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I've read articles more or less like this since about 1978. Did anyone see any numbers in this about how many guitars were sold industrywide last year?
Btw, you should read the doomsayers over in the acoustic forums. According to them, acoustics would have been dead 60 years ago except for the Kingston Trio and MTV Unplugged.
Btw, you should read the doomsayers over in the acoustic forums. According to them, acoustics would have been dead 60 years ago except for the Kingston Trio and MTV Unplugged.
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And yet.....
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None of all our relatives kids play a guitar or are even interested. A couple like to mess around on my bass though.
One plays a ukelele once in awhile. That's it.
So GC and Fender are deep in red ink? And Gibson makes more than Fender?
One plays a ukelele once in awhile. That's it.
So GC and Fender are deep in red ink? And Gibson makes more than Fender?
Very interesting article and very illuminating to learn that Fender's CEO considers Taylor Swift the most influencial guitarist in years in terms of inspiring both new players and sales.
Recently visited an accordion shop. Apparently guitar sales killed off the industry with the advent of rock.
I rather doubt the hidden graph refutes the article's assertion that the market is contracting (" In the past decade, electric guitar sales have plummeted, from about 1.5 million sold annually to just over 1 million. The two biggest companies, Gibson and Fender, are in debt, and a third, PRS Guitars, had to cut staff and expand production of cheaper guitars. In April, Moody’s downgraded Guitar Center, the largest chain retailer, as it faces $1.6 billion in debt. And at Sweetwater.com, the online retailer, a brand-new, interest-free Fender can be had for as little as $8 a month.")
The article's portrait of aging boomers consolidating their guitar collections instead of expanding them jibes perfectly with the pervasive sentiment at TB and also accounts for the stagnant used market.
And with no new guitar heroes save Taylor Swift, the article posits, new players/consumers are not emerging to fill the gap.
I was born in 1963 and had accordion lessons. It was indeed a thing. My slightly older friends were more serious players in their day.
Middle class homes all used to have pianos as well.
I think we're seeing that MTV was both the boon and bane of guitar, and that the 60's/70's were an anomaly in music history. Part of the problem is short attention spans. Another is the education system. And finally, I can blame those pesky carrots as their orange influence on the world...
I have to grade papers. I will read that article later this morning.
Often pop culture articles are for sales and marketing. Their goal is to have a psychological impact on the masses. Electric guitar may not be popular in USA pop music. But, it's still a vital part of live music entertainment throughout the world and in local clubs and bars. And, electric guitar will always be popular as long as there are people who get a taste of the guitar bug and have been exposed to old rock and blues tunes. It never ceases to amaze me, that there are teenage guitar players playing classic rock and blues tunes. Music that's over 50 years old.
I was born in '61. No accordion in our house but I did play one at a friend's house at some point. We did have a piano though, and my first piano teacher (age 8) was an old jazz trumpeter who of course played piano. He'd taught my older brother (13 years older than me), and even my mom. Sadly he passed away about 9 months into my study. He had me doing boogie woogie and stride pretty quickly. I posit that had he not died I likely would have ended up a more serious piano player rather than the relative hack I am today.
We have a piano in the house, and my son was forced to study an instrument until he graduated high school. He could pick whatever he wanted, but the rule was he had to do something other than play computer games. He'll thank me for it later.
stylish dresser
I saw this earler and think it overstates things. Decline, yes; death, no.
BS article, hype.
Guitars are cheaper than ever and people only want a strat and/or a Les Paul, which can be had at any price point. So, how do businesses invest in a product that anybody can make and keeps depreciating while the customer gets poorer? No amount of guitar gods can do anything about it because modern factories can crank out all the supply demanded for cheap thereby flooding the market even more and, every year, fewer people can afford the top tier stuff.
Guitars are cheaper than ever and people only want a strat and/or a Les Paul, which can be had at any price point. So, how do businesses invest in a product that anybody can make and keeps depreciating while the customer gets poorer? No amount of guitar gods can do anything about it because modern factories can crank out all the supply demanded for cheap thereby flooding the market even more and, every year, fewer people can afford the top tier stuff.
According to the article, acoustics are now outselling electrics. So your contention that people only want Strats and Teles is no longer true, statistically speaking. The average guitar player today is female and wants an acoustic. So there is an apparent sea-change regardless of the article's hype.
Is that your son in the video? If so, kudos for the playing AND his excellent taste in video games - I doubt anyone in the audience knows where that's from, or even heard it before.
The name of the article is "The Slow Death of The Electric Guitar"...............
So are people not buying as many guitars as a decade ago, or are they just not buying as many NEW guitars? A guitar doesn't wear out like a car or a cell phone does so the used market is huge.
