But listen to Aphex Twin or Underworld, for example. Despite
having few vocals, these acts are easily distinguishable from others; they
have a unique musical style. Why? Neither of them use guitars often.
The difference is that rather than aping other bands, they deliberately
set out to be distinctive. A lot of guitar bands don't seem to be concerned
with carving out their own niche, so much as squeezing themselves into
someone else's niche. So to speak.
But then of course any instrument is limited; it's not
possible to make a completely new arrangement of notes, unless you
want to write a 5 hour symphony. It's not because of the guitar itself;
you can play any notes or chords you want to on it, equally many as any
other instrument. There's no particular reason why guitar music has to
be bland and unoriginal; and even instrumentally, bands like Sonic Youth,
My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, At the Drive-In, Pavement, Joy Division, I
could go on, are easily recognizable and distinct.
Maybe it's not the guitar as an instrument which has had
it's day, but guitar bands which simply repeat the works of their heroes.
There's already been one Bob Dylan, one Jam, one Beatles and one Metallica.
Quite a lot of bands seem to be just doing covers of their favourite songs,
only with different words and the chords in a slightly different order.
And yet there are plenty of bands I can think of who're
both good, while sounding similar to other bands. Mogwai sound a lot like
Slint; ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Seafood and At the
Drive-In all sound like Sonic Youth. P J Harvey sounds like Patti Smith
or Bob Dylan, and Pavement sound like everybody. But the difference is
while these bands sound a bit like other bands or solo artists,
they don't sound bloody exactly like them. The fucking Stereophonic
sounds exactly the same as AC-DC and the Black Crowes, who sound exactly
the same as the Rolling Stones, who sound exactly like a load of good black
Blues players who they ripped off.
That's because they're all crap (not the Blues players
and the Rolling Stones, that is, they were good). They all use the same
chord progressions, the same riffs and the same stupid solos. Though they're
slightly different and become distinguishable with vocals, otherwise they
may as well be the same. It's generic rock music, like Feeder is generic
grunge rock music, Limp Biscuit is generic rap metal music and Toploader
are just generic. They exist to be bland, and to satisfy the tastes of
consumers who just like listening to the same record over and over again,
only played by different people. The formula is the same; find good guitar
band. Rip off good guitar band. Sell records to people who liked good guitar
band. That's it.
As far as I'm concerned, these kind of unadmitted cover
bands have had their day a long loooong time ago. We don't need them, and
this kind of music is pretty much dead in the water. But there are plenty
of other bands taking inspiration from other bands, and then doing
their own thing, which are very much alive. It's true that the really new
music doesn't often have much to do with guitars, but I don't think music
made using guitars has had it's day. It's only because of the culture surrounding
'guitar music' that much of it has become dull as shit, i.e. the expectation
of what music made with guitars should sound like.
The guitar as in instrument is interesting and unique,
and hasn't really been explored fully by any mainstream artist. The guitar
hasn't had it's day, but 'guitar music' in the sense I understand it certainly
has.
The
problem might be something to do with the guitar itself. It's kinda of
limited, in some ways. A lot of bands use only the chords DAECGF, plus
another twelve or so minor and seventh chords. That means the same chord
progressions keep repeating themselves over and over again. Even if they
use other chords, still it's hard if not impossible to write anything both
completely new and actually tuneful.
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