The bass guitar is turning into one of the least known instruments of this era of music. It seems like its just fading off this planet. I've had friends come over my house, take a look at my bass guitar, and go "wow awesome guitar!". It makes me cringe a little on the inside because I don't know if they really know its a bass guitar or if they just see a stringed instrument and assume its an electric guitar. I admit that they do look similar, but to me its pretty easy to determine that a bass guitar is both longer and usually has less strings than a normal electric guitar. But seeing some of my friends unable to tell what a bass guitar is just tells me that the role the bass guitar has in music is fading away.
Can you name a band in popular music today, where you can truly say that the bass guitar is a defining aspect of their sound? Sadly I can only name a few, for example RHCP's Flea is probably one of the most influential bassists of this day. Usually in music today, the sound of a bass guitar is almost nonexistant. The bass guitar is always there, but it just gets covered up by everything else. If you can get past the layers of loud, distorted guitar, and whiny vocals, then you can find the soft sound of the bass guitar. And heres the kicker; usually the bass guitar is really a plain and simple bassline that consists of a repetition of one or two notes. Whats wrong with the bassists in these bands? The bass guitar is one of the most diverse instruments I can think of because of all the different sounds and beats that come out of it. It just disturbs me to see the bassists in these bands today being really uncreative about the music that they play. Playing bass guitar in that way is really boring to me; I prefer slapping and popping because its fun to play and it sounds funky, unlike the droning sound that bassists usually play in rock songs.
Bleh two rants in a row. I'll continue with the posts about my life in the next few posts
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