Re:Don't Give Up on the Guitar, Fender Is Begging You
by santaclaus on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @11:32AM
(#13015209)
> The synthesizer is now what rules pop music these days
Now? It's been like that since the 80s!
Re:Don't Give Up on the Guitar, Fender Is Begging You
by SyneRyder on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @10:18AM
(#13014663)
I'd agree with that, and especially the part about downloadable studios & instant gratification.
I don't make much music anymore, but when I do play around I'm more likely to fire up some software & run some programmed synth sounds through the AmpliTube Fender effects plugins, than to grab my guitar & StealthPlug & Tube compressor & remember that I'm not actually very good at playing anyway...
Now? Alternative bands (now labeled "indie") are increasingly all electronic -- how much guitar is in the Twenty One Pilots album currently on the charts, for instance? Hard rock is still on the charts (Avenged Sevenfold and In Flames among others have albums on the charts) but it's a shade less prominent. Country is probably the one genre in the US which is both very popular and has prominent guitar, but even that is more electronic than it used to be -- just listen to all the synth in certain Keith Urban tracks.
The synthesizer is now what rules pop music these days, in my opinion. Even hip hop, which always used electronics as long as I'm aware, reflects some of this change (a lot of hip-hop has abandoned samples in favor of pure synthesizer tracks).
This change makes sense to me. As long as you have a computer, you can nowadays download an entire studio for practically pennies, and start creating satisfactory loops fairly quickly. A guitar most likely will cost more and definitely will take a lot more practice to get to that "instant gratification" point.