John Petrucci - Dream Theater
I remember when I first started playing there were TONS of great players that I could look to for inspiration – the guitar heroes. There was Satriani, Vai, Yngwie, Van Halen, Bettencourt, DeMartini, Beach, and Le Tekrø. It was a powerful time for guitar players back then.
It’s a powerful time for players now, too, as more people are playing guitar than ever before. But it seems to me that since Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci hit the spotlight back in the early 90′s, there hasn’t really been a guitar hero to come out and take the world by storm. A few have tested the waters (Laiho and Tremonti, though I’m not that impressed by them) but they haven’t had nearly the impact as those players from the previous decade.
Has guitar playing become overstated? Are we struggling to collectively discover the next original player to inspire us because one doesn’t exist? Has the music changed so much that solos and creative rhythm players don’t interest us anymore?
The music has definitely changed, to start. The 2000′s saw a huge crater in terms of guitar music getting attention. Barely any “metal” songs had solos, opting for the 3-minute hit to get on the radio. 7-string cookie monster bands had no time or patience for spotlight-wanking; how does a band get 10,000 emo weenies to mosh during a solo?
In addition to that, I think guitarists in general have spent the last 10 years or so focusing on the technology and gear than the playing. That’s not to say that great players don’t exist, but the media’s attention and focus has shifted to the latest modeling pedal or ProTools plugin more so than the next great player.
Perhaps Joe Bonamossa fits the bill, but I don’t think that he’s had the same overall impact (yet) on guitarists across the board as someone like Satch has. But, to Bonamossa’s credit he’s still very young and moving up quickly.
Meshuggah
I also think the industry has changed. Record companies are falling apart at the seams, which means marketing dollars, music videos, and promotion has gone out the window. They are looking for what sells the most the quickest, and right now that’s whatever 12-15 year old girls are buying. They’re not buying Meshuggah CDs, that’s for sure. (Thorendal should be considered a new guitar hero, btw…)
With no guitarists truly in the spotlight, it’s hard to become a household name like Eddie Van Halen. Also, with the increase in home-studio recording and distribution, the market has literally become saturated with do-it-yourself bands and players, so it’s much harder to separate the wheat from the chaff and find the inspirational players. There’s just too much music out there to shine through.
I think within the guitar playing community we’ve also hit a creative plateau. Everyone is playing the same damn stuff now, exactly the same way. Just like how everyone was playing neo-classical shredding once Yngwie hit the scene, everyone today is playing 8-finger hammer-on arpeggios with string mutes, patterns upon patterns, and the stand-by pentatonic licks. It all just sounds exactly the same, and you can’t really put your finger on who started it.
I wonder when the next big thing is going to hit us. Who is it going to be that completely floors the entire guitar world with something so incredibly profound that we all take notice?
I’m not sure, but in the meantime I’m gonna keep on playing!
Anyone that stands out for you? Any player that really takes it to another level and deserves to be recognized as the next best thing?
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Here is my humble opinion. Image is vital in being a guitar hero.
Certain aspects of their image are iconic in the whole package
Slash, Top hat
SRV, Texan cowboy
Wylde, Biker
Satch, Bald “alien surfer dude”
Vai, very good looking man
Malmsteen, Baroque
Jimmy Page
Hendrix
etc.
Hope you get a good idea, lets face it a guy that looks like a petrol attendant won’t appeal to the masses, be on the cover of guitar magazines unless he has an image no matter how good his chops are
On the side of metal, we are seeing many dual guitar bands.( Not an entirely bad thing) Gone are the days of a Petrucci, a Dimebag, a Rhoads being THE guitar player. (Imagine if Lamb of God had only one guitarist, people would be hailing him as the next Dimebag!)
If there is only one player in a band, more attention would be given. Guitarist has greater freedom to create his own style etc.
(That is another debate on its own.)
Guitar heroes that has emerged this millenium are imho:
Jeff Loomis, Chris Broaderick, Jon Donais of Shadows Fall (Very influential to me) Alexi Laiho.
John Mayer, Joe Bonamassa, Marco Sfogli(One of my faves), Guthrie Govan.
Could Herman Li be considered a guitar hero? If you can get statistics of the guitarists that made a kid go out and buy a guitar, Herman Li would definitely be on top.
That is all for now, looking forward to any comments. Regards.
I think it has to do with where the industry is heading…it’s not like before, where we were exposed to music through the radio and MTV. Now everybody goes out and finds music they like and form niches. So it’s a lot less probable that a band or guitarist will break through on such a universal level.
Dream Theater have achieved a lot wihout mainstream help, but they got a huge jumpstart when MTV started playing Pull Me Under.
Now we got guys like Andy Mckee, who got a lot of exposure through You Tube. He may not be on the cover of all the guitar mags, but he’s achieved a pretty solid fanbase.
Totally agree on Thordendal, BTW.
I almost wonder, Jonny, if it is for me that a guitar hero transcends the guitar community. Everyone knows who John Mayer and Slash are, but no one who isn’t a guitar player knows who Marco Sfogli is. Either that or a guitarist inspires people to want to learn to play guitar. I don’t think (though I’m obviously not sure) that Laiho, Loomis, and Sfogli have done that. Surely there must be one or two people – or even a dozen – that have, but not nearly on the scale of a SRV.
But I’m still not sure. I’m thinking about it, mulling it over.
Thanks for the comments!
But is McKee a guitar hero? That’s my question. I don’t know if he is, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.
My definition of a guitar hero is one who inspires people to pickup the guitar. The reason I say Herman Li of DF is that alot of kids want to learn the guitar due to his song in Guitar Hero. There are guitar heroes who inspire guitarists to pickup the guitar.. literally. I for one cant resist picking up my guitar halfway through a Dream Theater DVD
Yeah, Jonny, I like that definition. Makes perfect sense to me, and I agree. So the only question then becomes the magnitude or scope of popularity. I know for a fact that I’ve inspired two or three people to play guitar (they have told me) but I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a “guitar hero.”
There’s simply no one that can do what Derek Trucks is doing. If you haven’t seen him live, then you won’t be able to tell. Slide over Coltrane stuff is crazy. Trucks is the next one. It’s just being done slowly. In my opinion he’ll be the next Clapton or BB King for this generation.
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I’ve been a guitar nut for the last 16 years. And have definitely been guilty of putting certain players up on pedestals. But maybe it’s just because I’m lazy but technical prowess has never been the thing for me, I love the tone, and the texture that some of my favourite players bring. My favourite guitar players are probably guys like Daniel Lanois, Mike Campbell, Robbie McIntosh, I love a lot of the new wave guys, especially The Edge, and I’m a huge acoustic fan, Bruce Cockburn, James Taylor. Dave Matthews is another huge inspiration.
I just posted a lesson for the intro to John Mayer’s song “Say” on my blog, it was actually the highlight of a John Mayer concert I was at a couple of years ago, and Robbie McIntosh was the one who played the intro. If you’re interested here it is, http://www.conorsearl.ca.
Interesting influences, Conor. Sounds like your guitar heroes are a bit more underground. The Edge was really big for a hot minute in terms of getting respect from other guitar players, but hasn’t really done much since.
I wonder if John Mayer could ever truly become a guitar hero. His mixture of pop sensibility and public persona sometimes make it difficult to take his guitar playing seriously, though he is a fantastic player. I just don’t know if enough hard-core guitarists would really try to dissect his music (yet).
They’re gone! I read an intresting topic on this by “Slash”. He is basically saying they’re gone also. Very sad. I guess we’ll just have to wait!
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I await the reunion tour of the hero’s of old, the younger one’s would not know what that would mean but, I bet they could tell you about their favorite video game.