Once AI takes over and few people have jobs and and most are living off government programs, I bet we see a huge increase in people becoming instrumentalists. What else are people going to do? This assumes the best case scenario.
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Guitar Center Gloom
- Thread starter txhawaii
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That reminds me, about 20 years ago (oh gosh, really???) my daughter was in the big "Disney Radio" phase. She'd be so freaked out when I could sing along to these new release songs, since they were all brand new.
Brand new covers of songs from the 80's, that is.
I'm also reminded of how the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack was received in 2001-2002.
I think there's always a pendulum swing; a steady diet of overprocessed things can give people a craving for something organic.
My guess, with the cultural forces currently on display, is another generation of punk/protest music.
Old guy here.
I remember music being an integral part of education in general. There wasn't a grade I was in that music wasn't part of the day-to-day curriculum. At about 6th grade you could join band or orchestra that had a separate class and teacher, still in school though with the continued music of singing and rhythm in the general classroom, that was not band. It was part of education like math, history, or social studies. Most kids that had band kept an interest in music, some continuing in a music-based career. It reinforced my interest in music that was formed at home
In my case my dad was a working musician so there was that influence. Plus then TV or visual stuff like screens, and phones was not competing with peoples attention. More radio and records were on an equal footing with TVs and film I think.
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I have to share an awesome thing that is happening in my city- La Crosse WI. Two of the local (once rival) high schools have put together a group of 20-30 student musicians and they call themselves the La Crosse Confluence. They play covers from the 60s-today. They have 2 drummers, 3 bassists, a handful of guitar players, a couple multi-instrumentalists, a brass section, and several vocalists who switch out on different songs. They play live about 1-2 times per month and they are fantastic. Some are classically trained and you can hear it in their performance, while others are rockers who clearly play/sing with attitude and agenda.
Recently, my son started a garage band with some friends and naturally he is playing bass (since he can use mine).
I am optimistic about the future of music- live, and otherwise.
Recently, my son started a garage band with some friends and naturally he is playing bass (since he can use mine).
I am optimistic about the future of music- live, and otherwise.
Yeah that soundtrack was absolutely huge. Even today you still see a lot of younger people involved in the old time and bluegrass scenes. There are also a ton of younger people and players into things like Gypsy jazz and pre-bop swing music although that's a little less US-centric.
EdwardofHuncote
I Still Dream of Jeannie
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I don't know if this is true across the board or not. I just dropped in to visit my former trainees, all pretty much Gen Z'rs or on the cusp of it. (age 18-28)
They all seem to be living well-rounded lives to me, far more active than I was at their age. When I was 20-something, all I wanted to do was play bass... these kids all have wives or husbands and a couple of them have a couple kids now. They show up to work every morning with boots on ready to work, they work hard and they play even harder after. Yeah, they're on dadgum social media all the time, but I've actually seen how they incorporate this into their day-to-day activities. They'll generally keep a group-chat going throughout the day to keep up with who is where. They use it to organize help for each other. They use it to speed up information. Back in my dinosaur days, we had to use proper radio protocol for communicating. Hell, they hadn't even invented a smartphone yet. Even upper-management couldn't afford mobile cellular. MySpace was years down the road. I think it's the same as it ever was, just adjusted for inflation.
I don't know how any of that translates to music, but I see them passionate about things other than Facebook and TicTok.
They all seem to be living well-rounded lives to me, far more active than I was at their age. When I was 20-something, all I wanted to do was play bass... these kids all have wives or husbands and a couple of them have a couple kids now. They show up to work every morning with boots on ready to work, they work hard and they play even harder after. Yeah, they're on dadgum social media all the time, but I've actually seen how they incorporate this into their day-to-day activities. They'll generally keep a group-chat going throughout the day to keep up with who is where. They use it to organize help for each other. They use it to speed up information. Back in my dinosaur days, we had to use proper radio protocol for communicating. Hell, they hadn't even invented a smartphone yet. Even upper-management couldn't afford mobile cellular. MySpace was years down the road. I think it's the same as it ever was, just adjusted for inflation.
I don't know how any of that translates to music, but I see them passionate about things other than Facebook and TicTok.
First off the whole rock is dead thing is so dumb - as the number 1 classic rock disliker, it is far from over. Every guy goes through a phase of buying a guitar to learn wonderwall, AC/DC you name it. Y'all got to know that stereotype. Maybe they do it for church, maybe they wanna impress girls. (super werid) you name it.
I agree that social media is the culprit not because of attention span but because of cognitive bias. When I played guitar as usual google and meta listen to you. You get millions of recommendation about guitars seeing people are 20x better than you, who sell you stuff, who claim they learn this in this. People telling you it's easy, seeing one of your favs have all these pedals. If someone isn't in the right state of mind, which I hate to say is probably most youth, being put down, seeing toxic stuff, not having lessons, support is only gonna hurt you.
It isn't worth the time and it is just a classic everyone tries, gives it up. I also think the GC CEO is just blabbing honestly though.
I'm 24. I feel like I'm on a reddit thread in an echo-chamber. Yeah it does skew older but I can't believe people believe in GC ceo nonsense. While I hate social media and phones to an extent. You cannot deny that they allow way more info to be free. A lot of people are bringing up Led Zeppelin - did any of them know about Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, T-Model, Junior Kimbrough? I bet a decent amount never heard of the guys that LZ "borrow" from... I would honestly argue more people know about Muddy Waters today because of the internet than 30 years ago...
Not sure if his metrics are entirely accurate however I could see where there a decent chance they could be correct. I agree that social media has essentially become a sinkhole for young people these days (and pretty much most else who choose to use it) though.
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For school band and such probably 1 and 4 stick with it and that's with group lessons and organization rather than someone trying to play in their bedroom by watching YouTube videos.
My opinion is that numbers like this 1 in 10 are just stats we never heard when us old farts were younger. Didn't we all know plenty of kids in our schools that started guitar (or another instrument) and quit? There just wasn't the head of a store like Guitar Center telling us that.
Does social media divert attention? Yes, but so do alot of other things. Even if you're lucky enough to get a gig now you're competing with phone usage other than that and 17 TV's around the place on different programs.
Does social media divert attention? Yes, but so do alot of other things. Even if you're lucky enough to get a gig now you're competing with phone usage other than that and 17 TV's around the place on different programs.
I’ll offer this….i was at the Metallica show in Charlotte last weekend and half of the crowd was 25 or younger.
I saw Tears for Fears last summer - same thing. Well, on the grass - the "good" seats up front were mostly those of us who picked up Songs From The Big Chair at Tower Records when it came out.
I'm seeing Simple Minds this weekend - I wonder if they'll have any kind of younger draw. Considering I have to drive to Atlanta to see them, at a smaller venue, I'm thinking no, but we will see.
No. Its the terrible GC setups discouraging them.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
Well, the CEO of Guitar Center is an interested party.
I think it's very likely that the future of music RETAILING is not going to be driven by teenage boys, and former teenage boys, buying expensive guitars to play music from the 1960s and 1970s. I have no idea what the future of - shall we call it, "personal music making" will be after I'm dead and gone but I'm pretty confident it'll still be happening, just like it has for the last 40,000 years or so.
How many of the automobile manufacturers of 1910 are in business today? A quick scan of Wiki indicates they have over 200 pages on "automobile manufacturers of the 1910s" and I observed five names that are still in business today.
People still put on clothes every day. How much of today's clothing is obtained the same way it was in 1850? (Hint: almost all clothing in 1850 was made at home.)
I think it's very likely that the future of music RETAILING is not going to be driven by teenage boys, and former teenage boys, buying expensive guitars to play music from the 1960s and 1970s. I have no idea what the future of - shall we call it, "personal music making" will be after I'm dead and gone but I'm pretty confident it'll still be happening, just like it has for the last 40,000 years or so.
How many of the automobile manufacturers of 1910 are in business today? A quick scan of Wiki indicates they have over 200 pages on "automobile manufacturers of the 1910s" and I observed five names that are still in business today.
People still put on clothes every day. How much of today's clothing is obtained the same way it was in 1850? (Hint: almost all clothing in 1850 was made at home.)
wintremute
mediocrity at its finest
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I was going to respond to @DJ Bebop who said "Old guy here." with: "We're ALL old guys here", but you had to come along and ruin it!
But to me, it seems like a lot of people here are on the outside (of youth) looking in, and trying to frame today's teenage experience to their own. I remember growing up and the number of new (to me) artists I found out about were on the radio or in magazines. I compare that number to the number of new bands and artists I see popping up all the time (thanks to the internet and social media and streaming platforms), and today's number just dwarfs what I experienced in the past. Lots of new music is being made, it's just not being funneled into society's listening experience by the music labels like it was in the past. The music experience is just not equivalent, and all new rules are in place.
@salmon256, I agree with you. Today's youth have easy access to the history of music, and can burn through generations of songs in a short time to see if there's anything that catches their ear. They don't have to wait and hope to hear it on the radio, or save up money to go buy it; it's at their fingertips (or voice command).
True great point. I should of made that clear I understand as you get older it is harder. I think also my age being tech-savy maybe we will be up to date whatever the next gen is doing, I already feel years apart from someone who is 18 lol.... Then again my friend is a teacher and some of the things he shares with me I never heard in my life...
I look at it in much the same way I look at the alarming rise in obesity in children and young adults.
It's easy to chime in and say, "Well, there have always been fat kids," or "I still see kids playing outside all the time." But the plain fact is that there's never been such a high percentage of overweight/obese children and young adults as we are seeing today. Generally speaking, kids are simply not as physically active as they used to be. It's not the same as it was 40/50/60 years ago. Yes, you will still see plenty of fit and active young people, but all you have to do is go to a common place like a school, supermarket, or megastore and see the difference in the average physique today than the average physique from decades ago.
I'm not a fan of the gloom-and-doom approach to the current state of music participation, or anything else for that matter, but I'm also not on board with the "it's all the same" approach, either.
It's easy to chime in and say, "Well, there have always been fat kids," or "I still see kids playing outside all the time." But the plain fact is that there's never been such a high percentage of overweight/obese children and young adults as we are seeing today. Generally speaking, kids are simply not as physically active as they used to be. It's not the same as it was 40/50/60 years ago. Yes, you will still see plenty of fit and active young people, but all you have to do is go to a common place like a school, supermarket, or megastore and see the difference in the average physique today than the average physique from decades ago.
I'm not a fan of the gloom-and-doom approach to the current state of music participation, or anything else for that matter, but I'm also not on board with the "it's all the same" approach, either.
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