i think thats half right - what i notice with my kids is the instant gratification they get when they throw a bunch of loops together on Acid and it actually sounds like something. Kids want instant gratification these days - our modern world teaches them this and they get annoyed when they have to do something 'with effort' like scroll down on a computer to read something or do an extra button click or two when operating software or a video game...learning to play guitar, or any instrument, takes an investment of time and patience and they just dont want to wait that long for the reward - especially when there are now so many other technological means to create music that require much less of an effort
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i think thats half right - what i notice with my kids is the instant gratification they get when they throw a bunch of loops together on Acid and it actually sounds like something. Kids want instant gratification these days - our modern world teaches them this and they get annoyed when they have to do something 'with effort' like scroll down on a computer to read something or do an extra button click or two when operating software or a video game...learning to play guitar, or any instrument, takes an investment of time and patience and they just dont want to wait that long for the reward - especially when there are now so many other technological means to create music that require much less of an effort
Probably not.
More likely is that lug referred to a monologue by the would-be fearful Prince Arcturus in "Everything You Know is Wrong". But you remind of the most... captivating horoscope I encountered this year so far:
“Additionally, you should keep an eye on Uranus. Uranus is in your sign of the zodiac. One effect could be that there are tensions between what Uranus wants and what is possible – headache included. A popular household remedy: long walks outside.”
Probably not.
But you remind of the most... captivating horoscope I encountered this year so far:
“Additionally, you should keep an eye on Uranus. Uranus is in your sign of the zodiac. One effect could be that there are tensions between what Uranus wants and what is possible – headache included. A popular household remedy: long walks outside.”
Uranus has Klingons which need to be wiped out
See there. My great and powerful mind has an idea and commands it to exist.Stratacoustic
Either that or....nah!
Last year I had to pay a local piano company to remove my old baby grand--and take it to a landfill.
I also could not access the article. But....
I live in a small Midwestern town, pretty typical American place. The number of people who play guitars, own guitars, or WANT to play guitar is pretty surprisingly high. The local radio station is all classic rock, and most of the bands being hired into the local bars are all guitar-based. I still see a LOT of interest in electric guitars.
However, I propose that the CORPORATE BUSINESS models which "serve" that demand/interest have overshot, over-estimated and have generally been tripped up by societal and financial trends beyond their control. Like.... wages not keeping pace, the aging baby-boomers, and mass over-production and flooding the market with cheaper imported instruments.
It's still a good time to be a guitar player... and there's still lots of them, though with less money these days. But it's probably a crappy time to be a Music Industry Executive nervously watching the quarterly profit statements.
I live in a small Midwestern town, pretty typical American place. The number of people who play guitars, own guitars, or WANT to play guitar is pretty surprisingly high. The local radio station is all classic rock, and most of the bands being hired into the local bars are all guitar-based. I still see a LOT of interest in electric guitars.
However, I propose that the CORPORATE BUSINESS models which "serve" that demand/interest have overshot, over-estimated and have generally been tripped up by societal and financial trends beyond their control. Like.... wages not keeping pace, the aging baby-boomers, and mass over-production and flooding the market with cheaper imported instruments.
It's still a good time to be a guitar player... and there's still lots of them, though with less money these days. But it's probably a crappy time to be a Music Industry Executive nervously watching the quarterly profit statements.
I'm not sure either.
Pundits have been calling the demise of the guitar for decades. Yet, it still prevails. While the blistering guitar solo isn't as popular as it once was, guitars can be found in many different styles of music, even if it isn't found in others.....
Accordion shop? Wow. Don't think I have ever heard of one in North America.
I would love to see a present day accordion shop business plan... and a bank manager's face after reading one.
That's really sad. We have an old player piano that was my wife's grandmother's. I restored it and all the kids learned to play on it, so it has a lot of sentimental value. It'll probably end up in the landfill when we leave this house.
At least we'll be able to burn our basses in the fireplace when they become worthless.
Well you have just come off of an 80 year run of excellent guitar players starting with Django Reinhardt in 1928. And there are those that argue that Django pretty much wrote the book on guitar back then. I think we are witnessing the end of the musician in general. Technology has put the guitar, bass, keyboard player on the endangered species list along with long haul truck drivers and factory workers. 30 or 40 years from now, music will probably be mostly electronic with the possible exception of Classical and Jazz, if Jazz can survive.
I just read the article. Old guys complaining that things aren't the way they "Used to be." Crap.
For every old guy complaining about "no new Eric Clapton" there's three of four fifteen year olds downloading "Black Veil Brides" or "Falling in Reverse" or "Motionless in White" songs. The guitar-based music market is more diverse, more segmented, and not so "monolithic" as in the past... so it's not as easy to point a finger at.
For every old guy complaining about "no new Eric Clapton" there's three of four fifteen year olds downloading "Black Veil Brides" or "Falling in Reverse" or "Motionless in White" songs. The guitar-based music market is more diverse, more segmented, and not so "monolithic" as in the past... so it's not as easy to point a finger at.
The electric guitar will never die, but to deny that it's popularity is plummeting one would have to be blind. The article pretty much says it all, as hard as it was to read on that black background with YUGE white letters (am I the only one who was annoyed by that?).
I'll add to the article that once upon a time playing guitar was very freaking cool. I work in a HS. Playing a guitar is not so cool anymore. Kids associate guitars with old men, hippies, and geeks. Seems like a big "Duh" to me that guitars are not selling the way they did in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Another thing the article doesn't mentions, although I pretty much skimmed it, is that I think youtube might be scaring some people away. Who the hell wants to work at playing for years to become competent when you see an 8 year old Asian kid who smokes 90% of the most famous guitarists of the 80s. I don't think that's inspiring anyone. I think it's intimidating them. But that of course is just my opinion. One could argue that with tab and "how to" videos it's also much easier to learn to play.
Truth be told however, it's the fault of these guys:
They're the new guitar heroes.
Ack!
i don't know man....maybe its the genre of music im in but i feel like heavier music is more popular than ever and electric guitar sure isn't going anywhere with that kind of music. im in my mid-30s and playing guitar in high school was considered dorky back then too but right after you graduate everyone wants to play.
i cant believe you tricked me into youtubing'ing the chainsmokers. that is some of the worst music i have ever heard and lyrics....so....bad....
just an opinion, but I think what I and a few others have said is correct: Its not dying -- its just moving from forefront to niche and, really, thats OK....Cellos are a thousand years old, technology has replaced them and other strings on most recordings, but anybody that knows music and the arts understands the scope of dynamics from diminuendo to crescendo that can only be achieved by human hands: there will always be a demand somewhere for actual cello players........
....also, I will quit playing altogether when the BluesBot 2000, using fractal generation algorithms, spits out highly convincing blues numbers that I cant tell arent Robert Johnson (and, the scary part, is that I think technology isnt too far away from doing that to some degree)
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Forgive me if, after hearing the same doomsday prediction for my entire playing career, I am less than convinced.
guitars and guitarists are in decline? oh well. 
a guitarist, even a great one: is just a violinist without the manners!
a guitarist, even a great one: is just a violinist without the manners!
Forgive me if, after hearing the same doomsday prediction for my entire playing career, I am less than convinced.
Ive heard it as well since the late 70s....its just that Im now actually witnessing it after decades of being wrong: it just took longer than expected,,,,By the way, Jim Morrison actually predicted this. Granted, he was basing it off the technology he was familiar with for his time period (i.e. analog "tapes" instead of digital media), but he had the meat of exactly how things are now
- Oct 7, 2000
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To all those ragging on the old guys, really?
Have you considered that maybe we saw and lived in a world that you never experienced, and can only read about or see videos of?
I don't care who the guitar heroes of today are, trust me when I tell you they don't come anywhere close to comparing to Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen... our parents and grandparents knew who those people were, what they did, even what they looked like. There is not a single electric guitarist I can think of that is influencing kids in the capacity today that those guys did back then.
I'll add that I've been working in a HS for over 20 years, and I'm very much connected to whats going on musically with the kids - not just today - but over the span of the decades. The guitar playing kids today are mostly into classic rock. And that's not quite as cool a thing to be into as it was before it was classic. There is currently one band I know if in the school I work at. In the 90s there were many. And they were gigging bands, too.
I could go on, but this old guy wants to take a nap. I'll remind all you younger folks too that if you're lucky - one day you'll get to be the same age as us older folks. We're all getting older, you included, together. That's not something only people over 40 do.
I'll end with this - Do you really also not believe that guitar sales are dropping, and electric guitar isn't as popular now as it was in the 80s? Or am I just misreading and misunderstanding your posts because of that nap I need.... ?
Jeeeeez, you kids!
Have you considered that maybe we saw and lived in a world that you never experienced, and can only read about or see videos of?
I don't care who the guitar heroes of today are, trust me when I tell you they don't come anywhere close to comparing to Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen... our parents and grandparents knew who those people were, what they did, even what they looked like. There is not a single electric guitarist I can think of that is influencing kids in the capacity today that those guys did back then.
I'll add that I've been working in a HS for over 20 years, and I'm very much connected to whats going on musically with the kids - not just today - but over the span of the decades. The guitar playing kids today are mostly into classic rock. And that's not quite as cool a thing to be into as it was before it was classic. There is currently one band I know if in the school I work at. In the 90s there were many. And they were gigging bands, too.
I could go on, but this old guy wants to take a nap
. I'll remind all you younger folks too that if you're lucky - one day you'll get to be the same age as us older folks. We're all getting older, you included, together. That's not something only people over 40 do.I'll end with this - Do you really also not believe that guitar sales are dropping, and electric guitar isn't as popular now as it was in the 80s? Or am I just misreading and misunderstanding your posts because of that nap I need.... ?
Jeeeeez, you kids!
