What happened to the Guitar solo??

[jflam]

I recently read the post about who had the least talent and most recognition and thought i'd open a new topic....


I've been a huge rock/metal/grunge fan for years now...and I find that music nowadays lacks the guitar solo...where did it go???  It seems that there is nothing more than a barage of effects. And yes, it does sound cool to some degreee, but all that noise can't beat a sweet solo from a guitar efficionado.  I rarely listen to new rock because it sucks.... it lacks any real musical talent....


What gives???  Is it all about a pretty face anymore??

[RDV]

What gives???  Is it all about a pretty face anymore??

Yeah, a pretty young face. Of course that's not why we don't have a deal, we suck as well as being old, and ugly.

//www.theintention.com

RDV

[jimbob]

Saul Hudson is on his way to bringing it back with his new band Velvet revolver!!  Slash Rocks!!

[Johan]

in the end it all comes down to the music industri...its completley run by greedy fools and morons...the musical industry dont want great performers or great artists. it wants to sell the latest production SOUND, match it with an interchangeble face and sell it to children.( this is where stupididyty comes in...read on) ...true artists and musicians are to hard to deal with for the industry, they have their own ideas about music, they want controll of their own songs, they have an artistic vision...to hard to deal with...much easier to buy in songs with the latest SOUND, slap on a cute teenagers face and call it something like "the next Aretha..".or whoever

it used to be that the avarage music-buyer was between 15-30 years old with the younger people buying significantly more albums than the older people. now with the internet, most younger people download their music, just the songs they want and dont have to pay for all the crappy songs that comes with that ONE good song on the teeny-album...and the majority of people PAYING for the albums are geting older, they want albums that have more than one good song, or they just turn on the radio..

so how does the industry respond?...

sign another cute teenage girl. find ONE good song. try to sell it to those who are most likely to download instead of paying for it, and then complain its hard to make proffitt..

at the same time, millions of people walk around trying to find new interresting music that you can listen to for hours, albums that are good all the way through, that display musical tallent ( those of us who enjoy guitarsolos or whatever instrument is the significant in its own genre)...and we dont care what the artist look like, or how well he/she can dance...we want MUSIC

I've seen the songwriting side from the inside ( used to help a friend who was signed as a songwriter) ...you write a song with a given SOUND, leave room for the artist, leave a little space for an instrumental passage ( the guitarsolo?) and then see that space get filled by 12 people jumping around syncronized in an alley....that's where the guitarsolo went...

..."its a long way to the top, if you wanna rock'n'roll..."

...sorry I got a little caried away....the music industry dont want guitarsolos, they stick out from the streamlining of production line music, and anything that sticks out, might be refused by the radio, since it might scare off the listener and then the radio cant fill the comersiall slots...

...maby all this is only true here in Scandinavia...

...I also beleive that MTV IS BAD FOR MUSIC...god for musicbuissenis, bad for musiclovers..

once again...sorry I got caried away....

Johan  ( no I'm not bitter...really...)

[aron]

I remember someone saying that. That they don't want virtuosos because they are hard to replace.

I think it will come around again. Uh, maybe in 10-20 years though  

[spongebob]

...maybe all this is only true here in Scandinavia...

It's not much better here in Germany, believe me, it's so hard finding any radio station that does *not* play utter crap 24/7... but hey, a billion flies can't be wrong...

At least you have some decent metal bands in Scandinavia! I will finally have a chance to see In Flames in about three weeks, when they come to Stuttgart!!

[Ge_Whiz]

I would suggest that there is more good music being produced today than ever before. The sad thing is that so many people are unaware of it if it isn't thrust under their noses - and largely, it isn't. The way that the 'popular' music industry has gone off the rails in pursuit of the fast buck both saddens and amazes me.

[gez]

The music industry is there to make money.  Whether you like it or not it's just fulfilling a demand.  Look back over the past 50 years and there are plenty of talentless, pretty-faced teens who made the charts.  

Want good music?  Plenty of it around, you just have to do a bit of legwork...

[StephenGiles]

I think that when we learnt how to play guitar solos in the 1960s, it was something new. We generally went to see a band because it had an amazing lead guitarist, many of whom disappeared into obscurity. The majority, I'm afraid, of the younger generation of guitarists have also disappeared, but under a sea of distortion, and just don't seem to possess lightning fingers and technique of old - could it be baggy jeans doing the damage?. For instance, we went to see the Yardbirds because they had this bloke Eric Clapton, followed by Jeff Beck, and before that Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages who always had an amazing guitarist - just a guitar, lead and amp up loud.

[snorky]

I completely agree about the lame state of "the music biz".  However, with some digginng, you can find plenty of amazing music  of whatever sort you want.  It's WAY easier to record now, so I think alot more people are doing it.  But you won't hear this stuff on clearchannel.

One place I _constantly_ hear new music:

http://www.wfmu.org

This is a station where they actually don't pay the DJ's anything, and they play WHATEVER THEY WANT.   This is an incredible thing.

Honestly, a year ago I thought really thought rock was dead, for me at least.  Now, I know it's thriving...

BTW, you want guitar solos?  There's a bunch of prog bands around like Dream Theater etc??  Also, say what you want, "The Darkness" has some tasty lead playing at times....

I have to say, my favorite band right now, and I believe the best rock band currently in the world, is The Mars Volta.  The guitarist is super versatile, and uses effects frequently and tastefully.  I really don't know how many times I've listened to their current album (150?) - I still want more.  These guys are INCREDIBLE.  

OK.  Sorry for the rant...

- Mark

[sirkut]

The guitar solo has disappeared in MOST music that is popular is due to the fact that the guitar solo only adds more time to the song and somehow the music industry thinks we as a whole get impatient. Numerous bands had to chop off even just INTROS to their songs because they were too long and people may lose interest. I rarely ever listen to anything that the main music industry has to offer although The Darkness definately gets a little thumbs up from my department. Maybe that will change things.  Next thing you will see is an truckload of The Darkness clones.

Btw, here is something interesting, ever heard of Nickleback(yeah they suck imho) but listen to this mp3. It's two of their sounds layered on top of each other. be amazed.

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/~bumble/Nickelback%20-%20How%20You%20Remind%20Me%20Of%20Someday.mp3

Maybe someone has already pointed this out. A producer pointed this out to me. I for some reason came to that conclusion when I thought they were the same song but I really don't pay attention to what is being played.

[MarkB]

read Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead'... written in the 40's - and it rings SO true today.

She was talking about things like political correctness, etc.. and the main thrust of the book is 'celebrating mediocrity to eliminate true greatness'.  One of my favorites.

It is SO accurate as to the current state of the music biz it's frightening.
"-)

[casey]

most people know that commercial music for the most part
is a product.  you got some underpayed young kids trying to
meet the bills and some guy's going to offer them a
100,000 signing bonus....what do you think they're going to choose?
then they get in the studio and some producer is telling them
to put strings in the background because that's what 35 year old
women are drawn to psychologically, or instead of using
real drums, the producer wants you to use loops because
"that's what kid's like nowadays, and that's what sells."  i know of a talented band who got signed, but "had" to drop the drummer because he
was pudgey and not as "good looking"  as the rest of them.
the list goes on and on.....

IF YOU WANT TO FIND GOOD MUSIC, YOU'VE GOT TO LOOK
AT INDEPENDENT BANDS.

you wont find chaps like phil keaggy in tight girl's pants
dancing in front of a camera.  you'll find him playing little
shows with just him and his acoustic guitar ripping it up.

[Fret Wire]

For instance, we went to see the Yardbirds because they had this bloke Eric Clapton, followed by Jeff Beck, and before that Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages who always had an amazing guitarist - just a guitar, lead and amp up loud.

You've seen Screaming Lord Such? Wow! Was Ritchie Blackmore with them at the time? That period gave us Beck, Page, Blackmore, Townsend, and Clapton (they all hung out at Marshall's music shop). On our side of the Atlantic, Hendrix and Bloomfield. Think the music industry will see those days again?

[petemoore]

The industry as it is called is serving many purposes, one seems to be to cast a hate cloud over anything more than ten years old.
 "I love the 70's and 80's being a prime example of this. It should be more aptly named: " I love to HATE the 70's"
 It seems that spending habits has a great deal to do with popularity [or so 'they'd' have 'us' believe]...all a bunch of advanced marketing pploys IMO...need I adress examples?
 Prime Time impotance is given to the air headed Trivails of Nick and Jessica's  "Problems of the Stupor Rich". I don't understand these values...just a bit too "Amurican" for my tastes.
 I like the Sex and Drugs thing of the 60's much better than the "Attain and Waste Material Possesions  as fast as is inhumanly possible" that seems to have permeated almost every possible media at some level.
 I believe Ppl sense that the Big Change no-one can control is coming, and instituting the use and or waste of everything is the only thing youngsters have left to do.
 OUCH What a rant !!!
 Guitars are too imprecise for todays technology oriented music...they don't really record or playback 'right' on digital anyway, and can be replicated by I's and 0's...there's  some worms for ya !!!

[Doug H]

I like the Sex and Drugs thing of the 60's much better than the "Attain and Waste Material Possesions  as fast as is inhumanly possible" that seems to have permeated almost every possible media at some level.

"In a world that what we want is only what we want until it's ours"

Doug

[Peter Snowberg]

"You will do as you are told until the rights to you are sold."
-Zappa

[bwanasonic]

"You will do as you are told until the rights to you are sold."
-Zappa

Anytime I miss guitar solos, I just put on some Frank Zappa.  Was just listening to a live concert from Helsinki, circa 1974. The band even does a Finnish tango!

Kerry M

[Nasse]

If I quess right the Finnish tango piece might have been a song called "Satumaa" by composer Unto Mononen. But I may be wrong. Zappa´s 1988 Helsinki recording is said to be good too. It must have been some musician´s joke to play that song. Every dance band from Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, whatever that visited Finland that time had to learn to play some "local standard" songs and that tango melody was just one of those songs, indeed "rock" and "progressive rock" hated dance music like this.

Unto Mononen was a talented songmaker, he composed many local dance music hits. Maybe he had few things quite like Zappa: He was a perfectionist with his songs, he did words too. And he was a band leader. And was a guitarist, died early. Guitar was not so popular at finnish dance music at late fifties and very early sixties, but that was to chance of course.

I read a book about Unto Mononen and it was told that he played quitar solo numbers when he performed with his band from early fifties to sixties. The weather in Finland is very cold in winter. He had his guitar at he backseat of the car when they were on their way to play some dance music, and he always played "Tico Tico" to warm his fingers for the show. Here is some boring link bout finnish tango culture and picshttp://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/tangoeng.html

But back to the topic, and the "musicians joke" that maybe made Zappas band play that song that night: Same story, different words, audience is dumb and does not understand "good music", just play some popular horrible spam and they are happy.

[Tim Escobedo]

I say good riddance to the masturbatory extended rock n roll guitar solo. While I can appreciate player skill as much as anyone, I like listening to songs rather than chops.

The likes of Hendrix made it fashionable to promote the technical ability of pop musicians, particularly guitarists. Which evolved from the recycled blues licks to fusion to metal gods of the 80s. But as far as I'm concerned, there's almost a inverse relationship between skill and quality music. The better equipped the guitarist was to say what they want, the less they actually have to say. Other than, "Hey, look how fast I am!" While these guys can play circles around me fast enough to make my head spin, they can't play a song to save their lives.

I find it hard to lament over the state of the record business. It's no more greedy or shortsighted now than it was 30 years ago. The record business has always been about business first. Period. Promoting a honest-to-god good act was as now, the exception rather than the rule. The age of the guitar solo was all about fashion.

I think now is the most amazing time to be a musician. The degree of independence, artistic control AND access to exposure is beyond what most folks could dream of twenty years ago. Record companies are just as crappy as they've always been. But more and more, musicians are finding that going their own way is a viable alternative.