07.11.17
A reader on guitar sales: You get old & die
In response to Electric guitars have the blues:
Fred’s Music in Reading, where I would hang out religiously, closed. Supposedly he “retired. But I think it’s more due to no sales anymore. Live bands don’t exist. Show me a club in Reading that has live rock and roll=none. It’s dead. Once our generation passes, and that will be soon, rock is dead. Or when the Stones cease to exist, that is the end of Rock.
Just like High end Audio, or stereo systems, are dead. All kids use now is the stupid phone and earbuds. Remember you could walk into Boscov’s, and find a stereo section that had Marantz, AR, Dual, Kenwood? Good stuff. Nowadays high end audio is solely sustained by boomers, like me. After we’re dead it’s gone.
Christoph Hechl said,
July 12, 2017 at 10:11 am
Being contemporary is normal for music. For some time it will still be performed in one way or the other, then it fades away. Some pieces probably slower than others, but that is how it has been with all musical creations so far. Since noone keeps you from playing whatever you like, i don’t see how that is bad.
The same goes for technical gear. I don’t bother to feel bad about obsolete gear. My high end stereo has not been connected for almost two decades. Never really liked vinyl anyway since they got scratched so easily and frankly the quality was awful.
Apart from DRM crap i really enjoy the compact and comfortable way in which files can be played.
But then again: i am never nostalgic about technical stuff.
George Smith said,
July 12, 2017 at 3:05 pm
On the other hand, I am nostalgic about the music. And I understand completely the dismay at the slow ebbing of the electric guitar. People form emotionl attachments to their music. They see a life slipping away, more so as you red the obits of the classic rockers.
As an icon, the electric guitar was front and center in America, a far better design/symbol than bombs. The latter which have only gained as time goes by.
Christoph Hechl said,
July 13, 2017 at 9:52 am
I really wouldn’t say that the electric guitar faces extinction.
Don’t get me wrong, i love the sound, although personally i only own (and can play a bit) a classical guitar.
There are still bands like Mumford and Sons who put guitars to good use and of course the metal bands of all kinds.
Having an emotional connection to the music you like to listen to is kind of the entire point, isn’t it? Why would i surround myself with art, that i despise.
And as i said – you do not lose it because the one thing that’s all yours is the connection between you and that piece of art. You can try to share it, but eventually the experience is your own.
George Smith said,
July 13, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Agree. It’s pretty obvious you don’t lose it. The larger picture was the passing of a shared culture, whether one likes it or not. My point being, everyone, everything, ages and fades. Image-wise, the guitar is too much an icon to be easily totally discarded.