Carl Brown
By Martine Ehrenclou
Since there was such a dramatic response from R&BMuse followers to the Music Radar article, “Eric Clapton: Maybe the Guitar is Over” I decided to interview Carl Brown of the popular online guitar lesson site, Guitarlessons365.com. I wanted to hear his take on the possible decline of guitar and asked for his response to the articles in Music Radar, Guitar Player and Washington Post—all three reporting that guitar is nearly done. Gasp.
Carl has an interesting perspective since he is the founder and sole instructor at the popular online guitar lesson site GuitarLessons365.com. He has an amazing online guitar community with thousands of guitar players from all over the world using his lessons daily, ever since he created the site in 2009. He has been a professional musician for over 20 years. His guitar instruction videos on YouTube have received over 140 million views. Students come to him and his site for mostly rock, classic rock, blues and metal guitar lessons.
Personally, I don’t believe that the guitar is declining in popularity except for in pop music, as I see a large community who love guitar as I do.
Let’s see what Carl Brown has to say.
Martine: Are there fewer students wanting to learn guitar now?
Carl: There are definitely less people wanting to learn the guitar these days. However, I feel like the ones who do choose to play the guitar, become far better players, in much less time than ever before due to the massive amount of info they can get online.
Martine: Do you see a decline in popularity of the guitar?
Carl: In my opinion, I see a decline in guitar but it is more based on popular music than anything else. If you check out the Billboard top 100, you will find only a small fraction of songs that have any guitar at all and it is almost never the dominant sound of a popular song.
When I was growing up in the 80’s and beginning to learn to play, the top 100 songs in the U.S. were always a lot more varied than it is now. You would have massive pop artists like Michael Jackson, right beside hard rock artists like GN’R or Motley Crue. Tons of great pop bands like Duran Duran and Tears For Fears, shared the charts with acts such as U2, Van Halen, Def Leppard and countless others. There really was a huge variety of popular music to choose from.
Martine: What’s the difference between those artists you just described and the artists today?
Carl: One thing those artists had was real talent. They had to perform all of their music for real. It was also much harder to record music in those days, so by the time a band had made it to the point of getting recorded, they had usually worked very hard at their craft. Now you can record music in your home that sounds just as good as anything on the radio, with software that is either free or costs very little. In addition to that, you don’t have to be able to play any instrument or be able to sing. With the use of sampling and auto-tune, just about anyone can create popular music these days. Perhaps that is why so many new “musicians” take that road. It is much easier than spending years learning how music works and to develop technique on an instrument, and unfortunately, I think pop culture is less focused on knowledge and more into social media. It got to the point a few years ago that most new pop artists seemed to have a reality show first before anyone would put money behind their albums.
Martine: What’s happening with the quality of music today?
Carl: These days, when I hear any top song whether it be pop, hip-hop or whatever, it is all recorded the same with the same mechanical feel about it. I think people who first started listening to music over the past 15 years or so, may have never ventured beyond what has feed them through social media, and simply don’t know what it sounds like to hear a real musician perform. If it doesn’t have the auto-tune effect on the vocals, a highly quantized drum track, and the same familiar sample based instrumentation, they think it sounds wrong. If they hear a band like Led Zeppelin which is just 4 guys looking at each in a room playing, they think “these guys sound horrible.” They simply don’t know what a real performance sounds like.
Martine: Where do you think guitar is still very popular?
Carl: I think guitar is less prominent than it was a decade or two ago, but the small niche groups of the various guitar styles are more loyal than ever. If you think about it, the styles of music that most guitar players have played are rock, classic rock, metal, blues and jazz. Of all of those styles, only rock or classic rock have ever truly dominated the music industry. But the metal, blues and jazz genres still have a loyal following since they were never really at the top of the charts, consistently anyway. It was never meant to be music of mass consumption, it was there for the people who sought it out and I feel there will always be people that do.
Martine: What’s your response to the Guitar Player and Washington Post articles regarding declining guitar sales?
Carl: When it comes to declining guitar sales, I think that has to do with a few challenges within the industry. The bigger guitar manufactures simply don’t take chances anymore. They still pump out the same guitars that they have for decades with only minor changes. One thing that has changed is the overall quality of guitars has improved dramatically over the past 10 years or so since there is so much more competition for the lower priced guitar market. Because these guitars are higher quality, players feel less of a need to upgrade. There are also many boutique makers now as well that compete for the higher priced instruments. The big manufacture’s high-end guitars are not much different than their lower priced models. They are also WAY over-priced. You are paying for the name more than anything.
Martine: What else do you think has contributed to reduced sales of big name guitars?
Carl: Another element to all of this is how these companies have been unable to adapt to the different marketing strategies out there. They will throw tens of thousands of dollars into print media for one of their new guitars, when a 12-year-old doing a review of the same guitar on his YouTube channel will have a much bigger impact on sales. From my own experience as someone who has a large YouTube following, I know that the bigger companies have failed at capturing the newer online markets like the smaller companies have. I am sure that has contributed to lower sales but for some reason, none of the big companies can ever seem to learn from their mistakes and take advantage of new advertising possibilities. it is a much different world than it was 10 years ago.
Martine: Do you think there is a solution?
Carl: In the end, this all comes down to record company executives and music instruments company executives having a little more guts. I am sure there will eventually be a new band that will breakout and top the charts with guitar based music again. Will that use a big shift in the industry when it happens? Probably not. The technology advancements of the past decade have changed who is considered a “musician” and what popular music sounds like to the point that I don’t ever think it will dominate the charts like it did before. But there will still be millions of players that are very dedicated to the instrument and playing it better than ever before.
Martine: I believe we’ll have a pendulum swing back to more natural sounding music and that will include guitar. The change may just occur in a different form
Carl: That has definitely been the case in the past. From the classic rock of the early to mid-seventies, it switched to disco. From disco back to punk rock and metal. Then synth driven pop and rock in the 80’s until the hair bands took over. Then grunge was another swing back away from the glitz to a more stripped down style of music. The one thing all of those genres had in common is that there were some great musicians in all of them. But I don’t think there is really any current genre that is dominating the charts. It is more of a style of recording driven by the ease of technology that has now been in place for well over a decade. I don’t see people giving up their technology any time soon. So the culture around that will probably not be dominated by musical instruments or musical training. It would be great if those worlds could come together though.
One great thing about the technological advancements in recording is that there are many guitar players that can more easily record themselves. They also have the ability to promote themselves on YouTube and develop a large following without any need for a record label. That to me is exciting. Because of that, I generally don’t really pay too much attention to what the current music trends are. I know what I like, and I can find plenty of players to support just by spending an afternoon on YouTube and finding them. If media writers did the same, they would quickly see that the guitar is far from dead!
Martine: I like hearing that. Thanks so much for your time and for sharing your interesting insights.
Carl: Thank you.
For more information about Carl Brown and Guitar Lessons 365:
Website: https://guitarlessons365.com
I welcome your comments below.
Country music is more guitar oriented and sells very well. This was not never mentioned in the interview.
Marc,
You’re right and it wasn’t. Thanks for your comment.
I honestly believe that the past few generations of kids that have come up and started making music simply don’t have the attention span it takes to sit in their bedroom and learn how to play an instrument any more, I am not sure if it is down to things like computers or social media becoming a distraction or what but it seems like is you can’t program a computer to do it it’s just not worth doing anymore, as a parent I had really high hopes my girls would follow my love of guitar but even growing up in a house full of guitars and music and me playing in a band hasn’t left them wanting to pick one up. Unfortunately once they get home from school it’s straight in to YouTube, robolox, Minecraft or outside to talk to their friends about all of the above.
Boomer 101
(Kids should have their own identities instead of being copies of the parents)
Guitar is hard, yet rewarding. It take practice, which makes it that much sweeter when a player improves. We live in an instant gratification world now. Also, how many guitar acts do you see on America’s Got Talent, The Voice, or American Idol? Right, none.
Lipsyncing is no longer condemned, it is now encouraged. Sad.
However, I do think that there will be a movement to return to listening to actual musicians playing music. The public will eventually get tired of over produced, lip synched, auto tuned, pre recorded, over sampled, and unoriginal music
Randy,
I agree with you on every point you made. Thanks for your comment.
Totally agree. What’s odd is that people want to have things like musical skills or an understanding of music theory, but don’t want to out in the necessary time.
So, an outcome of the instant gratification is that the music now is all done with shortcuts, like Carl said.
There are tons of indie rock and power pop and blues bands out there. Unfortunately the masses are never made aware of them through commercial radio and television. And these musicians have vintage guitar collections you wouldn’t believe . They’ve been saying the guitar is on the decline for decades . ie: Decca Records rejection of The Beatles in 1962.
Reason given ? Guitar groups are on the way out ! LOL. Boy were they wrong .
And it seems there’s local live music everywhere. The hip kids will always find the guitar. There is lots of good music being made out there. You have to seek it out . You’re never going to find out about it through commercial radio and television.
Craig,
Thanks for your insightful comment. You’re right, there are tons of rock and blues bands out there. We try to support many of them because they need to be heard.
I did not know that about Decca Records’ rejection of the Beatles.
Local live shows and concerts all over. And yeah, the hip kids or adults find the guitar.
Guitar is the center of my universe, I eat sleep and breathe it. I watch Carl’s guitar lessons on his channel frequently and he’s great. I agree with him about the state of the music industry and guitar in popular music. I just bought a new Taylor guitar and he’s right about the quality of the lower level guitars and about being over priced and paying for a name. I could’ve bought a equally priced guitar from another brand that was probably a better quality in terms of solid wood instead of layered as in the lower range of Taylor guitars. They use layered wood for the body and sides but solid on top, whereas a Guild of the same price uses solid wood throughout but it’s not made in North America or the US as Taylor is. I guess that’s part of the trade off, but nothing plays like a Taylor guitar!
Patrick
Thanks for your comment. There’s a Guild Guitar group On Facebook. I heard about a lot of Guilds made in North America. Glad you’re enjoying your Taylor! Great guitars. Carl Brown is a terrific teacher.
In my opinion, there is nothing in this world that makes my neck hairs stand up more than hearing a LIVE band play like a well-oiled machine! Stepping in the spotlight to belt out a guitar solo takes a lot of talent. Rhythm just as critical. As a player the love never dies and hopefully a few from the next generation will pickup the torch and play “Raw Live” music like ZZ Top, SRV, Satriani etc. To keep that spirit alive which brings to mind Rush. I’m hoping it comes full circle back to the Cream era before I leave this planet. Great article by the way!
Wesley,
Great comment! Thanks for your insights. I hope so too!
We have much better guitar players than ever. How do we account for that if guitar is declining?
Yeah, honestly, we were known on the NY/NJ/CT scene and when we brought out brand out to Seattle/Tacoma after 2yrs of hitting it 3-4nights/wk in some pretty big clubs with more success than we expected, it was a complete change. Regional album sales were down and I think that’s why we never kicked up to that next level, like opening in an arena for some of the big guys. One producer told us ‘you guys’ playing is just too complex, not ‘dirty enough’ for these kids. Our sound was very akin to scorps/GW/Cinderella but I always had an affinity for bands like candlebox(cool story we were actually pretty close with kev, Dave, Steve and those guys)/ nirvana/pumpkins/even disturbed/chevelle influences – and we created some tracks very akin to their music, added a guy on the synth for some EDM back track; gained some traction and evolved with the new space but MAYBE got back to the notoriety we had back in the tristate area. I mean we won battle of the bands and even got a kudos in rolling stone as a ‘band to watch’, but if you know the scene, all that means is you’re working your ass off and getting noticed…shit we had that back East, we were just playing different music, but it felt cheap. Trust me, living off the dimes you make from the door and cheap merch doesn’t cut it. We didn’t want to fall in with any of the sell-your-soul-for-a-sandwich producers, so we just ended up cuttin bait after another year. Beside, making an album….hah!!! We always sounded better live, wouldn’t have helped a ton. The underground scene was makin some cash, so it was ok for awhile. Anyway, it’s harder out there today. I mean this was 10-15yrs ago so I could only imagine in the 2020s…cheers and good luck, ppl. And auto tune and laced prepared tracks aren’t doing you any favors, guys, get creative!!! Be friggin musicians!!! Ok, I’m gone.
Carl Brown is unbelievable,I learned a lot from him I am older in my 60s and keep on going over and over certain songs to get it in my head,because for me it gets harder to retain things but Carl’s lessons are making me practice for hours and enjoy in fact Carl should be arrested for being so awesome thanks.