The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

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Beebs
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Beebs »

The author name checks the guitarists from Creed and Linkin Park as icons that should have kids running to the music store.

Please move this article to the WTF thread.
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Cole Younger
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Cole Younger »

Beebs wrote:The author name checks the guitarists from Creed and Linkin Park as icons that should have kids running to the music store.

Please move this article to the WTF thread.
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Rocky
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Rocky »

Well he did say, “John Mayer? You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.”

So there is that. :mrgreen:
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psychobillycadillac
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by psychobillycadillac »

Rocky wrote:Well he did say, “John Mayer? You don’t see a bunch of kids emulating John Mayer and listening to him and wanting to pick up a guitar because of him.”

So there is that. :mrgreen:

I have to disagree to an extent, there is a huge audience that searches for his tone the same way that folks of my era (40s) searched for the tones of guys like SRV and EVH (amongst others). Head over to pages like www.thegearpage.net and you will see it debated to a mind numbing extent.
IMHO the 3 big issues that are driving this decline are 1) the cost of guitars is at an all time high, for a Gibson Les Paul Standard or a Fender Stratocaster (American) you are well over $1000.
2) the quality of music, there just hasn't been a lot of guitar driven music in the mainstream for the last 20+ years
3) the want, kids don't have the same want to express themselves the same way that we did.

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Beebs
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Beebs »

psychobillycadillac wrote:there is a huge audience that searches for [Mayer's] tone
These people are wrong
psychobillycadillac wrote: the cost of guitars is at an all time high, for a Gibson Les Paul Standard or a Fender Stratocaster (American) you are well over $1000.
The law of diminishing returns. These guys make lots of cool videos. After this one I feel more comfortable that I'll probably never (again) own a legit Les Paul or Strat. This vid has a little more Tom Foolery than content but hang in there.


psychobillycadillac wrote: the quality of music, there just hasn't been a lot of guitar driven music in the mainstream for the last 20+ years
They are listening to the wrong music. F the mainstream. You'll never find the good stuff there.
psychobillycadillac wrote:kids don't have the same want to express themselves the same way that we did.
I feel your angle, but I find it hard to believe that generation X is fundamentally different form generation Y in Z way. Maybe kids have too many ways to express themselves? Rock and roll used to be the default of very few options for many of us. Maybe kids these days need more cool uncles and older brothers to help them find the rock amidst all the noise? Just thoughts.




Also, Here's Matt Pike (High on Fire, SLEEP) playing with some kids at the Portland, School Of Rock. The kid on drums is bad ass. (Also, Matt, a metal guitar demigod, plays a First Act)

wish I could embed it:
https://www.facebook.com/Weedian/videos ... 406002433/
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whatwouldcooleydo?
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

the short attention span of kids today could also play in to all of this. Getting even merely decent at playing a guitar takes time
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

Also, proud to say I wouldn't recognize a Linkin Park song if it knocked at my door and asked if I've heard the good news
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by beantownbubba »

I very much doubt that kids these days have any less desire to express themselves than previous generations. In fact, if this goes in any direction, I'd say self-expression is a higher level goal or aspiration than it's ever been.

Electric guitar-based music is as far out of the mainstream as it's ever been during my lifetime. That means both less exposure to the instrument and its sounds and also that it's less cool to play guitar. Yes, beebs, there is plenty of guitar based music for those who want to find it but that's not the same as the impact of the pop cultural zeitgeist at any given moment.

Where's cotter when you need him? There's no doubt that learning to play guitar proficiently takes time, effort and commitment. The fact that almost any sound or series of sounds can be made w/ cheap and widely available hardware using easily learned software must be having an impact on the interest of young people in learning to play instruments. Add that to ersatz music forms like guitar hero and assumptions about short attention spans, immediate gratification, arguable preference for solo v. group activities and the like and it's no surprise that fewer kids are picking up instruments.

I would not be surprised if cost is a factor as well. There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins. I wouldn't be surprised if the same mindset applied to music so that only the "real thing" will do, and the real thing is pretty expensive if you're not willing to settle for traditional "starter level" or used instruments/equipment.
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

beantownbubba wrote:Where's cotter when you need him?
Playing Guitar Hero? :lol:

Seriously though you make some solid points. I think it's more than that there are no guitar heroes, a lot of music doesn't have guitars. On top of that it's one more thing to compete with dozens of more things for budget and time. I have a hard time believing that the electric guitar is going to meet it's demise anytime soon though.
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Beebs
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Beebs »

beantownbubba wrote:There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins.
That's a movement towards "authenticity"? Sounds like a movement towards a bunch entitled little fucks. There's nothing "authentic" about any of that.

Off the lawn. Now.
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by beantownbubba »

Beebs wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins.
That's a movement towards "authenticity"? Sounds like a movement towards a bunch entitled little fucks. There's nothing "authentic" about any of that.

Off the lawn. Now.
Yeah. Authenticity was a really bad word choice there. Yikes!
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Beebs wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins.
That's a movement towards "authenticity"? Sounds like a movement towards a bunch entitled little fucks. There's nothing "authentic" about any of that.

Off the lawn. Now.


:lol:
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by sactochris »

Perhaps someone should let Tad Kubler know.
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Clams »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
Beebs wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins.
That's a movement towards "authenticity"? Sounds like a movement towards a bunch entitled little fucks. There's nothing "authentic" about any of that.

Off the lawn. Now.


:lol:
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Clams
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Clams »

beantownbubba wrote: I would not be surprised if cost is a factor as well. There's been a general movement to "authenticity" in virtually every activity: Kids (at least suburban kids) don't play hoops unless there are fiberglass backboards or field sports unless the fields are superbly maintained w/ electronic scoreboards or any sport w/out cool uniforms, trained referees and coaches and all the fixins. I wouldn't be surprised if the same mindset applied to music so that only the "real thing" will do, and the real thing is pretty expensive if you're not willing to settle for traditional "starter level" or used instruments/equipment.
Disagree on several fronts. First, cost isn't really a factor - you can get decent guitars for pretty cheap nowadays. A decent acoustic can be bought new for like $75 and a decent electric set-up with a guitar and amp can be bought for around $200. And that doesn't even take Craigs List into account. Also, IMO all that authenticity stuff might matter to the parents but I don't think most teenagers are like that (at least not the ones I know).

As others have alluded to above, I think the biggest problem has been the decline in guitar based music. Also there is a pretty steep learning curve for the guitar and I think that's become prohibitive since computers and apps have made it so easy to make music. Another thing I'd blame is that social media has become so pervasive for kids today that it takes up a huge amount of their free time that could be spent learning to play an instrument.

Anyway, interesting thread.
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by RolanK »

I am not surprised to read this, but still whenever I am near any form of public transport I see people of all ages (mostly boys/men though) carrying gig-bags. From what I understand the article refers statistics based on sales figures from the some of the larger companies in the market. Could it be that there is more turn-around of 2nd hand instruments via eBay etc? Most of my guitar-playing friends are primarily buying 2nd hand stuff. I own something like 8-9 guitars myself, only two were bought new from regular instrument stores, the rest are either built from parts, 2nd hand or custom guitars that would probably not show up in any statistics.

You also have youtube full of clips of kids with mad skills. You dont really have to take lessons anymore to learn basic (or even advanced) stuff anymore. Its all there. This was much less accessible when I tried to teach myself how to play back in the 80's.

Interesting to read about Gibson though. Robot tuners, and the horrible Firebird X launched a few years ago.Yuck!
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Re: The slow, secret death of the electric guitar

Post by Bon Scott's AC/DC »

Breaking News "Guitar Bands Are On Their Way Out" :shock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Rowe

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