Is shred REALLY dead?

[satriani_is_great]

If someone new came out with a really good shred band, maybe like malmsteen influenced, do you think that they will still become famous, make lots of money and get great recognition???...or is shred really dead? can you still make millions?

[Incidents Happen]

NOPE

[PonyOne]

Right now, I think that the US is sort of searching for the next pop... the girls who liked the boy bands are getting older and more mature, no one cares what britney got reconstructed now, and people everywhere seem to be gettin gsick of the "rollin and Escalade, drinkin a 40, wearing platinum chains, stealin yo lady" image.

The grunge rock "revolution" or whatever you want to call it was a reaction against the untouchable, oversexed, god-like stature that had become late 80's pop: heavy metal, butt rock, hair music, whatever you want to call it.

As a guitarist I appreciate the technical stylings that some of these guys had (Slash versus Kurt Cobain), but the lyrics often lacked the backing that earlier metal had, and who wants to be a fan of a guy who will punch you in the face & haul your girl in back?

Bands like Nirvana brought music back down to street-level; anyone who wrote good lyrics, had a rudimentary knowledge of their instrument and had a disdain of spandex, Lamborghini's and white tigers could get a career in music (or so they said).

Right now I think that we've ended up at that stage: people are sick of people who don't give a damn about them getting richer and richer, the lyrics are getting recycled (look at the mad rush in recent years in hip hop and R&B to redo other people's stuff and dress cool doing it to make millions and get status with minimal effort). People are getting more into stuff by Linkin Park, Sum 41, and Blink 182; I personally loathe all of the afore mentioned as pop played with guitars & drums rather than au capella and synthesizer. But System Of A Down, who I do like, had a recent stint, and I think that hints at what the people want... stuff that sounds good, not just looks good.

It could be shred, it could be a Cat Stevens-ish revival, throwback to psychadelia, grunge rock revolution #2, or out and out house techno could be the nexxt big thang.

I wouldn't be crushed if my band happened to define that sound...

[Zeppelin]

the whole thing brings us back to the "nirvana revolution"
and the answer to your question is simply "no".
i mean there ARE shredders who are recording stuff, and gigging and everything, but only musicians listen to those guys.
i dont believe that anyone from the street will listen to shredding because sometimes it is music which is hard to listen to, and people like simple stuff.
thats why nirvana sucessed so much. it also gave many people the feeling that you dont have to play good to be mega star, and then we have blink 182, and all this crap.
and millions of people around the world who play the guitar, dont want to play the blues, because most of them dont even know it exsist, and they also too lazy to learn how to shredd. so by end they are playing kurt cobain all day long, and think he is the best player ever.

[trendkillah]

Shred is NOT dead. Jeez, I know most of the guys here are always making fun of this kind of MUSIC(open your mind, and realize it is more than just playing fast), but personally I find that a bit childish. Maybe it says something about the age of the members here, I don't know.

Just for the record, no "shred" guitarists, other than Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci, are making BIG money. I've even heard of some lesser known guitarist joining the 'n Sync live band recently, and I'm sure he's making a LOT more money that way.(talking about "selling out! but I'd take that gig too in a heartbeat)

So, by it not being dead, I mean that there ARE people who are recording and bringing out music like this, and there ARE people who listen to it. So how could it be dead? Is every style of music that is not mainstream dead? Nope!

If you enjoy listening to "shred"(I hate that name btw), then great! But if you don't, why do you waste you're time and energy bitching and whining about how dead it is?

That is all! ;)


Greetz, TK

[lalimacefolle]

I know everyone will want to kill me after this one....

Shred is dead, because shredders have lost their audience along the way... Instead of writing cool music, they played over vamps (typically on a shred album, an A minor, an E major, 3 rockers, a tribute to Bach, and a ballad) only to show off... Everything has started to sound alike, pretty muck like what we actually hear on MTV with rythm and blues...

Shred is dead, but dedicated players still play their great music, but because of the 80s shredders, they are usually associated with fast licks that all sound the same. Those players are Shawn LANE, Allan HOLDSWORTH, Ron THAL, Sylvain LUC, all those guys use speed as a tool, but their music is miles ahead of our time. But because a bunch of lazy speeders, they'll never reach real success...

[satriani_is_great]

If you were to mix shred with new rock would that be selling out?

[trendkillah]

Originally posted by satriani_is_great
If you were to mix shred with new rock would that be selling out?

If that's the kind of music you want to make, not at all! Selling out is setting your personal style asside in order to reach more people.(read: sell more records)

[Incidents Happen]

Originally posted by trendkillah
Shred is NOT dead. Jeez, I know most of the guys here are always making fun of this kind of MUSIC(open your mind, and realize it is more than just playing fast), but personally I find that a bit childish. Maybe it says something about the age of the members here, I don't know.

Just for the record, no "shred" guitarists, other than Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci, are making BIG money. I've even heard of some lesser known guitarist joining the 'n Sync live band recently, and I'm sure he's making a LOT more money that way.(talking about "selling out! but I'd take that gig too in a heartbeat)

So, by it not being dead, I mean that there ARE people who are recording and bringing out music like this, and there ARE people who listen to it. So how could it be dead? Is every style of music that is not mainstream dead? Nope!

If you enjoy listening to "shred"(I hate that name btw), then great! But if you don't, why do you waste you're time and energy bitching and whining about how dead it is?

That is all! ;)


Greetz, TK

ok what? i didnt use any energy with my simple "NOPE" and PonyOne even made it better, but we didnt make fun of it, we didnt do namecalling. and my "nope" was meant for his question "can they still make millions" and besides a few, shredders arent rakin in the dough.
zeppelin made an awesome statement about nirvana, i mean all kirt cobain really played was a few chords each song, maybe a short ( VERY SHORT ) solo somewhere in there, but really his music was simplified. people loved it because it was good music overall that if they got stuck in their head, they didnt get a headache from it. now, get a shredder song stuck in your head, and after a day or two, tell me if you have a headache. i'll hide the aspirin.

[trendkillah]

First of, I was replying to his question, not to the replies in this thread. And I based my answer on the general attitude about "shredding" whenever the subject comes up on this board.(example: the warming up thread James started)

Originally posted by Incidents Happen

people loved it because it was good music overall that if they got stuck in their head, they didnt get a headache from it. now, get a shredder song stuck in your head, and after a day or two, tell me if you have a headache. i'll hide the aspirin.

All I can say about this is that music is purely subjective. What one persons hates, the other will love. If a "shredder song" gives you a headache, that's cool, you probably learned your lesson, and will never listen to it again. But why assume it's like that for everybody? Cause it's not.


Greetz, TK

[Incidents Happen]

oh-
that one paragraph when it ended with "Nope!" i thought you were mocking my answer

[trendkillah]

Originally posted by Incidents Happen
oh-
that one paragraph when it ended with "Nope!" i thought you were mocking my answer

Nah, not at all, mocking someone is not my style. I leave that to the kiddies. ;)

[pstring]

Reading the original post, I would have to say, not dead, but maybe old and boring, could a new shredder make it big? maybe, but probaly not someone with a style that is derivative of someone else, thats what kills a style, 6 million clones, when something fresh comes out, like EVH in 78, I don't remember anyone saying, Hey he sounds like...... , The new thing has to be new, as for million dollar shredders, a good band, with good songs, a good vocalist and so so musicans, will probaly earn more than all shredders put together

[Raskolnikov]

Let us not forget Buckethead. If anybod is doing anything original with Shred these days, it's him.

I think there will always be a place for Shred as there will always be a place for any kind of music out there. There will always be a small, faithful audience, while the large, rather unfaithful audience will shift from genre to genre as they become popular. It's the way the world works.

I've said this before, and I've said this again: Stay true to yourself and the music that you know in your heart that you have to make, and you'll never go wrong. Maybe you'll be workin' at Burger King and playing for crowds of six to ten people, but you'll be satisfied.

[Lordathestrings]

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
...Maybe you'll be workin' at Burger King and playing for crowds of six to ten people, but you'll be satisfied.

And not tryin' t' live on dose jaysus awful MacChokenspew t'ings! :D

[Zeppelin]

actualy in my post i didnt mean to say nirvana was a good band.
i was just saying that shredding became a sort of alternative music, mainly because its very hard to shredd good.

[Incidents Happen]

yeah, but ( in my opinion ) nirvana was the best band playing in the early ninety's, witht he exception of the grateful dead