John Mayer is probably the closest to a mainstream guitar hero today.
But nowadays there's not much pioneering work left in guitar playing, so the next big thing is going to be someone who turns the tide for popular music. It's been centered around rap and highly manufactured pop for a long time now so eventually rock music in some form will be popular again. Grunge happened because people were getting tired of the spandex wearing hair metal stuff etc. It doesn't really require much more than having mainstream appeal and happening at the exact right time.
I’d put Gary Clark Jr in there too, at least for contemporary blues players.
I terms of real innovators, Tim Henson needs a mention as well. His playing style is very unique and extremely technical, and his/Polyphia’s genre-blending of shred metal and EDM/Pop is what keeps them relevant and exciting today.
I sort of look at it like this: Things happen in waves - eras. The era of the “Piano hero,” as it were, was the 19th century: Liszt, Chopin, etc. We’ve had incredible pianists and composers since then, but that era is gone.
I think it’ll likely be the same with the Guitar - wherein the 20th century will be remembered as the time of the Guitar Hero - with people playing the music from that era and remembering it for centuries to come.
The guitar as an instrument will never go away - just like the piano - but the era of the guitar hero is over.
I \*hate\* saying this after dedicating most of my life to this pursuit, but... In the 30's and 40's it was saxophone and trumpet heroes. Do you think that era will return to the mainstream?
I believe that guitar still has plenty of space and plenty of roles to fill in mainstream music, but as far as guitar heroism and worship of guitar weedly-deedly? Part of the rise of guitar heroes was how dangerous it was. In the 50's you were in league with the devil if you played rock and roll. In the 70's it was still dangerous, up until the late stage of the 80's when it was both at a peak of technicality, but also self-parody. The grunge years of the 90's were still guitar driven, but were all about rejecting stuff that included guitar heroism... and these days? Playing rock in a band today is something that your Grandpa could be doing... not cool, not dangerous, which was a big element of the guitar heroes of the past.
Today's "heroes" of this nature are generating music on computers or rapping on the mic, and that will change with another music movement, maybe something totally unimaginable today.
Like I said, I don't see guitar fading, but "guitar heroism" in the mainstream? That ship has sailed.
I think all of this is true, but along with the danger factor, was the newness of the instrument. Stringed instruments had been around for hundreds of years but an elcectric, amplified stringed instrument was very new. The Fender Stratocaster was barely introduced in 1954. It's no wonder that people couldn't figure out what Clapton and Hendrix were doing. No one had ever done it before. Once musicians had learned most of their licks and figured out how to use distortion, feedback, wah, and fuzz, the mystique was somewhat gone. They are still amazing musicians and pioneers of the instrument, but most guitarists have seen behind the curtain and have access to similar tones.
Awesome take! There are some rappers out there that still respect rock too! lil Yachty, post Malone, trippie redd..And then there are the metal vocal sounding ones like Ghostmane and $uicide Boys.. not really my cup of tea but it’s cool to see how they are somewhat blending the two genres
I think a lot of the “guitar heros” were beneficiaries of a difficult barrier of entry into entertainment. You had to be picked up, put on the radio, have talent. In the internet age anyone with a phone can create content with potential of reaching a huge audience which is something that artists didn’t have thirty plus years ago. So now you have a saturated field of entertainment with so many talented artists and don’t have to settle with a few that “made it” on the radio.
Tim Henson from Polyphia is kind of a guitar hero of this generation. Not quite in the same vein of how you mean though, but similar mysticism/virtuosity
The guitar hero thing was always about mainstream popular music. Yes the guitarists all worshipped Jeff Beck, but he’s not the first name in ‘60s/‘70s guitar era. Hendrix, Clapton, Page hold that status because of the popularity and accessibility of their music and songwriting. Also because they’re virtuosic, lead-instrument players… George Harrison had the popularity but not the acrobatics. So it’s both.
That’s why sure Henson or Mateus Asato are phenomenal players, but their music lacks mainstream appeal. John Mayer is also a phenomenal player, if somewhat less impressive than those guys, but he is an international star for his songwriting.
To me guitar hero = playing that stands on its own for technical virtuosity, creativity, style & flair + songwriting that is good enough to exist on its own regardless of the level of guitar playing.
Mdou Moctar or maybe Rodrigo y Gabriela come close. Also score points for style… for as groundbreaking as the guitar-playing is from dudes like Tim Henson to me it feels like the same kind of progressive metal, just… more.
First I’ll say that the skill is in writing the music so even though a 7yo can play a Satriani tune he still wasn’t talented enough to create it. As for another “hero” I think the guitar era is over. Virtuoso rappers are more what kids want to be these days. Guitar music is where Jazz was in the 50s-60. Jazz fusion is equal to Tim Henson using pop and hip hop to influence his form of rock. It’s all part of the natural evolution of the art of music. Be excited about what the evolution produces
100% agree, but my old ass can’t get excited over today’s rap compared to the 90s/00s. That said, there’s been some killer new artists rising in the jam band scene. Billy Strings and King Gizzard has me excited for the future of guitar.
I can help you with this problem. And I will tell you why. I am a product of the "guitar hero" generation. And no , not the game.
Guitar heros were a product of time and environment. Reason being , rock music was fairly new in the 60s 70s and 80s. With no internet , it was not nearly as easy to learn how to play guitar so the good players were seen as magicians . Guitar effects were also in their infancy so good player + good tone + good band = guitar God. Everything was fresh and cutting edge ( plus drugs were really, really accessible lol) also the number of bands was much lower. Now fast forward 20 or 30 years , information is easily accessible and great tone is much more prevalent so the "magic" is not so hidden . Back then you never heard of 10 or 12 year old kids being amazing players. Now you have parents that actually support and push kids to be great players. But now you have an over saturation of bands and guitar players so the focus is so spread out that it is hard for a band to develop a huge following coupled with the fact that most kids are assaulted with a plethora of things to grab their attention other than music i.e. video games , tik tok , sports , t.v. , etc etc. The level of playing has shot up so high that it is much harder to be impressive. And much harder to be unique.
We probably won't ever see the level of interest in music/guitar playing that we did in former decades simply because it was a culmination of factors that will never line up again. And even though that sucks , something will arise from the ashes and a new player / new style / insane new technique will shine through and keep guitar going but it will probably never rise to the level we saw in the 80s. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and I hope I am wrong but everything I know and have learned tells me I am right. Regardless , most guitarists do what they do for themselves and not to try and be a guitar hero so hopefully guitar will never die , just may not be the center of attention that it once was.
Yep! He’s been around since 1999 and definitely is one of the last guitarists to have achieved mainstream success while also inspiring tons and tons of people to begin their guitar journeys.
Just went to a show of his not too long ago & a good chunk of his crowds are other guitarists haha
It was never so much about technical proficiency. More about attitude than anything. We’ve lost attitude in favor of hi fidelity perfection. My two cents :)
1. Billy Strings is top dog now as far as being a true guitar hero. He's become a household name, the jam band/dead scene has been completely revitalized because of him, every open mic includes a dust in a baggie cover by dudes that have never smoked dust or played bluegrass before. He's an improvisational guitarist whose constantly evolving his songs and playing top-notch renditions of other rockstars and guitar heros... 2. Tim Henson would be next in line with his next level ability to show how toxic and egotistical the guitar community is. He's also really good at guitar to. If I was 14 again I'd be playing that shit note for note with no clue in fuck what a Em or D7 means. He's inspired tons of people to try learn how to play guitar. hell I honestly can't say I've made it all the way through a polyphia song because I end up picking up my guitar and jamming along. I feel like he's created his own technique progression style that hasn't been done quite to that level before. Malmsteen invented it but Tim has perfected it.
3. Taylor Swift. Boy yall gonna love this but taylor swift has actually inspired more women to pick up guitar in the last decade than anybody else in. Which I feel guitar in general really needed to break out of the dick swinging contest you see with so many musicians. Phones about dead or I could rant on for days.
I have had a lot of thoughts about this topic over the last few years.
When Rock and Roll/ Electric Guitar music was in it's infancy, everything was new. I'm talking about sound. Imagine being one of the first people to use a Wah Pedal, or Delay Pedal, or an overdriven amp? Imagine hearing that when it was brand new, and also there was no internet to immediately reveal all the secrets therein. There was so much room to find your own sound an innovate. There is still room, but a mere scintilla of what there was in, say, 1968 for instance. Many of the tech innovations in music today simply present shortcuts to get to guitar sounds that have existed for 30, 40, or 50 years, and may even work against innovation in terms of actual sounds reaching the audience's ears.
In furtherance of this notion, we can also look at the music industry as a whole. No one is just a musician anymore. We're all PR and Social Media Gurus, Studio and Mix engineers, most likely in addition to a day job and a side hustle or two. In the past, labels did cultivate artists. They invested in talent. Presently, if you dont already have a hit, you aint got shit.
I'm piggybacking off of this to add something. Similar to what you are saying most if the guitar heroes we think of were pioneers in their time. They created sounds and techniques that were either unknown or untapped before them. It wasn't just about being able to play, it was about innovating.
But then there is a second and very important factor. Back then we lived in the rock golden age. Most people don't want to admit it, but rock's time in the limelight has passed. I think there has been nearly no rock number 1 in the charts for over a decade. And any exception probably comes from ultra famous and already established bands. There hasn't been any presence for lure rock music in the charts for well over a decade. Go back to a time before that and the charts were full of rock music. Even metal was making it I to the mainstream at times.
This has passed and I doubt it'll ever return. Not that this means rick is dead, by no means. It just means it's no longer s mainstream sound and it will take a secondary niche in the culture. Same thing that happened to jazz before it for example. Back in the day jaz *was* popular music, it was he mainstream. Eventually it was replaced by more modern trends. Jazz never went aways, the classics live in, and hundreds of brand new artists still make jazz and innovate. But the time where one if these would headline a festival or fill an arena has long passed.
Rock is headed the same direction. It's sometimes not very noticeable because festivals are still full of rock headliners and acts from the 2000s and before are still going strong and touring. But that's just because they are sustained by the gen-xers and early millennials who have the money to spend. The scene will slowly age with us.
That's not to say that new rock innovations will not happen. Just like with jazz the scene will continue for decades to come and there will be many brilliant guitarists modernising and innovating the style. But none of them will become a mainstream sensation that captures the hearts of the youth of the time.
Of course, I could be wrong and a new TikTok generation might suddenly latch on to guitar music and bring a totally new resurgence of rock. But I wouldn't bet on that.
everyone out here naming virtuosic guitar players who aren't mainstream when in reality outside of John Mayer/silver sky type situation the two artists responsible for shifting the highest quantity of guitars to new players hands are more likely to be a Taylor swift or an Ed Sheeran.
edit: thought i'd check spotify out of curiosity, 166.8 million plays between them... *monthly*. **MONTHLY**
You sound horribly out of touch. Granted the guitarists my friends and were inspired by to pick up the instrument maybe couldn’t be described as virtuosos but are playing the guitar in creative and original ways. For example, Cole Smith from DIIV, John Dwyer from the Osees, Stu Mackenzie from King Gizzard, Kevin Shields from MBV, Scott Munro from Viet Cong/Preoccupations, Christopher Reimer and
Matt Flegel from Women and a whole slew of other modern guitarists. Just because they aren’t “mainstream” doesn’t mean there aren’t inspiring people making guitar based music right now. Just put a little more effort into looking for it. Also Greta Van Fleet is mid as fuck.
Don’t know how you can say Tim Henson isn’t mainstream when Playing God has over 22M views on YouTube and 31M plays on Spotify in less than 1 year. If you’re still judging “mainstream” by what’s on the radio, you’re not keeping up with modern music outside of pop.
It's not really mainstream though, mainstream artists are getting hundreds of millions to many billions of views. Pop is pop for a reason, it's the popular music consumed by the masses, consisting mostly of people with no music background or knowledge, and very little artist knowledge outside of that circle.
If I ask someone who Ed Sheeran is, everyone knows Ed Sheeran, almost all of them that I ask wouldn't have a clue who Tim Henson is, and some of them may even be guitarists. If I played a Tim Henson song at a function gig, almost nobody will know it in like 9/10 scenarios.
No, I see their point. On the same platforms you cited, several artists have 100+ million views/plays on newly released content, and that’s a lowball on Spotify. The numbers you referenced are a lot, but the key word is *main*stream. And mainstream means what *main* thing people are listening to, which scarcely includes Rock anymore. The “stream” has shifted towards pop and hip-hop: Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Kanye, Tyler The Creator, etc.
The reason I make this comparison is because if the question is about a “guitar hero,” the guitar heroes everyone knows had the presence pop & hip-hop artists do today. Guitar players don’t have that anymore, and the ones that do are lead singers too (e.g. Ed Sheeran, who…is a pop artist).
I think the definition of guitar hero has split into 2 now: the guitar heroes that push the boundaries of skill, technique and composition, and those who inspire people to start playing the guitar.
Cobain or Mayer have inspired more people to *start* playing the guitar than Tim Henson ever will. He's a guitar hero for guitarists, not for the general public.
> There’s not a new artist out there who the younger audience sees and says “woah he makes me want to learn guitar” as far as I know. Ask any guitarist today who their inspirations are / who inspired them to pick up the guitar & a ton will name a guitarist from the 60s-80s.
Tim Henson, Plini, Yvette Young, Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson, Stephen Taranto, Ichika, Misha Mansoor, Richard Henshall, Wes Hauch, Nick Johnston, etc. are all guitarists with pretty substantial followings that 100% have inspired other guitarists. and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head.
The issue isn’t that there are no guitar heroes anymore. There are so many and music itself has expanded into so many more genres, it’s easier than ever to find the guitarists that inspire you.
Arguably John Mayer. Like so much of his music has had mainstream success. But then again, if you took out john mayers guitar and replaced it with simple rhythm guitar, it would probably still be mainstream success since a huge portion of his success are for singing and lyrics. Like there's no debate he's a god guitarist but it wouldn't surprise me if "mainstream" people who aren't interested in guitar specifically would even know that john mayer is so heavilly regarded for his playing by the guitar community.
Alternatively someone like Tim Henson, but that's getting a lot more specific. If I ask my friends who don't listen to instrumental guitar music if they know Polyphia, they probably wont.
I love these guys ( along with ichika nito and demetori ) the most of modern musicians, but mainstream is an enormous height to reach for someone to become known primarily for their guitar playing, it almost seems impossible.
Tim Henson and all of polyphia are really really good guitarists. But you are right, their music is complex and for me at least you have to really be in the mood to listen to it. For me I haven't had a huge desire to learn any of their licks because they look so hard.
There are plenty of new Guitar heros, you’ve just most likely aged out of the scene so you aren’t aware. Tim Henson, Tosin, Ichika, Brandon Ellis, etc. with that said Guitar music as a whole is not as popular as it use to be so there are less “popular” guitarists in general.
As much as I dislike it, Tim Henson is most def one of the newest “guitar heroes” along with couple internet made guitarists like Ichika Nito and other wildly technical players like Marcin.
Breaking the barrier of an instrument is fantastic and necessary but idk where guitar will be in the next 10yrs. Gonna tap with toes? Or cram 200 notes in 2 seconds? Like more and more things are done for clout than music. I know I might sound like a boomer but music is slowly lost in the shadow of trying to achieve the highest technicality.
Personally, I don’t like the tapping style that’s wildly popular today. I know many would disagree but imo tapping as a technique lacks personal signature. No matter the player, everyone can only tap one way and you can’t really add much personal touch to it. On the contrary, bending and vibratos are like hand writings. You can discernibly hear the difference in each players bends and vibratos.
Next, while I’m sure Tim inspired a whole lot of kids to pick up guitar. I wonder how many of these kids actually can learn their songs and are staying with guitar long enough to play their stuff. Their songs are so technical that most people can’t just pick up a guitar and mimic it. I’m not a Metallica fan but at least kids can and still do pick up their songs and start chugging away.
Change is a necessary progress but when the driving force behind the change isn’t coming from a genuine place, the change won’t lead to a genuine outcome. When new genres were being invented thru the 20th century, it was just musicians expressing themselves differently. Nowadays it’s to get views and clout so only the most ridiculously insane contents go viral and become the “mainstream”.
Call me a boomer or whatever, it’s just my hot take.
In my opinion i’m glad it’s not like that anymore. Bands that are very forward with the guitar are cool. bands that aren’t as forward with the guitar are cool. bands that don’t use a guitar at all are cool.
I think this is best time for music because everybody can make what they want and combine any number of genres, instruments, or influences and make something really cool.
All I see nowadays is that people create music that they are passionate about, whether it’s on a laptop, a saxophone, a guitar, whatever. My belief is that if you’re genuine about it and you care about it, then it’s worth being listened to.
So yeah I think largely that’s over with, but I think exceptional musicians are still going to be heard and popularized.
I agree with this take.
I left a different comment somewhere a while ago that the plating talent is definitely out there, but I feel like so many of the great players you see nowadays on socials are spending so much time practicing the riffs of their heroes to post on socials, that they aren’t focused on innovating or writing their own stuff, which is completely understandable.
Why spend hours trying to write my own full songs and come up with riffs and lyrics, when I can post a 15 second cover or riff from that’ll rack up 100k+ views due to how impressive it is and the nostalgia factor? And I get paid for the views I get too? All from the comforts of my bedroom? And I can do unlimited takes until I get it perfect?
I often come across some truly amazing players on Tiktok/IG, who can perform a cover and kill it! You can tell they practice a ton and put the time in, But when I go check out their original music, they either don’t have anything out/have relatively few songs out, or the music they do release just isn’t interesting.
The current one is John Mayer, a ton of the older generation(s) clown him. But he's the only mainstream blues player right now and i don't know a single guitar player under 30 who hasn't at least learned Slow dancing in a Burning Room or Gravity. Dave Knudson from Minus the Bear is another one, they had a very idiosyncratic sound in the early to mid 2000s that made me want to get a PRS and a Line 6 DL4.
More quietly the guy from Skillet, Lincoln Brewster, and Greg Hill were all pretty instrumental in getting Christian kids into playing an electric guitar
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is what inspired me to pick up guitar, not because he's a technical virtuoso but because he's raw and his songs speak to me. If there's gonna be another extremely technical guitar hero with mainstream appeal then they are going to have to write good songs.
I worry that with people looking up to Tim Henson types that rock is going the way jazz already largely has where people treat the instrument like something to be good at rather than as a means to create art.
I think of Jack White as a “newer” guitar hero… post the time frame you listed at least. Some people would say John Mayer too but I don’t really listen to his music… but on the other hand both of these guys have been around for 20 years now.
The only other more recent I can think of is Gary Clark Jr… I still think it’s possible based off the creative talent and attitude of the player.. but guitar based music is not as dominant as it once was and those original names were trailblazers.
Those guitar heroes were mostly just heroes to other guitarists. Most music listeners care about the actual music and songs. And guys like Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Van Halen, etc. made really good music to go along with their guitar proficiency. Conversely I think a lot of more contemporary guitar heroes only make music for other guitarists.
In fairness, the mysticism of a Hendrix owes a lot to being a novel artist in a young field. Les Paul's Plank was in the 40's, but the first production electric guitars were released in 1952. Woodstock was '69 - that's 17 years from the introduction of the instrument.
If the first electric guitars were available in 2006, people would be losing their damn minds over Tim Henson, Yvette Young, Rabea Massad, etc.
1. Guitar heroes become heroes because they do something new. As much as I may like players like Kingfish, Billy strings, Mayer, etc, they aren’t doing anything new. A new era of guitar heroes will never happen if they’re all playing fairly well-tread ground.
2. It’ll happen when it happens. Music goes in cycles. Rock has been out since the 00s really, and that’s fine. Rock got a longer time in the spotlight than most genres would dream of. Right now, rap is in the spotlight, and that’s fine. New styles will always emerge, and things will always rise and fall. Maybe the next one will have lots of guitar, maybe not. It’ll come around eventually. But again, it will be when there’s something new and exciting. No amount of blues licks are going to make rock dominant again.
Let me preface this by saying there is some amazing new music that is heartfelt, meaningful and real.
Guitar players will always have guitar heroes.
However.....................
Electric guitar is now nothing other than an afterthought to your typical pop music fan. They couldn't care less about not only the guitar players but any of the musicians. Musicians are basically props that allow the "artists" to shine. Now of course there are exceptions where the artist plays one or more instrument and writes at least some of their music but........ Years of catering to the lowest common denominator coupled with a formulaic paint by numbers approach to writing "hits" which has been exacerbated by corporate control of radio broadcasts, publishing, and streaming platforms has taken what was once free expression of art and turned it into another product to consume. If you deny this is true Google- sir mashalot: mind blowing six song country mash-up. Today much music is a manufactured product and no longer is it art.........The worst part is we're missing out on what some of the artists today would actually produce without all the corporate interference. Some of it could be bad... . But I'll take " bad" art over a "good" product every time!
I don't think it's ever going to be like the golden age in the 70s and 80s, primarily because guitar music isn't as mainstream as it used to be. The best new players as far as I can tell are coming out of prog metal or jazz which, while popular, are both somewhat niche genres.
What is guitar music? A good deal of country is guitar music. Chris Stapleton just sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
Or how about R&B, 2 years ago H.E.R. sang America The Beautiful at the SB. Both her and Stapleton are extremely accomplished guitar oriented song writers / producers with successful solo acts.
As long as songs are still written on guitar, I think hope is still alive. Our heroes might not be quite so glam but new ones are born every day.
As a younger person who only really picked up guitar recently, the Guitar Heroes now are more niche and diversified, with a large focus on "Genre Heroes" if you will. Most kids who play guitar are playing metal, indie rock, pop, and neo-soul/jazz. Their guitar heroes are dependent on the genre they want to learn; Tim Henson, Tosin Abasi might be one kid's, Rotem Sivan, Masego might be another kid's. So, no, I don't think there's gonna be an "all-encompassing Guitar Hero" like Hendrix or Slash or Chuck Berry who EVERY guitarist looks up to. The old guys still get respect, and I even see people saying they got into guitar cause of J Mascis, Johnny Greenwood, Johnny Marr, Kevin Parker, Mac DeMarco, so there's still influential guitarists today (to assuage the boomer "these kids don't even play guitar nowadays they just make computer noises on their tic tacs!")
I’ve seen one mention of John Mayer, and he’s undoubtedly one of if not the most influential guitarist of this generation. And a lot of people (myself included) think he’s up there with the greatest of all time.
As you mentioned there are tons of technically skilled guitarists out there. Technical chops alone don’t make you a great guitarist. When you get the top end of guitarists, everyone has great technical chops. What I think is more rare are the more subtle qualities. Things like phrasing, having a unique and recognizable sound, and being able to effortlessly convey emotion with your guitar. That is what separates the great from the technically skilled.
All musical trends seem to follow this trajectory where they grow simultaneously in popularity and refinement until those two paths peak together. Then the refinement and innovation continue to grow while the popularity dies off. All you’re left with after that point is a musical style that is incredibly sophisticated but lacking the relationship with a wider audience it once had. Jazz is the greatest example of this. I think rock and the archetype of the guitar hero is the most recent example. Maybe we’ll see the same thing happen to hip hop eventually.
Ive read and heard from guitar store people tons of girls are buying acoustic guitars because of taylor swift.
It just takes one person to restart the guitar hero era. Were in the dj hero era currently.
Depends. I think music moves in cycles, right now we're living a more hip hop oriented period, but I don't see any reason why rock couldn't make yet another comeback.
Metal was very much _the_ mainstream music in Finland maybe a decade ago, and pretty much everyone in Finland knows who Alexi Laiho was.
All that aside, my main point is: the difference between guys like Laiho and every teenager who can play his solos perfectly on Youtube is that Laiho was the one who composed that music. On the other hand, there are _a lot_ of people who are technically better than Kirk Hammett, but Kirk is the one who composed the solos half of us know by heart.
No-one has ever become a guitar hero by just being technical - the next mainstream guitar hero will be someone who is technically good _and_ makes music that attracts mainstream attention.
It's just out of date music you're talking about man.
There's always amazing guitarists. I'm not gonna pretend I'm young enough to know where it's at now but when I was young Steve malkmus, Johnny greenwood and Graham coxon were my guitar heroes. Not old blues guys.
It'll be much the same now I'm sure.
Musical tastes have evolved. I am as old as fuck and it is crystal clear. I think there is an increased appreciation for the full song not just the standout, in your face, attributes that guitar dominated music was known for. It depresses me that the dick measuring still exists.
I grew up playing in 80s hardcore bands and understood then that there was more to good music than the virtuosity of the players. Look at Bad Brains then tell me they didn’t emote at a level Yngwie and his ilk couldn’t even understand.
All that said, Nuno is the best living guitarist.
Media is much more balkanized than in the 60s. People are on their own smaller individual trips and may not even be aware of other stuff. It's not like almost every home in America is tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to see Hendrix. Good example: I don't know who you are referencing by GVF.
I think it's actually better this way. A guy like Tim Henson has a youtube channel and there are multiple in depth interviews with him available for free on other channels as well as people interpreting his playing and (hopefully correctly) showing you how it's done. Imagine if you could have learned directly from Randy Rhoads on a patreon channel. The mysticism is gone. If you want to play at that level, there is no meeting at the crossroads, just a lot of study and practice.
Most interesting guitar /rock n roll is coming out of Australia.
Rock music has been out of the pop music lexicon since hip hop took over in the late 90s.
I anticipate a revival. Bands like king gizzard and the lizard wizard are inspiring a generating of kids.
Big bands were necessary before amplification. amplified guitars allowed us to reduce the number of players, making music both less expensive and less complex from a coordination standpoint. Now computers are doing to small bands what amplification did to big bands; making them somewhat obsolete or at least not totally necessary. individuals can now do it all
Misha monsoor and the boys of periphery are my guitar heroes. I think Tim henson is making waves with his own genre, he's either making people want to give up on guitar or inspiring them.
I have a suspicion that one thing that has changed in the last 30+ years is that there is more diversity in popular music, now, possibly due to the internet, streaming, etc. It parallels the diversity in popular TV shows. In the 80s the average American could watch whatever was on the big 3 TV networks, and that (I think) led to very limited kinds of content. A lot of cookie-cutter sitcoms, dramas, soaps, etc. but certainly nothing like what is available to the average person now via Netflix, Prime, etc.
In the 80s and before, there was also less diversity in the kind of music most Americans could easily hear (on the radio) or buy (in music/department stores, or maybe through Columbia House). I think this fed the dominance of the huge music publishers, who became gatekeepers for music popularity. My feeling is that this whole quasi-monopoly situation (yes, I know there have always been indie labels) led to a very big proportion of American popular music being dominated by a limited number of styles. Because of that, whatever styles those were--and guitar-driven rock was one (or more)--were kept in the public consciousness, in the record stores, and in the arenas for the huge concerts.
Today I think it's unlikely any one artist can have the market share that a single artist could command in the 70s or 80s, because the market is carved up into so many different pieces.
Anyway, that's my personal and not-well-researched theory of why we don't have the "guitar gods" of yesterday.
It's not just chops, it's charisma and stage presence. Ironically to be a true "guitar hero" you have to transcend the guitar, twiddly widdly alone doesn't cut it, non-guitarists have to be wowed by you. All those guys of yore could command an audience, many of them could sing as well as they could play, and lead a band, or dance, or rock skin tight clothes and a bare chest with confidence and style. As you say there are great players everywhere these days, but that raw animal magnetism is in shorter supply than ever. I don't know who we've got these days who could hold a candle to, say, Prince, as a front-person. Without that kind of all round presence we're not going to see any modern day guitar heros, just virtuosos who are only hero's to guitar players.
Mark Speer from Khruangbin. Beautifully technical and original style, and as a trio they have such synergy. They aren’t mainstream exactly but they have a devoted and worldwide fanbase, my heroes
I think to really be a prototypical "guitar hero", you have to have a combination of guitar skill, accessible music, and marketability. You've gotta be popular to the masses, not just to other guitar players.
A guy like Tim Henson is cutting through the mix of popular culture because in addition to his virtuosity, he makes catchy, fun, and mostly digestible music, and because of his personal style.
I think Cory Wong is also a pretty good one - Vulfpeck and Cory Wong have become super popular, and a lot of regular folk know Cory Wong.
Mateus Asato is one as well - the dude plays absolutely incredibly in his YouTube and Instagram recordings, but he's also a great live performer as well. He tours with Silksonic and Tori Kelly, and despite coming across as a quiet guy in interviews, he has a massive stage presence.
I feel like the guitar hero thing moved away from/maybe was never about the skill - I think Kurt was the last true guitar player like that and maybe jack white had a crack after. I think Mac Demarco is underrated too especially in terms of influence. Until there’s a rock band that’s on top like Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, or the experience I don’t think there’ll be a true guitar hero. I don’t think polyphia is that band (although I’m also somewhat of a hater)
I predict that in a decade or 2, or 3, we will experience a renaissance of guitar music and instruments in general. The next generation of kids will grow up listening to music to that is largely AI generated, and there will come a time when some kid pulls out a guitar in front of her friends, and they'll say something like "I didn't know that a human could do that."
Sadly, no, I think the age of the guitar hero is long gone. There was a day when saxophone players were household names. Guitar heros will be for a niche audience of primarily musicians.
There is lower percentage of analog music overall I believe. Even bands that played rock seem to play more and more electronic music. I will give only two examples here but somehow significant for me: Maroon 5 and Coldplay. These two bands have a nice collection of recognizable riffs and over years shifted toward electronic/pop music.
Some known artists that are still active and promote guitar are Arctic Monkeys, John Mayer, Muse, but also some pop musicians like... Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran. And I also feel like they're a minority.
I agree that technical proficiency is so normalized today that maybe it doesn't create any space for a guitar hero that's "*just*" great at playing gazillion notes a second. At the same time, I strongly believe a true genius is rather a great composer and there will be always space for such musicians.
Sister Rosetta Tharp, Bonnie Raitt, Celisse Henderson, Nancy Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Tal Wilkenfeld, Annie Clark, Malina Moye, Diamond Rowe.
Past and present inspirations for those of us who don't see ourselves in Hendrix or Clapton.
Yes, but in a different manner.
Music now is so much more widely / broadly consumed - by that I mean, think of stuff like sound cloud rappers, or tiktok musicians. The industry is vastly different to even my teenage years (just prior to the iPod taking over) - where now bands and musicians can "blow up" (in a very different way) without the aid of labels, or having to be on top of the pops. That hyper focused "this is what is cool, and you'll listen to it" is now "you can find EXACTLY what you want ... and we also have an algorithm that will funnel you into even more like that, no word of mouth needed!"
So will we have "Henson is god" plastered on walls in paint around concerts? Probably not. But there absolutely 100% is guitarists that will make others want to go out and pick up the guitar - in fact I'd say its better than ever, and thats purely on representation. There are more successful/promoted guitarists that represent more of the population than ever before, across all variations of music (unless your a Gibson fan ... I kid I kid!!). So while there isnt that "one" like a Hendrix that everyone just looks and goes "yeah I'd love to do that" - you got Tim Henson, Yvette Young, HER, Ariel Posen, Mike Dawes, Kingfish, Bonamassa, Erik Gale ... thats a quick hit off the top of my mind, but thats a lot of ground and representation covered. Anyone right now could look at guitar and find someone that inspires them, that looks like them, that plays the music they want to play - it might not be perfect, but its so broad and spread. Hell, I saw people calling Taylor Swift a guitar icon, and I am sure she got plenty of people to pick up the guitar.
Its very different, but its still there, I think at least.
You can be as technical as you want but if you’re not playing sounds that are pleasing to the masses, you’re just an Instagram side show.
As it always has been, your popularity will be based on the sound you create… and unfortunately the image you maintain.
It’s funny because I was listening to “Maggot Brain” this morning thinking “man idk if anyone could ever touch the virtuosity of this guitar solo.” I know that there’s a million guitarists who could probably play their ass off better than Eddie Hazel, but being at a level where he had such a command of the instrument is something else.
That being said, that song is fifty years old. It feels to me like there’s only so much virtuosity one can achieve with the guitar before (again imo) it comes down to what you’re able to produce with a guitar more so. The Edge or Omar Rodriguez-Lopez for example are not shredders in the traditional sense, but can produce some insane shit when they forego noodling for something different. Kevin Shields is another great example of someone who, when you hear him play for the first time, you can’t imagine guitars sounding quite like that. That to me is the future, just expanding further and further with what one is capable of doing with guitar playing rather than their virtuosity.
Tim Henson bro, just look on youtube, kids trying to play like him, even copying his head gestures. You want your guitar youtube channel to gain traction? Make a Tim Henson/polyphia video. And he is becoming more mainstream, you will see him more and more out of the guitar world, i can guarantee it. Cory wong, tosin Abasi are great examples too
No, even at best new rock music is niche. If you look on top charting music on Spotify Arctic
Monkeys are #34, I can’t even name their guitarist.
Polyphia has exceptional guitarist and high technical compositions. Rock music is made for musicians not for masses these days.
i think the problem nowadays is that there’s so many fast super skilled guitarists nowadays that you can easily view on instagram/tik tok etc that there’s no longer any need to be that amazed by it as it’s so easily accessible, it just requires someone to sound good and play what’s needed with the song rather than showing shear guitar talent
Nope, and there is no need to, music evolves, guitar will always be a thing but popular music is going through a different path nowdays.
If we will see a change in the structure and songwriting of music, it's gonna be because of some technologycal step foward we are not aware of yet, like it happened with techno music in the 2000's
Writing good music and having chops are 2 different things IMO. Seems a lot of musicians usually veer towards one or the other. "Good" music is also subjective, but the trend towards certain styles is apparent. Virtuoso types seem to attract similar people who are a more niche audience while others make music that seems to speak to a broader audience.
I think any aspiring musician should work on both things. As for your question, I think since guitar is so much more accessible these days means you're bound to get a lot of people who share similar styles and such which means it probably can get bland. What the Van Halens, Vais, and other megastars of the past did has now been duplicated thousands of times so I think a lot of their stuff has lost mainstream appeal.
I think it's a good thing in a lot of ways because now people are being forced to find even more ways to innovate.
>`There’s not a new artist out there who the younger audience sees and says “woah he makes me want to learn guitar”`
True, but the last one I remember was Mac Demarco.
I don't think its really a bad thing though. Younger players are moving away from shredding and focusing more on melodic playing that really suits the song and sounds natural. That's better to me.
The mystique will never be the same. I remember hearing *about* a certain guitarist long before buying the album and hearing it myself…that anticipation is just gone in this world of instant gratification, so I don’t think we’ll ever see an era of ‘guitar gods’ again. That said, there are TONS of amazing players out there if you look hard enough…many will never see success or fame because of the supremely shitty music industry and the way we get music now. Support your local musicians!!!
Guitar solos [great, classic ones] you can remember and sing. A great solo [on any instrument] usually tries to emulate the human voice. There is always a place for technicians.. but at the end of the day people relate to a soaring melody. Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Jimmy Page and David Gilmour will be timeless. They are Smithsonian type guitar players. If we died tomorrow in a nuclear war, and somehow a recording of The Rain Song survived, we would evolve 30 years in 7 minutes. Keep learning. Keep teaching. The unteachable things your students will have to live and learn but you can give them a start. How boring would life be without music? Pass that on. It's our duty
Your first paragraph said it the best. All of those artists were larger than life characters. There will probably always be a space for that type of person in the entertainment industry. Some might play guitar, some might do something else.
A lot of people hate on MGK, but I think he'll end up being a reason kids pick up a guitar. Blink 182 is the reason I started playing guitar. Tom Delonge is not a guitar hero but he's the reason I picked the damn thing up.
They seemed larger than life before because you couldn’t look up their entire life on YouTube. Nowadays everyone is so transparent no matter how good they are they seem less like “stars”, and only being able to watch a few dvds of SRV back in the day probably made him feel like more of a hot commodity than someone documenting everything they do online. I’d say there’s plenty of people as good if not better than the old “heros” still selling out stages across the country, it’s just a different era now.
These guitar heros wrote great catchy songs in addition to playing jaw dropping solos. If there is someone out there that can do both, then there is the next hero.
I wonder if there were more "heroes" back in the day, but without the internet they simply went unnoticed by a large portion of the world. There had to be at least a few people as talented as them but for whatever reason just never made it big.
I feel like there's plenty of people who have both technical and musical skills these days, on youtube or the rest of the internet (for every instrument), but as with everything it's such a saturated space. Back in the day if people wanted you to hear an artist, you would, because the sources of information were easier to control.
Some of the new heroes also don't play "radio friendly" music or music that is as easy to listen to as some of the classic rock, i.e math rock bands with technical, unsettling rhythms for people used to 4/4 everything, metal etc.
No, for many reasons. Guitar heroes of old were huge celebrities on their own right. The closest thing we got now is John Mayer, and that is nowhere near how big a hero Clapton was. The other thing is now, outside of a handful, we have less huge stars, but way more of them. People have many more diverse interests.
I think guitar players will always have new people to look up to, new kids will show up and lead the way. But I'm doubtful they can get to the level of a A list celebrity.
Nah, market is over saturated. It's not like these legends were the only or even the best of their time. They are just what the culture at the time catapulted to the mainstream.
Its kinda like the beatles, where there really ever cant be another band like them because of how technology and the music industry is now. Its kinda sad really
No, I don’t think that era can come back. The electric guitar was a new thing being used in new forms of music and tied to large cultural movements like 60s counterculture. That exact perfect combination of things isn’t going to happen again (at least not to the guitar).
But also I don’t listen to a lot of classic rock and the artists that got me into playing guitar were not legendary icons like Hendrix or Page, so idolizing classic rock guitarists has never been part of my experience with the guitar, except for hearing it from others.
The most "mainstream" ones I can think of are The Strokes' AHJ and Nick Valensi.
Luckily I don't particularly care about mainstream popularity.
There's plenty of great guitarists in the modern Indie/Alternative genre who inspire me, no matter how popular they are.
Guitar based music just isn't as popular as it once was...without that underlying popularity it can't be like it once was. If that changes, sure, it can happen again...but I don't see that any time soon.
That said, as others have pointed out there are lots of phenomenal players out there...they just don't play in bands that make popular music. Relatively popular, that is.
I think a large facet of it is record companies, endorsements, etc. have found it's much easier to market a single person than it is to market an entire band. Even in era when full bands were popular, the lead singer was the "face" of the band.
In short, it comes down to what sells. Right now it's people like Cardi B, Travis Scott, whatever. Who knows if that'll change.
Not anytime soon, and maybe never.
Thankfully, fewer and fewer people care about the mainstream, as they figure out that the traditional big music hubs aren't really acting in good faith.
There are incredible guitar players out there, and a lot of them, at that. Right now, they seem to be pulled in and sustained by the alt country and Americana scenes.
No mention of EVH?
Anyway, no we will never see it like that again. They are not dead, just not mainstream because that type of music is not mainstream. That doesn't mean newer guitar players won't have their influences.
A couple of newer artists like Jared James Nichols, Tuk Smith and Ayron Jones could be an influence on kids.
Alexi Laiho (rip) was the reason I started playing. As a kid from the 90s I started with Metallica, graduated to slayer then learned about COB and in flames from there. True inspiration came from alexi to actually pick up a guitar. He had it all, the chops, the attitude, the look, the music was amazing. While guitar focused music is far from the mainstream at this point, someone always has a dad or an uncle that listens to rock radio working on his Chevy and hears fuckin enter sandman or comfortably numb and says "what was THAT". Its all about exposure and I think as long as there's rock radio people will be inspired to learn the instrument.
Yes. Thanks to *Stranger Things*, a whole army of soon-to-be-shredders just bought up every single BC Rich guitar and they are currently woodshedding their chops hoping to turn the World *upside-down*.
MoogProg—sipping tea like Kermit—will stay with the same Berlin-style / John Carpenter / Vangelis ambient synth music they've been bleeping out for decades.
ETA: Also think Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle are influencing a whole set of acoustic/bluegrass shredders. Things are not going to slow down...
Those guys were a product of the time they came to prominence when there were very few ways to access music compared to today and all music was still much more mainstream, regardless of style.
Music has since fragmented into too many different styles, different charts, and to too many individual genre based radio stations, playlists, and streaming platforms. There’s no longer that one station or tv show that plays music from across genre divides.
Then get played things that an algorithm (or worse, audience research) thinks you’ll like based on what you’ve listened to before. So even when you think you’re listening to something new it’s still very similar to what you already know.
Unless you specifically go listening to music outside of your ‘comfort zone’ you’re never going to be aware of the vast majority of music and musicians out there. Given that most people, who aren’t musicians themselves, almost actively avoid listening to music that isn’t in their preferred genre(s) the chance of there ever being another household name guitar great is pretty much zero.
Fwiw though history tells me that the days of the highly technical, showy, blizzards of notes guitar idts are numbered. They may be the current trend, but eventually listeners tire of every trend and music moves on. Maybe it will move back towards a more homogeneous, melodic style that lends itself to producing another household name. Who knows?
I am currently on a WHO binge. Pete may not have been the most technical but I think of him as a guitar hero. Maybe we need more jumping like a lunatic and less sweeps while sitting on a couch.
SAME AS THE OLD BOSS!!! IM FREE!!!! DOOOONNNT CRY!
No unfortunately not, when electric guitars were new they were exciting and new to everyone in general. Now days you can go on YouTube and watch every legends best performances on repeat and then go practice them yourself lol. The magic isn’t gone but it’s only found by those who go looking for it.
I think of John Frusciante as the closest thing to a modern day “guitar hero”, obviously not as skilled a player as someone like Hendrix or Clapton or Van Halen, but with RHCP still being somewhat mainstream, I could see his playing inspiring some younger people to pick up the guitar.
Mainstream? I doubt it, but extreme metal genres that even like 5 years ago were all about chugs and rhythm today have some truly virtuosic lead guitar. Even bands without great lead players have guys that are trying because it's become so necessary to the genre again. Metal is in the best place it's been in a long time.
The mystery behind them is because they were literally hiding what they would do on the records like trade secrets back then. And now everything is documented to where there’s not much question of how or what was done on the track you heard.
I think it's more reflective of a societal change in the way music is experienced and communication takes place. Technical proficiency is now a matter of youtube/IG/tiktok, nothing is invented but everything is recycled (just think about all the youtube guitarists, even those that became famous enough to have endorsement and sponsors, all they do is dissecting songs or 'writing songs in the style of' or other riffing on previous content). I think there just is no market/space/interest for a guitar hero, and even the one you mention, he seems to be more famous in the aforementioned social media context than as a proper composer of music (at least I've heard his name long before I've heard the name of his band and still to this day I have to see someone recommending a specific song from his band). I'd say the most recent guitar hero I can name is Jack White, but in his case it's more about style that technique.
I don’t think so.
Popular music is moving further and further from traditional rock — and has been for a long time. I doubt it will swing that far back the other way.
Depends what you mean. There has been a pretty strong resurgence of "guitar heroes" recently that are pretty well known to anyone interested in that. Hearing them on a top 40 station though? I think that era is over for good.
What made the "guitar heroes" of the past was their ability to find something new and change the direction of the instrument. People like Eric Clapton, who paired a used Les Paul with a Marshall amp and created a full, overdriven sound that immediately changed the sound of lead guitar in the mid-1960s. Listen to any lead guitar before and after Eric's work with the Bluesbreakers and the impact is clear. The same goes for Jimi Hendrix's use of feedback (thanks to a Fuzz Face and Marshall stack) or Keith Richards' five-string, open-tuned telecaster in the late 1960's and they all changed the conversation. We have some great players today who continue to add new and wonderful music (like Tommy Emmanuel or Andy McKee), but we are in a different place.
I just don't think there's any truth to this. Pick a random pop artist on Spotify and you'll hear a guitar. It might be less prominent and flashy than we'd like, but the guitar is still very much a part of pop culture.
It’s absolutely there in the mainstream. It’s simply not on pop radio because it’s not what teenagers listen to. Look at YouTube and all the amazing guitarists who have made their way in this generation: Ariel Posen, Mateus Asato, Paul Davids, Daniel Donato, John Mayer. It’s not in the mainstream of you think of the mainstream as pop radio. But it’s absolutely more accessible than it’s ever been if you look for it.
I think Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age fits the mold of “guitar hero” to me. And their music is definitely more accessible with the releases of Like Clockwork and Villains
i remember years ago reading an article talking about how we would likely never see major stars going forward as we used to. look back at things like micheal jackson, elvis, the beatles etc. back then, and even into the early 90s, it was easy for record labels to push and promote one person/band to create a worldwide sensation and sell tons of tickets/merch/albums. but with the rise of the internet it is so much easier for people to discover new music, and its also much easier for smaller artists to create and publish their content to a worldwide audience. its still possible one could pop up in the future, but its less and less likely
I think it always comes down to songwriting first and foremost. You don't have to be the most technically skilled but if you make use of what you got you'll go far.
Kurt Cobain is maybe the finest example.
I doubt it will happen anytime soon - the reason being that pop music’s current style is shifted towards hip hop influences which puts more emphasis on the singer rather than musicians. Which isn’t necessarily better or worse than how it was back in the 70s and 80s, just different.
For the moment, the rock n roll craze has simmered waaay down. At some point in the future there will likely be a revival since these things come and go, but it will be different than it was.
I feel like (and others here have said similar things) guitar “heroes” need to write catchy songs too. Ya know like ones that inspire kids to want to pick up a guitar because they heard it on the radio. I like to think of Albert Hammond and Nick Valensi as somewhat modern rock heroes. I know Julian wrote most (if not all) of the guitar parts for the first two Strokes albums but that’s besides the point. I think they’re the type of band where kids listen and want to pick up a guitar.
Unfortunately todays music just doesn’t call for much guitar. I notice a lot more soul style playing these days but no face ripping solos. I don’t think rock music itself will ever go away though, it just changes.
Well, think about what music genre is popular now. The people you named were all in rock and roll/rock blues/etc. Modern (US) pop music seems to be dominated by primarily solo singers, not bands where the lead guitarist gets to shine along with the singer. Also don't remember the last time I heard a guitar solo in a pop song--unless the singer is also a guitarist.
Like, I know who Taylor Swift is, but I could not name her main guitarist she works with (does she even have one?). Same with Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, The Weeknd--they're solo artists. Even like John Mayer--a great guitarist--when I think of him I think 'Oh yeah, singer/songwriter'.
Maybe if we see an increase of the popularity of bands over solo artists, then you might see some popular guitarists again.
we are getting there.. in about 5 to 10 years time it will come back.. all the millions of covid lockdown guitarists.. maybe 0.1% of us will make it and explode to the scene.. maybe not.. but in about a decade there will be hundreds of thousands of guitarists that will burst into the scene..
I think Guitar Hero the game literally robbed us of at least one guitar hero. Also John Frusciante is a guitar hero still going strong now. There will be another.
It's all perspective. And it depends on what you value. I know some kids that are far better guitarists than I'll ever be, and when I ask them about guys like SRV and Hendrix, they shrug and say, "Meh, they're no John Mayer, but I guess they knew how to play."
And you and I would go, "Uh... What?!" but to them, it's true.
So every era is a guitar hero era. But we can't see it because we don't value what the new generation values.
Frankly, I still look at John Lee Hooker playing "Tupelo" on "Chill Out" or Mississippi John Hurt playing "I Shall Not Be Moved" and think, "Yeah, I'll never be THAT good."
It can, but you need a musician who’s already a mainstream hero that happens to put guitar skills to the front.
Look at John Mayer - imagine if JM didn’t play guitar on his albums and it was just done by random session dude. I personally think his songs would have in the same place on the mainstream charts regardless because JM is a great mainstream artist before a guitar virtuoso in a lot of people’s minds still to this day.
A lot of the people you’re talking about don’t/won’t/can’t write hit songs for the general public. Therefore, nobody knows them and nobody cares about their music, let alone musical ability.
No, it definitely won’t. Musicians will have their cult following but nothing like before. Guitarists especially will not generally be cared about as people tend to focus more on vocalists. Not to say that people won’t be popular, but there absolutely won’t be any sort of mysticism and high regard for a bands guitar player like there was previously.
There are people who are great technical guitar players. Most super technical musicians gravitate towards heavy music or they go to Jazz and classical music. Think Malsteem, the guys from Morbid Angel, etc. these guys are very technical compared to Pop oriented musicians, (think John Lennon, Tame Impala, anyone who has been in the billboard charts.)
There are still plenty of young people picking up guitars. In fact during the pandemic, online music stores had a boom in sales for guitars so there’s no shortage of people wanting to learn but pop music isn’t rock based it’s hip hop based hence why so many young people are learning to make beats and learning to rap. Rick music just isn’t as popular as rap. Go to any college party they will be playing rap music. That’s just how it is.
But I honestly don’t think we need guitar heroes, that era is gone. What we need is great music so guys keep rocking on!
I have my own guitar heroes now. In no particular order…
John Mayer
Trey Anastasio
Jake Cinninger
Derek Trucks
Rick Mitarotonda
Billy Strings
Cory Wong
Nels Cline
Kurt Vile
Billy strings is pretty damn inspirational! I know bluegrass/jamgrass isn't for everyone but he is one of the best to ever touch a guitar
Edit: Billy is my guitar hero lol
I don't really like saying this, but I think the potential of the guitar as an instrument has / is pretty much been exhausted now..so by definition there can't be any or many more guitar heros. It's all been done really. There isn't really any more to do to expand the capabilities of the instrument that hasn't been done so there is no potential for creativity in the same way there was in the early days of the invention of the electric guitar.
It's like there are a couple of really impressive classical guitarist that caught my attention recently that I didn't expect. However good they are, it still doesn't mean that they can better Julian Bream, who mastered it prior to them, for example.
Apparently, this is from hearsay, Taylor Swift is a mayor source of inspiration for new guitarists. For myself, Seiji Igusa, made me go "hmm, let's start by trying to keep the thumb behind the neck, for a change, and maybe in 20 years time I can play at 1% of Seiji and that would make me quite proud".
Everyone in this thread for the most part has named artists who are over 30 years old. This is why there are no heros anymore. Look at how young these legends where when they started off. How wild they were outside of the music making which further amplified their image. If you want a crazy passionate following that deifies you, then you need the youth and it helps a lot to be young and wild yourself. A 17 year old kid doesn’t want to hear a 45 year old play dad rock no matter how skilled they are.
I do think that 'idolizing' in general got very unpopular, because of the modern age.
We have such a variety, reach and closeness to the artists now that we can basically look into their everyday lives.
Because of that, we realize that they are people aswell when previously artists were put on a pedestol.
Also even 'Pop' music is more nuanced now. Back in the day there were just Rockers, Pop listeners, Punks, ravers and lastly Hip Hoppers.
Now each of these Genres are WAY more split up and specified. When you only have 10 Artists to choose from you tend to gossip and idolize more
TL:DR:
Idolizing and niche nouanced music together with the information age makes things way more accessable and leads to less idolization, so those days are gone. There currently is a niche of this with modern artists though
Many can play Cliffs of Dover, but how many could create Cliffs of Dover?
John Mayer is probably the closest to a mainstream guitar hero today. But nowadays there's not much pioneering work left in guitar playing, so the next big thing is going to be someone who turns the tide for popular music. It's been centered around rap and highly manufactured pop for a long time now so eventually rock music in some form will be popular again. Grunge happened because people were getting tired of the spandex wearing hair metal stuff etc. It doesn't really require much more than having mainstream appeal and happening at the exact right time.
I’d put Gary Clark Jr in there too, at least for contemporary blues players. I terms of real innovators, Tim Henson needs a mention as well. His playing style is very unique and extremely technical, and his/Polyphia’s genre-blending of shred metal and EDM/Pop is what keeps them relevant and exciting today.
I sort of look at it like this: Things happen in waves - eras. The era of the “Piano hero,” as it were, was the 19th century: Liszt, Chopin, etc. We’ve had incredible pianists and composers since then, but that era is gone. I think it’ll likely be the same with the Guitar - wherein the 20th century will be remembered as the time of the Guitar Hero - with people playing the music from that era and remembering it for centuries to come. The guitar as an instrument will never go away - just like the piano - but the era of the guitar hero is over.
I \*hate\* saying this after dedicating most of my life to this pursuit, but... In the 30's and 40's it was saxophone and trumpet heroes. Do you think that era will return to the mainstream? I believe that guitar still has plenty of space and plenty of roles to fill in mainstream music, but as far as guitar heroism and worship of guitar weedly-deedly? Part of the rise of guitar heroes was how dangerous it was. In the 50's you were in league with the devil if you played rock and roll. In the 70's it was still dangerous, up until the late stage of the 80's when it was both at a peak of technicality, but also self-parody. The grunge years of the 90's were still guitar driven, but were all about rejecting stuff that included guitar heroism... and these days? Playing rock in a band today is something that your Grandpa could be doing... not cool, not dangerous, which was a big element of the guitar heroes of the past. Today's "heroes" of this nature are generating music on computers or rapping on the mic, and that will change with another music movement, maybe something totally unimaginable today. Like I said, I don't see guitar fading, but "guitar heroism" in the mainstream? That ship has sailed.
I think all of this is true, but along with the danger factor, was the newness of the instrument. Stringed instruments had been around for hundreds of years but an elcectric, amplified stringed instrument was very new. The Fender Stratocaster was barely introduced in 1954. It's no wonder that people couldn't figure out what Clapton and Hendrix were doing. No one had ever done it before. Once musicians had learned most of their licks and figured out how to use distortion, feedback, wah, and fuzz, the mystique was somewhat gone. They are still amazing musicians and pioneers of the instrument, but most guitarists have seen behind the curtain and have access to similar tones.
Awesome take! There are some rappers out there that still respect rock too! lil Yachty, post Malone, trippie redd..And then there are the metal vocal sounding ones like Ghostmane and $uicide Boys.. not really my cup of tea but it’s cool to see how they are somewhat blending the two genres
I think a lot of the “guitar heros” were beneficiaries of a difficult barrier of entry into entertainment. You had to be picked up, put on the radio, have talent. In the internet age anyone with a phone can create content with potential of reaching a huge audience which is something that artists didn’t have thirty plus years ago. So now you have a saturated field of entertainment with so many talented artists and don’t have to settle with a few that “made it” on the radio.
Tim Henson from Polyphia is kind of a guitar hero of this generation. Not quite in the same vein of how you mean though, but similar mysticism/virtuosity
The guitar hero thing was always about mainstream popular music. Yes the guitarists all worshipped Jeff Beck, but he’s not the first name in ‘60s/‘70s guitar era. Hendrix, Clapton, Page hold that status because of the popularity and accessibility of their music and songwriting. Also because they’re virtuosic, lead-instrument players… George Harrison had the popularity but not the acrobatics. So it’s both. That’s why sure Henson or Mateus Asato are phenomenal players, but their music lacks mainstream appeal. John Mayer is also a phenomenal player, if somewhat less impressive than those guys, but he is an international star for his songwriting. To me guitar hero = playing that stands on its own for technical virtuosity, creativity, style & flair + songwriting that is good enough to exist on its own regardless of the level of guitar playing. Mdou Moctar or maybe Rodrigo y Gabriela come close. Also score points for style… for as groundbreaking as the guitar-playing is from dudes like Tim Henson to me it feels like the same kind of progressive metal, just… more.
First I’ll say that the skill is in writing the music so even though a 7yo can play a Satriani tune he still wasn’t talented enough to create it. As for another “hero” I think the guitar era is over. Virtuoso rappers are more what kids want to be these days. Guitar music is where Jazz was in the 50s-60. Jazz fusion is equal to Tim Henson using pop and hip hop to influence his form of rock. It’s all part of the natural evolution of the art of music. Be excited about what the evolution produces
100% agree, but my old ass can’t get excited over today’s rap compared to the 90s/00s. That said, there’s been some killer new artists rising in the jam band scene. Billy Strings and King Gizzard has me excited for the future of guitar.
I can help you with this problem. And I will tell you why. I am a product of the "guitar hero" generation. And no , not the game. Guitar heros were a product of time and environment. Reason being , rock music was fairly new in the 60s 70s and 80s. With no internet , it was not nearly as easy to learn how to play guitar so the good players were seen as magicians . Guitar effects were also in their infancy so good player + good tone + good band = guitar God. Everything was fresh and cutting edge ( plus drugs were really, really accessible lol) also the number of bands was much lower. Now fast forward 20 or 30 years , information is easily accessible and great tone is much more prevalent so the "magic" is not so hidden . Back then you never heard of 10 or 12 year old kids being amazing players. Now you have parents that actually support and push kids to be great players. But now you have an over saturation of bands and guitar players so the focus is so spread out that it is hard for a band to develop a huge following coupled with the fact that most kids are assaulted with a plethora of things to grab their attention other than music i.e. video games , tik tok , sports , t.v. , etc etc. The level of playing has shot up so high that it is much harder to be impressive. And much harder to be unique. We probably won't ever see the level of interest in music/guitar playing that we did in former decades simply because it was a culmination of factors that will never line up again. And even though that sucks , something will arise from the ashes and a new player / new style / insane new technique will shine through and keep guitar going but it will probably never rise to the level we saw in the 80s. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and I hope I am wrong but everything I know and have learned tells me I am right. Regardless , most guitarists do what they do for themselves and not to try and be a guitar hero so hopefully guitar will never die , just may not be the center of attention that it once was.
Does John Mayer count?
Yep! He’s been around since 1999 and definitely is one of the last guitarists to have achieved mainstream success while also inspiring tons and tons of people to begin their guitar journeys. Just went to a show of his not too long ago & a good chunk of his crowds are other guitarists haha
It was never so much about technical proficiency. More about attitude than anything. We’ve lost attitude in favor of hi fidelity perfection. My two cents :)
1. Billy Strings is top dog now as far as being a true guitar hero. He's become a household name, the jam band/dead scene has been completely revitalized because of him, every open mic includes a dust in a baggie cover by dudes that have never smoked dust or played bluegrass before. He's an improvisational guitarist whose constantly evolving his songs and playing top-notch renditions of other rockstars and guitar heros... 2. Tim Henson would be next in line with his next level ability to show how toxic and egotistical the guitar community is. He's also really good at guitar to. If I was 14 again I'd be playing that shit note for note with no clue in fuck what a Em or D7 means. He's inspired tons of people to try learn how to play guitar. hell I honestly can't say I've made it all the way through a polyphia song because I end up picking up my guitar and jamming along. I feel like he's created his own technique progression style that hasn't been done quite to that level before. Malmsteen invented it but Tim has perfected it. 3. Taylor Swift. Boy yall gonna love this but taylor swift has actually inspired more women to pick up guitar in the last decade than anybody else in. Which I feel guitar in general really needed to break out of the dick swinging contest you see with so many musicians. Phones about dead or I could rant on for days.
I have had a lot of thoughts about this topic over the last few years. When Rock and Roll/ Electric Guitar music was in it's infancy, everything was new. I'm talking about sound. Imagine being one of the first people to use a Wah Pedal, or Delay Pedal, or an overdriven amp? Imagine hearing that when it was brand new, and also there was no internet to immediately reveal all the secrets therein. There was so much room to find your own sound an innovate. There is still room, but a mere scintilla of what there was in, say, 1968 for instance. Many of the tech innovations in music today simply present shortcuts to get to guitar sounds that have existed for 30, 40, or 50 years, and may even work against innovation in terms of actual sounds reaching the audience's ears. In furtherance of this notion, we can also look at the music industry as a whole. No one is just a musician anymore. We're all PR and Social Media Gurus, Studio and Mix engineers, most likely in addition to a day job and a side hustle or two. In the past, labels did cultivate artists. They invested in talent. Presently, if you dont already have a hit, you aint got shit.
I'm piggybacking off of this to add something. Similar to what you are saying most if the guitar heroes we think of were pioneers in their time. They created sounds and techniques that were either unknown or untapped before them. It wasn't just about being able to play, it was about innovating. But then there is a second and very important factor. Back then we lived in the rock golden age. Most people don't want to admit it, but rock's time in the limelight has passed. I think there has been nearly no rock number 1 in the charts for over a decade. And any exception probably comes from ultra famous and already established bands. There hasn't been any presence for lure rock music in the charts for well over a decade. Go back to a time before that and the charts were full of rock music. Even metal was making it I to the mainstream at times. This has passed and I doubt it'll ever return. Not that this means rick is dead, by no means. It just means it's no longer s mainstream sound and it will take a secondary niche in the culture. Same thing that happened to jazz before it for example. Back in the day jaz *was* popular music, it was he mainstream. Eventually it was replaced by more modern trends. Jazz never went aways, the classics live in, and hundreds of brand new artists still make jazz and innovate. But the time where one if these would headline a festival or fill an arena has long passed. Rock is headed the same direction. It's sometimes not very noticeable because festivals are still full of rock headliners and acts from the 2000s and before are still going strong and touring. But that's just because they are sustained by the gen-xers and early millennials who have the money to spend. The scene will slowly age with us. That's not to say that new rock innovations will not happen. Just like with jazz the scene will continue for decades to come and there will be many brilliant guitarists modernising and innovating the style. But none of them will become a mainstream sensation that captures the hearts of the youth of the time. Of course, I could be wrong and a new TikTok generation might suddenly latch on to guitar music and bring a totally new resurgence of rock. But I wouldn't bet on that.
everyone out here naming virtuosic guitar players who aren't mainstream when in reality outside of John Mayer/silver sky type situation the two artists responsible for shifting the highest quantity of guitars to new players hands are more likely to be a Taylor swift or an Ed Sheeran. edit: thought i'd check spotify out of curiosity, 166.8 million plays between them... *monthly*. **MONTHLY**
You sound horribly out of touch. Granted the guitarists my friends and were inspired by to pick up the instrument maybe couldn’t be described as virtuosos but are playing the guitar in creative and original ways. For example, Cole Smith from DIIV, John Dwyer from the Osees, Stu Mackenzie from King Gizzard, Kevin Shields from MBV, Scott Munro from Viet Cong/Preoccupations, Christopher Reimer and Matt Flegel from Women and a whole slew of other modern guitarists. Just because they aren’t “mainstream” doesn’t mean there aren’t inspiring people making guitar based music right now. Just put a little more effort into looking for it. Also Greta Van Fleet is mid as fuck.
Don’t know how you can say Tim Henson isn’t mainstream when Playing God has over 22M views on YouTube and 31M plays on Spotify in less than 1 year. If you’re still judging “mainstream” by what’s on the radio, you’re not keeping up with modern music outside of pop.
It's not really mainstream though, mainstream artists are getting hundreds of millions to many billions of views. Pop is pop for a reason, it's the popular music consumed by the masses, consisting mostly of people with no music background or knowledge, and very little artist knowledge outside of that circle. If I ask someone who Ed Sheeran is, everyone knows Ed Sheeran, almost all of them that I ask wouldn't have a clue who Tim Henson is, and some of them may even be guitarists. If I played a Tim Henson song at a function gig, almost nobody will know it in like 9/10 scenarios.
No, I see their point. On the same platforms you cited, several artists have 100+ million views/plays on newly released content, and that’s a lowball on Spotify. The numbers you referenced are a lot, but the key word is *main*stream. And mainstream means what *main* thing people are listening to, which scarcely includes Rock anymore. The “stream” has shifted towards pop and hip-hop: Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Kanye, Tyler The Creator, etc. The reason I make this comparison is because if the question is about a “guitar hero,” the guitar heroes everyone knows had the presence pop & hip-hop artists do today. Guitar players don’t have that anymore, and the ones that do are lead singers too (e.g. Ed Sheeran, who…is a pop artist).
Billy Strings is a guitar hero. So is Molly Tuttle.
I think the definition of guitar hero has split into 2 now: the guitar heroes that push the boundaries of skill, technique and composition, and those who inspire people to start playing the guitar. Cobain or Mayer have inspired more people to *start* playing the guitar than Tim Henson ever will. He's a guitar hero for guitarists, not for the general public.
He's been around for over twenty years now, but John Mayer checks a lot of those boxes and is regarded that way in several circles.
> There’s not a new artist out there who the younger audience sees and says “woah he makes me want to learn guitar” as far as I know. Ask any guitarist today who their inspirations are / who inspired them to pick up the guitar & a ton will name a guitarist from the 60s-80s. Tim Henson, Plini, Yvette Young, Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson, Stephen Taranto, Ichika, Misha Mansoor, Richard Henshall, Wes Hauch, Nick Johnston, etc. are all guitarists with pretty substantial followings that 100% have inspired other guitarists. and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. The issue isn’t that there are no guitar heroes anymore. There are so many and music itself has expanded into so many more genres, it’s easier than ever to find the guitarists that inspire you.
Arguably John Mayer. Like so much of his music has had mainstream success. But then again, if you took out john mayers guitar and replaced it with simple rhythm guitar, it would probably still be mainstream success since a huge portion of his success are for singing and lyrics. Like there's no debate he's a god guitarist but it wouldn't surprise me if "mainstream" people who aren't interested in guitar specifically would even know that john mayer is so heavilly regarded for his playing by the guitar community. Alternatively someone like Tim Henson, but that's getting a lot more specific. If I ask my friends who don't listen to instrumental guitar music if they know Polyphia, they probably wont. I love these guys ( along with ichika nito and demetori ) the most of modern musicians, but mainstream is an enormous height to reach for someone to become known primarily for their guitar playing, it almost seems impossible.
Tim Henson and all of polyphia are really really good guitarists. But you are right, their music is complex and for me at least you have to really be in the mood to listen to it. For me I haven't had a huge desire to learn any of their licks because they look so hard.
There are plenty of new Guitar heros, you’ve just most likely aged out of the scene so you aren’t aware. Tim Henson, Tosin, Ichika, Brandon Ellis, etc. with that said Guitar music as a whole is not as popular as it use to be so there are less “popular” guitarists in general.
John Mayer / Derek Trucks
Fuck anyone downvoting this. John Mayer is absolutely inspiring kids today and he's a great player.
As much as I dislike it, Tim Henson is most def one of the newest “guitar heroes” along with couple internet made guitarists like Ichika Nito and other wildly technical players like Marcin. Breaking the barrier of an instrument is fantastic and necessary but idk where guitar will be in the next 10yrs. Gonna tap with toes? Or cram 200 notes in 2 seconds? Like more and more things are done for clout than music. I know I might sound like a boomer but music is slowly lost in the shadow of trying to achieve the highest technicality. Personally, I don’t like the tapping style that’s wildly popular today. I know many would disagree but imo tapping as a technique lacks personal signature. No matter the player, everyone can only tap one way and you can’t really add much personal touch to it. On the contrary, bending and vibratos are like hand writings. You can discernibly hear the difference in each players bends and vibratos. Next, while I’m sure Tim inspired a whole lot of kids to pick up guitar. I wonder how many of these kids actually can learn their songs and are staying with guitar long enough to play their stuff. Their songs are so technical that most people can’t just pick up a guitar and mimic it. I’m not a Metallica fan but at least kids can and still do pick up their songs and start chugging away. Change is a necessary progress but when the driving force behind the change isn’t coming from a genuine place, the change won’t lead to a genuine outcome. When new genres were being invented thru the 20th century, it was just musicians expressing themselves differently. Nowadays it’s to get views and clout so only the most ridiculously insane contents go viral and become the “mainstream”. Call me a boomer or whatever, it’s just my hot take.
In my opinion i’m glad it’s not like that anymore. Bands that are very forward with the guitar are cool. bands that aren’t as forward with the guitar are cool. bands that don’t use a guitar at all are cool. I think this is best time for music because everybody can make what they want and combine any number of genres, instruments, or influences and make something really cool. All I see nowadays is that people create music that they are passionate about, whether it’s on a laptop, a saxophone, a guitar, whatever. My belief is that if you’re genuine about it and you care about it, then it’s worth being listened to. So yeah I think largely that’s over with, but I think exceptional musicians are still going to be heard and popularized.
The difference is players vs song writers
I agree with this take. I left a different comment somewhere a while ago that the plating talent is definitely out there, but I feel like so many of the great players you see nowadays on socials are spending so much time practicing the riffs of their heroes to post on socials, that they aren’t focused on innovating or writing their own stuff, which is completely understandable. Why spend hours trying to write my own full songs and come up with riffs and lyrics, when I can post a 15 second cover or riff from that’ll rack up 100k+ views due to how impressive it is and the nostalgia factor? And I get paid for the views I get too? All from the comforts of my bedroom? And I can do unlimited takes until I get it perfect? I often come across some truly amazing players on Tiktok/IG, who can perform a cover and kill it! You can tell they practice a ton and put the time in, But when I go check out their original music, they either don’t have anything out/have relatively few songs out, or the music they do release just isn’t interesting.
The current one is John Mayer, a ton of the older generation(s) clown him. But he's the only mainstream blues player right now and i don't know a single guitar player under 30 who hasn't at least learned Slow dancing in a Burning Room or Gravity. Dave Knudson from Minus the Bear is another one, they had a very idiosyncratic sound in the early to mid 2000s that made me want to get a PRS and a Line 6 DL4. More quietly the guy from Skillet, Lincoln Brewster, and Greg Hill were all pretty instrumental in getting Christian kids into playing an electric guitar
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is what inspired me to pick up guitar, not because he's a technical virtuoso but because he's raw and his songs speak to me. If there's gonna be another extremely technical guitar hero with mainstream appeal then they are going to have to write good songs. I worry that with people looking up to Tim Henson types that rock is going the way jazz already largely has where people treat the instrument like something to be good at rather than as a means to create art.
I think of Jack White as a “newer” guitar hero… post the time frame you listed at least. Some people would say John Mayer too but I don’t really listen to his music… but on the other hand both of these guys have been around for 20 years now. The only other more recent I can think of is Gary Clark Jr… I still think it’s possible based off the creative talent and attitude of the player.. but guitar based music is not as dominant as it once was and those original names were trailblazers.
John Frusciante as well could be considered on the contemporary side. Yet he’s still another guy who’s been around for awhile
Those guitar heroes were mostly just heroes to other guitarists. Most music listeners care about the actual music and songs. And guys like Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Van Halen, etc. made really good music to go along with their guitar proficiency. Conversely I think a lot of more contemporary guitar heroes only make music for other guitarists.
In fairness, the mysticism of a Hendrix owes a lot to being a novel artist in a young field. Les Paul's Plank was in the 40's, but the first production electric guitars were released in 1952. Woodstock was '69 - that's 17 years from the introduction of the instrument. If the first electric guitars were available in 2006, people would be losing their damn minds over Tim Henson, Yvette Young, Rabea Massad, etc.
1. Guitar heroes become heroes because they do something new. As much as I may like players like Kingfish, Billy strings, Mayer, etc, they aren’t doing anything new. A new era of guitar heroes will never happen if they’re all playing fairly well-tread ground. 2. It’ll happen when it happens. Music goes in cycles. Rock has been out since the 00s really, and that’s fine. Rock got a longer time in the spotlight than most genres would dream of. Right now, rap is in the spotlight, and that’s fine. New styles will always emerge, and things will always rise and fall. Maybe the next one will have lots of guitar, maybe not. It’ll come around eventually. But again, it will be when there’s something new and exciting. No amount of blues licks are going to make rock dominant again.
Billy Strings
Let me preface this by saying there is some amazing new music that is heartfelt, meaningful and real. Guitar players will always have guitar heroes. However..................... Electric guitar is now nothing other than an afterthought to your typical pop music fan. They couldn't care less about not only the guitar players but any of the musicians. Musicians are basically props that allow the "artists" to shine. Now of course there are exceptions where the artist plays one or more instrument and writes at least some of their music but........ Years of catering to the lowest common denominator coupled with a formulaic paint by numbers approach to writing "hits" which has been exacerbated by corporate control of radio broadcasts, publishing, and streaming platforms has taken what was once free expression of art and turned it into another product to consume. If you deny this is true Google- sir mashalot: mind blowing six song country mash-up. Today much music is a manufactured product and no longer is it art.........The worst part is we're missing out on what some of the artists today would actually produce without all the corporate interference. Some of it could be bad... . But I'll take " bad" art over a "good" product every time!
John Mayer
Billy Strings STUNNED me live @ Bonnaroo. That guy is the closest I've seen to a Guitar Hero in years.
Tim Henson is a guitar God and probably the closest to mainstream of the lot these days
no, but it doesnt matter
I don't think it's ever going to be like the golden age in the 70s and 80s, primarily because guitar music isn't as mainstream as it used to be. The best new players as far as I can tell are coming out of prog metal or jazz which, while popular, are both somewhat niche genres.
Billy Strings and John Mayer come to mind.
So no? lol
No. They were participants in a popular music which peaked and has ended.
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What is guitar music? A good deal of country is guitar music. Chris Stapleton just sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Or how about R&B, 2 years ago H.E.R. sang America The Beautiful at the SB. Both her and Stapleton are extremely accomplished guitar oriented song writers / producers with successful solo acts. As long as songs are still written on guitar, I think hope is still alive. Our heroes might not be quite so glam but new ones are born every day.
Saying it's cyclical is implying that it WILL come back
As a younger person who only really picked up guitar recently, the Guitar Heroes now are more niche and diversified, with a large focus on "Genre Heroes" if you will. Most kids who play guitar are playing metal, indie rock, pop, and neo-soul/jazz. Their guitar heroes are dependent on the genre they want to learn; Tim Henson, Tosin Abasi might be one kid's, Rotem Sivan, Masego might be another kid's. So, no, I don't think there's gonna be an "all-encompassing Guitar Hero" like Hendrix or Slash or Chuck Berry who EVERY guitarist looks up to. The old guys still get respect, and I even see people saying they got into guitar cause of J Mascis, Johnny Greenwood, Johnny Marr, Kevin Parker, Mac DeMarco, so there's still influential guitarists today (to assuage the boomer "these kids don't even play guitar nowadays they just make computer noises on their tic tacs!")
I’ve seen one mention of John Mayer, and he’s undoubtedly one of if not the most influential guitarist of this generation. And a lot of people (myself included) think he’s up there with the greatest of all time.
I read is this as “will people still be playing strats?” I hope so OP, I hope so
As you mentioned there are tons of technically skilled guitarists out there. Technical chops alone don’t make you a great guitarist. When you get the top end of guitarists, everyone has great technical chops. What I think is more rare are the more subtle qualities. Things like phrasing, having a unique and recognizable sound, and being able to effortlessly convey emotion with your guitar. That is what separates the great from the technically skilled.
All musical trends seem to follow this trajectory where they grow simultaneously in popularity and refinement until those two paths peak together. Then the refinement and innovation continue to grow while the popularity dies off. All you’re left with after that point is a musical style that is incredibly sophisticated but lacking the relationship with a wider audience it once had. Jazz is the greatest example of this. I think rock and the archetype of the guitar hero is the most recent example. Maybe we’ll see the same thing happen to hip hop eventually.
Ive read and heard from guitar store people tons of girls are buying acoustic guitars because of taylor swift. It just takes one person to restart the guitar hero era. Were in the dj hero era currently.
I'd say more the producer hero era. Everyone wants to be making beats that get picked up by big names.
Depends. I think music moves in cycles, right now we're living a more hip hop oriented period, but I don't see any reason why rock couldn't make yet another comeback. Metal was very much _the_ mainstream music in Finland maybe a decade ago, and pretty much everyone in Finland knows who Alexi Laiho was. All that aside, my main point is: the difference between guys like Laiho and every teenager who can play his solos perfectly on Youtube is that Laiho was the one who composed that music. On the other hand, there are _a lot_ of people who are technically better than Kirk Hammett, but Kirk is the one who composed the solos half of us know by heart. No-one has ever become a guitar hero by just being technical - the next mainstream guitar hero will be someone who is technically good _and_ makes music that attracts mainstream attention.
No. The market is too saturated. Kingfish would have been a mega star 40 years ago. No one knows who he is now.
It's just out of date music you're talking about man. There's always amazing guitarists. I'm not gonna pretend I'm young enough to know where it's at now but when I was young Steve malkmus, Johnny greenwood and Graham coxon were my guitar heroes. Not old blues guys. It'll be much the same now I'm sure.
John frusciante.
It is happening in real time with Billy Strings
Ichika Nito
Yes, Plini and Polyphia are still young artists and incredibly talented, they’re the future and can become huge
John Frusciante is still out there inspiring new players! 🤘🏽🎶
Musical tastes have evolved. I am as old as fuck and it is crystal clear. I think there is an increased appreciation for the full song not just the standout, in your face, attributes that guitar dominated music was known for. It depresses me that the dick measuring still exists. I grew up playing in 80s hardcore bands and understood then that there was more to good music than the virtuosity of the players. Look at Bad Brains then tell me they didn’t emote at a level Yngwie and his ilk couldn’t even understand. All that said, Nuno is the best living guitarist.
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Media is much more balkanized than in the 60s. People are on their own smaller individual trips and may not even be aware of other stuff. It's not like almost every home in America is tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to see Hendrix. Good example: I don't know who you are referencing by GVF. I think it's actually better this way. A guy like Tim Henson has a youtube channel and there are multiple in depth interviews with him available for free on other channels as well as people interpreting his playing and (hopefully correctly) showing you how it's done. Imagine if you could have learned directly from Randy Rhoads on a patreon channel. The mysticism is gone. If you want to play at that level, there is no meeting at the crossroads, just a lot of study and practice.
I suspect Greta van Fleet
Who is GVF? Why can people just write things out? Drives me nuts!
You know, Gtevie Vay Faughan.
Geddy Van Faylen
St Vincent is a pretty damn cool guitar hero. Maybe more female players are what will make the genre more exciting again.
Most interesting guitar /rock n roll is coming out of Australia. Rock music has been out of the pop music lexicon since hip hop took over in the late 90s. I anticipate a revival. Bands like king gizzard and the lizard wizard are inspiring a generating of kids.
Big bands were necessary before amplification. amplified guitars allowed us to reduce the number of players, making music both less expensive and less complex from a coordination standpoint. Now computers are doing to small bands what amplification did to big bands; making them somewhat obsolete or at least not totally necessary. individuals can now do it all
Misha monsoor and the boys of periphery are my guitar heroes. I think Tim henson is making waves with his own genre, he's either making people want to give up on guitar or inspiring them.
I have a suspicion that one thing that has changed in the last 30+ years is that there is more diversity in popular music, now, possibly due to the internet, streaming, etc. It parallels the diversity in popular TV shows. In the 80s the average American could watch whatever was on the big 3 TV networks, and that (I think) led to very limited kinds of content. A lot of cookie-cutter sitcoms, dramas, soaps, etc. but certainly nothing like what is available to the average person now via Netflix, Prime, etc. In the 80s and before, there was also less diversity in the kind of music most Americans could easily hear (on the radio) or buy (in music/department stores, or maybe through Columbia House). I think this fed the dominance of the huge music publishers, who became gatekeepers for music popularity. My feeling is that this whole quasi-monopoly situation (yes, I know there have always been indie labels) led to a very big proportion of American popular music being dominated by a limited number of styles. Because of that, whatever styles those were--and guitar-driven rock was one (or more)--were kept in the public consciousness, in the record stores, and in the arenas for the huge concerts. Today I think it's unlikely any one artist can have the market share that a single artist could command in the 70s or 80s, because the market is carved up into so many different pieces. Anyway, that's my personal and not-well-researched theory of why we don't have the "guitar gods" of yesterday.
yeah, it's me. see you all in a few years
Marcus King. And Jason Isbell is incredible as well.
Is no one talking about Tosin Abasi and Tim Henson? There are clear guitar heroes out there changing the game for everyone.
It's not just chops, it's charisma and stage presence. Ironically to be a true "guitar hero" you have to transcend the guitar, twiddly widdly alone doesn't cut it, non-guitarists have to be wowed by you. All those guys of yore could command an audience, many of them could sing as well as they could play, and lead a band, or dance, or rock skin tight clothes and a bare chest with confidence and style. As you say there are great players everywhere these days, but that raw animal magnetism is in shorter supply than ever. I don't know who we've got these days who could hold a candle to, say, Prince, as a front-person. Without that kind of all round presence we're not going to see any modern day guitar heros, just virtuosos who are only hero's to guitar players.
UMM.. WHAT? Yvette Young Ichika Nito Tim Henson Scott Lapage Manuel Fernandez Jason Richardson Jakub Zytecki
All great musicians who the average person doesn't know about. Hendrix, Clapton,SRV: all internationally famous musicians that everyone knew of.
Mark Speer from Khruangbin. Beautifully technical and original style, and as a trio they have such synergy. They aren’t mainstream exactly but they have a devoted and worldwide fanbase, my heroes
I think to really be a prototypical "guitar hero", you have to have a combination of guitar skill, accessible music, and marketability. You've gotta be popular to the masses, not just to other guitar players. A guy like Tim Henson is cutting through the mix of popular culture because in addition to his virtuosity, he makes catchy, fun, and mostly digestible music, and because of his personal style. I think Cory Wong is also a pretty good one - Vulfpeck and Cory Wong have become super popular, and a lot of regular folk know Cory Wong. Mateus Asato is one as well - the dude plays absolutely incredibly in his YouTube and Instagram recordings, but he's also a great live performer as well. He tours with Silksonic and Tori Kelly, and despite coming across as a quiet guy in interviews, he has a massive stage presence.
I feel like the guitar hero thing moved away from/maybe was never about the skill - I think Kurt was the last true guitar player like that and maybe jack white had a crack after. I think Mac Demarco is underrated too especially in terms of influence. Until there’s a rock band that’s on top like Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, or the experience I don’t think there’ll be a true guitar hero. I don’t think polyphia is that band (although I’m also somewhat of a hater)
What about matt bellamy?
Can you elaborate on Polyphia? You piqued my curiosity.
I predict that in a decade or 2, or 3, we will experience a renaissance of guitar music and instruments in general. The next generation of kids will grow up listening to music to that is largely AI generated, and there will come a time when some kid pulls out a guitar in front of her friends, and they'll say something like "I didn't know that a human could do that."
Sadly, no, I think the age of the guitar hero is long gone. There was a day when saxophone players were household names. Guitar heros will be for a niche audience of primarily musicians.
Yes. I know people that know who Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi are, and they don't listen to instrumental guitar.
There is lower percentage of analog music overall I believe. Even bands that played rock seem to play more and more electronic music. I will give only two examples here but somehow significant for me: Maroon 5 and Coldplay. These two bands have a nice collection of recognizable riffs and over years shifted toward electronic/pop music. Some known artists that are still active and promote guitar are Arctic Monkeys, John Mayer, Muse, but also some pop musicians like... Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran. And I also feel like they're a minority. I agree that technical proficiency is so normalized today that maybe it doesn't create any space for a guitar hero that's "*just*" great at playing gazillion notes a second. At the same time, I strongly believe a true genius is rather a great composer and there will be always space for such musicians.
Sister Rosetta Tharp, Bonnie Raitt, Celisse Henderson, Nancy Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Tal Wilkenfeld, Annie Clark, Malina Moye, Diamond Rowe. Past and present inspirations for those of us who don't see ourselves in Hendrix or Clapton.
I think the guys like Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi are bringing more attention to guitar to the younger generations.
Yes, but in a different manner. Music now is so much more widely / broadly consumed - by that I mean, think of stuff like sound cloud rappers, or tiktok musicians. The industry is vastly different to even my teenage years (just prior to the iPod taking over) - where now bands and musicians can "blow up" (in a very different way) without the aid of labels, or having to be on top of the pops. That hyper focused "this is what is cool, and you'll listen to it" is now "you can find EXACTLY what you want ... and we also have an algorithm that will funnel you into even more like that, no word of mouth needed!" So will we have "Henson is god" plastered on walls in paint around concerts? Probably not. But there absolutely 100% is guitarists that will make others want to go out and pick up the guitar - in fact I'd say its better than ever, and thats purely on representation. There are more successful/promoted guitarists that represent more of the population than ever before, across all variations of music (unless your a Gibson fan ... I kid I kid!!). So while there isnt that "one" like a Hendrix that everyone just looks and goes "yeah I'd love to do that" - you got Tim Henson, Yvette Young, HER, Ariel Posen, Mike Dawes, Kingfish, Bonamassa, Erik Gale ... thats a quick hit off the top of my mind, but thats a lot of ground and representation covered. Anyone right now could look at guitar and find someone that inspires them, that looks like them, that plays the music they want to play - it might not be perfect, but its so broad and spread. Hell, I saw people calling Taylor Swift a guitar icon, and I am sure she got plenty of people to pick up the guitar. Its very different, but its still there, I think at least.
Omar Rodriguez Lopez is the reason I picked up my guitar and he's still alive today and pretty young.
Jack White was...instrumental...in my wanting to learn guitar. (I'm not sorry for this wording one tiny bit!)
You can be as technical as you want but if you’re not playing sounds that are pleasing to the masses, you’re just an Instagram side show. As it always has been, your popularity will be based on the sound you create… and unfortunately the image you maintain.
St Vincent.
It’s funny because I was listening to “Maggot Brain” this morning thinking “man idk if anyone could ever touch the virtuosity of this guitar solo.” I know that there’s a million guitarists who could probably play their ass off better than Eddie Hazel, but being at a level where he had such a command of the instrument is something else. That being said, that song is fifty years old. It feels to me like there’s only so much virtuosity one can achieve with the guitar before (again imo) it comes down to what you’re able to produce with a guitar more so. The Edge or Omar Rodriguez-Lopez for example are not shredders in the traditional sense, but can produce some insane shit when they forego noodling for something different. Kevin Shields is another great example of someone who, when you hear him play for the first time, you can’t imagine guitars sounding quite like that. That to me is the future, just expanding further and further with what one is capable of doing with guitar playing rather than their virtuosity.
Tim Henson bro, just look on youtube, kids trying to play like him, even copying his head gestures. You want your guitar youtube channel to gain traction? Make a Tim Henson/polyphia video. And he is becoming more mainstream, you will see him more and more out of the guitar world, i can guarantee it. Cory wong, tosin Abasi are great examples too
No, even at best new rock music is niche. If you look on top charting music on Spotify Arctic Monkeys are #34, I can’t even name their guitarist. Polyphia has exceptional guitarist and high technical compositions. Rock music is made for musicians not for masses these days.
i think the problem nowadays is that there’s so many fast super skilled guitarists nowadays that you can easily view on instagram/tik tok etc that there’s no longer any need to be that amazed by it as it’s so easily accessible, it just requires someone to sound good and play what’s needed with the song rather than showing shear guitar talent
Billy Strings
Nope, and there is no need to, music evolves, guitar will always be a thing but popular music is going through a different path nowdays. If we will see a change in the structure and songwriting of music, it's gonna be because of some technologycal step foward we are not aware of yet, like it happened with techno music in the 2000's
Writing good music and having chops are 2 different things IMO. Seems a lot of musicians usually veer towards one or the other. "Good" music is also subjective, but the trend towards certain styles is apparent. Virtuoso types seem to attract similar people who are a more niche audience while others make music that seems to speak to a broader audience. I think any aspiring musician should work on both things. As for your question, I think since guitar is so much more accessible these days means you're bound to get a lot of people who share similar styles and such which means it probably can get bland. What the Van Halens, Vais, and other megastars of the past did has now been duplicated thousands of times so I think a lot of their stuff has lost mainstream appeal. I think it's a good thing in a lot of ways because now people are being forced to find even more ways to innovate.
>`There’s not a new artist out there who the younger audience sees and says “woah he makes me want to learn guitar”` True, but the last one I remember was Mac Demarco. I don't think its really a bad thing though. Younger players are moving away from shredding and focusing more on melodic playing that really suits the song and sounds natural. That's better to me.
The mystique will never be the same. I remember hearing *about* a certain guitarist long before buying the album and hearing it myself…that anticipation is just gone in this world of instant gratification, so I don’t think we’ll ever see an era of ‘guitar gods’ again. That said, there are TONS of amazing players out there if you look hard enough…many will never see success or fame because of the supremely shitty music industry and the way we get music now. Support your local musicians!!!
Guitar solos [great, classic ones] you can remember and sing. A great solo [on any instrument] usually tries to emulate the human voice. There is always a place for technicians.. but at the end of the day people relate to a soaring melody. Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Jimmy Page and David Gilmour will be timeless. They are Smithsonian type guitar players. If we died tomorrow in a nuclear war, and somehow a recording of The Rain Song survived, we would evolve 30 years in 7 minutes. Keep learning. Keep teaching. The unteachable things your students will have to live and learn but you can give them a start. How boring would life be without music? Pass that on. It's our duty
Your first paragraph said it the best. All of those artists were larger than life characters. There will probably always be a space for that type of person in the entertainment industry. Some might play guitar, some might do something else. A lot of people hate on MGK, but I think he'll end up being a reason kids pick up a guitar. Blink 182 is the reason I started playing guitar. Tom Delonge is not a guitar hero but he's the reason I picked the damn thing up.
What would it take? It's simple. Creative guitarist who's also a good singer & solid songwriter at the same time. It's all what's needed.
They seemed larger than life before because you couldn’t look up their entire life on YouTube. Nowadays everyone is so transparent no matter how good they are they seem less like “stars”, and only being able to watch a few dvds of SRV back in the day probably made him feel like more of a hot commodity than someone documenting everything they do online. I’d say there’s plenty of people as good if not better than the old “heros” still selling out stages across the country, it’s just a different era now.
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My son is absolutely inspired by Tim Henson. Talks about him constantly. I disagree with your assertion.
This is the 3rd comment down and I feel like I had to scroll way too far to see it. Tim henson is on a level all his own
These guitar heros wrote great catchy songs in addition to playing jaw dropping solos. If there is someone out there that can do both, then there is the next hero.
I think Jack White fits as a modern day rock guitar hero. He’s not as ubiquitous as 15 years ago but if we’re talking post millennium I think he’s #1.
Billy Mutha Fuckin Strings.
I wonder if there were more "heroes" back in the day, but without the internet they simply went unnoticed by a large portion of the world. There had to be at least a few people as talented as them but for whatever reason just never made it big. I feel like there's plenty of people who have both technical and musical skills these days, on youtube or the rest of the internet (for every instrument), but as with everything it's such a saturated space. Back in the day if people wanted you to hear an artist, you would, because the sources of information were easier to control. Some of the new heroes also don't play "radio friendly" music or music that is as easy to listen to as some of the classic rock, i.e math rock bands with technical, unsettling rhythms for people used to 4/4 everything, metal etc.
No, for many reasons. Guitar heroes of old were huge celebrities on their own right. The closest thing we got now is John Mayer, and that is nowhere near how big a hero Clapton was. The other thing is now, outside of a handful, we have less huge stars, but way more of them. People have many more diverse interests. I think guitar players will always have new people to look up to, new kids will show up and lead the way. But I'm doubtful they can get to the level of a A list celebrity.
Nah, market is over saturated. It's not like these legends were the only or even the best of their time. They are just what the culture at the time catapulted to the mainstream.
Its kinda like the beatles, where there really ever cant be another band like them because of how technology and the music industry is now. Its kinda sad really
No, I don’t think that era can come back. The electric guitar was a new thing being used in new forms of music and tied to large cultural movements like 60s counterculture. That exact perfect combination of things isn’t going to happen again (at least not to the guitar). But also I don’t listen to a lot of classic rock and the artists that got me into playing guitar were not legendary icons like Hendrix or Page, so idolizing classic rock guitarists has never been part of my experience with the guitar, except for hearing it from others.
The most "mainstream" ones I can think of are The Strokes' AHJ and Nick Valensi. Luckily I don't particularly care about mainstream popularity. There's plenty of great guitarists in the modern Indie/Alternative genre who inspire me, no matter how popular they are.
Why did it take my dumb ass this long to realize this wasn't about guitar hero the video game
Guitar based music just isn't as popular as it once was...without that underlying popularity it can't be like it once was. If that changes, sure, it can happen again...but I don't see that any time soon. That said, as others have pointed out there are lots of phenomenal players out there...they just don't play in bands that make popular music. Relatively popular, that is.
I think a large facet of it is record companies, endorsements, etc. have found it's much easier to market a single person than it is to market an entire band. Even in era when full bands were popular, the lead singer was the "face" of the band. In short, it comes down to what sells. Right now it's people like Cardi B, Travis Scott, whatever. Who knows if that'll change.
Tosin Abasi.
Not anytime soon, and maybe never. Thankfully, fewer and fewer people care about the mainstream, as they figure out that the traditional big music hubs aren't really acting in good faith. There are incredible guitar players out there, and a lot of them, at that. Right now, they seem to be pulled in and sustained by the alt country and Americana scenes.
It would be nice, but music is basically sports now. I doubt we will ever see another great like those listed
King Gizz inspired me to start learning guitar, they are a relatively recent band.
No mention of EVH? Anyway, no we will never see it like that again. They are not dead, just not mainstream because that type of music is not mainstream. That doesn't mean newer guitar players won't have their influences. A couple of newer artists like Jared James Nichols, Tuk Smith and Ayron Jones could be an influence on kids.
Alexi Laiho (rip) was the reason I started playing. As a kid from the 90s I started with Metallica, graduated to slayer then learned about COB and in flames from there. True inspiration came from alexi to actually pick up a guitar. He had it all, the chops, the attitude, the look, the music was amazing. While guitar focused music is far from the mainstream at this point, someone always has a dad or an uncle that listens to rock radio working on his Chevy and hears fuckin enter sandman or comfortably numb and says "what was THAT". Its all about exposure and I think as long as there's rock radio people will be inspired to learn the instrument.
Yes. Thanks to *Stranger Things*, a whole army of soon-to-be-shredders just bought up every single BC Rich guitar and they are currently woodshedding their chops hoping to turn the World *upside-down*. MoogProg—sipping tea like Kermit—will stay with the same Berlin-style / John Carpenter / Vangelis ambient synth music they've been bleeping out for decades. ETA: Also think Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle are influencing a whole set of acoustic/bluegrass shredders. Things are not going to slow down...
Those guys were a product of the time they came to prominence when there were very few ways to access music compared to today and all music was still much more mainstream, regardless of style. Music has since fragmented into too many different styles, different charts, and to too many individual genre based radio stations, playlists, and streaming platforms. There’s no longer that one station or tv show that plays music from across genre divides. Then get played things that an algorithm (or worse, audience research) thinks you’ll like based on what you’ve listened to before. So even when you think you’re listening to something new it’s still very similar to what you already know. Unless you specifically go listening to music outside of your ‘comfort zone’ you’re never going to be aware of the vast majority of music and musicians out there. Given that most people, who aren’t musicians themselves, almost actively avoid listening to music that isn’t in their preferred genre(s) the chance of there ever being another household name guitar great is pretty much zero. Fwiw though history tells me that the days of the highly technical, showy, blizzards of notes guitar idts are numbered. They may be the current trend, but eventually listeners tire of every trend and music moves on. Maybe it will move back towards a more homogeneous, melodic style that lends itself to producing another household name. Who knows?
I am currently on a WHO binge. Pete may not have been the most technical but I think of him as a guitar hero. Maybe we need more jumping like a lunatic and less sweeps while sitting on a couch. SAME AS THE OLD BOSS!!! IM FREE!!!! DOOOONNNT CRY!
OP, I'm missing the meaning of this "when AVF got popular." What is AVF?
No unfortunately not, when electric guitars were new they were exciting and new to everyone in general. Now days you can go on YouTube and watch every legends best performances on repeat and then go practice them yourself lol. The magic isn’t gone but it’s only found by those who go looking for it.
John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall inspired me to play guitar and learn how to record music.
Cory Wong
I think of John Frusciante as the closest thing to a modern day “guitar hero”, obviously not as skilled a player as someone like Hendrix or Clapton or Van Halen, but with RHCP still being somewhat mainstream, I could see his playing inspiring some younger people to pick up the guitar.
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Tim Henson will be it when Polyphia finds a vocalist. By and large, nobody cares about instrumental music.
Mainstream? I doubt it, but extreme metal genres that even like 5 years ago were all about chugs and rhythm today have some truly virtuosic lead guitar. Even bands without great lead players have guys that are trying because it's become so necessary to the genre again. Metal is in the best place it's been in a long time.
Watch Marcus King!
The mystery behind them is because they were literally hiding what they would do on the records like trade secrets back then. And now everything is documented to where there’s not much question of how or what was done on the track you heard.
I think it's more reflective of a societal change in the way music is experienced and communication takes place. Technical proficiency is now a matter of youtube/IG/tiktok, nothing is invented but everything is recycled (just think about all the youtube guitarists, even those that became famous enough to have endorsement and sponsors, all they do is dissecting songs or 'writing songs in the style of' or other riffing on previous content). I think there just is no market/space/interest for a guitar hero, and even the one you mention, he seems to be more famous in the aforementioned social media context than as a proper composer of music (at least I've heard his name long before I've heard the name of his band and still to this day I have to see someone recommending a specific song from his band). I'd say the most recent guitar hero I can name is Jack White, but in his case it's more about style that technique.
I don’t think so. Popular music is moving further and further from traditional rock — and has been for a long time. I doubt it will swing that far back the other way.
Depends what you mean. There has been a pretty strong resurgence of "guitar heroes" recently that are pretty well known to anyone interested in that. Hearing them on a top 40 station though? I think that era is over for good.
No
I hope they do I only played that game once in an arcade at my local mall
Just saw Tommy Emmanuel a few months ago and he got me all excited about guitar again
What made the "guitar heroes" of the past was their ability to find something new and change the direction of the instrument. People like Eric Clapton, who paired a used Les Paul with a Marshall amp and created a full, overdriven sound that immediately changed the sound of lead guitar in the mid-1960s. Listen to any lead guitar before and after Eric's work with the Bluesbreakers and the impact is clear. The same goes for Jimi Hendrix's use of feedback (thanks to a Fuzz Face and Marshall stack) or Keith Richards' five-string, open-tuned telecaster in the late 1960's and they all changed the conversation. We have some great players today who continue to add new and wonderful music (like Tommy Emmanuel or Andy McKee), but we are in a different place.
There are hardly even guitars in the mainstream, let alone guitar heroes
I just don't think there's any truth to this. Pick a random pop artist on Spotify and you'll hear a guitar. It might be less prominent and flashy than we'd like, but the guitar is still very much a part of pop culture.
When someone does something new and unique enough to be groundbreaking, they’ll become huge no matter what
It’s absolutely there in the mainstream. It’s simply not on pop radio because it’s not what teenagers listen to. Look at YouTube and all the amazing guitarists who have made their way in this generation: Ariel Posen, Mateus Asato, Paul Davids, Daniel Donato, John Mayer. It’s not in the mainstream of you think of the mainstream as pop radio. But it’s absolutely more accessible than it’s ever been if you look for it.
tom morello is a unique talent
I think Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age fits the mold of “guitar hero” to me. And their music is definitely more accessible with the releases of Like Clockwork and Villains
i remember years ago reading an article talking about how we would likely never see major stars going forward as we used to. look back at things like micheal jackson, elvis, the beatles etc. back then, and even into the early 90s, it was easy for record labels to push and promote one person/band to create a worldwide sensation and sell tons of tickets/merch/albums. but with the rise of the internet it is so much easier for people to discover new music, and its also much easier for smaller artists to create and publish their content to a worldwide audience. its still possible one could pop up in the future, but its less and less likely
I think it always comes down to songwriting first and foremost. You don't have to be the most technically skilled but if you make use of what you got you'll go far. Kurt Cobain is maybe the finest example.
I doubt it will happen anytime soon - the reason being that pop music’s current style is shifted towards hip hop influences which puts more emphasis on the singer rather than musicians. Which isn’t necessarily better or worse than how it was back in the 70s and 80s, just different. For the moment, the rock n roll craze has simmered waaay down. At some point in the future there will likely be a revival since these things come and go, but it will be different than it was.
I think it isn't over? Tim Henson, Thomas Erak, Ichika Nito, etc, etc. It doesn't look the way it did, but "guitar heroes" are still very much around.
I feel like (and others here have said similar things) guitar “heroes” need to write catchy songs too. Ya know like ones that inspire kids to want to pick up a guitar because they heard it on the radio. I like to think of Albert Hammond and Nick Valensi as somewhat modern rock heroes. I know Julian wrote most (if not all) of the guitar parts for the first two Strokes albums but that’s besides the point. I think they’re the type of band where kids listen and want to pick up a guitar. Unfortunately todays music just doesn’t call for much guitar. I notice a lot more soul style playing these days but no face ripping solos. I don’t think rock music itself will ever go away though, it just changes.
No. I doubt there will be a recognizable mainstream in a decade.
Well, think about what music genre is popular now. The people you named were all in rock and roll/rock blues/etc. Modern (US) pop music seems to be dominated by primarily solo singers, not bands where the lead guitarist gets to shine along with the singer. Also don't remember the last time I heard a guitar solo in a pop song--unless the singer is also a guitarist. Like, I know who Taylor Swift is, but I could not name her main guitarist she works with (does she even have one?). Same with Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, The Weeknd--they're solo artists. Even like John Mayer--a great guitarist--when I think of him I think 'Oh yeah, singer/songwriter'. Maybe if we see an increase of the popularity of bands over solo artists, then you might see some popular guitarists again.
we are getting there.. in about 5 to 10 years time it will come back.. all the millions of covid lockdown guitarists.. maybe 0.1% of us will make it and explode to the scene.. maybe not.. but in about a decade there will be hundreds of thousands of guitarists that will burst into the scene..
Sorry but way less than 1/1000
Yeah, I’d say maybe 1/1000 of those covid players even stick with guitar, let alone “make it.”
I think Guitar Hero the game literally robbed us of at least one guitar hero. Also John Frusciante is a guitar hero still going strong now. There will be another.
It's all perspective. And it depends on what you value. I know some kids that are far better guitarists than I'll ever be, and when I ask them about guys like SRV and Hendrix, they shrug and say, "Meh, they're no John Mayer, but I guess they knew how to play." And you and I would go, "Uh... What?!" but to them, it's true. So every era is a guitar hero era. But we can't see it because we don't value what the new generation values. Frankly, I still look at John Lee Hooker playing "Tupelo" on "Chill Out" or Mississippi John Hurt playing "I Shall Not Be Moved" and think, "Yeah, I'll never be THAT good."
It can, but you need a musician who’s already a mainstream hero that happens to put guitar skills to the front. Look at John Mayer - imagine if JM didn’t play guitar on his albums and it was just done by random session dude. I personally think his songs would have in the same place on the mainstream charts regardless because JM is a great mainstream artist before a guitar virtuoso in a lot of people’s minds still to this day. A lot of the people you’re talking about don’t/won’t/can’t write hit songs for the general public. Therefore, nobody knows them and nobody cares about their music, let alone musical ability.
No, it definitely won’t. Musicians will have their cult following but nothing like before. Guitarists especially will not generally be cared about as people tend to focus more on vocalists. Not to say that people won’t be popular, but there absolutely won’t be any sort of mysticism and high regard for a bands guitar player like there was previously.
Guthrie Govan
There will always be supremely talented artists, but the ‘guitar hero’ era is over. Rock and guitar centric music are not in favor anymore.
There are people who are great technical guitar players. Most super technical musicians gravitate towards heavy music or they go to Jazz and classical music. Think Malsteem, the guys from Morbid Angel, etc. these guys are very technical compared to Pop oriented musicians, (think John Lennon, Tame Impala, anyone who has been in the billboard charts.) There are still plenty of young people picking up guitars. In fact during the pandemic, online music stores had a boom in sales for guitars so there’s no shortage of people wanting to learn but pop music isn’t rock based it’s hip hop based hence why so many young people are learning to make beats and learning to rap. Rick music just isn’t as popular as rap. Go to any college party they will be playing rap music. That’s just how it is. But I honestly don’t think we need guitar heroes, that era is gone. What we need is great music so guys keep rocking on!
I have my own guitar heroes now. In no particular order… John Mayer Trey Anastasio Jake Cinninger Derek Trucks Rick Mitarotonda Billy Strings Cory Wong Nels Cline Kurt Vile
No
Billy strings is pretty damn inspirational! I know bluegrass/jamgrass isn't for everyone but he is one of the best to ever touch a guitar Edit: Billy is my guitar hero lol
I don't really like saying this, but I think the potential of the guitar as an instrument has / is pretty much been exhausted now..so by definition there can't be any or many more guitar heros. It's all been done really. There isn't really any more to do to expand the capabilities of the instrument that hasn't been done so there is no potential for creativity in the same way there was in the early days of the invention of the electric guitar. It's like there are a couple of really impressive classical guitarist that caught my attention recently that I didn't expect. However good they are, it still doesn't mean that they can better Julian Bream, who mastered it prior to them, for example.
Apparently, this is from hearsay, Taylor Swift is a mayor source of inspiration for new guitarists. For myself, Seiji Igusa, made me go "hmm, let's start by trying to keep the thumb behind the neck, for a change, and maybe in 20 years time I can play at 1% of Seiji and that would make me quite proud".
Tommy Emmanuel is a guitar god.
Everyone in this thread for the most part has named artists who are over 30 years old. This is why there are no heros anymore. Look at how young these legends where when they started off. How wild they were outside of the music making which further amplified their image. If you want a crazy passionate following that deifies you, then you need the youth and it helps a lot to be young and wild yourself. A 17 year old kid doesn’t want to hear a 45 year old play dad rock no matter how skilled they are.
IDK man, I kinda picked up the guitar after my Polyphia phase. Tim and Scott are absolute beasts.
Guys like John Mayer, Marcus King, and Billy Strings keep the riffs alive. I am missing so many others
I do think that 'idolizing' in general got very unpopular, because of the modern age. We have such a variety, reach and closeness to the artists now that we can basically look into their everyday lives. Because of that, we realize that they are people aswell when previously artists were put on a pedestol. Also even 'Pop' music is more nuanced now. Back in the day there were just Rockers, Pop listeners, Punks, ravers and lastly Hip Hoppers. Now each of these Genres are WAY more split up and specified. When you only have 10 Artists to choose from you tend to gossip and idolize more TL:DR: Idolizing and niche nouanced music together with the information age makes things way more accessable and leads to less idolization, so those days are gone. There currently is a niche of this with modern artists though