I notice that now, more than ever before, new upcoming artists’ and alternative music is heavily pop-oriented, synthesized, and digital.
Is it just easier for them or do Gen Z not have the fondness for guitar that dominated the 1980s to the 2010s?
I notice that now, more than ever before, new upcoming artists’ and alternative music is heavily pop-oriented, synthesized, and digital.
Is it just easier for them or do Gen Z not have the fondness for guitar that dominated the 1980s to the 2010s?
Isn’t the whole instagram neo-soul guitar style a gen Z thing? It seems like at least some of the generation is both fond of guitar and very good at it
There’s also Polyphia and that whole movement of progressive metal with no distortion. Their technical level is stellar.
wut
Examples?
I’m not much into it but I think Polyphia is a good example. I once got down a rabbit hole of related bands on YouTube, I don’t remember the names but it definitely is a scene. It’s hyper technical, definitely progressive, but you’ll hear little if any overdrive, kind of like the latest Tool album but taking it even further.
Tim Hansen from Polyphia is like nothing I’ve ever heard. He even plays on nylon strings most of the time, and he just shreds the fuck out of it. Check him out on YouTube if you haven’t already!
…you need to look up, Joe Satriani, Buckethead, and Steve Vai.
That’s the same vein they are taking inspiration from.
The guitar Tim Henson uses is a half-body, thin-necked, “classical” 6 string Ibanez. He only uses it for certain parts of the songs and ends up back on an electric by the end of the song most of the time. (Or Scott LePage will take over electric duty.) He also plays 7 and 8 string guitars. (I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him with a 9.)
They use distortion plenty.
This is just progressive rock really. If you want progressive metal of the same “type”, check out Animals as Leaders.
I thought you were going to mention Chon.
Never heard of it, tbh. I was just making a statement about how all the popular bands from 2 decades ago had at least one guitarist, but nowadays it feels like it’s only DJs and little girls on the radio.
That’s largely the radio. It doesn’t play music that’s actually fashionable, it plays music that’s easily marketable.
Fair enough, I’m probably more exposed to it since I listen to and watch a bunch of guitar-related stuff anyway. There’s a distinctive style of guitar playing that has emerged among a bunch of highly-proficient gen Z players, some of whom (like Ichika Nito and Seiji Igusa) have acquired petty substantial social media followings