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brought the hammer down on one of the most revered of those tonewoods , Brazilian rosewood , which sent its cost into the stratosphere . And speaking of things stratistophic , the prized swamp ash used in the bodies of Fender ’ s Stratocaster and Telecaster models got hit — or is it bit — hard by a nasty beetle : the emerald ash borer , which has utterly decimated stands of ash forests . A situation complicated , some say , by climate change . In any case , the times , they are a-changin ’.
And that goes for the very nature of guitar culture , too .
How will it be different in the digital age , to say nothing of a generation that is very different from the one that created guitar culture in the first place ? Where will this next generation take it ? It ’ s a question the guitar makers are already grappling with , as they come to know the demographic contours of these new users , which are suddenly coming to the instrument in droves . That ’ s encouraging , of course . And there ’ s plenty of support . Online teaching resources abound , lessons flood YouTube and countless websites . ( Long gone are the days of halfspeed turntable needle drops and straining to catch glimpses of chord shapes when our favorites appeared on TV .)
Fender ’ s online guitar instruction app Fender Play has enrolled nearly a million subscribers , the majority of which are Millennials and Gen Zers . And yet it will gladden the hearts of many a Boomer to learn that the top-learned song on the app is … Satisfaction . As in , “ I can ’ t get no .”
How these new players learn , though , is beside the point : simply taking up the guitar provides welcome and positive relief from stream-bingeing to spending time
to invest in themselves . Let ’ s hope it sticks — for them , and us old guitar culture Boomers who in the past few years may have rediscovered that dusty old friend stashed away in the closet . Or splurged on a new one .
Lastly , it ’ s not only the next generation of players that will define the field going forward : technology will also play a role . It doesn ’ t take a lot of imagination to see , for example , how 5G / AR / VR / AI will impact music-making : next-gen communications technologies will enable high-bandwidth , low-latency connections among geographically dispersed players ; AI-assisted composition will present a fascinating approach to man-machine creativity ( no , that ’ s not a plug for ChatGPT ); new revenue models will emerge that will allow artists to be paid more equitably for their work and enable them to thrive — and buy more guitars ! Long live Guitar Culture !
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| FALL 2023