The demise of the electric guitar in music...

Psean · 2013-10-11T13:54:35+00:00

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/

Psean

Squonk wrote

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.

Yup. There's always been mindless crap, and I reckon there'll always be good stuff. You just have to look in the right places. Radio ain't one of them... And the internet makes it easier to find the good stuff. You just have to listen, and look, actively and not just take whatever gets presented to you.

domhatch

Psean wrote Yup. There's always been mindless crap, and I reckon there'll always be good stuff. You just have to look in the right places. Radio ain't one of them... And the internet makes it easier to find the good stuff. You just have to listen, and look, actively and not just take whatever gets presented to you.

when i lived in melbourne, not so long ago, they had a few awesome stations. one i remember in particular - triple j - played awesome tunes. i think everyone on that station would rather jump off their chairs than play a bieber song.

true story
dh|

Psean

domhatch wrote
Psean wrote Yup. There's always been mindless crap, and I reckon there'll always be good stuff. You just have to look in the right places. Radio ain't one of them... And the internet makes it easier to find the good stuff. You just have to listen, and look, actively and not just take whatever gets presented to you.
when i lived in melbourne, not so long ago, they had a few awesome stations. one i remember in particular - triple j - played awesome tunes. i think everyone on that station would rather jump off their chairs than play a bieber song.

true story
dh|

But it's not the norm. Should probably have said mainstream radio.

Badapple

I feel guitars aren't totally lost in POP music.

If there is a guitar in a popular POP song it is usually tricked out with electronic effects beyond any belief.

I don't listen to POP music as I feel it degrades music and the guitar.

Regards,

Dean.

:goodtimes:

Bob-Dubery

Badapple wrote I feel guitars aren't totally lost in POP music.

If there is a guitar in a popular POP song it is usually tricked out with electronic effects beyond any belief.

I blame that Hendrix guy myself.

I don't listen to POP music as I feel it degrades music and the guitar.

"Popular" and "possessing musical virtue" are not mutually exclusive. See The Beatles and Motown for a start.

domhatch

X-rated Bob wrote "Popular" and "possessing musical virtue" are not mutually exclusive. See The Beatles and Motown for a start.

bob, i quite agree with that sentiment. however (and i detest howevering having just agreed with someone), my thoughts are that today's 'pop' music and what was popular in the days of invention, of what you could do to be popular as a music act - the beatles, the who, motown as a movement, etc - are poles apart.

yeah?

Bob-Dubery

domhatch wrote
X-rated Bob wrote "Popular" and "possessing musical virtue" are not mutually exclusive. See The Beatles and Motown for a start.
bob, i quite agree with that sentiment. however (and i detest howevering having just agreed with someone), my thoughts are that today's 'pop' music and what was popular in the days of invention, of what you could do to be popular as a music act - the beatles, the who, motown as a movement, etc - are poles apart.

yeah?

Maybe. I don't listen to the radio much, so I don't know what the music stations are pushing as pop. I know that they were playing a track off the latest Laurie Levine album on highveld and that's quite acceptable to me - that's a pretty good album (so now the guys at Highveld can sleep).

I'm also old enough to remember that people in earlier generations than mine usually moaned and complained non stop about the pop music that the next generations listened to, so I'm wary of being too reactionary about things, of becoming just another old curmudgeon who thinks that it was better in his day because that was his day.

But in principle see no reason why contemporary pop can't have musical substance as well.

I'm also, I think, less allergic to hip-hop than the average GFSAer, so....

Bob-Dubery

PS: A large amount of pop music back then was rubbish too. I used to watch Top of the Pops. You'd get the Beatles, sure, but you'd get Val Doonican as well. A generation later you'd get Queen, but also the Nolans.

domhatch

X-rated Bob wrote PS: A large amount of pop music back then was rubbish too. I used to watch Top of the Pops. You'd get the Beatles, sure, but you'd get Val Doonican as well. A generation later you'd get Queen, but also the Nolans.

and, lest we forget, donny and marie osmond...

Bob-Dubery

X-rated Bob wrote PS: A large amount of pop music back then was rubbish too. I used to watch Top of the Pops. You'd get the Beatles, sure, but you'd get Val Doonican as well. A generation later you'd get Queen, but also the Nolans.

But all of this don't make no never mind to me. I don't listen to music really in terms of "pop" or "not pop". I stumble across music in all sorts of ways. Some of it I like, some of it I don't, some of it I don't like but I can respect it.

Right now, for me, is a golden age for exploring music. The last few years my musical world has got hugely bigger and more varied (which is a good thing) and I see a vast galaxy of music to explore - old things that I can catch up on, lots of good new music still coming out, whole realms of music that I had been ignorant of (Malian guitar players!). It's just too marvellous, and I am anything but disheartened at the state of music and the music that is available to me.

Psean

X-rated Bob wrote
X-rated Bob wrote PS: A large amount of pop music back then was rubbish too. I used to watch Top of the Pops. You'd get the Beatles, sure, but you'd get Val Doonican as well. A generation later you'd get Queen, but also the Nolans.
But all of this don't make no never mind to me. I don't listen to music really in terms of "pop" or "not pop". I stumble across music in all sorts of ways. Some of it I like, some of it I don't, some of it I don't like but I can respect it.

Right now, for me, is a golden age for exploring music. The last few years my musical world has got hugely bigger and more varied (which is a good thing) and I see a vast galaxy of music to explore - old things that I can catch up on, lots of good new music still coming out, whole realms of music that I had been ignorant of (Malian guitar players!). It's just too marvellous, and I am anything but disheartened at the state of music and the music that is available to me.

+1
The internet has been a big one for me. It's crazy how much stuff I've been able to discover since getting broadband. Old and new. And whether I end up listening to it on Mp3, Cd, or vinyl, or at live shows, the internet has led to plenty of discoveries for me. Browsing through record bins is still fun and leads to cool discoveries, but the internet has sure sped them up. Either way I'm exploring constantly and finding music that's new to me, regardless of when it was released. I'm loving it ?

Banditman

Spot-on, X-rated Bob.

I don't believe the problem is that music has suddenly degenerated due to technology changes. I believe the problem is that the world's gotten so choked up & hypercommercialised. We're drowning in information 24-7, and what's dominating is the fast-food type of entertainment / next sensation / YouTwitFace quick fix.

It simply makes it harder to find the good stuff than before 'cos you've got to sift through a lot of dirt to find the diamonds. Thanks to a plethora of training "how tos" there are also far more skilled musos than before. It also means that the likelihood of an individual #1 coming up with a whole new revolutionary sound / style, #2 getting noticed and #3 dominating the airwaves the way they did in the '50s - '70s is gone. Pop music is also a reflection of the times; right now the times are about crass consumerism, gossip and selfishness. The pseudo-care about popular left-liberal causes is just a sop to what's left of our group conscience. We can't complain if the lyrical content of pop music is largely vapid and juvenile if it's just reflecting the mass values of the society of its time. The money and the mass fan base are after the pop sensations, which are really pre-packaged and highly polished products. So don't expect a new Rolling Stones or Jimmy Hendrix in the near future, because they've been replaced by the Minajes/Mileys/Kanyes.

Perhaps it's another chicken vs egg scenario: did the companies create then demand, or are they responding to market trends? I'm no economical analyst.

Good music endures. Look at classical music for an example. Most non-classical musicians are unfamiliar with the bulk of it, but many non-musicians are somewhat familiar with the odd piece by Mozart or Beethoven, even if they don't know the name of the tune or who the composer was. Good music inspires: we're busy with a rock tribute show, and the younger drummer's just learned Mother (from The Wall) for the first time. As a fan of most heavier forms of metal, he first thought it sounded boring. Until he had to play 6/8 followed by 3/4 and into 2/4 within the same piece. Now he's growing as a musician and has a different view of a genre he once had no interest in. The same principle should be applied by older musos as well.

Good music is still out there. You could possibly say there's even better music out there than before. It just doesn't get to stand head and shoulders above the herd like it used to, but that in no way lessens its quality.

studmissile

Banditman wrote Spot-on, X-rated Bob.

I don't believe the problem is that music has suddenly degenerated due to technology changes. I believe the problem is that the world's gotten so choked up & hypercommercialised...Good music is still out there.

+1000, Absolutely. There are some incredible guitar bands/artist out there. ?

Bob-Dubery

For some years now I've kept a list of things that I want or want to explore. My recommendations or leads coming from all sorts of sources from columnists I follow (locally Richard Haslop in Business Day) to conversations with friends.

But the problem was getting the stuff. I either had to put in a big order with Amazon to spread the shipping costs across multiple items, or take a shopping list when I went on holiday (and whilst the stores in London are better than ours, the ones I've been to are not THAT much better).

The key thing is iTunes and the like. I've been late coming to that party. iTunes obviously is not the only option. What buying digitally online does for me is making all that stuff available - and at good prices so that often I will buy something speculatively at 60 bucks when I would have hemmed and hahed and ultimately bought something more in my comfort zone when it was 250 bucks for a physical disc and a bit of a wait. That's been the key piece of the puzzle for me.

I don't do the streaming thing. That doesn't work for me because of the time it requires and also because the artists in theory do get paid but in practice most get nothing (people like Beyonce get a cheque from Spotify, but it's not a very big cheque). Most of the guys I listen to aren't making Bono levels of money, and I want them to continue making music so I feel I have to play my part in making music a viable way of them making a living.

Hey

Stoner Riff wrote
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.

Hey. The best guitarist Ive ever seen ( and Im OLD!!) was on the Hurtigruten ship up to the North Pole. They do exist everywhere. We need to look underground as we go into the future I guess!

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