Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Guitarist

the guitarist conundrum.

When there's 10 billion guitarists in the world, how do you stand out?

If you're a female? You have better odds. 90% (seemingly) of guitarists are male, so you've already got an audience. Men like watching girls play guitar. Youtube proves this to an embarrassing degree.

But if you're a dude? How do you appeal to and get the attention of 90% dudes?

Well, .... seemingly 50% - 60% of guitarists are self proclaimed Blues players. So playing blues is going to be hard to get noticed.

Being an outstanding player isn't really enough to get noticed.

Having some good songs isn't enough to get noticed.

Surprisingly,....speed seems to get attention. But it's not really gratifying attention. Though it's a good gimmick and way to get people to look a little bit longer then usual. But you'd better have more up your sleeve then speed, because that gets old fast. Better have some melody too.

Being a 'Character' seems to get attention. Most people know (or seem to know) who Phil X is. Partly I think because his personality is completely spazzy and over the top.

Your 'gear' can get attention, if you use some oddball stuff, (like Jack White) but still, you'd better have some decent songs to try and hold onto that attention.

You can wear costumes and have a big stage act/production to get attention, sometimes this can even hide the fact that your songs aren't that great. Because people are more interested in 'the show.'

It's a tricky thing to get peoples attention, and hold that attention. So while not being a fan I give Lady Gaga credit for figuring out what to do to get the attention and keep the attention, and cash in while she's got it.

There's a lot of really talented people out there that will never get that big break either because they don't have a gimmick, have the wrong gimmick, or are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus, honestly...luck seems to have a lot to do with it.

Or even worse, that thing that you can't name and put a finger on, but some musicians are just disagreeable and there's something about them that puts people off.

Yngwie (while managing to be quite successful) is kind of an example of this. Most people really, really, really don't like the guy. But usually can't explain why.

The music industry, the world, and people in general have changed so much in the past say,...20 years. It's really hard to see where to go from here.

The internet kind of leveled the playing field, but then again by leveling the playing field it's introduced a ton of 'competition' in that every brother and kid with a webcam is an internet rock star these days.

Plus people are just so jaded and unimpressed by anything these days, it's rather hard to shake them out of their malaise. Even when you're literally forcing them to sit down and listen to some amazing new band you've found. The attention span seems so short that if it doesn't immediately grab them in the first 5-10 seconds,...they're already tuning it out and starting to play Angry Birds on their ipod.

It's like trying to forge a career through a minefield where even 'the fans' are out to get you.

So I give Lady Gaga mad respect.

I give even more respect to someone like Amy Winehouse who not only was talented and a good songwriter. But was actually brave enough to say, "F**k it." and completely do her own thing.

I never heard anyone sound like her,...before her. (admittedly there's some 40's and 50's singers that sounded like that, ... but I mean lately.)

Of course now that she's dead, you better believe I see some ghouls rushing in to try and fill that void.

Imitators though,..........not innovators.




*-all numbers and figures were totally pulled out of my arse.

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