroes are not coming back any time soon.

I disagree. The guitar isn't gone yet, and even if there are newer instruments, the guitar will be with us for a long time.

And there's more to music than dancing. Even if guitars will be playing second fiddle to computers, they'll remain relevant just like violins are still relevant (and perhaps making a comeback in the hands of people like Lindsey Stirling). Besides, I need guitars in my dance music. Dance music shouldn't be sterile. The dirty, distorted sound of a guitar gives my the energy to dance in a way that an electronic beat does not.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes, but most solos by Brian May are hugely musical and compliment the music. Also, Jeff Beck's records are really interesting, good, entertaining, innovative solo guitar.

That's what a good solo does. It shouldn't be a true solo, but part of the music. Maybe the name "solo" is wrong. A good solo doesn't stand on its own, but it's a break in the music that brings you to the next piece.

Too many guitar players think the solo is their time to show off how quick their fingers are without being hampered by the rest of the song. It may be impressive guitar skills, but it's crappy music. That doesn't mean that all solos should die, just that they shouldn't be entirely solo.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that these kids are all amazing (including Lorde, I hope she has a long and successful career like Bush and Wonder). I just don't buy that modern tech makes that much of a difference. It's just... different! If you see what I mean. :)

My argument has always been about access. Some kids are lucky enough to be brought up in a household with music all around; the internet makes it possible to any kid can surround themselves with brilliant music and musical knowledge. That's all. There still has to be a will to make music (or art, or tech, or whatever). It's just an enabler, a lever that wasn't accessible to most kids in the past, is all I'm saying.

Yeah, I'll buy that.

Not so much tech per se (although I also like your point about apps for music practice and other things) but the social changes and prosperity that are partly driven by tech.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole section near the end of the article about a noticeable bump in sales of guitars to women, inspired by Taylor Swift. You just have to be more flexible about what "guitar hero" can mean.

I think even the most flexible definition of guitar hero shouldn't include Taylor Swift. I'd say that style of guitar - using it for texture under the song - is antithetical to guitar heroism. The guitar became heroic because it broke out of the background music section of the band that supports the singer and became a star in its own right. It was another avenue of expression just by itself. Strumming some chords on…

There are other approaches to the guitar that are just as historically significant as the Hendrix-style electric solo. Not long before that, in the folk music boom, the acoustic guitar was seen as the ultimate democratic instrument -- you could toss it in the back of your car, drive to a gig or a party, and start playing immediately (rhythm, harmony, melody, whatever you like).

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An electric guitar is really just six independent oscillators with an archaic user interface...

And music is really just a the electrical impulses from bunch of soundwaves banging up against the membrane in our eardrums. Jeez, that kind of reductionism really kills the magic (not to mention ignoring the talent and feel involved for an artist to make those oscillators 'speak' to you)

"It is a poor poet that falls silent when he finds out that the sun is actually a massive sphere of hydrogen fusing into helium." -Richard Feynman

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 entertaini…

> "you really can't say that Diplo is less important than Dylan until long after both are dead"

This a hundred times. If you look at YouTube views, Diplo is orders of magnitude ahead. Do you think YouTube is going anywhere?

So, if anything, the read is indicating the other way.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#339
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Kate Bush was 19 when she released Wuthering Heights (and had been writing for years before that)." I've been comparing Lorde to Kate Bush for ages now, so I agree with you on that comparison (and I'm a huge Stevie Wonder fan, including his childhood songs..."Up Tight", recorded when he was 15, is among my favorites to holler along with while cooking dinner). But...there's gonna be a lot more of those kids. I'd bet…

Check out Jacob Collier too. Incredibly talented mult-instrumentalist and singer.

Jacob Collier will surely go down as this generation's Miles Davis. What a phenomenal talent.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#340
post #34

I think the trend will continue down for guitar playing, and for all musical instruments. My theory is based on the fact that learning to play well is difficult and time consuming. Popular music is by and large not the product of humans, moving muscles, energizing mass, thus generating sound waves. "Sounds" that we hear in pop music are in main generated digitally, usually with software instruments, in a computer. Po…

The thing is, if EDM's trained probably two generations of producers, DJs and listeners to distinguish the quality of beats based on inhuman, machinelike perfection, you can't really roll that back and try to groove with fallible humans and call that better. So 'canned' only means 'created properly, at leisure, to produce an artifact that's ideal'. You can manipulate elaborate networks of machines and some of the tra…

I agree, the timing is way too tight, only master level musicians can approach it. Though they can.

Having grown up listening, and producing, rock music, and related forms, I find the rigid timing of EDM to be unpleasant. Except for occasional dancing, where it seems to work well.

So I don't see it as "correct" timing, just a different feel.

There was a real shift once the music started being produced in the computer, and you could repeat, bit for bit, chunks of audio.

This contrasts heavily with a lot of the best Hip-Hop production of the 90s. I'm thinking of groups like Public Enemy. Because of the nature of the production tools, the timing on their sample based music is inherently "loose."

I have a theory that part of what makes music/art interesting is the ability to perceive how an artist engaged with the limitations of their medium.

Prior to DAWs, having music that was precise, and had precise repetition was hard. Artists often did try, and achieve, some very tight productions, but it was an effort. The effort happens at a boundary, which is what allows us to perceive it.

Now, instead of being hard, getting music to be precise, and to repeat sections exactly, is trivial. There's no challenge to inherently make sound repeat anymore. So it's easy to wind up with loop based music that is super boring, because it lacks the needed variation to keep it interesting. The more interesting producers of various flavors of EDM grapple with this challenge directly, and it is upon this boundary that we, the listener, can share in their expression!

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