Is guitar dead in popular music ?

Rezarc SP

Rezarc SP

Member
Hi all - I see articles like this (its a couple of years old)

The Demise Of The Electric Guitar In Music - Forbes

... and I get depressed because I cannot deny that my own observations mirror those of the author.

Mainstream pop today is almost completely devoid of guitar playing.
Although popular culture still has things like guitar hero, its kind of a joke - it's not about celebrating the coolness of our beloved instrument, so much as scoring points in a video game.

Although the rock and metal scene is producing some fine music, it's not exactly thriving commercially, and has been relegated to "underground" status.

Help me out here - I need to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I only have questions, and not many answers. eg

Is this how old geezers who were Glenn Miller fans must have felt when rock n roll first came on the scene ?
Am I just becoming an old fart ? Is this what being old feels like LOL ?
Will guitar-based music make a comeback one day ?

The cruelest part of all this is that we have technology (eg axe fx) that enables us to get sounds we never dreamed of getting before, and yet nobody except us guitar enthusiasts seem to care.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Long live Rock n Roll !
 
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Electric guitar has ALWAYS been apart of music since it's inception. Disco and New Wave were the so called demise of Rock n Roll and yet the electric guitar survived even in those genre's. Hell... bell bottoms have even made a resurgence... a couple times since the 60's and 70's along with everything and anything else that has made a few trips around the block since the first fad. Forbe's knows shit about the electric guitar.. I wouldn't give it another thought. :)
 
Since the guitar solo is dead too, are people actually learning to play better rhythm guitar now...? (nope ;) )

So, no worries.

I could understand people getting tired of power chords though.
I would advocate a more delicate use of the guitar, like in most Toto stuff.
 
USMC_Trev said:
They said guitar was dead in the 80's, too. synths and computers had come to kill all that was good. I wouldn't worry too much about it. A guitar is bought every second of every day.
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This is true, but here is what concerns me:

1. guitar still played a significant role in 80s music, whereas it is all but absent in top-40 music now.
2. A guitar is bought every second of every day, which is great. However, the general public's desire to hear guitar in music seems to be waning. This set of circumstances leads to an oversupply of guitar players and a lack of demand, which in turn means a shortage of gigs, and the horrible prospect of guitar playing eventually degrading to a "hobby" for "enthusiasts".

sorry to be on such a downer - just tell me I'm wrong and its all cool.
 
Just look at Maroon 5.. harder to breathe.. guitar driven song... anything recent, I'm betting he wasn't even in the studio. Every interview with Luke he says all the studio gigs dried up, only a handful of people doing it now and mostly for tv and movies.
 
Rezarc SP said:
This is true, but here is what concerns me:

1. guitar still played a significant role in 80s music, whereas it is all but absent in top-40 music now.
2. A guitar is bought every second of every day, which is great. However, the general public's desire to hear guitar in music seems to be waning. This set of circumstances leads to an oversupply of guitar players and a lack of demand, which in turn means a shortage of gigs, and the horrible prospect of guitar playing eventually degrading to a "hobby" for "enthusiasts".

sorry to be on such a downer - just tell me I'm wrong and its all cool.
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You are wrong Sir.
 
Guitar is still pretty popular in the churches. They would have me play every weekend if they could. Its interesting the bar scene where I live, you all have to play the same songs they have been playing since the seventies, its become a cliche'.

I have buddies who play less and less these days. I'm starting to see the rants now of more established local artists, not getting the paying gigs anymore, complaining about pay to play. I feel for them as this was their only source of income. Man, I have to have a 401k, I don't want to work forever. I definitely don't want to be a greeter at walmart at '70.

The good news is its eb and flow, what isn't popular will become popular, the sad news it won't be any of us bringing back the past. It will be somebody young and hot looking, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.
 
Rezarc SP said:
This is true, but here is what concerns me:

1. guitar still played a significant role in 80s music, whereas it is all but absent in top-40 music now.
2. A guitar is bought every second of every day, which is great. However, the general public's desire to hear guitar in music seems to be waning. This set of circumstances leads to an oversupply of guitar players and a lack of demand, which in turn means a shortage of gigs, and the horrible prospect of guitar playing eventually degrading to a "hobby" for "enthusiasts".

sorry to be on such a downer - just tell me I'm wrong and its all cool.
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Well, you are sort of wrong... in a way...

One could argue impressive guitar work in various sub-genres of country music is just now coming alive, and several in the field are among the top grossing touring acts. It's a genre with the widest demographic and, as of a couple years back (haven't checked recently), more FM airplay than any other genre measured by actual area coverage... which might be a negligible point considering the rise of Internet radio, but even still, the C/W audience is massive.

And let's face it, today's country is rock in a cowboy hat, a little less distortion, a lot more compression, fewer Les Pauls, and a lot more Teles, but the playing is still there.
 
I do EDM on the side, I know many EDM guys, we all use guitar samples that we made playing real guitars. Guitar is not dead, in fact it's spreading into more genres than ever, it's just being utilized in ways most people aren't used to, sometimes you don't even realize it's there, but if it wasn't it'd change the whole song.


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BrainalLeakage said:
I do EDM on the side, I know many EDM guys, we all use guitar samples that we made playing real guitars.
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I also produce/DJ EDM. Actually, the rock band thing is my side project and EDM is my main focus as a producer. I'm actually working on an epic trance remix right now which I'm using a ton of guitar in. Think Muse + Vai + Scot Project :)
 
I would agree with a lot of observations made here. I don't think it's dead as much as just not being the main focal point of a band/song anymore. It is being used in more creative ways than simply mimicking how it was used in classic rock. Most things are cyclical and I'll venture a guess it'll be re-"discovered" in a few years. :)
 
Metal being underground and not thriving commercially. Lol give me a break. Look at Europe and all their crazy festivals. Hell, bands like Avenged Sevenfold are driving BMWs and August Burns Red is playing huge stages the whole year round. You might not like those bands, but you can't deny heavy music has a lot more presence than 10 or 20 years ago. Here in Quebec, rock and heavy music festivals are popping everywhere like weed. Like it has been in Europe for years. Even Asia is crazy for it. Hell, there's now Vintage Festivals. Bunch of original bands playing 70s and 80s style of music.

The US market is the worse market to pierce. It's so saturated. That's why most labels will launch new bands in other continents. The UK and Asia is two of those big markets right now as they are much more open minded musically than the US medias.
 
In the past guitar was always the most popular instrument because it had the lowest barrier to entry. Before anything was electric, let alone 'electronic' or digital, guitars were (relatively) simple, cheap, plentiful, easy to learn and capable of a lot of musical expression. Compared to classical string instruments, brass, woodwinds or pianos I mean.

If you were a raw beginner wanting to make music for the first time, you'd most likely get a guitar. And sing, with your voice. Cheap and easy.

Today, a raw beginner wanting to make music starts with a laptop or an iPad. 30 minutes in Garage Band assembling loops and samples and you have 'music' that sounds like studio pop radio. Vocals? Singing has long been unnecessary, rap vocals require no pitch or melody.

The barrier to entry has been drastically lowered for 'musicians'.

The good news is, there has never been a more vast, gigantic landscape of music in every form being created. Modern tools have enabled guitarists too. I no longer care about 'pop music'. There is more great music to discover and enjoy in this world than at any time in history, we just have to look harder to find it, because there's a LOT more crap music too.
 
Who listens to "popular music" anyway? I'm not sure what that even means. I listen to what i like to listen to. There are plenty of new bands/artists that put guitar music at the front and center. Are they on the radio?? Who cares?! If it's good music to me, I'll listen to it. I would also venture to say that many on these forums don't listen to much "mainstream" stuff. I personally don't consider Forbes a very good indication of how the music industry is doing, anyway.
 
To be clear: It's not about "what people want to hear" it's what is being put out in front of them. The shit on the radio is about profit. It's certainly not about music. Bayonce's "Single Ladies" Just repeats over and over. There are as many writer credits as there are individual words.
Pop music is as cyclical as anything else. 99% of the world is only listening casually and give a rat's ass what instruments are being played. They don't care if it's samples or loops or the 43rd take or whatever. They're just casually listening. They might know the name of the lead singer or the name of a band, but they don't know the names of anyone else in the band.

We're the only ones who GAF.
 
What's the age average here in the forum ? Simple guess as an old fart i am, over 30 or 40... am i wrong ?

The youngsters i know, do listen to music they can party with.

They don't listen to the music, music has to support their lifetstyle, nothing wrong with that.

I am just wondering why DJ / VJ mixed elevatormusic with fat beats works...well i guess i am old ;)

My guess, this counts for 90% of them, the rest will hopefully help us (or our music) survive :)
 
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