Satriani says "“You take a bunch of 20-year-old guitar players and they are so far ahead of what my generation did and generations before us, which is a natural thing because they start with what happened before them and of course, they move it forward,”
I LOVE Satch but am not sure I agree with him here.
(a) Show me one new guitarist that is of the same skill and soloing ability as Yngwie (1983/84) as demonstrated on the Alcatrazz album?
(b) Show me one new guitarist as talented and innovative as EVH?
(c) Show me one new guitarist that compositionally matches Satriani’s playing and compositions on Surfing with the Alien?
I listen to new players all the time - and am more than happy to be proved wrong on (a) (b) or (c) above.
The good stuff seems to be more of the same these days. Nothing radical, perhaps it’s all downhill from here onwards.
Maybe the right people are not getting together more. And all the good talent is absorbed into the mindless music factories as that’s where the money is. Everybody these days wants session work rather than loyalty to a band.
The rewards are almost non existent, the middle men are bigger and meaner than ever.
And the noise is unbearable, every clown including myself thinks knowing two chords makes you a composer.
We’ve weponised and commoditised mediocrity, where participation is winning.
On the other hand things have never been better. It’s just a matter of time maybe…
Sorry bout the rant, but I think popular music of the past had mass appeal with out dumbing things down. The average American TV show or movie today is perhaps pushing the limits of mediocrity to new lows, the gender wars and woke culture are a sign of our departure from reality. The fact that we ignore the elephant in the room, pay to win plutocracies are the real pandemic, the fact that Americans never nationalised the fed… the sheep are fully cooked and are ready to be served up our their masters.
We are living in a reality were the less you know, the more you think you know. The average person is lazier than ever today, curiosity critical thinking has been bred out of us. Wait what were we talking about again?
I agree with Satriani in the sense that a generation is growing up thinking that a lot of the things that blew our minds is now normal. What I am not seeing as much (I don’t mean that it doesn’t exist - it does, but just not to the extent that I would like) is people taking these chops and using it to do more than just play covers on YT and Instagram. When they get together with like-minded people, play shows and make original content, the results are cool.
To be honest, I think there already is a problem with the question “who is better”. But that’s a can of worms
I think there was/is/will be fantastic music (and guitar music in particular) being written and performed at any given time in history.
In terms of technical proficiency, I think it’s only logical that whoever is learning guitar today has a big advantage to the guitar heroes of the 80s thanks to wider availability (and higher quality) of instruction / relevant information.
I would say yes, on average and at least technically speaking. We stand on the shoulders of giants so people are always getting better and will be always getting better. In terms of creativity and musicality, its hard to judge because the times change, business changes etc… so i would say, yes i agree with Satch that there are more players in the current generation who can play better than paul gilbert, but none of them have created a song as cool as Scarified
You could go further and further back, and find players who destroy the newer players. I think technology is the main cause. No need to really play as much if you can just que up a recording of it. So you dont get to refine, or alter the material due to relying on the recordings. That and fewer jazz clubs or dive bars for players to play in.
I think this could be at the centre of what the issue is. It could just be a matter of numbers. There is probably nowhere near the numbers of people playing guitar with the intent and dedication as there was in the 80s who were being inspired by the dreams of money and rock stardom. Hence it is unlikely the smaller talent pool will produce the outliers mentioned above. Just a theory.
Any perceived deficiencies in the “innovativeness” or what-have-you of today’s guitarists could also easily be (partly) explained by the low-hanging fruit phenomenon. There’s simply less to do on the guitar that would sound “new,” compared to forty years ago.
I don’t want to derail this thread completely, but why not? I understand that “yeah, but Holdsworth” might come off as obnoxious or as an attempt to terminate discussion, but that really isn’t my intention here.
This video is from 1974. That’s 48 years ago. This footage is older now than the electric guitar was at the time the performance took place.
What does it say about the progress in our understanding of electric guitar technique if nearly 50 years later, we still say that this “doesn’t count” for comparison? This isn’t even his peak.
Thankfully this will always be true, thought it’s often in places you least expect it. Thank god for jazz etc.
I wonder what people thought of him when just came on the scene, he’s so outlandish even today, back then it must have been a shock to most.
I always take it as far back as Bach or Biber. Indian music is pretty intense as well, though it’s suffering from commercialization and loosing the old traditions. 100 years ago you’d have to go out and buy a sheet of music, come home and play the hits I’m guessing. Modern distractions really degraded the signal to noise ratio.
It’s also all this this EDM crap, a large part of the audience has been reduced to imbeciles. People consume too much with little or no understanding. The depth of the general audience has definitely diminished. This is a generalization but I find most people shy away from any in-depth analysis of any thing these days.
As far as guitar tone goes, we may have covered all the bases for now.
But I’m still waiting for a reincarnation of Ted Greene with the early Yngwie attitude to turn up. But for this to happen it means, access to real amps and band spaces at an early age. Biato’s kids? Who knows but it will happen, I’m hopeful, sometimes all it takes is one to change the tides.
How many of you guys are playing loud with a band just for fun? No audience, just playing to explore and enjoy yourselves?
Haha. I actually like certain EDM genres, but I am a sucker for really nice sounding analog bass synth. That can be a very expensive rabbit hole if you stray from the cheaper behringer clone stuff.
I think I’ve been subjected to particularly horrible EDM with drove of people at big “shows”, one guy queuing music and twisting knobs
There’s a lot of stuff that borderline, like Uncle Moe’s Space Ranch, or Breaker Brothers - In the Loop or some such that I do listen to. If it’s live musicians I really don’t consider it EDM.
I love these two but I wouldn’t know where in the genres they’d go:
You should look this girl up. I believe she has synesthesia, but she does some crazy shit during live shows bouncing from instrument to instrument. Shes one that I hope to get a chance to see live in my lifetime.
Precisely, most of the youtubers are lone rangers.
Is this a tool or some kind of ailment?
edit: just looked it up, for real?
edit2: Perpetually trapped in a psychedelic trance of sorts.
edit3: I’m clearly old and irrelevant, it’s too casual for me.
