Modern Electric Guitar
This is a continuation of a thought in a previous blog:
I previously put up the idea that you never hear music as good as the music you heard in your teens. Well, following on from that: for me, there aren’t many things in this world more satisfying than hearing an electric guitar played by someone who really knows how to play it. You know that old saying of “it sent a shiver up my spine” or “it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up” – well there are quite a few pieces of music that still have that affect on me now. All of them recorded before 1990 by people that were born before 1960. Nothing I have heard recorded since 1990 played by anyone younger than 46 years old has had that same sensational affect.
Modern music in general, and electric guitar playing specifically, are very derivative art-forms. It has always been a case of someone picking up a guitar and playing something they have heard before that they have liked, adding a bit of themselves and bashing something out. This method has created moments of pure genius and those shiver inspiring moments I mentioned before. But, have we run out of ways to play the old guitar that are original? Have we run out of ways to re-invent moments of brilliance in a new way? Have we run out of new guitar players talented enough to further the art of the old masters?
Is anyone interested in it anyway? A quick listen to modern radio and most music that has been released since 1990 will show that awe inspiring electric guitar is a thing of the past. The world needs a new young lad (or lady) to combine the chunk of Keith Richards with the fluidity and melody of David Gilmour and the passion and dexterity of Stevie Ray all the while knowingly nodding to the masters of 20th Century electric guitar and adding their own contribution to its evolution. I have tried – I can do that (sort of) but I can’t do it any better or any “newer” than it has been done in the past.
No one can!
I previously put up the idea that you never hear music as good as the music you heard in your teens. Well, following on from that: for me, there aren’t many things in this world more satisfying than hearing an electric guitar played by someone who really knows how to play it. You know that old saying of “it sent a shiver up my spine” or “it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up” – well there are quite a few pieces of music that still have that affect on me now. All of them recorded before 1990 by people that were born before 1960. Nothing I have heard recorded since 1990 played by anyone younger than 46 years old has had that same sensational affect.
Modern music in general, and electric guitar playing specifically, are very derivative art-forms. It has always been a case of someone picking up a guitar and playing something they have heard before that they have liked, adding a bit of themselves and bashing something out. This method has created moments of pure genius and those shiver inspiring moments I mentioned before. But, have we run out of ways to play the old guitar that are original? Have we run out of ways to re-invent moments of brilliance in a new way? Have we run out of new guitar players talented enough to further the art of the old masters?
Is anyone interested in it anyway? A quick listen to modern radio and most music that has been released since 1990 will show that awe inspiring electric guitar is a thing of the past. The world needs a new young lad (or lady) to combine the chunk of Keith Richards with the fluidity and melody of David Gilmour and the passion and dexterity of Stevie Ray all the while knowingly nodding to the masters of 20th Century electric guitar and adding their own contribution to its evolution. I have tried – I can do that (sort of) but I can’t do it any better or any “newer” than it has been done in the past.
No one can!
Labels: guitar, music, rock and roll
posted by Dave | 12:21 PM
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