The Day the Guitar Heroes Died part 2

Can you name one guitar player from the likes of Blink 182, Yellow Card, Train or even the rebel voice of the 21st century, Green Day? Hell no! Why you might ask? Because rock music of today truly deserves the label “corporate” rock. Bands of the past such as Styx, Journey and Reo Speed wagon were accused of this because their releases followed a formulaic pattern. Today’s bands are virtually interchangeable musically. Sure some have their gimmicks…..Yellow card using electric fiddles in place of guitars* or Bliks very distinctive vocal style. However, other than those two examples the bands of today are all clones of each other. Record company execs are grasping at the remnants of once great recording empires. If you truly want to hear original music one must turn to the internet. Websites like “MySpace” and “cd baby” are the places to visit.
I used to loose my mind every time I heard a classic guitar oriented song in a TB commercial. Not anymore. Those commercials are keeping the rock of my youth alive. So the next time your 14 year old kid is humming that Zepplin, ELO, Boston or Beatles song they heard on the commercial for a Cadillac be sure to school them in rock history and pass along that coveted Bon Jovi cd.
Don’t get ne wrong, there are some bans of today that are worth taking a listen too. Linkin Park, Salvia, Papa Roach, Sun 41, Green Day and a few others. Then there are bands like Velvet Revolver, made up of members of Guns and Roses and Stone Temple Pilots.
I was shocked to hear that British metal gods, Judas Priest have a new album dropping in late June or early July that is dropping #1 on the charts. The first time for them in the 40+ years they have been rocking.
With the huge popularity of “retro” rock tours of the past few years maybe we will see the second coming of the Guitar Gods.
Long live Van Halen, Lynch,Newstead,Vai,Satriami,Nuegemt,Rhodes,VanZant and all the rest.
We are Legion!