OffsetGuitars.com

This is probably my favorite band of the past five years:

"Burning Away the Day" by Black Sites, from the album In Monochrome

I think of them as pretty modern-sounding, but metal fansites refer to them as "throwback" metal, citing underground bands from the 80s and 90s. Guitar Center's advertising for their "Guitarathon" sales event has featured Marcus King, and what little I've heard from his music evokes the 70s. The Interrupters are making waves on rock radio, but their music could easily have been released in the era of punk-ska groups like Operation Ivy or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Highly Suspect's latest album has guitar rock songs on it, but the focus is on more electronic flavored songs.

It seems like more "modern"-sounding bands are eschewing the "typical" humbuckers and high-gain archetype in favor of clearer, cleaner tones and effects like reverb and delay instead of distortion/overdrive/fuzz. Or they don't play guitar at all, like Twenty-One Pilots. Sure, there are bands like Animals as Leaders pushing heavy guitar into new territory, but say "djent" to the average person on the street and they either won't know what you're talking about or will think you said "gent", as in gentleman...

So is this the way things will be from now on? Will the pop-punk/emocore era of the 2000s go down as hard rock's final stage before being consigned to retro novelty? Is the future of music going to consign guitar to a supportive role only?

Also, why doesn't this site have YouTube embedding?

CivoLee wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 19, 2020 1:50 pm

Also, why doesn't this site have YouTube embedding?

We do that exactly as you already did, with the link button. Having a video on the page itself looks trashy to me personally. I can't say why no one pursued that when they built the site except for maybe that it would take more server space/power?

I mean, that song you posted is absolutely not modern sounding. It sounds straight out of the 80s. 1980 was forty years ago. I just think your perspective is a bit skewed.

ALSO, metal itself has pretty much always been a niche genre, except for maybe the brief period where hair metal was big. I wouldn't doom the guitar just because most people don't like "djent." Seems like a really odd metric to go by.

People have been lamenting the death of guitar music probably since the 80s... it hasn't gone anywhere. Trends come and go, that's normal. I wouldn't worry too much about it and just play your guitar.

I mean... yeah, probably.

There are some very interesting things being done with guitar, still. Guitar music is far from irrelevant. But in the broader cultural milieu? At this moment, the guitar is situated within the pop culture landscape roughly where the saxophone was situated in the 1980s.

As defining cultural force--as imagery, as iconography--the electric guitar's reign was roughly 1960-1995 (we could debate a decade or so in either direction, but the larger point remains).

.

Get ready for ASMR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUsshSsI22o


Back in the eighties there was this drum recording accident that defined the decade.
Gated Reverb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxz6jShW-3E

.

I think the XX are a good example of a modern sounding guitar band, (presumably( recprding directly into the DAW. I'd say anyone who attempts to sound like they're in a room probably sounds retro to the KIDZ, sadly. But y'know, there's always going to be someone somewhere who works out how to do something new.

Also, good riddance to most of the guitar based iconography, personally. Hate it. Always have.

FrankRay wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:11 am

Also, good riddance to most of the guitar based iconography, personally. Hate it. Always have.

This times a million.

I’d also say fuck djet, rawk and rockism river deep and mountain high, it’s had its day and a lot of the attitudes have dated more than the music (and the ‘style’).

I’ve personally never given two fucks what music was played on, only that I liked it and since I’ve no shortage of records to buy I’m happy.

D

Can we at least agree this thread topic is throwback by now? Let's talk about whether the av65 jazzmaster is a good guitar.

adamrobertt wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:44 am

I mean, that song you posted is absolutely not modern sounding. It sounds straight out of the 80s. 1980 was forty years ago. I just think your perspective is a bit skewed.

ALSO, metal itself has pretty much always been a niche genre, except for maybe the brief period where hair metal was big. I wouldn't doom the guitar just because most people don't like "djent." Seems like a really odd metric to go by.

People have been lamenting the death of guitar music probably since the 80s... it hasn't gone anywhere. Trends come and go, that's normal. I wouldn't worry too much about it and just play your guitar.

I only picked that song because it was the song that got me into them. Maybe the chorus of that song is a bit Iron Maiden-y, but the extreme downtuning and use of dissonance is more modern than anything Maiden were doing at their peak. I also only cited djent because it's been a major trend in modern metal for the past decade.

øøøøøøø wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:34 am

There are some very interesting things being done with guitar, still. Guitar music is far from irrelevant. But in the broader cultural milieu? At this moment, the guitar is situated within the pop culture landscape roughly where the saxophone was situated in the 1980s.

Um, nearly every pop song in the 80s had a sax break. That's why IMHO M83's "Midnight City" is most accurate of the many 80s pastiches, because it has a saxophone solo.

shadowplay wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 12:20 pm

This times a million.

I’d also say fuck djet, rawk and rockism river deep and mountain high, it’s had its day and a lot of the attitudes have dated more than the music (and the ‘style’).

I’ve personally never given two fucks what music was played on, only that I liked it and since I’ve no shortage of records to buy I’m happy.

D

I could very well dismiss indie music (since "rock" is below you, apparently) as sloppy and/or pretentious and say that shoegazers can't make music without drowning their guitars in effects, but I'm not going to, because I can appreciate indie and shoegaze just as well as I can classic rock or heavy metal. For the record, I never really cared for most of the bands with the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" attitude and if I did like any of them (for example, Van Halen) it was more for their music than their lyrics. The bands I enjoy were/are far more likely to write about losing your sanity and the collapse of civilization than getting high and having one-night stands.

I posted this topic in two other forums and for the most part I got exactly the kinds of responses I'd expect from each one. And this is exactly the kind of response I'd expect from someone on here, since when discussing the line in Pavement's "Range Life" about the Smashing Pumpkins, it seems like this forum would attract people with Stephen Malkmus' opinion than Billy Corgan's (I'm in the middle myself, as I like both bands). Thank you for fulfilling my expectations.

Singlebladepickup wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 2:04 pm

Can we at least agree this thread topic is throwback by now? Let's talk about whether the av65 jazzmaster is a good guitar.

This topic isn't really the horse-carcass-beaten-to-paste topic about whether or not "rock is dead" or if anyone under 30 cares about guitar playing. There are young rock/metal bands all over Bandcamp and Soundcloud and young guitarists shredding all over YouTube. Or if guitar as an instrument is out of fashion, given that there are a good deal of pop songs with prominent guitar parts, even if the focus of the song is on the vocals/beat. What I'm asking is if the day of power chord-driven guitar/bass/drums music being seen as "modern" instead of "retro" or "revivalist" by the general public is over. Overall, it's an expression of my constant vacillating between embracing my feelings as an outsider and just wanting to fit in and be "normal", since it seems like life is easier for people who aren't artists....

CivoLee wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:11 am

Singlebladepickup wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 20, 2020 2:04 pm

Can we at least agree this thread topic is throwback by now? Let's talk about whether the av65 jazzmaster is a good guitar.

This topic isn't really the horse-carcass-beaten-to-paste topic about whether or not "rock is dead" or if anyone under 30 cares about guitar playing. There are young rock/metal bands all over Bandcamp and Soundcloud and young guitarists shredding all over YouTube. Or if guitar as an instrument is out of fashion, given that there are a good deal of pop songs with prominent guitar parts, even if the focus of the song is on the vocals/beat. What I'm asking is if the day of power chord-driven guitar/bass/drums music being seen as "modern" instead of "retro" or "revivalist" by the general public is over. Overall, it's an expression of my constant vacillating between embracing my feelings as an outsider and just wanting to fit in and be "normal", since it seems like life is easier for people who aren't artists....

Oh, woe is you. No one understands you.

CivoLee wrote:I could very well dismiss indie music (since "rock" is below you, apparently) as sloppy and/or pretentious and say that shoegazers can't make music without drowning their guitars in effects, but I'm not going to, because I can appreciate indie and shoegaze just as well as I can classic rock or heavy metal. For the record, I never really cared for most of the bands with the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" attitude and if I did like any of them (for example, Van Halen) it was more for their music than their lyrics. The bands I enjoy were/are far more likely to write about losing your sanity and the collapse of civilization than getting high and having one-night stands.

I posted this topic in two other forums and for the most part I got exactly the kinds of responses I'd expect from each one. And this is exactly the kind of response I'd expect from someone on here, since when discussing the line in Pavement's "Range Life" about the Smashing Pumpkins, it seems like this forum would attract people with Stephen Malkmus' opinion than Billy Corgan's (I'm in the middle myself, as I like both bands). Thank you for fulfilling my expectations.

Lmao this is hilarious. "I'm not going to be a dick because I'm ABOVE all that and I appreciate ALL MUSIC and BY THE WAY EVERYONE IN THIS FORUM FITS INTO SUCH A PREDICTABLE STEREOTYPE LOL YOU'RE ALL SO DUMB"

fuck you man

Some friends of mine used to listen to stuff that sounded like that in the '90s, it wasn't really my bag.

CivoLee wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:11 am

What I'm asking is if the day of power chord-driven guitar/bass/drums music being seen as "modern" instead of "retro" or "revivalist" by the general public is over.

Yes. And I'd suggest that day probably occurred about 20 years ago.

The 'average person on the street' will never have had any idea what 'djent' is, that's not a new thing.

andy_tchp wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 24, 2020 3:15 pm

The 'average person on the street' will never have had any idea what 'djent' is, that's not a new thing.

They're better off for it, too.