idk man I haven't heard anything (worth listening to. None of that "prepared instruments" nonsense) that Brahms, Lizst or Mendelssohn couldn't have written
I don't like or agree with the "I haven't found anything worth listening to", this is the can't teach old dogs new tricks thing. As we age, we tend to get stuck in our ways.
I think the entire unspoken mindset that the best music and musicians in the world came from the latter half of the 20th century and onwards is absurd. We've had hundreds of years of well documented music education and composing before then, and we've definitely had more traditional instruments and music from far, far longer.
Music back in the 60's or 70's wasn't any more "authentic" or "realer" than music these days though, you tend to forget how sloppy Page or Hendrix was live. And many guitarists loved to cover their bad tone and sloppy playing with distortion and high volume, high gain amps.
As far as the vast majority, I think they agree that the newer guitarists from 2000's, to 2010's are among the best guitarists that ever lived. Like I said, if we're being honest, we are breaking records with what we can do. And guitarists are becoming more able with less years. There are 14 year olds that are fairly new to Playing guitar that can perfectly play Cliffs Of Dover when that took years for EJ to perfect that technique. So information is important to learning the instrument. Of course, lessons from experienced guitarists makes for tricks and shortcuts to be more accessible as well.
I definitely don't think art in general is evolving in a way that's an "improvement". It's changed with time, sure, but it's not like Bleed, C.A.F.O or Playing God are more complex, more highly evolved as an "instrument showoff song" than Scarified, Serrana or Trilogy. And those songs aren't more highly evolved or more complex as virtuosity showoff songs than the 5th Caprice or Mazeppa
That argument can be made for guitarists all the way from the 60's, 70's and 80's. If you're going to make the claim this decade's pure guitar music like CHON, Covet or Polyphia isn't passion, then why not be honest and say that anything from Santana, Santana, Van Halen or any other greats was showoff as well?
Nevermind that, it's easy for any intermediate guitarist to mimic Van Halen's techniques and sound because it's more basic and there are pedals to emulate that (back in the 80's and 90's this was hard, without success). It's not so easy to copy Polyphia because their technique requires so much more motor skills and clean tones.
I'd say the reason it appears so is just because electric guitars and electric basses were relatively new instruments, so new ways and genres were invented and discovered rapidly.
People were blown away by the invention of distortion but just as auto-tune is used to mask mistakes, so has distortion, fuzz and reverbs. It's all relevant but I'm talking about the progression of ability and knowledge.
And while I cannot speak to much to songwriting or innovation, I'll still stand by this hot take: no notable (read: famous) guitarist has reached the mixture of speed, accuracy and cleaness as Paul Gilbert in the 80s up to the mid 2000s. That benchmark hasn't been met, at least in the "well known enough to be globally recognized" group of guitarists.
My friend, Paul Gilbert was surpassed in speed and accuracy long ago lol
And ten years later, a guitarist wiped that off the floor with 10x's the speed
We are just pretending that guitarists aren't getting more skilled and quicker with each generation. Information available is a HUGE deal. We have kids. Youth in our church, preteens that can perfectly cover Eric Johnson's technique, Hendrix, etc. It's EASY for them to hear it and pick up the techniques in literally one sitting. You'd be both surprised and amazed. It's a generally common thing now.
I'd make an argument that some guys like Anton Oparin (who literally grew up in the right conditions) exceed that, but these individuals are few and far between, and aren't exactly making headlines in music media publications.
This again, could be said for guitarists of the 60's, 70's and 80's. I'm singling those because most active members here are from my generation and seem to gravitate those eras. Guitarists are greater now but also, their bands don't last long. Seems more like they accomplish what they want, then have families or go to school (live a normal life) and tend to fade out the limelight, so there's far less of a recognization of them over say something like Van Halen.
I think the truth is that some things are better in some time periods than others, and that not every change is for the better.
This is probably the only thing I agree with but probably for different reasons than you're suggesting.
Seriously, compare an Aristophanes play to whatever Disney is spewing out on Disney+ and tell me with a straight face the man who died nearly 2500 years ago didn't write better stories.
This is a strange argument and ironically kinda contradicts it in a way. Disney and Disney+ have written the most sang, and recognized motion soundtracks and most memorable stories in the history of mankind. And isn't in the same genre of Aristophanes. But I just typed it to you in with a straight face. I would look into your eyes and tell you that Frozen is more memorable and serious/darker and yet kid friendly than anything Aristophanes has ever written. I mean come on, she killed her sister twice, among being drugged. Its complex and it's overly complex because they have great story writers, great characters and a dark hook with a happy ending.. Plus, Let It Go is probably the most sang anthem in any household in the last thousand years, realistically.
I'd wager that the last part may garner some laugh reacts from the goobs but I highly doubt that anyone could realistically say it wasn't true.
You seem like the type who just leaves a comment to stir drama. Go run with your pedo clan!
