Now for some non-political "fun" controversy. This is actually from 2016 but I just ran across it again the other day and thought it would make an interesting discussion topic. Here's the original article from Guitar World Magazine:
https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/...ddie-van-halen
I didn't bother to copypasta because the article is very short and the content plus a lot more is fully covered in the video below:
Now, I played guitar from 1974 until my stroke in 2011 with a few periods of neglect in there. Actually earned my living as a hard rock/heavy metal guitarist for quite a few years in there. After my stroke I was unable to play for a while, but I've been picking it up again lately. Progress has been agonizingly slow considering I was VERY WELL accomplished before, but it looks like I'll be able to re-learn everything and then some as long as I stick with it.
Anyway, given my knowledge and experience I can't say I agree totally with McKnight's take on this one. I think I fall more in line with this guy:
I agree completely with his thoughts regarding inspiration vs mere popularity. When Van Halen's first LP was released in February of 1978, I'd been playing around with guitar for about 4 years. I could play some songs and do some stuff, but I really hadn't been all that serious to that date. After I heard that first Van Halen album I got SERIOUS. I literally locked myself in the woodshed and started practicing 8-12 hrs a day every single day, rain or shine, sick or well. Eddie was a true inspiration.
Now, personally, I'm not a big fan of modern music. I find it wimpy and uninteresting. That being said, I don't mean to be dumping on Taylor Swift, but at the same time I can't see her providing anything near the kind of inspiration that Eddie did back in the day. A lot of young women may well be picking up the guitar because they like her, but I can't really see what she's doing inspiring anyone to put in the blood, sweat and tears it takes to actually get really good like Eddie did for so many. I guess time will tell if those young women wind up sticking with it and actually doing the work it takes to master the instrument, but my money's on most of them not, lacking some truly inspiring examples to follow. Here are a few possibilities along those lines:
I think it sucks that there is such a dearth of truly good and inspiring rock n' roll these days. It seems like all the good music is being played on the "classic" or "oldies" stations. Or maybe I'm just old.
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