The Slow Death of the Electric Guitar?

Oh a MUCH better realistic version..........though--- he doesnt get quite hostile enough --- IMHO
 
HAHA @ Diversity and Pizza places with 400 intercourse choices of toppings...


Any better, Adrian? This guy reminds me of my tude on a lot of things.

Yup, f'n robot tuners.
 
I posted some more Blue Oyster Cult in response to Frankb now it is in reply to the Post article. Yup, Electric guitar is dying, yeah right.

 
I've only skimmed this thread and don't currently have time to watch the video, but I will say this: I see the ongoing problem as too many of us living in the past. I look at the examples posted here and there are precious few current players represented.

Rory? Fantastic. The Nuge? Hell Yeah.

But where are the videos of current young gunslingers? (and I don't include Mayer in that - he's a known quantity) GC Jr. is about all I saw. The rest is stuff I listened to as a teenager.

There is no lack of them out there making music, so why is it that we, the guitar-playing, guitar-buying community don't do more to promote the instrument? Instead we post endless examples of our childhood hero's and influences and make proclamations about how much better it all was then, how more more feeling they had, etc., ad nauseum. It's not limited to this forum either - it's rampant in the guitar community and I see it everwhere.

If we can't manage to promote new players and new music, how is the next generation of players ever going to think it's cool? They need to relate to people at or near their own age, not see a bunch of guys their grandfathers age playing music that is conveyed as somehow "better" than what they have to listen to (which is also a load of poop - some of the best bands I have ever heard in my life have come along in the last 10 years).

Folks, if the electric guitar is indeed dying, we have only ourselves to blame for it. Present company included.
 
The guitar is not dead - guitar talent is dying - A while back, a musical colleague cracked a joke about the "Blink-182 Signature Guitar" which has only the first 5 frets - but society has, to some extent, accepted mediocrity in musical talent.

I'm grateful for bands like this one:

 
Robert Herndon said:
The guitar is not dead - guitar talent is dying -
Click to expand...

Robert, that's kind of my point - it's exactly that attitude that I keep hearing again and again from (us older) guitar players. I just could not disagree more with you on that point. There is so much fantastic guitar music being made right now, today by players that are just as gifted as any from the past (from a technical standpoint probably moreso) but we are not talking about them or promoting them. Instead we talk about our past heros and contemporary guys that basically sound just like them, your video being a case in point. Great band, but nothing we haven't heard before stylistically.
 
gball said:
Robert, that's kind of my point - it's exactly that attitude that I keep hearing again and again from (us older) guitar players. I just could not disagree more with you on that point. There is so much fantastic guitar music being made right now, today by players that are just as gifted as any from the past (from a technical standpoint probably moreso) but we are not talking about them or promoting them. Instead we talk about our past heros and contemporary guys that basically sound just like them, your video being a case in point. Great band, but nothing we haven't heard before stylistically.
Click to expand...

As always, you make really good points here. I know I am a minority. I thrive on energy, maybe even more than technical proficiency. I may be endeared to archaic humbucker tones, but I cannot help what appeals to me. First "new" song that appealed to me in a very long time was Volbeat's "Seal The Deal" followed by 5FDP's "Wash It All Away."

I'm a die-hard rocker and I am very weird as a listener. If the guitar doesn't grab me in the first few seconds of a song, I will switch the channel. There are classic songs, over 30 years old, that I have never listened to, in their entirety, because they did not shake me musically or the vocalist did not appeal to me.
 
guitar-hero-guitar-hero-nerd-demotivational-poster-1219621834.jpg



;>)/
 
I think there are enough young talents. Maybe they play differently than the style i like - but well, is the musical preference of us 60 years old baby boomers really a criterion for our children's generation? If we think Yes, in which way do we differ from our parents' attemps to enforce their style on many of us?

Times have changed since Woodstock - notably regarding the amount of freedom and free time of our children's generation. Less than we could enjoy.
And the number of gigging location reduces.
Both will, of course, have an impact on chances for Young talents.

And something else - the development of drug consumption since Woodstock.

Furthermore i don't believe that production numbers of guitars are a useful indication of talents on the market. How many guitars do we own? How many do we actually need? Do young talents own dozens of electric guitars like older guitar enthusiasts with solid incomes? (And what were the production numbers of the factories in 1969 compared to now?...)
 
What a great thread....

Hey...wait a second...I started this thread!

Ha! Silly me...

Anyhoo...I've encountered threads on the article in my OP elsewhere, too. Almost everywhere the response is nearly the same: there seems to be a prevailing need to assert that the electric guitar is not dying, it's alive and well, and the guy whose wrote the article is a poopy-head (or some such thing).

Personally, it doesn't really matter to me if its popularity declines or not. I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but I don't need to be validated in my desire to play electric guitar by the popularity of the instrument. I play what I like. I also don't feel the need to defend the electric guitar. It's the single most marketed and promoted instrument out there. Everyone is aware of it and the availability of decent electric guitars at affordable prices is better than I think it's ever been.

But, to be honest, I'm actually a little glad music may be moving in a direction that expands beyond just guitar-centric compositions, solos, and riffs. I mean, I love those. But, lately, my musical consumption has been nothing but classical music and solo piano music. A steady diet of rock and metal gets boring, after awhile. I do like all the classic rock sounds, to be sure. But, eventually it gets mentally confining and I need a change.

I suspect that's what we're seeing in a lot of music today, just a change. It's no big whoop. Some of the indie stuff is actually rather interesting to listen to. I can't think of any particular band names or songs, but some of what I've heard here and there has pretty decent musicianship and, refreshingly, has discovered the clean channel on the amplifier!
 
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gball said:
... some of the best bands I have ever heard in my life have come along in the last 10 years...
Click to expand...
To totally understand where you are coming from, can you name some artists that rock your world?

For me... Rival Sons and Greta Van Fleet give me hope.
 
gball said:
I've only skimmed this thread and don't currently have time to watch the video, but I will say this: I see the ongoing problem as too many of us living in the past. I look at the examples posted here and there are precious few current players represented.

Rory? Fantastic. The Nuge? Hell Yeah.

But where are the videos of current young gunslingers? (and I don't include Mayer in that - he's a known quantity) GC Jr. is about all I saw. The rest is stuff I listened to as a teenager.

There is no lack of them out there making music, so why is it that we, the guitar-playing, guitar-buying community don't do more to promote the instrument? Instead we post endless examples of our childhood hero's and influences and make proclamations about how much better it all was then, how more more feeling they had, etc., ad nauseum. It's not limited to this forum either - it's rampant in the guitar community and I see it everwhere.

If we can't manage to promote new players and new music, how is the next generation of players ever going to think it's cool? They need to relate to people at or near their own age, not see a bunch of guys their grandfathers age playing music that is conveyed as somehow "better" than what they have to listen to (which is also a load of ***Edited for foul language******Edited for foul language******Edited for foul language******Edited for foul language*** - some of the best bands I have ever heard in my life have come along in the last 10 years).

Folks, if the electric guitar is indeed dying, we have only ourselves to blame for it. Present company included.
Click to expand...

Gball, I hear your sentiment and see your point. while at the same time I post some of the "founding fathers" of guitar rock. I also post those who play blues, Motown, Soul, Grunge and even stuff like Rap/Rapish type guitar players. Where I said I see your point, I also don't see us as diggin up dinosaurs to prove guitar is not dead in lieu of Posting examples the current talent out there.

I am sure others have either posted or mentioned some examples like Lizzy Hale, Collective Soul, 3rd eye Blind, Bush, STP, Alice n Chains, Weezer. Papa Roach, SR 71, Chevelle, Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, Black Label Society, Zakk Wilde, P.O.D., A Perfect Circle, Meshuggah, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Rammstein ( sp) Volbeat and a host of others.

If those don't constitute a continuation and passing of the guitar player's torch, I must have missed something.
 
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