When did playing bass(or guitar) become comedy?

[MrLenny1]

Well people think you "PLAY" guitar like a toy.
They want to learn to play because they think it's fun like on MTV.
Air guitar is comedy. Music to the younger generation is free. Really?
Live music on the local level is almost dead.

 

[Bigtruck1369]

i just wont have some hollow minded stuck in his ways old fool tell me what my generation enjoys doing or what defines us.

Please fella, chill out.

You know something else your "generation" does? Completely lose their minds and hurl hateful rhetoric online over nothing.

You won't be making any points with anyone acting like that here. Grow up a bit, get some thicker skin, and come back when you've learned to debate a point without resorting to name calling.


Carefully typed, proofread, and edited to fix Autocorrect's strange choices on my iPhone using TalkBass

 

[M.R. Ogle]

I wouldn't take any of this to the "kids nowdays always/never" stages, but it is true that playing an instrument does not seem to have the same appeal to the younger generations. That's fine,things change.

If I could have created music with a keyboard and mouse back when when I was 14, I might have gone that route, too.

My own kids were curious about playing, but that's "Dad's thing" so it is inherently less than 100% cool. Ever see the South Park episode on Rock Band.?.. that's pretty much nailed it.

 

[dalkowski]

Making this a generational thing is going overboard.

Haters gonna hate, as it was and ever shall be. Whether you play an instrument, write sonnets, race go-carts, paint, sculpt, ride downhill mountain bikes, play football, play American football, read books, ride a skateboard or spend every Thursday afternoon with your gran instead of hangin' at the mall with your posse, someone's gonna find a reason to clown on you. Immaturity is ageless.

PS: I'm also OK with laying this matter at the feet of Paul Rudd.

 

[Steamtronic]

Sorry to the OP, but performing air guitar in the office to a coworker is going to look more than a little uncool from a distance. Regardless of the best intentions. Hell, if I had my way I'd be playing air Bass just walking down the street, but sadly society is not so accepting to creatures like ourselves.

Fear not,there may be a remedy.

If you have a gig coming up nearby, invite some office people along. Not them, but people they come in contact with now and then. Word will get around the office, and next time they think it's funny to go all Bill & Ted's excellent adventure on you, they will be the ones looking like, totally bogus, dude.

 

[Fuzzbass]

When did playing a bass(or guitar) become comedy?Something ridiculous?

Oh, for at least as long as I've been alive (50+ years). Entertainment is a good thing.

I can see how people would find Manring's machinations amusing. It's not just those who dislike jazz fusion: some people care more about the music than the musicianship, if you know what I mean. (No comment intended on Manring's songwriting).

I like the fact that a lot of modern rock doesn't have blazing guitar chops. I got burned out on all that stuff back in the '80s. Nirvana (et al) came as a refreshing change.

 

[jfh2424]

People forget that rock, at it's origin, was all about non conformity and doing your own thing. It was a counter culture thing, it was confronting and blatantly sexual. The forefathers of rock would not worry about what a few unimaginative people thought. It wasn't about fitting in, it was about rebelling.

 

[RandalPinkFloyd]

Still got the ol' .38 special record on repeat over there, I see.

Check out bandcamp, look around. Try not to get into the 'get off my lawn' mentality. Rock music isn't dead, its just difficult to get your music out there if you can't afford to tour.

Nah man....it's dead. Sorry, Muse isn't a rock band and neither is Nickelback. Nikki Minaj, just surpassed MJ in billboard hits. That was the proverbial pee on music's grave.

 

[ROOTSnFIFTHS]

There's an old saying; maybe you've heard it: Those that can, do; those that can't, mock. Mainly due to underlying inferiority complex/ jealousy issues, but the single phrase is more succinct.

Rob

THAT is it ^^^

 

[acebase62]

I found these by accident, and never took things quite as seriously again.

 

[dalkowski]

Nikki Minaj, just surpassed MJ in billboard hits. That was the proverbial pee on music's grave.

Sad to see product triumph over craft.

 

[2.6kHz]

This is why the song Money for Nothing was written. Some people think playing a guitar all day is daydreaming head in the clouds, waiting for the day when you "get your money for nothing and your checks for free." Some people think that you a can't be a hard worker unless you get your hands dirty, some believe you work hard if you spend more than 10 hrs at the office every day everyone else is slacking, it goes on and on.

 

[lundborg]

I thought it was "chicks for free". Darn.

 

[PokeyPrasch]

Wow, lots to read.

I wouldn't say music/rock is dead, in fact independent music has been flourishing in the age of the internet.
Smartphones/Facebook/<insert trend here> are just popular currently just like television or other easier and immediately gratifying activities have been in past generations.

But I'm pretty new here so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[ster]

Relax TS, they're just bustin' your chops. They saw you "air guitaring" which is goofy. WAY too much thought is being put into this.

 

[Hues]

"Shoot is **** with two o's,man."

 

[Flabass]

I'm playing a gig tomorrow night at my son's business. It will be full of young people, 18 to late 20's. We play classic rock and blues and I'll bet that very few of them will know the songs we will be playing. Maybe we will open them up to something new. Regardless, we will enjoy it.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

+1000. I've even been offered favors after, get this, a P&W sub gig I did!

Memory Jog! In the gear trailer in the parking lot between sets.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Some people think playing a guitar all day is daydreaming head in the clouds, waiting for the day when you "get your money for nothing and your chicks for free."

Yeah, that song does make an excellent point...but aside from the "ease" of rock n roll, that is pretty much the universal dream for a lot of guys who play an instrument or want to be in a band. You want the rockstar persona like KISS or The Beatles or Led Zeppelin had. Loud and long guitar solos and babes just dying to sleep with you. I think that dream/myth has nearly died off completely for the upstarts. Although we could be one band away from the next Nirvana that could rope things back in again. Who knows, it would be nice though

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

I didn't. I spoke of a time when I was alive, when you were not alive, when things were different. Culture has changed, as culture always does, but priorities and interests for the younger generation is a lot different and a lot more diverse for kids today than it was in the 1970's. There's a million things a kid can do with their free time now.

Back in the 70's, there were no computers, there were no video games, there was 4 channels of tv you could watch. You could read, you could listen to music and.... that's about all you could do at home. Music was a very big deal for people. Music can still be a big deal for kids today, but it's competing with a whole lot of other things. Also, there's not a whole lot of current artists for kids to get inspired by, if a kid is really into music, he/she is listening to stuff that came out before he was born.

I was a kid in the 50s. We got our first TV in 1953. We lived over 100 miles from the nearest station and could get 1 channel some of the time. Other times there was too much snow. (The kid wont understand that). We listened to the radio. We rode our bikes. We fought BB gun wars in the woods behind our house. We played board games. We built model airplanes and ships. We built soapbox racers. If we wanted to talk to someone, we went to their house and knocked on the door. And my family all played music, so we would get together and play. On Sundays the entire extended family gathered at my grandmother's house. That would be 20+ adults and 6 or 8 kids. We went fishing and frog gigging. We played mumblety-peg during recess at school. And we read books.
Movies were once a week, maybe, on Saturday morning at the Strand Theater where there would be 15 cartoons (not an exageration), 2 serials, and 3 movies. It started at 10:00 AM and let out between 2:00 and 3:00 PM. We ran up and down the aisles and threw popcorn from the balcony.
We had 1 phone in the house. It was in the hall way. All it could do is make and receive calls. No text, no voicemail, no answering machine or service.

So, I agree that the culture has changed so dramatically the younger generation doesn't understand the difference at all. But, in all fairness, I would guess we didn't understand our parents' generation completely, but I think the generational difference is greater now than then because of the technilogical differences that seem to isolate us rather than bring us together.