The Death of the Electric Guitar • Page 3

Please don't let this be true.

 

Some of the most talented musicians to ever walk this earth

 

Man, I love guitars, I love guitar-based music, but it is endlessly frustrating when people who exclusively listen to bands with guitars, bass, and drums lament the rise of electronic-based music. I think a lot of those people fail to recognize that a lot of the same criticisms were levied against the electric guitar when it first appeared (it wasn't "real" enough). People should always strive to listen to as much different and diverse music as they can. I know it can be difficult because everyone has their own preferences, and there are only so many hours in the day, but goddamn, there really is no excuse in 2017 for someone to only listen to one or two sub-genres of music. All styles of music are valid, worthy of exploration, and "real." Jam out to guitar bands, summer is a great time for that, but don't ever let yourself believe that that is all there is for you.

This is coming from someone who spent the majority of their adolescence lambasting and denigrating rap, hip-hop, and pop because I... was a massive dork.

 

The only good thing I see about this news is maybe I can get a fender sonic blue strat at 1/2 price.

 

I spent almost three years of my life studying jazz guitar in college and now the majority of music writing I do is on Ableton. Grew up listening to punk and now I have 2 Chainz latest on rotation, but the last five concerts I went to were Chon, DGD and other guitar based bands. I'm 22 and I feel like I grew up with the charts shifting from Green Day to Future and Drake. This article was really interesting to me but I feel like the writer is directing the conversation as an either/or -- either guitar based music will be popular or all that new-fangled computer stuff. That's silly. I'm living proof that as music lovers and musicians, we can do both, and the charts back that up. Electronic and hip hop might dominate now compared to pop punk back in the day, but all genres sort of ebb and flow until one day they become niche as new genres are pop up.

That said, guitar isn't a genre. I don't think the electric guitar is gone or that it'll become niche because it's too easy and fun to program into any genre you want. Pretty much every single artist on top 40 has made a song with a guitar in it. I think the downtrend in sales is more attributable to how long guitars last, the economy, and how most sales are used or on Craigslist. Two of my guitars are hand me downs and the other is a pawn shop rescue. All my guitarist friends buy used, too.

Tbh the more I think about it, I don't think the writer has ever set foot in a hip hop recording studio. This is the kind of take you get when you interview old white CEOs of guitar megacorps.

 

You're officially my favorite poster on the site

 

:D i do what i can to impress

 

I can't help but think that this article is reaching a bit.

Firstly, Gibson and Fender both carry some debt, but certainly in Fender's case, I don't think that there was any suggestion that they're actually losing money? Gibson have made some awful decisions in recent years, but I don't think that would be to do with a broader trend.

The drop of half a million sold instruments per year is more interesting, but there are so many possible factors in that. I'm no expert in chart music, but anecdotally, it does feel like electric guitar based music has been a little less prevalent over here (UK) in recent years compared to maybe 10 years ago. That being said, how many times have we seen that happen before, only for a glut of guitar driven bands to come through again?

More tellingly, guitars are a pretty frivolous purchase and a global downturn can hardly be a good sign for that. In the UK now, we've got such pressures on things like housing costs that it's not really sensible to be filling where ever you live with multiple brand new instruments.

Which brings me on to what may be a bigger point and that's the affordability and availability of quality second hand instruments. Guitars are fundamentally simple in design. You don't need the latest and greatest model to be able to get a great sound. You can buy an American Standard Strat for like £1400 or you can get one from 1993 for £600. It's nice to own new things, but if you want a quality instrument, there's no necessity to buy new.

When someone can show me figures that fewer people are actually playing, I'll believe it's dying.