“The Slow Death of the Electric Guitar”. Is it?

Hey everybody,

An interesting and thought provoking piece I wanted to share with y'all today. It's been causing a big turmoil in the guitar world in the past two weeks.

A new article by the Washington Post is basically talking about the “Slow Death of the Electric Guitar” (click to read it). To sum it up:

• There's barely (or none) guitar heroes in the Top 40 anymore. (on the contrary – just imagine how the top 40's looked like in the 60's and the 70's. Yeah, almost nothing but guitar gods / guitar singer-songwriters.
• Most of the popular music does not even contain a guitar, again, unlike before.
• Yearly sales of the electric guitar have plummeted from over 1.5 million in the US to just about a million. (although I think that's highly inaccurate since it does not include the 2nd hand market which just keeps growing, since guitars don't go to trash like cars, and also there are tons and tons of new, smaller and boutique factories around now which might not be counted)
• Gibson, Fender, Guitar Center and many other symbols are in billions (!) of debt.

Sound pretty dramatic eh? Anyway, I highly recommend to read the article yourself before cementing an opinion. It is a highly interesting piece for anyone who's into guitars.

So let me know what do you think in the comments, I'm curious.

My own opinion is summed pretty well by this guy below – Tyler Larson from the Music Is Win channel on YouTube – a channel I highly appreciate.

Have a great week and looking forward to read your thoughts in the comments.

-Cooper

Alon Cooper

Hey! I'm Cooper, and I hope I can be a helpful friend on your musical journeys. I'm a music artist based in Austin & Amsterdam, playing venues with a band / solo, and trying to learn with the most inspiring musicians wherever I go. In the last 8 years I've lived in Australia, northern Europe, the US and more.