![]() ![]() Stand up next to a mountain and chop it down with the edge of your hand.įor most of us, the watered-down 'boomer bend' is no longer a tool for revolution. Those who had a relentless desire to move forward, to a better place, to move on from painful pasts. The great failure of the those perpetuating the 'boomer bends' backlash is that they have missed the lessons of their own icons. The guitarist, more than any other musician, is prone to believing that we need a certain combination of expensive and magical trinkets to achieve our dreams, and that the playing of a certain era cannot be bettered that a small group of predominantly white, predominantly male, predominantly heterosexual players solved the problems of mankind. To say to a contingent of younger players – who can see all this happening and think, on balance, they don’t need to add to it – "You should do this, too." In effect, the 'boomer bends' backlash is telling players like Henson to carry on letting guitar music consume itself. (As a side point, guitarists from all sides of the spectrum have said this to me over the years – including all those ‘stunt’ player ‘bogeymen’ that are imagined to be the enemies of this stance.) ![]() We play the same licks, on the same gear and we say things like, "I’m really more of a feel player…" with a straight face, as if any guitarist, anywhere, has ever played the instrument to not express themselves. Guitar land has, somehow, developed an unquestioning belief that old ideas are good, new ideas are bad. Guitar land has developed an unquestioning belief that old ideas are good, new ideas are badĪs a community, we build and rebuild the same boxes, investing ever-increasing hours and dollars in pursuit of sounds that have already been made. In the guitar industry, the vintage obsession – still powered by that dream of the '60s blues rock icons – occupies more and more of our headspace, trade shows and collections. What started as an occasional record reissue has turned into a rolling classic album tour circuit, going through the motions. And now the instruments that built it are kept under glass. But what was once the counter-culture has aged into the dominant culture. ![]() People shaped their lives around those messages. The artists that wielded those guitars had long-lasting impacts on society. Hand-in-hand, the electric guitar and rock music arrived to take teenagers out of the house and into the garage, venue and, eventually, a big, muddy field in the name of peace and love and progress. Just as rock ’n’ roll radio found new ears across the country, the guitar arrived and rescued music-loving kids from the formality of parlor gatherings and family piano recitals. The guitar was the first truly democratizing force in popular music. We have, collectively, rebuilt the entire industry around nostalgia. ![]() Musicians have always looked back to learn, but something bigger has happened across the past few decades. The criticism of Henson speaks to a much larger issue we have in the guitar-playing world, which is that the past has somehow become sacred and unquestionable. We have, collectively, rebuilt the entire industry around nostalgia The past has become sacred and unquestionable. More than ever before, younger players from more diverse backgrounds are seizing guitars at such a rate that guitar makers can’t keep up with the demand. He is finding ways to keep the guitar relevant in a landscape of astonishingly broad listening habits and rich learning resources. Henson, by contrast, is currently in the ascendance: an innovative guitarist who is inspiring new players. The innovations are small, the returns of that cycle of self-consumption diminishing. Retro-fetishists can claim to update classic rock all they like, but with a few exceptions, it's mostly more of the same. Yes, it’s all part of a broader cycle, but that side of guitar playing isn't getting any younger. The fact is that 'boomer bends' are overused. Secondly, it prodded me to question my own playing – which frequently defaults into blues-rock clichés – and, thirdly, it convinced me that this conversation is long overdue. My job is writing for guitar and music-making publications, and I have used many more words to say much less. As someone sandwiched between the two warring generations of Boomers and Gen Z, I have to say that when I heard the term I was glad.įirstly – like Beato – it made me laugh, because in Henson’s concept of "boomer-ish" bends, he perfectly encapsulated and dismissed 60 years of lazy guitar tropes. Thankfully, many viewers took it in good humor, confessing their own addiction to 'boomer bends' or laughing at Henson’s throw-away skewering. ![]()
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