This is not my battle exactly, but since the thread has been resurected, I wanted to respond to a couple of comments that appeared in recent posts. First, nobody has suggested that GT has gone “out of their way to pick songs played, sung and written by old white men.” Furthermore, the suggestion that wanting to have more diversity in the artists whose songs are selected for lessons is an example of wokism’s “constant attack on white man” is ridiculous. I mean, come one. What was suggested is that GT includes more songs from women and black guitarists.
[br]The main argument against this, as expressed in a few recent posts, is something to the effect that GT shouldn’t consider anything other than whether a song is “good,” coupled with a statement that the poster is color blind when it comes to music and likes songs by both black and white and male and female artists. If the only criterion was being good, would it also be OK if >95% of the lessons were good songs from guitarists such as Traci Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, Jewell, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Lauryn Hill, Sister Rosetta Thorpe, etc…maybe with a song by Led Zeppelin thrown in? The 95% is not a random number I came up with to make a point. I looked at the first 100 songs in the song lesson list (sorted by recency) and approximately 95% are by men and 98% are by white artists. Does that reflect the actual proportion of “good” guitar songs out there in the universe? Does it reflect the actual proportion of charted songs with good guitar parts? Maybe...I don't know the answer but I don't think the question is in-and-of-itself unreasonable, and I wouldn't bet money that the answer is yes.
[br]With respect to the thing about music being color-blind, I’m sure we’re all gender/color-blind in the sense that we like the music we like based on the music and not the gender or ethnicity of the artist, but it seems to me that that’s somewhat beside the point. Unfortunately, people are too quick to assume the worst intentions of someone who has a different view and then react against that rather than the respond to the actual point of contention. It's relevant that men and women do not have overlapping musical tastes. A lot of data has shown that men are more likely than woman to prefer songs by male artists, and versa. In one study of about 200,000 streaming service customers, it was found that the top 5 artists as ranked by males were all men, whereas the 4 of the top 5 artists as ranked by woman were woman (Bruno Mars appeared on both lists). Is it surprising, for example, that men are more likely than women to prefer songs by acts such as Iron Maiden, Rage Against the Machine, and N.W.A., whereas women are more likely to enjoy the guitar and lyrical stylings of Pink, Sia and Adelle? There’s nothing wrong with that but since we all would prefer to play the songs we most like, it seems to me a nearly inescapable conclusion that men are somewhat better served than women by the GT song lesson list. I suspect one could make a similar argument with respect to ethnicity.
[br]Now, maybe the GT membership is dominated by older white guys like me and the songs are selected based on our preferences (i.e., it’s a business decision to best serve the current audience). I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s possible and not, to me, necessarily objectionable. It does beg the question though of what’s the chicken and what’s the egg. Do the song lessons reflect the membership or is the membership at least partly a function of the song lessons offered? It’s also possible that the song lessons offered are at least partly a reflection of the experience and interest of the instructors and their demographic.
While the current song list selection works for me, I certainly don’t object if someone who would like to see an expanded selection of songs expresses that opinion or if GT acted on it. Whether they act on it or not, I would think GT would be happy for any input as to how to better serve their membership or perhaps expand it.
