Scott, you mean I can't walk into School of Rock and come sounding like Dream Theater????
Bands like Dream Theater, stellar players from top to bottom, ruin music for a lot of people. I can play scales until the day I day but I will never play like Jordan Rudess. And guitar players can play scales until THEY die and not play like John Petrucci. Those are the kind of bands that when I see them, I am not inspired to work harder. They make me understand the futility of the whole game!! There are Rush copy bands everywhere. Thus, kids CAN learn to play the Alex Lifeson stuff. Same for Van Halen, Aerosmith...
Remember when everybody drooled over Van Halen doing "Eruption"? All I heard was "He is so great! He is amazing! He is the greatest player ever!!" I have heard at least 3 dozen players copy that whole thing note for note. Doesn't that mean they are also great and amazing? They are playing the same stuff.....
I do agree the guitar is now sitting at the back of the stage, but the John Mayer types, the John Scofield types, those players who play in a genre where the guitar IS the instrument, they will keep the guitar alive. Whether that is true across the board of genres or not is debatable. I watch Lollapalooza every year. The big draws the last few years were the DJs who play extended mixes of other people's stuff sampled. Not even AN instrument, much less THAT instrument.
So I think it comes down to where you are looking. That weird SkrillX person, whoever he is, doesn't really even know music. He is a computer whiz, but he isn't really a musician. But isn't he popular??
So, you can still find a guitar out front if you know where to look. The basic premise though I have to agree with. You are likely going to find it in older acts, but it's there.
Can you even TRY to imagine Joe Walsh playing with a computer on stage??
OK - Here's a lineup of my favorite youngsters playing great music with guitar-centric (or in the case of Vulfpeck, bass-centric) orchestration.
Vulfpeck (eddie, you might want to look away, these kids are from Ann Arbor as far as I can tell). Really tight funk. Everyone plays everything except for Joe Dart the bass player - he just kills it on funky bass and I don't mean slapping.
Some of my faves from them: https://youtu.be/w9COHCrwNQs (nice strat solo about 2:30-2:50) https://youtu.be/4dpvyZBKg6Q (insane strat playing on this one, with slide thrown in here and there) https://youtu.be/jRHQPG1xd9o (guest vocalist has some Al Green going, for sure - the guy playing the strat in this one also is a mean keyboard player, and drummer)
If you enjoy this straight up excellent soul and funk, subscribe to their YouTube channel - they'll get paid through the advertisement revenue they are now getting by having so many views on YouTube.
Colony House Just great pop-rock. No guitar pyrotechnics, but slick riffs and a great overall sound. These guys are getting huge press. Radio play, who knows - but they've been on the Today show. The riff they do on the back end of the chorus sections is great in this one. https://youtu.be/IBTB54ty-tc https://youtu.be/DkfBxIH0g0k (throwback sound on this one to many different eras inside of one song) https://youtu.be/Y4WkY30Sxd0 (same song, played live on Conan - lead singer busted a string on this one)
Silversun Pickups (these guys are more label supported and have been around for 15 years or so - lead singer's voice is a love or hate sound - everytime I hear it, it intrigues me and I listen more) https://youtu.be/XBdeNVb3SdM (video is a bit disturbing, but it does feature some of their unique modern riffy guitar sound) https://youtu.be/AG8fugqFn9Q (probably their most popular song - very heavy riff opening repeated at different points in the song)
Not necessarily favorites, but just more proof that the guitar is not dying.
Bruno Mars (is there a bigger star right now? - so glad this sound with it's funk guitar and keyboards is being appreciated by the kids of today) https://youtu.be/_8cK15Iv5qM (Live on SNL)
That SINGER in Vulfpeck!! Sounds WAY too much like Al Jarreau!!! And the old school Wurlitzer is cool. I'll probably pick up an album as well.
Though there IS that whole Ann Arbor thing... maybe that is a misprint and they are really from Columbus...
And Colony House sounds exactly like Neon Trees.
Death Cab for me kind of blended into the gray of alternative band sameness for me.
Alabama Shakes I never liked. Something about that girl I can't handle.
Bruno is the bomb, but his act is pretty much James Brown redone, and I was a huge JB fan. Bruno updated that theme and whoever writes for him does a great job.
As a musician, it has always been like this for me: I'll hear a song and come away wanting to sound like that. I uxed to joke, if I had a dime for every hour I spent trying to capture the vocal feeling of Tammy Wynette, I coul retire. All, it turned out, in vain. My point is, as long as kids and adults listen to music and make their own, the six blade knife will have a place in our lives.
Here in another to listen to. It is a wild Knoxville George Jones show, 1994, with this very unsual intro. The band and sidemen hold this rhytmic, instrumental round, while George chats up the audience in time with the band. Then, they seamlessly go into the spoken intro to "No Show Jones," and literally the audience has gone nuts by the time the song actually starts.
Now, it is a given that this backup band features the most amazing musicians in the field, as well as the Maestro. But still, as I say, figure this one out and you'll really have something.
Listening to something on Austin City Limits called Arcade fire. Very interesting band. There's like 8 of them who change instruments from guitar to mandolin to accordion to keyboard to fiddles to some weird instrument one of the girls played where she seems to be turning a crank with her right hand. Picture an oversized guitar with a jack in the box crank on the strap button. That's what it looked like. All versatile players. Music is like Dexie's Midnight Runners meet alternative meet Enya on meth.
Edit: I have identified that weird thing as a hurdy gurdy.
One of the things I noticed in the article was how 6 string acoustic guitar was growing in users and listeners who wanted the sound of the acoustic guitar and other instruments in an acoustic setting as close to a back porch as they could get it!
Been there! Done that!
Back porch is better. (Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!)
I notice in your youtube link that the drummer has headphones on .. a click for a country show?? Some would call that cheating .. Or maybe he just needed to hear the rest of the band <grin>
I watch for stuff like this; and I analyze. If we are doing a 'show' there WILL be a click. Good on them.
If we are jamming at a local small time pub, maybe not, but I assume at this level the show is planned/timed/clicked. Just noticing
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
I can't imagine recording a song where the guitar wasn't considered .. can't even think of many recordings here where it doesn't exist in the end result. It ain't going anywhere soon.
Quote:
I'll probably pick up an album as well.
Though there IS that whole Ann Arbor thing... maybe that is a misprint and they are really from Columbus...
Really? We're a few hours apart. We could be friends, and this is what eats at you? yer funny
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Really? We're a few hours apart. We could be friends, and this is what eats at you? yer funny
O-H, baby!!!
Buckeye Nation.
As I was selling gear, I had interest in my guitar from a girl in that city up north. I almost didn't sell it to her because I didn't want it to go "there". I relented though so I could buy my RV.
Here's another band that is pretty danged popular right now, that I forgot about but that I am enjoying and one could even argue that they have guitar solos:
The War on Drugs
They have a new album coming out soon. I have recently bought their last album.
This is a pretty touching video promoting one of the new songs.
There are fair comparisons between the singer and Bob Dylan, but this guy sings a little better; some 80's synth treatments, a driving bass guitar line, nice little figures at the ends of phrases.
Nothing in music is really "dying", the overall market is huge and diverse. Jazz is dying, the guitar is dying, piano is dying etc, etc. Not true in a literal sense because there are successful young, new artists in all those genres but that's not what this thread is about.
This thread is about the overall marketplace from a manufacturers pov. If a market has shrunk down to say 20% of what it used to be then given cheaper overseas competition 20% isn't enough to keep Fender and Gibson in business. Look at this thread about the top 100 downloaded songs:
There's not much of what we're talking about in that list. Some, sure like I said but nothing like it was 30 years ago. Again, it's the overall market as a whole that we're talking about not the exceptions. It's like classical music. It used to be the hot, trending thing 200-300 years ago. Is it dead no, but it's not driving anybody's market either.
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