Marty Friedman credits social media for keeping “excitement in the guitar”
Love it or hate it, social media algorithms now play a bigger role in music discovery than radio ever did. A single 30-second clip can launch a career, revive a forgotten track, or send a boutique guitar pedal into backorder chaos overnight. And according to Marty Friedman, that same machine is doing something else: keeping guitar culture alive and kicking.
Speaking in a recent interview with musician Tobias Le Compte, the former Megadeth shredder argues that guitar’s popularity has always been cyclical – but today’s platforms are amplifying it in ways that simply weren’t possible before.
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“It goes up and down in popularity as an instrument,” Friedman explains. “But the great thing about now is social media is just such a big support of guitar.”
“Just right now, I did two things that are, without social media – no one would know what they are. But I did a great collaboration with Ichika Nito, and it’s all over social media now.”
That reach, he argues, has real-world consequences for the instrument’s future.
“And that gets people who sit around watching the internet all day to play guitar, you know what I mean. And if there wasn’t interest in guitar from those people, they’d be playing games or other things,” says Friedman.
“But it’s wonderful to see those people feel the fun of playing guitar and get the satisfaction. I’m sure it’s fun playing video games too, but it’s wonderful to play an instrument with your hands and not just a computer. And so thanks to social media, there’s a lot of excitement in the guitar.”
That optimism isn’t universally shared, though. Joe Bonamassa has previously cautioned that the pressure to constantly post on social media can shift the focus away from creativity and music-making itself.
“How long you can stay inspired doing one-minute videos is up to the individual,” Bonamassa said. “And I find that if I feel the need to stay relevant because I haven’t posted something in a minute and I just go, ‘I haven’t played guitar today but let me tune this Les Paul up and do a one-minute video.’”
“I’ve been guilty of this in the past where that one minute where it took me to film something in one take and just throw on Instagram was the only minute of music I had made that entire day. And that’s not for me,” said the guitarist. “That’s crossing a line where your inspiration is the dopamine you’re going to get from the comment sections of your social media. So for me personally, that’s not the lifestyle I want to live.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
