The demise of the electric guitar in music...

Psean

It's apparently happening. I never even noticed...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyowsinski/2013/10/08/the-demise-of-the-electric-guitar-in-music/

Squonk

He does have a point. I looked at the CD covers of some of my daughters music and on most of them there are no guitars whatsoever, just programming.

But the point I would like to make is that - Shops and the radio don't determine what music there is the world. I personally think that there is a lot of good music out there and the INTERNET is closing the gap. So don't let cruise ships, Radio Stations, Shops etc determine the state of music ?

Psean

Squonk wrote:

But the point I would like to make is that - Shops and the radio don't determine what music there is the world. I personally think that there is a lot of good music out there and the INTERNET is closing the gap. So don't let cruise ships, Radio Stations, Shops etc determine the state of music ?

EXACTLY! :goodtimes:
The demise of guitar in pop music maybe. But not in music.

BMU

His final conclusion is pro-guitar though.

"Think hard before you give up on that plank of wood with metal wires. The electric guitar may be dead in music today... but it may just as likely rise from the musical ashes of tomorrow. Trends are like that."

Obviously most people who are really into music don't care what the herd listens to. There's more of every type of music than ever. In fact there are more virtuoso guitarists than ever. Kids are so damn good these days.

Heck I'm not even that interested whether guitar dies forever. (Not that there's any chance of that.) Lots of EBM/electro stuff I like too, which incidentally also does not play on the radio.

And finally, I just need to point out: THE NEW CARCASS ALBUM FREAKING ROCKS!!!!! Take THAT. ?

peterleroux

Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein

aubs1

peterleroux wrote: Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein

+1 Hahahahaha ......

Airguitar

Guitars are long gone in POP.. Do you call that stuff Music?? >☹

Banditman

I don't remember a hell of a lot of guitar in much of the mid to late eighties POP music, or rather it wasn't anywhere but in the background. Then we had the early '90s and the start of techno - zero guitar in that lot. But there was still tons of guitar music around - grunge, metal, indie...

There may be a demise of guitar in pop music ("music" is too sweeping a statement), and it may be down to the fact that any non-programmable instrument requires time and dedication along with some measure of ability before you become proficient. A lot of - I can't even say just "kids" anymore, it's adults as well - want instant gratification these days, and that doesn't sit well with the notion of having to practice.

I won't lose sleep over the statement, and if - shock/horror - it's true then I'll get in the queue at a major guitar retailer to buy armloads of heavily discounted unwanted electric guitars. Nice thought anyway.

There are more Mc Awfuls branches around than good restaurants, but that doesn't mean you can't find a good meal. Just get out of the mall.

Bob-Dubery

It might be downplayed or missing in some genres. If it was there in the first place. There was never a lot of focus on the guitar in hip-hop.

So it depends on what you're listening to.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I caught a Miley Cyrus performance on TV the other night and dang if she didn't have a guitarist in the band, wielding a gold top and turned right up in the mix. So I wouldn't say that the guitar and pop music have parted company and the twain shall never again meet.

I'm still finding new things to listen to all the time - and a lot of it has an obvious guitar component (though I don't INSIST on guitars, and the presence of guitars does not, for me, guarantee an enjoyable time).

We don't need to be bothered by these kinds of pieces. This is a great time to be listening to music. It's so easy now to find interesting things to listen to. Your local shop stocking it or not stocking it is no longer an issue, and the prices on Nokia and iTunes are such that you can afford to take a flutter. If you want guitar rich music then you will find plenty of it.

domhatch

X-rated Bob wrote: It might be downplayed or missing in some genres. If it was there in the first place. There was never a lot of focus on the guitar in hip-hop.

So it depends on what you're listening to.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I caught a Miley Cyrus performance on TV the other night and dang if she didn't have a guitarist in the band, wielding a gold top and turned right up in the mix. So I wouldn't say that the guitar and pop music have parted company and the twain shall never again meet.

I'm still finding new things to listen to all the time - and a lot of it has an obvious guitar component (though I don't INSIST on guitars, and the presence of guitars does not, for me, guarantee an enjoyable time).

We don't need to be bothered by these kinds of pieces. This is a great time to be listening to music. It's so easy now to find interesting things to listen to. Your local shop stocking it or not stocking it is no longer an issue, and the prices on Nokia and iTunes are such that you can afford to take a flutter. If you want guitar rich music then you will find plenty of it.

ditto. not quite sure why, and it wasn't the same performance - mine was on the ellen show (kids and wife enjoy watching, so what do you do?). she did an unplugged performance of one of her songs, and had three guitars on stage with her. the fact that all three of them played exactly the same thing is beyond me, but there you go.

it's definitely not all over folks
dh|

Bob-Dubery

Also there are guitars in Justin Bieber's band, and he himself has been known to spank the plank. So all the bebiebers will enter adulthood associating the guitar with all that is sexy, good and manly.

All hail Justin! Saviour of the guitar!

domhatch

X-rated Bob wrote: Also there are guitars in Justin Bieber's band, and he himself has been known to spank the plank. So all the bebiebers will enter adulthood associating the guitar with all that is sexy, good and manly.

All hail Justin! Saviour of the guitar!

sexy. good. and manly.

i think selena might have to agree to disagree with you on a few of those points...

exsanguinator

ok..thats a misprint...someone left POP out that headline...yawn..next?

Stoner-Riff

Squonk wrote: He does have a point. I looked at the CD covers of some of my daughters music and on most of them there are no guitars whatsoever, just programming.

But the point I would like to make is that - Shops and the radio don't determine what music there is the world. I personally think that there is a lot of good music out there and the INTERNET is closing the gap. So don't let cruise ships, Radio Stations, Shops etc determine the state of music ?

I would LOVE to know what Cruise Line he's been on.
I have never seen a single ship in any of the major cruise lines doing the FL-Caribbean runs, that does not have at least two guitar players onboard.

V8

Bah - it's ain't music if there's no bass line...now where did I stash that bass ?

Doomsower

I really don't think any of us should get too excited about this.
So popular music doesn't focus on the guitar any more.
Who needs 'em. >☹

Congratulations you are now part of the underground music scene.
Welcome!
Some of us have been here for a long time... So pull up a chair and let's make some awesome noise.
:woohoo:

Psean

Doomsower wrote:
...Congratulations you are now part of the underground music scene.
Welcome!
Some of us have been here for a long time... So pull up a chair and let's make some awesome noise.
:woohoo:

Cheers to that! :goodtimes:

DaFiz

I watched over the years as young computer genius kids strive to get their pc generated music to sound like real guitars, and ask my opinion... They could write the notes and eventually even learned to bend the tones but it never sounded right to me. The drums were ok and the pianos were spot on, but the electric guitars always sounded fake. Perhaps modern software has dealt with these problems or simply just left electric guitar sounds out of pop songs because of that, I dunno.
Learning to play electric guitar like a hero is just too much hard work for the modern kids who have too many distractions... My guitar heroes spent their entire childhood alone in a room with nothing but a guitar and a record collection and then interacted with friends who had similar interests... gone are those days ☹

Banditman

Very true, but they still spend plenty of time in their rooms with friends who have the same interests. The difference is that's online gaming.

With everything available near-instantly and online, there's not the same wait for a new album to hit the shelves (requiring you to leave the house and buy it). I love the convenience of being able to legally download music at the touch of a button, but it's not the same as opening up a physical album along with its cover art etc. To me there's a bit less connection with it all.

And in fairness to the kids today, they're being bombarded from all sides by a non-stop flow of information. Most of it is junk, but it's still a distraction. Add in all the school and after school stuff, and I wonder when they actually have time to be kids anymore.

That said, I've got a couple of teens in my youth group who've started playing instruments recently. Sat with one - a big online gaming fan too - last night and gave him (yes I know, we've all had it) House of the Rising Sun as a simple exercise in picking, strumming and chord changes.

On the surface you'd think it's a song from a long-dead era, 30-odd years before he was born, which is true. But that didn't stop him from working at it and working hard. Hard enough that he didn't want to just pick individual notes and strum the chords, no he also wanted to know how to barre the F & not just play it open. And he can't wait to get through exams now to be able to play more often, using a Squire Standard Tele into a Fender practice amp.

Man it brought back memories, and it also made me think how easily we overlook the basics. Basics being the simple pleasure of sitting with ANY reasonable guitar, playing away and working at something new, and just being happy doing it. No worrying about effects pedals, pure amp tone or making the odd fluff while learning.
Shove it, I'm plugging in for 20 minutes on my lunchbreak today.

Squonk

DaFiz wrote:
Learning to play electric guitar like a hero is just too much hard work for the modern kids who have too many distractions... My guitar heroes spent their entire childhood alone in a room with nothing but a guitar and a record collection and then interacted with friends who had similar interests... gone are those days ☹

I don't it's as bad as you think. Just because some kids are using artificial means to make music doesn't mean the days are gone.

Recently I visited my brother in Basingstoke and we visited Andertons in Guildford (which is the home to ACM) and you can't believe the amount of young guys walking around with guitars, all with Rush, Hendrix, Gilmour T-shirts.

I visited Ballito last year and met a group of young musicians that think Michael Hedges is God!

Have a look at youtube where kids at school are doing Dream Theater, Diablo Swing Orchestra etc.etc etc

Maybe the medium has changed! Don't let radio/tv stations and the You magazine tell you what's in and what's out.

There is a huge amounts of good music out there!

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the days are gone.....

You might think that the kids of today are listening to mindless useless crap, but when I was at school in the 70's, most kids had no idea what music was all about. I was in a very small group of music fans, so much so that most people thought we were weird.