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I saw that. It largely echoes Guitar Player's "Who Will Save the Guitar?" article from a couple months ago. It isn't just guitar, though. There was a time when you HAD to have a piano in the parlor and a daughter learning Chopin on it to have any claim to middle-class respectability. Those days are gone. In the 1920s there were gangs of mandolin clubs all over the place. Now it's a niche instrument for bluegrass and a couple other genres. Currently I see stores in the mall with ukuleles on a rack, and uke clubs popping up in lots of places. These things come and go and nothing lasts forever. A certain style of music becomes dominant for a generation and everyone thinks it's forever, but it isn't.
I was watching this PBS documentary series on the recording business. Different episodes talked about voice, various instruments, sampling, etc. The one on guitar basically stopped at Hendrix. I think that's a travesty, but it says a lot about current PERCEPTIONS of the instrument.
I was watching this PBS documentary series on the recording business. Different episodes talked about voice, various instruments, sampling, etc. The one on guitar basically stopped at Hendrix. I think that's a travesty, but it says a lot about current PERCEPTIONS of the instrument.
I'll file that article under "Prophecies, Doomsday.".......
I will agree to the idea of the guitar waning in popularity--but I don't believe that it's "dying a slow death".
The tide rushes out, but it always rushes back in.
I will agree to the idea of the guitar waning in popularity--but I don't believe that it's "dying a slow death".
The tide rushes out, but it always rushes back in.
"Death" would imply it's going to disappear forever. I don't think that's happening. Fender and Gibson will stay in business, but as smaller, leaner companies with a reduced client base. People still buy pianos, after all, and tubas for that matter. But Rock and Roll is in the process of falling in alongside jazz and blues and classical as more and more of a niche genre rather than the dominant force in popular music, and the guitar with it as the predominant instrument of choice. It won't disappear, but it will have to make room at the table for others.
