I sure do miss bands that would showcase great guitar music and especially the stand alone solos. I don't understand why modern music lost that.
People who appreciate talent, meaning they enjoy recognition of experiencing something uncommon with few or not other people being able to emulate it are rare in todays' market where the primal beat has overtaken the melody.
There are no really good guitar players out there in new music because the definition has changed.
People confuse fast or heavy or articulate as being good and anything not contemporary top 40 to be old hat, but what is missing and seldom seen any more is feel. The other thing is that modern players often struggle with older classic rock which is why you don;t see much of it with younger bands though they admit to listening to it. I learned that when I owned a bar. They told me. The bands I hired loved the songs the kids played on the juke box but there was not the talent to play it. They told me.
Clapton was a pioneer, so was the man who idolized him, Hendrix. Page influenced everyone. Blackmore with his original staccato style of playing was different again and bot understated and underrated.
What Clapton and Gilmore taught the music world is that a melodic sound and even a one note solo can captivate an audience because of the emphasis on sound, music and tone it provides to compliment the song as a solo is meant to be and not the the self absorbed marketing exercise in attempting to stand out over the band and competition which is largely became.
The 2 musicians that stand out for playing less and impressing more also made it harder to emulate as you cannot fudge feel. Those were Clapton on guitar and Andy Fraser on Bass who actually slowed down his bass notes over his career and made it much harder for the cover bands to emulate as he had as Clapton, both feel and technique.
With that, we are left with the listener and the expert.
The listener is of most value, as he is the arbiter of what is pleasing and good, supported by his wallet.
The expert is more often offering opinion which is subjective enough that we never have the same record collections, not ever will.
If there is a 3rd group, it is the musician who listens to not only what is played, but how it is played and using what equipment, so that the player can be separated, digested and appreciated for what they bring to the song.
Collectively, we are the audience and what we like, is of importance to ourselves, collectively.
