Only a major idiot would do this...
A recent blog post reported on a Japanese guitar maker that is producing and selling guitars for the exclusive purpose of smashing them.
The guitar maker – K’s Japan – has created the “Smash” guitar, which sells for less than $60 USD. They are promoting the guitar as a way to let out one’s frustrations and get that rock n’ roll spirit back. (I should mention that at the time of this writing there were only 10 guitars left). They even went so far as to require you to sign a waiver stating that you are intentionally planning on smashing the guitar.
Now, I’ve spent a significant amount of time in Japan. I don’t claim to be a cultural expert or anything of that nature, but I have seen and experienced enough of the Japanese life to know that this is right up their ally. The problem I have is that it’s a guitar. Please, make it anything else but a guitar, I beg you!
It’s not even that I’m one of those “guitars must be pristine things of beauty with nary a scratch.” I just think that people who intentionally smash their guitars are jackasses.
Idiots, morons, knuckleheads, jerkoffs, assholes… take your pick. Guitars are meant to be played, not smashed as a part of some stage antics to show how rebellious you are. If you want to be rebellious, do what every other single rebellious person does; get dressed up like the other nine million people wearing all black and nail polish while trying to convince yourself that you look completely original.
I could ramble on and on and take up space about how stupid I think this is, but I’m hoping – truly hoping – that if you read this blog you are like me and see the guitar as an instrument of true inner expression and beauty, and not something you throw around and intentionally break. And please spare me the rhetoric of the 60′s and rebellion and all that; I honestly don’t care. You want to burn your favorite over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder, go right ahead. If you want to smash a guitar, how about donating it to someone who really wants to learn to play – someone who can’t afford a guitar on their own. I’m sure there are plenty of local music programs in the area that would love some donations.
If you are one of those people that really feels the need to manifest their frustrations and anger about their lives by acting out physically, seek help. Better yet, sign up for the local Muay Thai school and let people kick the shit out of you for a few hours a week. Then go seek help.
There is only one conclusion to this: if you smash your instrument you are a moron. Don’t do it!
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Not having a good day Josh? Such a tirade is not like you
No arguments from me. I’m very anti-destruction, of any nature shape or form, doesn’t matter what it is. It’s the engineer in me – create, don’t destroy.
I hope you have a better day today!
JAW
haha. That’s not a tirade; you don’t want to see one of my tirades. In fact, *I* don’t want to see one of them.
I wouldn’t smash any of my guitars myself. I love them too much. I get distressed just seeing them bumped.
Nevertheless, I think at the moment popular music is kinda lacking the ridiculous spectacles that used to be a part of what makes rock and roll so great.
These days rock stars dress more or less like dudes you wouldn’t be surprised to see at the supermarket, and often the closest thing to showmanship is when the lead singer makes a melodramatic sigh at the end of a boring song about his feelings.
I look at old videos where Steve Vai was wearing a different pair of glitter pants every time the camera angle changed and I kinda miss it. Even better, those 80s metal videos where the drum kit would explode along with the speaker cabinets – there’s something magical about how absurd it is, because a drum kit isn’t plugged into any electricity, nor does it contain anything the least beat combustible. The only thing blowing it up are some deliberately placed charges, and the sheer power of ROCK. Haha
Anyway, a little bit of heavily commercialised guitar smashing could be a positive development. Give us anything to wash away the lukewarm dreariness of modern rock.
Jim E James recently posted: The latest quick fix solution
For me I’ve always been more interested in the musicianship than the spectacle. That’s just never been my thing. Then again I grew up with Rush, perhaps the most un-spectacle rock band there ever was. hah!
Hi Josh,
I realise I’m a little late to this party but I’ve just stumbled across your blog and have been looking over your archives.
Probably the only thing sadder than intentionally breaking a guitar in an effort to appear edgy, is the premeditation of actually going and buying a $60 guitar to facilitate your act of rebellion. Seriously, how cool could such a person possibly be? I’m sure no one with good sense would ever willingly smash an instrument that they had spent good money on and take pride in.
On the other hand, as Jim mentioned before me, spectacle is important to some people and artists do spend money on lights, explosives, fog machines etc. to enhance their performance, so if someone truly believed that smashing a $60 guitar as part of their set would improve their show then I suppose that’s their perogative. Personally if I saw someone doing that at a show it would come across as incredibly douchey and may well ruin an otherwise good performance for me.
If you think you’re cool enough that people will be impressed by you breaking a guitar on stage, surely your ‘fans’ would find more value in you signing the guitar and giving it to an audience member than destroying it for no good reason.
Jess recently posted: Karma Police, arrest this girl…
Better late than never, Jess! I totally agree with you. I guess I’ve always been a fan of the music more so than the spectacle. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never been a HUGE concert-goer; the visuals are nice but wasn’t nearly as important to me as the music itself.