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from the while-my-guitar-gently-weeps dept.
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 $6 billion U.S. retail market for musical instruments has been stagnant for five years, according to data compiled by research firm IBISWorld, and would-be guitar buyers have more to distract them than ever. So how do you convince someone to put down the iPhone, pick up a Stratocaster, and keep playing?
Seems Fender didn't get the memo: the music of the future is hip-hop and autotuners.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rich on Wednesday November 23 2016, @06:20PM
I think there are two factors significant to Fender's issues:
1.) Reduced attention span in young people gets in the way of practicing
With all the sensory overload, a lot of youth simply don't have the mental endurance anymore to practice any given song. Combined with the ubiquity of EDM, they just go for looping snippets in their DAW of choice, even when they want to make music. Quicker gratification, more in line with mainstream tastes. That said, I know quite a few guys in local acts capable of top grade shredding. There were close to none of those when I was younger, and I don't doubt every single one could've made it big in the early 80s. In general, there's a lot, lot more guitar based music, at a much, much higher quality, than 25 years ago. It's as difficult to get a rehearsal room today as it ever was.
2.) Fender might not have a value proposition for the young players.
If a young person really was after a genuine Fender in the last years, it probably was because of the Telecaster in Nirvana. The Strat with its single coils is mostly relegated to "blues rocking" purposes in the public opinion. These days, the youth (at least those I know) goes for ESP, Jackson, or BC Rich, if they're heavier minded, or Ibanez for the more musically inclined. The entry level is well covered by sub-100$/EUR house-brand guitars of the big retailers, which have reached an amazing value/price ratio - their quality now is less limiting to expression than the player's abilities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @10:45PM
Youtube is probably a big part of the acceleration of the learning curve. Back in the day guys would gather in basements and listen to hard rock vinyl records over and over to try to figure out just what the licks were. Then they had to figure out how to play them. Of course, the guitar players didn't make it easy by turning their backs to the audience when they were playing the hot part of their solos.
Now a lot of the stuff is right up there on youtube, in convenient bite size clips. Not just from touring band members, but from teachers and hobbyists who figured things out.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 23 2016, @10:58PM
Reduced attention span in young people
You think my generation's attention spans were any better when we were young?
which have reached an amazing value/price ratio
Indeed, my no-name Korean guitar I bought two decades ago sounds great and has really good action. OTOH the Japanese one I had when I was 13 was really crappy. Things have changed.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Rich on Thursday November 24 2016, @12:01AM
You think my generation's attention spans were any better when we were young?
Absolutely, due to the influence of ever condensed media. More aggressively cut video and film, shorter and more superficial radio reports and last, but not least as (unintended) consequence of putting a very character limited means of communication into the signaling of GSM. Which then begat twitter and its ilk.
OTOH the Japanese one I had when I was 13 was really crappy. Things have changed.
My first electric was Japanese, too, but a good instrument which I still own. An Ibanez Blazer, which my parents then bought for me at around 600 Deutschmarks, used, from a friend. That was totally the limit of what could be afforded (for a young guy's guitar). Corrected by inflation, this probably would be around 1200 USD/EUR today. A Fender back then must've been at least twice that. Last year, for the sole reason of curiosity about Chinese quality improvements, I bought a retail house brand ("J&D") guitar. Explorer/Star style, double humbuckers, sort-of-metallic paint, for the measly price of 77 EUR, new. It does have a few slightly rough edges, but overall it's totally good enough.
So if they write "The $6 billion U.S. retail market for musical instruments has been stagnant", it's no surprise. Nothing in there says they sold less guitars. They might even have sold more - just much cheaper ones. Same for keyboards, btw. The DX-7, when new, cost 4000 Marks. Now you just run Hexter as one of many plugins on your laptop, which might have cost a tenth of that - including some master keyboard.