Guitar Center Gloom

[txhawaii]

I'm not sure if this was posted as this story seems to be about a week.

Guitar Center CEO seems to fear lost sales as many young people just don't stick with music. One out of ten, he claims, stay with it after a year, nine drop out.

Is social media destroying the youth's attention span to concentrate?

The young might not want our vintage gear we spent so much on.

Hark! The dawn of AI music is upon us unless we can create more musicians!!

“For every 10 people who start playing guitar, a year later, one person is playing, and nine are not”: Guitar Center is looking to create more “long-term” musicians – here’s how

Guitar Center is amping up new ways to nurture the futures of budding musicians within its stores.

guitar.com

 

[Jeff Scott]

Is social media destroying the youth's attention span to concentrate?

Very much so, IMO.

 

[Dlew919]

I bet the stats are the same as they were 50 years ago. We’re just noticing it more. It’s possible that with overscheduling, other forms of entertainment, and a general uninterested community we are noticing it more. But around here is an exception but 1 in 10 seems to be about right.

 

[Geepers]

It’s an interesting time for sure. I’m clinging to the belief that man will always want to physically make music as he’s done since the beginning. I can see us going back to acoustic music making as AI takes over the electronically generated music space… ie non-amplified acoustic becomes the only way you can be sure a human is actually making the music. I guess I don’t see this as a threat but an opportunity.

 

[ardgedee]

Is social media destroying the youth's attention span to concentrate?

The young might not want our vintage gear we spent so much on.

Rock is old people music. Kids are interested in other things now.

Do a lot of kids still listen to and play rock? Yep! Quite a few also take to jazz or classical. Doesn't make that music mainstream, though. Rock is still mainstream, but in the same way that Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee were mainstream in the 60s -- some young people were into them but it was clearly music for older people and slowly getting pushed aside for the next generation's interests.

You can blame social media or you can see in hindsight at least that this had been coming along for a good few decades now. Hip-hop as a genre is over 40 years old, electronic dance music is over 50 years old.

 

[Bass Motifs]

Kids who are into music are into music.

Maybe tech creates some curiosity, and consumerism results in more guitars under Christmas trees, but it has to be a stronger drive than that to persist. A lot of us will remember trying to make instruments. You hear something and really want to make those sounds.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Non-musicians are boring....I tried talking to one once. All I got was this vapid, vacuous stare.

Riis

 

[micguy]

Music has always been hard. The dropout rate has always been high, Today, there are lots of other things kids can do that are easier, so there may be more dropouts, but I'd guess it's not all that different. Anyone who is really into music will persist.

And yes, your 70's Fender is unlikely to be a prized or valuable possession when the boomers are gone, and the nostalgia factor goes with us/them.

I just found out I'm maybe not a boomer, but a Generation Jones-er.

 

[-Stingray]

Can't speak to all genre's, but can tell you that listening to rock music today would be akin to kids listening to Jazz in the 80's.

Not gonna happen.

Until rock music is disassociated from being "your grandpa's music" it will stay unpopular.

 

[scuzzy]

Can't speak to all genre's, but can tell you that listening to rock music today would be akin to kids listening to Jazz in the 80's.

Not gonna happen.

Until rock music is disassociated from being "your grandpa's music" it will stay unpopular.

a fair amount of kids in our area are listening to bands from the late 90's, early 00's that are still putting out music. One of my co-workers daughters "introduced" her mom to this new band called 311...

 

[mambo4]

I bet the stats are the same as they were 50 years ago.

I think so too.

Also stuff I once got a GC I now buy online. The last time I set foot in a GC building was to emergency sell some gear. I believe “ dj gear” started outselling guitars in the early 2000s. Chances are young folks are more interested in podcasting “influencer” gear anyhow. The music ,media, and retail world has changed and it’s not because “ kids got lazy”

“Kids these days” is never the real problem IMO . It’s a phrase for old people like me to trot out when we struggle to cope with a changing reality

 

[happygilmour]

I would say the problem is more like 1 out of 10 GC employees know what they're doing. The other 9 are on their phones.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

It’s not just kids with shorter attention spans, it’s adults too. Case in point: I work out at Planet Fitness in the “30 Minute” circuit training room. Last night there were (8) people including me using around 12 machines. The other (7) adults were ALL on their phones between each set, sometimes up to 5 minutes each, so they literally can’t do a 30 minute workout without spending at least another 20 minutes staring at a phone. No high horse here, I spend plenty of my time staring at a screen, but not when I’m playing bass. It’s worrisome.

 

[groooooove]

I'm a music teacher. I perform music with 11-12 year olds regularly.

the cool part is that "making music" is such a human thing, my students totally get it and have a real musical experience. it's in there. many of them have gone on to be really fine musicians - one of my best cellists from years ago is now playing bass in a rock band. she's fantastic.

culturally, it's deteriorated. for generations up until the 2010 or so "social media era," the music a teenager identified with was a huge part of their social ecosystem. The jocks like the gangster rap, the punks had their thing, some kids had a mild preference for certain pop, whatever.

when I visit the high school in my district, I don't feel like this is the case at all anymore.

I've had private students who were very skilled players that I could not get them "into" anything. They would learn it, perhaps comment that this one chord or song or whatever was nice, and move on. no deeper connection.

I remember taking my bass lessons in 2003-4 with my teacher Joe. He was so interested when I came to him telling him all about les claypool and the cool instrument he used and how I learned x song and i had blisters on my thumb from playing like him... and so on. (joe obviously already knew this but was happy that i found something 'for myself')

I've been a full time music educator since 2016 - I don't think I've ever had a student come to me with a real enthusiasm for a particular style.

what I have seen is them get exited of the 30 second soundbite they've heard on tiktok. A number of years ago the intro to roundabout went viral among the kids, I remember teaching that to a few guitar students. but they only wanted to know that little viral bit, not the song, or anything about yes, etc etc.

there's something new happening and seeing young people enjoy making music literally every day keeps me optimistic that it's just new, not worse.

but the days of taking home an album or cd, hearing it over and over again where you know every moment, that is definitely over.

as far as GC goes, we must understand they are also competing with better and better inexpensive instruments from elsewhere, and just lots of other options in the market in general.

 

[GroovinOnFunk]

Older generations love to see doom and gloom in change. Come to Nashville. You'll see music is alive and well... As it always has throughout history, it's just different now than it was when you were growing up.
Just because it's headed in a direction that you don't like doesn't mean it's dying, just means it's changing.

 

[iiipopes]

Nothing new in the world. I remember in junior high school and high school garage band days: everybody had to play guitar. As I recall all the guys who picked up a guitar to play, only about one in ten, including me, are still playing all these years, er, decades later.

 

[markjazzbassist]

I bet the stats are the same as they were 50 years ago. We’re just noticing it more. It’s possible that with overscheduling, other forms of entertainment, and a general uninterested community we are noticing it more. But around here is an exception but 1 in 10 seems to be about right.

Spot on. I agree wholeheartedly. GC CEO just trying to find a scapegoat for doing a sh|tty job

 

[VeryTallBassist]

I've been training Brazilian jiu jitsu for 15 years, and the attrition rates there are comparable. I don't bother learning the new guys names until they've been there for 6 months because 70% of them will be gone. I think it probably holds true for most hobbies, especially ones where work and a time investment is required to get past the learning curve. The second round of attrition (which brings the overall rate to 90%) usually happens during the conscious incompetence part of the Dunning Kruger curve, where people realize how much they don't know and how deep the rabbit hole goes.

 

[Pirate Captain]

It’s an interesting time for sure. I’m clinging to the belief that man will always want to physically make music as he’s done since the beginning. I can see us going back to acoustic music making as AI takes over the electronically generated music space… ie non-amplified acoustic becomes the only way you can be sure a human is actually making the music. I guess I don’t see this as a threat but an opportunity.

I work at a Steinway dealership...and despite everyone I know telling me "nobody's buying them", my boss can barely keep pianos on the floor. He's selling new ones before they get to the shop, and good used ones rarely stick around for longer than a week.

I believe it is ABSOLUTELY connected to the rise of AI. If you can type "write me a Dua Lipa song" into ChatGPT and it does...why even bother with modern pop music production? People want something "real"...similar to what drove the vinyl boom in the streaming era.

 

[tothemax]

Just starting with GC in general... Like so many other stores, the part time pay is not bad, average is around $18 per hour in MD (looking at job openings). From what I've seen, the full time help is limited, my guess is that corporate doesn't want the overhead of paying benefits. With that model, you're going to get a lot of turnover and the quality is going to be hit or miss. Gone are the days of the annoying wanna be rock stars that you could barely get five minutes of assistance from, now there may be 3 or 4 employees in the whole store including the manager. Being between the Baltimore\DC metro areas, there are about 6 GC's within a 40 mile radius. Still I tend to use smaller local music stores or shop online, unless I need to see a piece of gear. I read that GC corporate is trying to revamp their model to a more musician friendly venue, hoping that it works...

It takes focus and drive to learn an instrument. My niece played violin in the school orchestra for about 8 years, now a junior in college, hasn't touched it since high school. I remember as a grade schooler with my transistor radio listening to Kasey Kassem's top 40, it wasn't a cell phone, but still drove my folks crazy because I wasn't playing outside.

As for young players, some of these "kids" have amazing chops... so they are learning to play. Check out the video below... These kids have definitely had decent instruction. So I have to agree that it probably hasn't changed, some kids stick with it, others try it and give it up. The "school of rock" type classes in our area have pretty good turnout... I wish I played half as well as some the of the local kids

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