Richie Kotzen says guitarists are playing “more complex” nowadays, but at the expense of “artistic creative value”
In the age of social media, it seems there are more guitarists than ever with ungodly playing chops. Algorithms are designed to surface and show you the best of the best, so it can often seem like there are insanely good guitarists everywhere you turn.
But has social media encouraged the pursuit of speed and technicality at the expense of what actually makes music enjoyable? In a new interview with the Mighty VH Podcast discussing the history of Van Halen, guitarist Richie Kotzen explains how he believes this may be the case.
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Describing the current landscape of guitar as a “very bizarre situation”, he explains [via Blabbermouth]: “I don’t wanna say anything that’s discrediting or it sounds like, ‘Oh, Richie, you’re just too old.’ But back in the day when I was coming up, with Van Halen, you had [Eddie] being him and innovative and all that, in the context of great songwriting, which he was giving and doing…”
Kotzen cites the likes of Eddie Van Halen – and others including former Ozzy Osbourne sideman Zakk Wylde and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt – as guitarists who are the “complete musician”: “There’s artistic value there in the creativity.”
But he says we’re now in a “strange land” where guitarists are playing more technically than ever, but at the expense of creative value.
“You have gifted musicians that are actually executing at a level that’s much more complex than the stuff that was happening when I was young growing up but it’s completely stripped of the artistic creative value, as we would have defined it, which would be song, the craft of creating song…” he says.
“‘Cause you can listen to someone improvise over changes or giant steps or whatever it is, and your mind can be blown with how quickly and efficiently and expressively one can weave through these changes. But what’s missing to me with many of the folks is the stuff that was there with the names that I mentioned — Eddie and Zakk and Nuno and others.”
Kotzen describes the shift as “very strange and unfortunate”: “I find that very disheartening. I don’t know the exact word, but I don’t like it.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
