Each holiday season, thousands of teenagers tear gift wrap off shiny, new guitars. They giddily pluck at the detuned strings, thinking how cool they'll be once they're rock stars—even if almost all will give up before they ever get to jam out to "Sweet Child o' Mine."
For them, it's no big deal to relegate the guitar to the back of the closet forever in favor of the Playstation controller. But it is a big deal for Fender Musical Instruments Corp., the 70-year-old maker of rock 'n' roll's most iconic electric guitars. Every quitter hurts.
[...]The $6 billion U.S. retail market for musical instruments has been stagnant for five years, according to data compiled by research firm IBISWorld, and would-be guitar buyers have more to distract them than ever. So how do you convince someone to put down the iPhone, pick up a Stratocaster, and keep playing?
Seems Fender didn't get the memo: the music of the future is hip-hop and autotuners.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:15PM
When I was much younger, Yamaha had come out with thin shelled mahogany drums, and the sound was enough to make me jizz.
"Mom, I wanna play drums."
"Oh, I don't think so."
"Mooommmm, I wanna play drums."
We visited a music store, and the demonstration guy stood in the middle of the bass drum without any stress to the shell, and I was even further in love with the kit.
"Mooooommmmm!"
We compromised on a second hand acoustic guitar, which I did make an earnest effort, but after a few years lost interest.
But if I had those drums when I was younger, I'd be revising the legacy of Billy Cobham by now.
*no one makes shells like that anymore*