I like guitar solos... I guess I should give up on guitar now.

Got nothing to do with that, it's just about having a bit of taste and not boring everyone other than the majority of guitar players.

Why don't such bands get signed?

Because they don't sell.

Why don't they sell?

Because people are bored of long guitar solo's. They sound rubbish and mean nothing.

In fact when you view the song as a whole, a long boring solo detracts from the song.

Wonder why the Beatles sold so many singles? Because they were master songwriters.

What didn't they have? Long boring guitar solo's.

The same could be said of Michael Jackson or Elvis. Never mind Hendrix and Clapton and the triffling amount of records they sold. It's absolutely nothing in comparison to the likes of the Stones, who also don't bore with navel gazing garbage. Despite having a run of guitarists more than capable enough.

Ok Fleetwood Mac outsold both the Stones and the Beatles from 67-69 and did have longwinded boring moments. I think it was a symptom of the age, the public was out of their off their heads. They kept their recordings short and too the point.

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No no and no

I am a big fan of short riffs between versus as in turn arounds and such. To me thats guitar playin.

record labels are looking for acts that have a following of fans, have done their homework ie good songs, good ground level promoting, consistently draw crowds to their gigs. So many independent labels are successful because the acts they sign have already done most of the heavy lifting and really only need a good distribution deal. Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton were new and broke from the top forty crowd with their guitar pyrotechnics and song structures that were different at that time. Niki describes it perfectly, if people aren't dancing or at least tapping their toes to your music they might just as well stay home and listen to some classical music. Rock music lost young people to rap and hip-hop because you could bump and grind to it and unless you were masochistic in the pit or a wallflower feeling sorry for yourself there really wasn't a lot to do with most rock, but, there has always been good rock available and there still is it's just not the dominant form anymore and that's good because (bad pun here) the cream always rises to the top. so Nevin, you start the band and I'll write a couple of songs for your Fender band to give your project a good start.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

The work of Hendrix and Clapton isn't what I call "solo infested garbage".

However, I do agree with the premise that what Satriani, Vai, Petrucci, and Malmsteen do is virtually soulless and boring. These four guys and the players who successfully emulate them or emulate them with moderate success are more so magicians than musicians: it's all about showing off and impressing the audience all in the name of having your ego stroked.

Musicians like the four I mentioned are what I think contributes to guitarists periodically falling out of favor with lead guitar. When everyone is learning scales, theory, and techniques simply so they can wank on stage, then it all starts to seem pointless.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

Hendrix live and cream era Clapton live certainly was. They had the good sense of a producer in the studio. Onstage there was no one to pull the plug on em and tell em, enough already.
Kramer and Peperardi(not sure of spelling) never got enough credit for them albums.

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No no and no

*coughcough*lynyrd skynyrd*coughcough*

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies