Fender CEO Andy Mooney: “When that article came out with the headline ‘Guitar is dead’, that was the

Fender CEO Andy Mooney: “When that article came out with the headline ‘Guitar is dead’, that was the definition of fake news”

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/fender-ceo-andy-mooney-interview

Tube amps might be dead, stompboxes might be dead, but they'll never kill the guitar. Great article!

It's a really good interview, but I then went back and re-read the Washington Post article. If I recall correctly, it created a bit of discussion in this forum when it came out.

And... it wasn't "fake news" at all. Mooney is actually quoted in it making exactly the same points he makes in this interview:

Quote:

“The death of the guitar, to paraphrase Mark Twain, is greatly exaggerated,” says Fender’s chief executive, Andy Mooney.

He says that the company has a strategy designed to reach millennials. The key, Mooney says, is to get more beginners to stick with an instrument they often abandon within a year. To that end, in July the company will launch a subscription-based service it says will change the way new guitarists learn to play through a series of online tools.

I'm glad it worked out for Fender. At least some good has come out of 2020.

Wasn't the gist of the article that music had become more electronic and the guitar was far less prominent than in the 70s and 80s guitar driven bands? I don't remember it and I won't spend time finding it and reading it, but from what I recall, by comparison to the Beatles days when every kid in every bedroom wanted a guitar to the days of Pro Tools and drum machine and every kind in the hood making an 8 bar beat to loop and recite bad poetry over, the guitar in that context IS indeed dead. To take those few words out of context can create the controversy but in the gist of the article as I remember it that was the context of that sentence.

I mean, I can show you where the words "There is no god" are in the bible. Badly out of context, and certainly not the point of the scripture, but those words are there. If we were out at some bar watching the big sportsball game for whatever sport and we got down to the last of the 25 wings and I said "If you even THINK about taking that last wing I'm gonna have to kill you", is that a serious death threat even though those words were in that sentence? I frankly don't even know why that was controversial. The awful bands the kids of today listen to often don't even have a guitar player. It's loops and sequences and drum machines. That's the state of recorded music sales, not the state of instrument sales. I have what, 8 right now, and I'm not even really a guitar player.

Originally Posted By: eddie1261

The awful bands the kids of today listen to often don't even have a guitar player.

Most of the awful bands I listen to these days have at least one guitar player, though fwiw I'm definitely not the norm. I'm perfectly happy with everything from classical, blues, and jazz all the way to distasteful stuff like rock, hip-hop, and death metal.