No More Heroes

At the recent MI Retail Conference & Expo (a gathering of the UK’s musical instrument industry) one of the panel sessions drew a question from the floor regarding the influence of famous musicians in the past in getting ‘the kids’ to play musical instruments.

It went something like this…

“During the 60s and 70s, musical heroes would inspire younger people to play and this would get them into our shops and create new customers, Even in the 90s with Oasis and the Brit Pop wave, there was a push from the musicians to get kids playing. There doesn’t seem to be anyone any more and I was wondering why the panel thinks there are no more heroes.”

Paraphrased, but pretty much the thrust of the question. Unfortunately, at the time the panel was discussing the relationship between supplier and retailer and why some big retailers had gone out of business in recent years and the chair had to push the question to one side (although the ever-wise Noel Sheehan of Sheehan’s Music in Leicester did allude to it, although from where I was I couldn’t hear what he said!).

But it did get me thinking. Is this true? Are there really no more heroes? I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has started playing in the past year or two as the result of being inspired by a contemporary musician.

My general disinterest of pop stars and celebrity means I am probably not the person to tackle this, but it does interest me. For what it’s worth, off the top of my head, these are the most recent heroes for any given interest…

Guitar: Slash (80s/90s)
Drums: Dave Grohl (current)
Bass: Flea (80s/90s) (There is, of course, the mighty John Paul-Jones of Led Zeppelin who is currently holding the low end of the rhythm section with Grohl in Them Crooked Vultures, but I’m not sure what ‘the kids’ think when they see an old wrinkly on stage struttin’ his stuff – I know it does it for me, but I’m an old wrinkly who grew up with Led Zep.)
Keys: Norah Jones (current – although she is admittedly a pianist… a hero keyboard player? Er… Howard Jones? Oh, hang on… Chris Martin, anyone?)

Heroes from the brasswind and orchestral strings, I’m afraid, drag me personally back to the 1940s… Although there is Jean Luc Ponty on violin and that girl… Er Teresa Mae, was it?)

So, yes, it is a struggle. There don’t really appear to be heroes any more, despite the fact there are a lot of instrument playing collectives driving the big chunks of the charts in the shape of your Coldplays and Snow Patrols, Gorillaz, Flaming Lips and Arctic Monkeys.

There are a couple of issues here. When punk came along, it spurned musicality and reverted to short sharp bursts of three-minute assaults that relied heavily on chords and voices. Then comes the current mainstream predilection for so-called talent shows – even shorter bursts of one-and-a-half minute dribbles almost exclusively centred around singing.

Ah, yes, the singer. Now this seems to be where the heroes are coming forth, there was a time when the strutting guy who made hot moves with a mic stand was almost a side show to the musicians, but these days to sing is to be king. Interestingly, I’m not sure that singers sell microphones…

The broader question is, of course, whether any artist influences the sales of any given instrument. That they inspire people to play I don’t think there’s any doubt, but am I interested in the fact that a certain guitarist plays a certain model of guitar? Less so, it seems to me, although the manufacturers (particularly the ones that don’t like to pay for adverts – and there are a lot of them) would have you believe the opposite.

I think diversity is a big part of the equation, too. There are simply so many acts and so much music that singling out a particular hero from among the multitudes of thumpers, noodlers and warblers just isn’t inherent in the culture of popular music anymore.

And yet, in terms of units sold, there are more musical instruments out there than ever before – thus adding still more to the diversity of music being made…

What the retailer asking the question was worried about, of course, was where his profits have gone. Unit sales up, but margins are squeezed to near extinction, making it a tough job to make a living out of musical instruments.

There aren’t really any heroes any more, just the growing wall of sound created by the endless stream of ordinary people (me included) making music. The real problem is making enough space and enough quiet in which a careful amount of quality music can be placed – hopefully with a touch of acumen, a degree of taste and a big dollop of sensitivity.