Why Is British Guitar Music So Stagnant?
That is the title of Drowned In Sound’s latest treatise on the state of rock music. Robert Leedham leads this piece exploring why the state of the guitar in the UK is so, well, bland.
“Britain has changed since the 70s, so why is it that our guitar bands are still all white, male and resoundingly polite? Maybe that’s what privilege looks like. Perhaps rebellion isn’t isn’t bothered about the form that Little Richard first popularised in 1955. This depressing state of play was recently acknowledged by The Vaccines’ Justin Young when speaking to the NME.
“I wanted to make a record that was important in 2015 and sound like 2015, sonically and emotionally,” he explained. “People just aren’t ambitious in rock music. If you take hip-hop or pop, they’re a lot more adventurous, they break a lot more rules.”
Conformity is holding back British guitar music with few acts willing to break from tradition and actively upset people. When self-styled rabble rousers Kasabian recently stated “London is full of cunts” via a banner at a Glasgow gig, they quickly blamed the backdrop on a production error and went on to perform a five night residency at Brixton Academy.”
Read on here and feel free to add your two-cents in the comments.
