The Death of the Electric Guitar ("news" article)

[owickerman]

Its an arm powered harmonica.

 

[shinksma]

To put it another way, many of the "everyday names" I see on the internet most of my co-workers have never heard of. They're simply not exposed... there's no profit motivation for industry to do it, so they'd rather focus on their dwindling resources on known commodities (i.e., pop-stars).

When I was growing up (I'm currently 39) my Mum (who's currently 59) through exposure to mainstream media knew the names of all the major bands even though she didn't like them. She knew the lead singer from Blind Mellon had OD'd before I did even though she had no idea who he was and didn't know any of their music. Further, through media I was exposed to not only my Mum's music, but my Grandparents music. Guitar based music was everywhere, home, work, the mall, television, radio... you couldn't escape it.

Compare that to today where I play in a rock band with a bunch of dudes in their mid-20s and I don't recognize 90% of the stuff they talk about while they don't recognize 90% of the stuff I'm talking about. Despite being music fans that play in a rock band they've never been exposed to a lot of rock music, and conversely me being a ~40 year old metalhead I don't listen to the EDM-alternative-power-pop-indie-hipster music these guys listen to. I simply don't hear it anywhere. Not at home, work, in the mall, TV (I haven't watched TV since 2003) or radio (who listens to the radio?).

In the past my Mum was forced to listen to my music and I was forced to listen to hers. That doesn't seem to happen anymore. It's like we're in isolated social circles that don't come into contact with each other even though we physically stand in the same room and shoot the sh*t on regular basis.

Sorry to quote you entirely, but there are elements through relevant to my reply.

I wonder whether the unvideo-ing of MTV and the likes, along with further narrowing of entertainment niches in all forms (due primarily by perceived consumer demand), has resulted in the minimal cross-pollination of information, including exposure to music genres, across populations.

For example, Sirius/XM has stations dedicated to such narrow musical niches I wonder if you'd never discover Coldplay by listening to Imagine Dragons. Growing up (groan, not another one of those stories!) I had four channels as a kid, and when I was a teenager in the 80s at first there was only half-hour or hour-long video shows on the slightly expanded cable universe, and then finally MTV (or MuchMusic in my case). When I watched videos, I was exposed to all styles, because there was no way to avoid them.

And now with the advent of downloads and mobile devices, my 19-year-old daughter can listen to exactly whatever she wants without accidentally hearing something she might not be interested in. Well, except when we have band practice at home, then she gets exposed to Celtic Fusion and Rock'n'Roll whether she wants to be or not!

The decline of radio, caused by the growth of these other audio-based media, is possibly also to blame - I tire of listening to the radio with (what seems like) 15 minutes of ad breaks for 12 minutes of music and then 10 minutes of DJ banter.

 

[HANGAR18]

As of a few years ago I have already come to terms with what I believe to be the irreversible death spiral of the guitar industry. I also consider myself to be a member of the last generation of guitar buyers. Not only that but I believe that rock & roll/hard rock/heavy metal is also in an uncontrollable death spiral as well and that it too will die just as the "Big Band" era died when rock & roll/hard rock/heavy metal was invented. Set your feelings aside for a moment and consider these bullet items.

* Mankind has gone an entire generation without any new guitar based rock stars to rise up to the level of becoming a household name.
* The only rock stars selling out stadiums are the bands who have been pulling double duty and making records continuously for multiple generations (ie Metallica, Iron Maiden etc.)
* The older generation NEVER influences the younger generation coming up behind them. (How many of you play the music your parents were into?)
* The partnership between the recording studios, record industry and radio stations is dead. Albums can be recorded at home. Record companies and TV show producers aren't going to invest money in people who play real instruments because it is far cheaper to just pay "work for hire" artists to kick out some generic computer generated crap and make just as much money. The "powers that be" refuse to allow radio stations to play any new artists who play guitars and drums and load up the broadcast day with traditional acoustic folk music instruments or computer generated crap. (Maybe PRS out to think about mandolins for the future.)
* The majority of the hard rock/heavy metal artists these days who are still buying guitars just wind up using them as percussion instruments, can't sing and wouldn't know what a melody was if they tripped over one. I don't see that trend improving. Ever.
* Music theory? Already dead.

The only positive outlook I have for music in general is that you cannot have a Renaissance in music unless music dies first.

Final thought.
Google "Baby Metal" sometime.
<microphone drop>

 

[Tucson Thump]

The decline of radio, caused by the growth of these other audio-based media, is possibly also to blame - I tire of listening to the radio with (what seems like) 15 minutes of ad breaks for 12 minutes of music and then 10 minutes of DJ banter.

In the days of AM supremacy it used to be referred to as "too much chatter before the platter".

 

[GuitarDrummer]

Kids these days are playing their 8-strings, or even more strings.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Sorry to quote you entirely, but there are elements through relevant to my reply.

I wonder whether the unvideo-ing of MTV and the likes, along with further narrowing of entertainment niches in all forms (due primarily by perceived consumer demand), has resulted in the minimal cross-pollination of information, including exposure to music genres, across populations.

For example, Sirius/XM has stations dedicated to such narrow musical niches I wonder if you'd never discover Coldplay by listening to Imagine Dragons. Growing up (groan, not another one of those stories!) I had four channels as a kid, and when I was a teenager in the 80s at first there was only half-hour or hour-long video shows on the slightly expanded cable universe, and then finally MTV (or MuchMusic in my case). When I watched videos, I was exposed to all styles, because there was no way to avoid them.

And now with the advent of downloads and mobile devices, my 19-year-old daughter can listen to exactly whatever she wants without accidentally hearing something she might not be interested in. Well, except when we have band practice at home, then she gets exposed to Celtic Fusion and Rock'n'Roll whether she wants to be or not!

The decline of radio, caused by the growth of these other audio-based media, is possibly also to blame - I tire of listening to the radio with (what seems like) 15 minutes of ad breaks for 12 minutes of music and then 10 minutes of DJ banter.

lol - Coldplay came up in a discussion at work and they took turns singing songs until I finally recognized one (Yellow).

Your comments more or less hit on why I think guitar is on a downward spiral.

 

[Lee B.]

What's an ACCORDION?

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Kids these days are playing their 8-strings, or even more strings.

I think this is a natural push to find new sounds.

If you think historically, guitar produced a new sound every few years for decades until around the mid 90s with detuned guitars into Dual Rectifiers/5150s. The sound of guitar more or less stagnated, although in the early '00s there were whole genres experimenting with old school solid state and fuzz pedals. I never saw much forward movement again until guitarists started ignoring the stigma around 7 strings and started progressing beyond, which started a new evolution in extreme metal.

Telecaster, Stratocaster (vibrato), Fender reverb (surf), amp tremolo, Tweed, Blackface, Bassman, JTM-45, Silverface, Wah, tape echo, Super Lead, Fuzz Face, Tone Bender, UniVibe, tape flanging, Super Distortion, pedal flanging, Big Muff, Phase 90, Tubescreamer, JC120/CE-1, DM-1/2, Mesa Mark I, 2290, DD-3, Looping, JCM800, Mark IIC+, SLO, JCM900, Mark IV, 7 string, Dual Rectifier, JCM2000....long period of time.....8 string, doubled gated polyrhythms, ERGs, AxeFX, ???

That said, despite the recent evolution in ERGs and everything that's possible with an AxeFX everyone still sounds like they're playing through a Rectifier or 5150... just more compressed and staccato.

 

[Lee B.]

If it's any consolation, my nine year old loves it when I curate some of my favorite old music for her. She loves Joan Jett! She somehow found out that she's playing a fair here this summer and she's asked me to take her several times already. I checked out an Allman Brothers live DVD from the library, and she adored them. She laughed at Warren's guitar faces and Dickey's springing up and down like a jack in the box. What really surprised me was how enthralled she was by "Elizabeth Reed," which of course went on for twenty minutes or so without any singing at all. Ann Wilson of Heart is one of her idols too, right up there with Katy Perry, Charlie Puth, and Ariana Grande. We were watching that "Strange Magic" cartoon movie and the villain guy voiced by Alan Cummings jumped up at one point and burst into a rendition of "Mistreated." So after the movie, I showed her a mark III Deep Purple concert, and she was all about David Coverdale and Deep Purple for two weeks or so afterward. She even recognized him when I played her some 80s Whitesnake recently. She's got a couple guitars, too, and plugs them into the living room amp and strums along sometimes. Looking forward to teaching her some chords this summer.

 

[László]

I think the idea that guitar is dead, or that "we're the last generation that is into the guitar," is, well, just a bit overrated. My son playing with his band, Partybaby, at Bottlerock in NAPA last month:



My grandson with his 7th birthday present:

 

[Elliot]

For what it's worth, I'm a millennial (24 years old). People who say negative things about up-and-coming rock acts, who claim that they aren't like the great rock acts of the past are unwittingly contributing to the death of rock and the electric guitar. It will never be like it was, but electric guitar can still have a future if everyone understands it's going to change. Someone mentioned that new generations are NEVER influenced by the older generation: just blatantly false. My favorite bands of all time are 70's-90's bands; I have a huge respect for the great originals of blues and rock in the 40's-60's as well (maybe earlier. I don't know. I'm only 24).

I can really only think of two huge stadium musicians, of my generation, who use a 4 or more piece band. Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. My fiance danced on Taylor's Red Tour, I met a lot of the band and Ed Sheeran a few times. Many of Taylor's band mates had been with her for years. I'm not a huge Taylor fan. I just wanted to mention a young stadium musician who uses electric instruments.

Harry Styles is much better than many of you may think. (I know he came from 1 direction or whatever. Obviously, not a very good musical contribution) I don't know if any of you have listened to his new album but it's not bad. Much more rock than most of the other top 40 that's becoming popular in my generation. He claims to be influenced by Pink Floyd and Zeppelin and others. Although I would still call it "pop" or "pop-rock", they use the same formula as a lot of the greats from the mid-late 20th century. It's good ****. I dig his guitarist Mitch Rowland a lot. He wrote some great stuff.

 

[Elliot]

I think the idea that guitar is dead, or that "we're the last generation that is into the guitar," is, well, just a bit overrated. My son playing with his band, Partybaby, at Bottlerock in NAPA last month:



My grandson with his 7th birthday present:

Yeah, Les. You get it, man. You're one of the good ones.

 

[bodia]

I don't know. There's a lot of good hard rock/heavy metal out there. You just have to know where to find it. Right now, that's Europe. There is a ton of old school metal coming out of that part if the world. Many years ago when I thought that genre was dying I stumbled into a little independent record store in Roselle, IL called Impulse Music. Great little store, with a rad owner (Steve, I think). He turned me on to so many cool bands that I would have never known existed. That place, and the now web only Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine helped fuel a 10 year buying frenzy of quality metal (power, heavy, prog, aor, fantasy...pick a sub genre). Sadly, he moved his store to Colorado, about 7 years ago and I lost touch. I still check his website weekly for new CDs to add to the ever growing list. If you think metal is dead, check out his store. You just may find something you like, and find that things aren't as dire as you fear (if you're into that type of music).

http://www.impulsemusic.com/new/

 

[Screamingdaisy]

For what it's worth, I'm a millennial (24 years old). People who say negative things about up-and-coming rock acts, who claim that they aren't like the great rock acts of the past are unwittingly contributing to the death of rock and the electric guitar. It will never be like it was, but electric guitar can still have a future if everyone understands it's going to change. Someone mentioned that new generations are NEVER influenced by the older generation: just blatantly false. My favorite bands of all time are 70's-90's bands; I have a huge respect for the great originals of blues and rock in the 40's-60's as well (maybe earlier. I don't know. I'm only 24).

I can really only think of two huge stadium musicians, of my generation, who use a 4 or more piece band. Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. My fiance danced on Taylor's Red Tour, I met a lot of the band and Ed Sheeran a few times. Many of Taylor's band mates had been with her for years. I'm not a huge Taylor fan. I just wanted to mention a young stadium musician who uses electric instruments.

Harry Styles is much better than many of you may think. (I know he came from 1 direction or whatever. Obviously, not a very good musical contribution) I don't know if any of you have listened to his new album but it's not bad. Much more rock than most of the other top 40 that's becoming popular in my generation. He claims to be influenced by Pink Floyd and Zeppelin and others. Although I would still call it "pop" or "pop-rock", they use the same formula as a lot of the greats from the mid-late 20th century. It's good ****. I dig his guitarist Mitch Rowland a lot. He wrote some great stuff.

One of my guitarists (23 yo) is pretty into the blues and you can hear it in his writing. One of the songs we're writing right now has Muddy Waters all over it and I'm nudging it in an Alice in Chains direction because it has the potential to be really heavy (vocally heavy, not chugga chugga heavy). It's putting us in a unique niche because we stand out both sonically and rhythmically from our peers.

Interestingly (to me) is that a lot of the fans/bands in our scene don't know how to peg him. I hear a lot of comments of "country-ish", which I'm guessing is because that's what they know and have no understanding of what the blues sounds like.

 

[bodia]

One of the songs we're writing right now has Muddy Waters all over it and I'm nudging it in an Alice in Chains direction because it has the potential to be really heavy (vocally heavy, not chugga chugga heavy). It's putting us in a unique niche because we stand out both sonically and rhythmically from our peers.

I'd listen to that!

 

[Elliot]

One of my guitarists (23 yo) is pretty into the blues and you can hear it in his writing. One of the songs we're writing right now has Muddy Waters all over it and I'm nudging it in an Alice in Chains direction because it has the potential to be really heavy (vocally heavy, not chugga chugga heavy). It's putting us in a unique niche because we stand out both sonically and rhythmically from our peers.

Interestingly (to me) is that a lot of the fans/bands in our scene don't know how to peg him. I hear a lot of comments of "country-ish", which I'm guessing is because that's what they know and have no understanding of what the blues sounds like.

Is it a pretty young scene?

 

[László]

Yeah, Les. You get it, man. You're one of the good ones.

Aw, thanks!

Here's my feeling, and I truly believe this with all my heart: I was raised and trained on keyboards, in classical and various popular music styles.

I play, and program, synthesizers. I know how to manipulate samples. I often do things with that technology in my work. I have often written orchestral pieces with sampled instruments that would fool ya.

But stringed instruments are different. With something like a guitar, a violin, a bass, etc., your fingers are not only selecting the notes, they're modulating them in intensely personal and intimate ways that no machine, and no "mod wheel" or keyboard controller can precisely replicate.

That is why the guitar is a uniquely expressive tool in the hands of someone who understands what to do with it. And uniquely expressive instruments have a way of remaining popular for a very long time.

Even the piano, a stringed instrument played by hammers hitting the strings, is a more expressive instrument by miles and miles than even the best MIDI samples of the instrument.

An Echoplex makes a different sound from a digital pedal or plugin. A real Leslie speaker makes a different sound from a pedal or plugin. A tube amp sounds different from a Kemper or a Helix. That's the truth.

Now, whether pop music moves into directions that we can't foresee, well, of course it will! But that doesn't mean that a great instrument will die a certain death. The history of music is far more nuanced than many folks think.

People talk about the "death of classical music," yet when I go to the University of Michigan school of music to give a talk about my own work, I see hundreds of kids who are training to play in orchestras, perform in operas, play in pit orchestras, perform on a pipe organ; the halls of the building echo with the sounds of traditional instruments coming out of the practice rooms.

In the 70s, the synth was new and interesting, and made its way to Beatle and Who records; in the 80s, it was all over pop radio; in the 90s, the synth was "dead." Only dance music folks were into it. Now it's all over pop music again.

Cycles, my friends, merely cycles. Everything old is new again, over and over. Don't stop practicing your guitars.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Is it a pretty young scene?

Yes. We're hooked in with an artist development company and part of what they do is try to line up acts so there's crossover appeal. Most of the crowd we're circulating with is 17 through 30. There's some older dudes; me (39) and a couple of the drummers... but the people out front are typically in their 20s.

I'd listen to that!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=761777444003941

I don't have clips of the current song since it's still being worked out, but skip to 2:11 to hear one of his earlier tunes. It's a little more poppy, but you'll catch the drift. He's on the acoustic.

 

[bodia]

Yes. We're hooked in with an artist development company and part of what they do is try to line up acts so there's crossover appeal. Most of the crowd we're circulating with is 17 through 30. There's some older dudes; me (39) and a couple of the drummers... but the people out front are typically in their 20s.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=761777444003941

I don't have clips of the current song since it's still being worked out, but skip to 2:11 to hear one of his earlier tunes. It's a little more poppy, but you'll catch the drift. He's on the acoustic.

Dig it!

 

[László]

I liked it, Screamingdaisy!