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The future of guitar in popular music

mdearing	Date: November 23, 2004 @ 12:51 PM In popular music today the guitar (or majority of) is more of a subsonic instrument and not really at the forefront of the rock songs. The guitar solo is a rarity as is the guitar riff. Most of the new bands are doing nothing more than heavy chord progressions. There are some bands with an old school vibe like The Donnas or the Hives. Is the guitar hero gone forever from popular music or will a new generation of guitar heroes emerge? Maybe John Mayor?
Droquen	Date: November 23, 2004 @ 4:58 PM There isn't much of the old classic rockers like: ZEPPELIN, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, GNR, and Pink Floyd. However, there are still new bands like The Darkness and Velvet Revolver (sort of new) continuing the art of guitar rock with incredible riffs and solos. The guitar will always be an integral part of music, in what form, well...only time will tell I guess.
mdearing	Date: November 23, 2004 @ 6:19 PM Oh yeah, Velvet is there, but they're really just two old bands, but I see what you're saying.
furiousBall	Date: November 24, 2004 @ 11:17 AM I have noticed the same thing in popular music - the death of the guitar riff and watching the guitar become more of a rhythm instrument or special effect. I've also noticed a heavy use of lower octave doubling of guitar lines (usually either done with dropped tuning, an actual octave effect or doubling the guitar line with a fuzzy bass). Guitar solos mostly are comprised of regurgitating the vocal melody with a squeal at the end.
sween	Date: November 24, 2004 @ 11:58 AM Bring back the guitar solo!!!!! I have noticed this too. Thankfully you got some real bands out there still, some of which have already been mentioned
GreatGooglyM...	Date: January 3, 2005 @ 1:08 PM I've noticed that several bands has guitars that are mixed so quiet that you can't hear them.
stratmanstl	Date: April 5, 2005 @ 3:10 PM Yeah, but I think it's starting to come back. I've been seeing more 'guitar' bands the last few months. It seems as though after the shred-hair stuff, people wanted the complete opposite for a while and being skilled and passionmate about the instrument didn't mean much. But nowadays, great players are out there, you just have to look a little harder. There are some killer jazz (and even smooth jazz) players, some of the newer country players can tear it up and the blues has always spawned cool players.
kingo	Date: April 5, 2005 @ 3:27 PM In the future, all guitar parts will be played by mouth.
BOWILLIE	Date: April 6, 2005 @ 4:41 PM frampton said the same thing...
Hatsy	Date: April 6, 2005 @ 8:07 PM On guitar versus programmable guitar I don't think anything could ever replace the feel/sound you get from fingers to strings, & on the world stage there are some great guitar bands around. The Jets, Music, Koopa, Thunder, Maroon 5 etc., & in the Dmusic world we got Bill Rhines, VictorSkull, Tim Sanders, Paul from M&P (shameless plug) It can never disappear completely cos the sons of the fathers of rock all wanna play guitar, thank God!
imemine	Date: April 6, 2005 @ 11:11 PM Excellent observation! Long live Keith Richards! :mouth:
Hatsy	Date: April 7, 2005 @ 6:16 AM Came back to add TRAF to the Dmusic Guitar Gods list
OddOneOut	Date: April 7, 2005 @ 3:13 PM hell yeah!bring back the guitar solos! like stratmanstl said theres definately been an increase in 'guitar' bands. but theres not been any bands with that old school vibe. another thing ive noticed is that after franz ferdinand released their debut albulm there has been a large increase in bands with the same kind of sound. bring back the guitar solos i say and get rid of that nasty synthesised music!we want it live and loud!
Paul182	Date: April 9, 2005 @ 4:40 AM i think guitar in popular music has mostly rythm now as most of you have stated. but it has also became an image now lots of people have guitars because its 'cool'
punkninja	Date: April 16, 2005 @ 2:18 AM there are very few bands on Mtv that have some actual musical talent. any guy could play a few powerchords on a guitar and people with no sense in music will think he's a god. it is our job as guitarists to redicule those bands as much as we can!
jordanthegreat	Date: April 16, 2005 @ 8:59 AM man i'd think you'd be shocked if you listened closely to some pop music on mtv, you can tell there are some skilled guitarists working. If i were a pop band i'd certainly not mind paying a studio guitarist to make some nice sounds for my mtv video. i agree though that the powerchord rock bullshit needs to be ridiculed.
zedsalt	Date: April 16, 2005 @ 12:43 PM Is Hans Reichel the "future of guitar in popular music"? Is it that one guy who refers to himself as "That 1 Guy"? Probably not, but I sure enjoy listening to them.
mdearing	Date: April 16, 2005 @ 6:29 PM There are definitely great guitar players out there. They're just all playing blues, jazz and fusion. In "pop" music, it's more about the image, so all you have to do is have some kid playing power chords in drop D on a bad ass PRS and the general pop audience thinks he's the next Santana. There are new guitar heros out there, like Derek Trucks or Robert Randolf and they play blues.
Alexsy	Date: May 18, 2005 @ 11:24 PM there are many, many reasons why i don't really listen to the radio anymore. i think some popular bands, if not all or even most of them, are basically sham musicians. even dudes like franz ferdinand (and the whole art-garage-rock "guitar-based" scene) ... are questionably good guitarists.
rapidhopeloss	Date: August 5, 2005 @ 4:06 PM If it sounds good, powerchords are fine by me. But usually variety is good.
idealist	Date: August 5, 2005 @ 5:26 PM whatever happened to yngwie malmstein? man that guy was good! (apologies for the spelling)
Alecs	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 2:08 PM yngwie's still around, still touring and all. As for guitar in popular music, the Darkness, Velvet Revolver, Lamb of God, Megadeth, Nevermore, Shadows fall are all great guitar bands that get some decent radio play. Needless to say people like Satriani and Vai will more than likely never be "mainstream" because not enough people appreciate guitar music. The thing is, being able to play the shit outta the guitar will ALWAYS be cool, so it will always be there in some form in popular music.
mattbanx	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 2:23 PM I heard a band at another site play acoustical thrash metal. They could make their guitars sound just like Megadeth's. Does anyone here do that or heard bands like that?
BlackMage	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 2:36 PM ^^^^ Apocalyptica plays Metallica with cellos.
psypig	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 2:58 PM I saw Apocalyptica supporting rammstein a while ago. You have not lived until you've heard 4 guys on cellos and one drummer doing 'master of puppets' with about 20,000 people singing along... I love a good guitar riff or solo but so what if a song is just chords - i think there's a lot of folks out there who can make a guitar do wonderful, wonderful things but can't write a song for shit. there's a lot of needless fretwanking that just gets in the way of the song. I'm probably setting myself up for some flaming but nevermind. There's some awesome guitar playing that doesn't get heard a lot. listen to some Behemoth or Nile - or any good death metal - and you'll hear some amazing guitar work but it's not exactly top of the amazing songwriting stakes. On the other hand listen to someone like NIN or Aphex Twin - some (but admittedly not all) of their songs are catchy, full of emotion and give you a great feeling of satisfaction with little or no guitar playing in sight. I'm cranky and I'm going for a beer.
Snoogans775	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 5:12 PM there's another thread ovr in "music" about what direction music is heading, and we've mostly agreed that music is returning to experiential and heartfelt styles, like Briht Eyes and the Hives. the guitar is a big part of that, guitar is, if not the most intensely expressive intrument, it is a very emtional instrument.
Alecs	Date: August 7, 2005 @ 9:05 PM Snoogans: Not enough people understand the emotional power in a good guitar player's hands. They hear Green Day and think that's emotional playing. The closest thing there is to popular, emotional guitar playing is U2
BlackMage	Date: August 8, 2005 @ 7:27 AM I don't really see what's the problem here. There's always been mainstream bands and always been guitar virtuosos (and with always I mean, from the beginning of 20th century) And then there's been guitar virtuosos in mainstream bands and mainstream bands involving guitar virtuosos. And then there's mainstream guitar virtuosos. And then there's you get the point. Nothing has changed except the sound they're making. The basic structure is still the same. "Not enough people understand the emotional power in a good guitar player's hands." Same thing with the thousands of screaming teenager girls in some Beatles concert. Nothing changes.
Bhairava	Date: August 8, 2005 @ 6:18 PM I don't know if not having a guitar solo in every song is a bad thing. Infact its probably better that way. If you don't have a good enough interesting rhythme section with say lead riffs and licks then it'll show through more. It kind of brings back creativity over technical ability and gets rid of generic rock. Well thats what I wish it does because it seems that what happens is people just use lame backing track style music and put some lyrics over it and its even more boring. As long as its good musically it'd be fine basically but where is it in mainstream music??? There are some cool bands but not enough.
shadowself	Date: August 8, 2005 @ 6:35 PM Same thing happened in the 80s to keyboards. Sequencers eliminated the need for talent when playing complicated keyboard parts. These days, if you can play a few chords on guitar, the Alsihah can make you sound just as good as every other disposible rock band out there with some fancy ProTools work. Secret: Get angry at your father, write some chiched lyrics about it, play a couple of chords, and give it to the guy at the ProTools rig. Abracadabra! You're Nickelback! (or Creed, or Staind, or Disturbed, or Default, or Theory of a Dead Man, etc etc etc etc) Like all bands of this type, they will be forgotten in a couple of years. The ones who can still play guitar solos? They'll be around.
Bhairava	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 8:36 AM To be fair I think people that can perform well even if it is just basic boring chords such as in punk should be respected because performing is an artform in itself. I have a friend who doesn't play anything particularly elaborate but when he gets on stage the audience and him are completely tuned in.
DeadraveN	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 10:26 AM there are still some virtuosos kickin' around. Zak Wylde, anyone? or how about that guy from Children of Bodom? (can't quite recall the name right now, but he's damn talented...) I agree it's pretty rare to find any "good" guitar sticking out in the 'mainstream' music these days,...but fuck the mainstream... never anything worthwhile there anyway...
Alecs	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 11:33 AM DeadRaven: His name's Alexi Laiho. Yes he's good, but my opinion of him took a huge hit when he called John Petrucci super lame (April 2005 Issue of Guitar World)
gothian	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 1:56 PM John Petrucci super lame !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..... I hate those Chidren of Bodom fagots AAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!
GeneHilbert	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 5:32 PM Just keep playing - keep practicing and keep writing - all things in life are cylindrical. When it comes back around you’ll be ready.
Bhairava	Date: August 9, 2005 @ 5:43 PM What a jerk!!! Petrucci is awesome. He's like the icon of rock discipline its how to learn guitar.
CarvinAbuser	Date: August 11, 2005 @ 10:56 AM I agree with mdearing, there's too much chord-based rock today. That's what was good about bands like Zeppelin, a lot of their music was riff-based. Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz is a great riff-based song. Too bad he didn't write more like that.
mattbanx	Date: August 12, 2005 @ 12:38 AM It's funny how many acts through the years have played cover songs and made hits out of them. Santana, although he is good, had his breakthrough song, which was a cover of a Fleetwood Mac song, "Black Magic Woman", recorded in the late sixties. There are many songs like that I listened to growing up, not even knowing that. I guess from what I have seen in interviews, that Mick Fleetwood had something to do with Santana getting discovered though. However the knowledge of it not being the artist's song takes away, at least they bring some of those early acts back. Black Magic Woman does sound more like it would come from a Hispanic guy, not a British one. But in a way when I hear Fleetwood Mac do it, I think of an awe struck white boy looking at a woman that is out of this world. Songs can have far different meanings with whoever is playing them. Individuality is harder to find in music. Creed wanted to be nothing but a metal band in the nineties and they were quite the alternative for it. Rock seems to be kept alive when enough bands buck the trend. Besides the kick ass guitar is the finger to you all attitude in rock to where it is never going to die. Thankfully. I like many types of music. But I like music that has that fight in it. I have heard a lot more of that here than at most sites. Regardless of the genre.