The Decline of Electric Guitars

[jon]

I should have been more clear. What I should've said is there hasn't, in my opinion, been an iconic pop rock band since Nirvana. I like a lot of pop rock, from Warrant, to Nirvana, and there haven't been that many classic bands the last 20 years in that regard. Now, I also like different kinds of metal and grindcore and there's been a lot of great bands and albums released since the 2000's. But they're not pop rock, and hence, not out there for mass consumption. If we're talking metal there's been some unbelievable stuff since the 2000's (although not as great as the 80's and 90's in my opinion). But for pop rock, I've been upset that there hasn't been a truly legendary act in a while.

[LoganRuckman]

I should have been more clear. What I should've said is there hasn't, in my opinion, been an iconic pop rock band since Nirvana. I like a lot of pop rock, from Warrant, to Nirvana, and there haven't been that many classic bands the last 20 years in that regard. Now, I also like different kinds of metal and grindcore and there's been a lot of great bands and albums released since the 2000's. But they're not pop rock, and hence, not out there for mass consumption. If we're talking metal there's been some unbelievable stuff since the 2000's (although not as great as the 80's and 90's in my opinion). But for pop rock, I've been upset that there hasn't been a truly legendary act in a while.

Weezer
Green Day
The Shins
The Get Up Kids
Jimmy Eat World
Blink-182 (I will fight anyone who says Enema Of The State isn't one of the all time great pop punk albums)
Fountains Of Wayne

To name a few.

[Stalvern]

all time great pop punk albums

There's an oxymoron if I ever saw one.

[Voor]

As someone who has played guitar and bass for over twenty years, I just consider them tools for producing sound. Don't get me wrong - I love the sound of a guitar, especially a distorted or delayed guitar - but I'm fine with the guitar having a less prominent role in music. I don't particularly care if it's easier to make electronic music, as long as it's well-written and interesting to me. Guitar is great from a performance standpoint, though - it's light and it gives the player a lot of freedom of movement.

To be honest, I think the reason guitar music has declined is that there hasn't been a truly great band since the early 90's.

Same here. I'm a guitar player, and I've noticed lately, that I've purchased music with a dormant (or no) guitar sound. Part of that is because I have absolutely burned myself out on classic rock (Hendrix, Zep, etc), and most rock today bores me in 30 seconds. I like more unusual stuff, and hearing a bunch of production tricks.

I applaud people taking the tools they have and using it to make music. We've been doing that for centuries! Lol.

*fellow guitar players: what kind of gear are you using? I'm running a Tele into a couple of overdrive pedals, into a Fender digital amp. Used to be an analog purist, but digital has come a long way!

[SpaceGuitarist]

I do agree with the above statement - there hasn't been one TRULY GREAT guitar band in ages, and by truly great I mean one that could mean something to people from different countries and different social classes.

There is a number of big guitar bands, like Muse or Foo Fighters, but their appeal is limited and their status in current music is not prominent. To find guitar bands that really EVERYBODY knows, you have to go back to Radiohead, Nirvana or U2. Those were truly great guitar bands. Doesn't matter how hard they try, Weezer are just Weezer, and they only appeal to a certain demographic.

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with appealing only to a certain demographic group, I mean, 99% of rock bands appeal only to certain individuals, but you need the occasional Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, Radiohead etc to bring rock music into people's everyday lives. We haven't had one of them in a long while, sadly.

On rap/hip-hop/r'n'b overtaking rock music - I honestly thought there was nothing wrong when rock journalism started integrating hip-hop and r'n'b into the "rock imaginery" - it wasn't the first time different genres were integrated into rock music (funk/soul in the 70s, synth music in the 80s, electronic music in the 90s etc). What I personally found puzzling is that it felt we went from a rock-oriented industry to a r'n'b-oriented one almost overnight. The shift in focus brought a massive celebration of black music but also an underappreciation for rock music which, deal with it, nowadays is considered "for squares only".

Pitchfork's top-5 records of 2016 consists of four rap/pop/r'n'b albums and only one rock record (and hadn't Bowie died, the whole top-5 would have been rap/r'n'b records). I get the enthusiasm but there's no need to throw away the baby with the bathwater. Journalists are required, by some higher power I guess, to hold Beyonce and Roger Waters in the same regard as critics of modern day society. Kanye West and Bob Dylan get often compared as lyricists. It's not just unneeded, it's plain stupid.

Pitchfork is usually a good indicator of trends in music because they are very "in the moment" - even if you don't know who John Lennon was, as long as you know what happened in the last decade of music you can write for them. If you compare their original list of "best records of the 90s" with their new and updated list (on their website), you see this process at work and how much hip-hop has been integrated in rock music (with the inclusion of artists such as Wu Tang Clan and affiliated, Public Enemy, Dr. Dre, Outkast, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, The Notorious BIG and so on).

Again, this wouldn't be a problem if there was balance, but as it stands rock music has lost its relevance. Will the next generation idolise Nas and ignore Lou Reed (speaking of NYC poets)?! Will they believe that "r'n'r behaviour" means changing the tracklist of your album on iTunes after release?! If they look at the liner notes for Lemonade by Beyonce, will they think that a successful album requires a minimum of 30 songwriters to be written?!

[jon]

Those are interesting points brought up by SpaceGuitarist. And lol at Outkast being on a best albums of the 90's list. I think that starting in the mid to late 00's there was a lo-fi movement that took over (or terrorized) rock music. And surf rock became popular again too. It was what I consider a terrible time for rock music, perhaps its death knell. Vampire Weekend became the biggest band of this time, and they suck. Somehow them and a whole bunch of other bands became the biggest "new" rock bands basically of the last 10 years. And that's all these big festivals are I think is just low fi bands and synth pop acts, yes I know it's a joke. It's really making a mockery of what rock used to be.

[velcrozombie]

*fellow guitar players: what kind of gear are you using? I'm running a Tele into a couple of overdrive pedals, into a Fender digital amp. Used to be an analog purist, but digital has come a long way!

Here's the gear that I have in my possession at the moment that actually works:

Guitars:
-Schecter Gryphon (two Duncan-designed humbuckers with three position switch and push/pull pot for coil-splitting)

-Schecter Blackjack C-7 7-string (Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck position, Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge position, five-position switch)

Basses:
-Squier Vintage Modified 5-string Jazz Bass (amazing instrument for the price)

-SX Vintage Series short-scale bass with the crappy original pickup replaced with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound P-bass pickup

-OLP MM5 six-string bass

Amps:
-1994 Fender Princeton Stereo Chorus amp (2 x 10" speakers, 120 watts)

-Crate BX-100 bass amp (15" speaker, 100 watts)

Effects:
I love guitar effects, especially the analog stuff. I could imagine having several dozen more of them in the future:

-Zoom G-5 multi-effects processor w/tube preamp (not great on the distortion side, but the effects are top-notch and very intuitive to program and manipulate - the interface is like a row of virtual stompboxes with their own knobs)

-Electro-Harmonix Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi overdrive and distortion (new toy for Christmas)

-Zvex Fuzz Factory (crazy fuzz and distortion that can get you into Smashing Pumpkins territory and beyond. Also great for lots of annoying animal squeals, robot language, Theremin imitations, radio transmissions etc.)

-Digitech Grunge distortion pedal ($10 flea market pickup)

-Boss DD-5 digital delay pedal

-Danelectro Pepperoni phaser

-Behringer VD400 Vintage Delay (cheap clone of Boss DM-3 analog delay)

-Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (cheap clone of Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz)

-Behringer TM300 Tube Amp Modeler (cheap clone of Sansamp GT2)

-Behringer BSY600 Bass Synthesizer (cheap clone of Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer)

Behringer pedals are housed in plastic and they don't always have the best workmanship, but they are often 25% the price of the pedals they emulate (some of which are out-of-print, making them even better values). If you don't have a lot of money and can be reasonably gentle with them (or you want to try a pedal out before you buy the real thing or just use them for home recording) they will do just fine. This page has a list of their pedals and what they emulate (read reviews before you buy as well - some are better than others): http://thetoneking.com/wp/behringer-sto ... son-chart/

I've recently gotten more into single-coil guitar sounds so I'll probably be getting a couple of Fenders in the near future - a Stratocaster and a Jaguar definitely, maybe a Jazzmaster or a Telecaster down the road. Would like to get at least one more guitar amp as well - maybe a tube amp (which I've never had) or a Peavey Bandit 112.