I think most forms of music are cool, shred included. Shred is the embodiement of that quest for perfection and moving beyond the conventional borders that contain 95% of guitarist out there today. Like everything, it has been taken to the n'th degree by some, yet look at blues, country and rockabilly....who wants to hear someone else try and put their spin on the pentatonics, it's been done and rehashed so many times that their isn't much originality left. The best musicians the world has ever know are "Shredders" and more, Mozart, Lizt, Paginini, Corea, Davis, Vai and the list goes on, technical virtuosity is the highest form of expression because only a few can pull it off with conviction. My take is people hate shred so much because they don't invest enough time to beef up their own playing to be able to do it, so they put it down. there may be 500 shredders out there today, but there are 100 times that amount of mediocre guitarist that add nothing to any musical idiom. Let us not forget that some of the most influencial guitarist of the past 20 years shred, if its good enough for them and thier legions of fans, its good enough for me. Just my 2 cents.

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