I blame IK and Apple and of course anyone under 30. People who think a beat and a bad "poem" is music are a detriment to artists who play an instrument. Pop culture, what'cha gonna do? Not much.
 
Mainstream music and style always follows some new small cultural movement that no one else likes when it starts. The Beats. Carnaby Street. The Hippies. Black Power/the AFRO. Busting slacks. Rap and Hip Hop. Things like that always start out small and mainstream does not like it... then within 10 years it IS mainstream. It is how Pop Culture works. Most older people never like it but younger people embrace it partly because older people don't like it.
I'm sure the guitar will come back but never again like in the 60s and 70s. The blues and jazz guitarist will always be around as will rockers but mainstream music may or may not embrace the combo again. IDK.
In any case it is someone's fault!!
If Gibson will just make a good and affordable LP Standard, SG Standard, ES-335, Brydland, Hummingbird, Dove etc... GOOD QC and keep the price down and they will recover. No one wants to spend big bucks on an instrument that may or may not be well finished. Gibson has let their QC slip to the point where people half expect for the fit and finish to not be what it should be. There is NO excuse for that. IT's hard to recover a good reputation once it is tarnished. I wish them well.
 
J

Popular music is, and always has been, fickle.
 
And "sophisticated" music historically has rarely had all that much overlap with the music of the masses who just want to hear "a nice melody" or "something I can dance to".
 
But guitars are just sexy for some reason and an electric guitar can generate a response even with crude playing skills like almost nothing else. They just need the next icon to come along to inspire the masses.

drewfx1
Popular music is, and always has been, fickle.
 
And "sophisticated" music historically has rarely had all that much overlap with the music of the masses who just want to hear "a nice melody" or "something I can dance to".

Dunno if that's 100%. Look at Queen. If you ever get a chance to listen to their multi-tracks, it melts your brain. There is so much sophistication and perfection in what that band did and for a long while they were on top of the world in popularity. They just did it in a way that it was able to bridge the gap between pop culture and intelligent music.

TerraSin

drewfx1
Popular music is, and always has been, fickle.
 
And "sophisticated" music historically has rarely had all that much overlap with the music of the masses who just want to hear "a nice melody" or "something I can dance to".

Dunno if that's 100%. Look at Queen. If you ever get a chance to listen to their multi-tracks, it melts your brain. There is so much sophistication and perfection in what that band did and for a long while they were on top of the world in popularity. They just did it in a way that it was able to bridge the gap between pop culture and intelligent music.

I'd add Steely Dan to that. Possibly the most sophisticated 'pop' music you're ever likely to hear (apart from 10cc).
 
Then there's Burt Bacharach and Nelson Riddle of course.

Why blame anyone?  Especially the kids.
 
The times, they are changing.
 
But, this is the internet, so have your opinion.  There will still be guitars if Gibson morphs out of existence, which it won't.
 
Jesse Q. Screed 

jamesg1213

TerraSin

drewfx1
Popular music is, and always has been, fickle.
 
And "sophisticated" music historically has rarely had all that much overlap with the music of the masses who just want to hear "a nice melody" or "something I can dance to".

Dunno if that's 100%. Look at Queen. If you ever get a chance to listen to their multi-tracks, it melts your brain. There is so much sophistication and perfection in what that band did and for a long while they were on top of the world in popularity. They just did it in a way that it was able to bridge the gap between pop culture and intelligent music.

I'd add Steely Dan to that. Possibly the most sophisticated 'pop' music you're ever likely to hear (apart from 10cc).
 
Then there's Burt Bacharach and Nelson Riddle of course.

I wasn't arguing that popular music was/is never sophisticated but that over the course of hundreds of years sophisticated popular music is the exception not the rule.

drewfx1

jamesg1213

TerraSin

drewfx1
Popular music is, and always has been, fickle.
 
And "sophisticated" music historically has rarely had all that much overlap with the music of the masses who just want to hear "a nice melody" or "something I can dance to".

Dunno if that's 100%. Look at Queen. If you ever get a chance to listen to their multi-tracks, it melts your brain. There is so much sophistication and perfection in what that band did and for a long while they were on top of the world in popularity. They just did it in a way that it was able to bridge the gap between pop culture and intelligent music.

I'd add Steely Dan to that. Possibly the most sophisticated 'pop' music you're ever likely to hear (apart from 10cc).
 
Then there's Burt Bacharach and Nelson Riddle of course.

I wasn't arguing that popular music was/is never sophisticated but that over the course of hundreds of years sophisticated popular music is the exception not the rule.

Yes, OK then. I'd hate to make anyone think they'd been misconstrued.

 
IMO, music has two primary aspects as it relates to people.  One is from the perspective of the creator; self expression.  The other is the way the music connects to listeners.  There are many ways -frames of mind- that people enjoy listening to music from.
 
From either perspective it seems a bit over the top to claim any music, whether a form of self expression or a piece that a listener connects with, to be beneath another.
 
I personally create music for myself, and listen to music of all styles and levels of sophistication at one time or another.  I even find comfort in the slow rhythm of an old 2-cylinder tractor engine at times.
 
So if you find yourself looking down on other musicians or listeners, maybe some time in front of a mirror would be time better spent.
 
 

That could be mean to the mirror...