“People have been deprived of guitar music, but now it’s coming back”: Liam Gallagher’s son thinks Oasis reunion could kick off a new guitar music boom
After years of chart dominance by synths, samples and algorithm-driven pop, guitar music appears to be on the verge of a full-blown comeback. A new generation of fans is discovering the thrill of distortion, riffs and sweat-soaked gigs, and arguably few events could accelerate that resurgence more than the upcoming Oasis reunion.
Gene Gallagher, son of Liam and frontman of indie band Villanelle, is among those who think the moment is ripe.
“People have been deprived of guitar music,” the 23-year-old tells W Magazine. “But now it’s coming back, and everyone’s getting excited about it.”
READ MORE: “That’s the one I played Wonderwall on!”: How a guitar-smashing bust-up between Liam and Noel Gallagher led to a studio engineer owning an iconic Oasis guitar
Gene, whose band’s first single Hinge arrives later this month, speaks from the frontlines. He and his brother Lennon (who fronts post-rock outfit Automotion) grew up adoring ‘90s grunge, even if their dad wasn’t always on board.
“Heavy guitar music – that’s what I like,” Gene says. “My dad wasn’t fond of the grunge stuff, but I made him come around to it as he got older.”
While streaming trends have favoured hiphop and TikTok-tailored beats for the better part of the past decade, guitar-led music has been steadily creeping back into the cultural mainstream. Acts like Wet Leg, Covet and Yungblud have introduced guitar textures to Gen Z audiences, while legacy sounds from My Bloody Valentine to Nirvana continue to resurface in viral clips and tour merch.
Even Polyphia’s Tim Henson recently weighed in on the shift. “I’d say guitar music got cool!” he told Guitar World earlier this year. “Maybe we had a little to do with that, maybe we didn’t.”
Henson also pointed to Machine Gun Kelly’s genre shift from rapper to chart-topping pop-punk provocateur as a major turning point in bringing the guitar back into the limelight: “Around that time, Eminem did the thing with MGK, and kind of made him switch genres. And then MGK got a number one record with a guitar on the cover, which is really cool,” he said.
As for the Gallagher kids, they’re aware that what fans want from this Oasis tour isn’t just nostalgia but connection.
“So many people want to go with their dad, because he played Oasis in the car when he was driving them to school,” says Gene’s sister Anaïs. “Music is an emotional experience – it’s not just a night out.”
“Gone are the days of fan clubs and seeking out a B-side and buying a magazine because your favorite artist had an interview in there,” she says. “Now there’s less of a community among fans, and I think that people are desperate for that. The Internet can be such a lonely landscape that coming together with others who have a mutual interest in something positive, like music, really benefits people.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
