It's 2020--are guitar/bass/drums enough?

Couldn't have said it better myself...

 

Who cares if it "further evolves?" Do you like it? If so, enjoy it, Music is for pleasure, not for measurable progress.

 

they will always be enough...

 

Just based upon both your screen name and your Avatar statement, although it is the antithesis of what we are discussing here, I frigg'n LOVE all things Industrial, which is primarily made up of 'drum machines' and synths... FRONT 242, FRONTLINE ASSEMBLY, KEVORKIAN DEATH CULT, ASSEMBLAGE 23, EVIL'S TOY, etc., etc., etc., (dare I say... SKINNY PUPPY! ) [sorry to be OT here guys, just responding to this fellow's fellow love of this stuff ]

 

ABSOLUTELY! I couldn't possibly have said it better myself

Like all Art my friends... it is was MOVES and resonates with you that matters.

 

Two words - Ty Segall

 

yeah, I could kinda go for that...

 

Quite good... Not seen them before. Nice leads which to me is a true primary staple of Rock. I like the style of the tall guy, but I being a guitar player myself (using the term VERY loosely) I can never understand why some of these guys do not use their pinky in playing leads and only use three fingers...??? I mean, it still sounds very good, but that really limits your range lead wise. I usually see this with really old time guitar players, but I was kind of surprised to see it here...

 

HOLY SMOK'N MONKEY NUTZ!!!!!!!!

Damn these ladies are HOTTT!

Wow... I think I'm sterile now...

Thank you very much for this! I'm going to try to find everything I can from them. MUCH obliged!

 

Because that which doesn’t evolve tends to die off or become endangered or irrelevant, and I’d like to see it as a musical format continue.

 

Yes, I was pretty astonished when i came across it as well! It's a very big reminder that there is much we don't know about how, where and why rock music continues to matter to people around the world, as opposed to what it means just in the Anglo speaking world.....

 

Guitars, bass and drums is plenty enough for me. The album I'm working on is just that. Indeed, the decision to have no other sorts of instruments was finalised after joining this forum and reading all the threads like this one.

 

For the average musician, I think the bass/drums/guitar format puts a ceiling on your career and almost forces you to specialize in a particular niche. If you're some crazy outlier, then you can write your own rules. Ed Sheeran did quite well for himself with just a guitar, but his popularity really exploded when he went full Top 40 with his production.

It's probably not a great idea if your plan is to do by-the-numbers rock music. It's also probably not a great idea to take a whack at being "experimental" with just those instruments since that ground has been explored quite thoroughly over the years.

 

While there's plenty of room for other musical experimentation and sounds, guitar/bass/drums is the heart of music (primarily rock) for the past century. As long as there is melody and some sense of feeling, it's fine. Those instruments are like numbers. There's infinite possibilities of what can be done. If you add individualism, it goes even further than that.

 

Add collectivism and all can have a blast

 

Low

IMO. Killing it in 1994, still killing it on Sup Pop label since 2005. Redefining what drums, bass, and guitar can do into the slowcore genre. Mimi on drums.

Not Rush, Low... drums, bass, guitar... something new. 2020 still good.

 

I certainly believe Alan Sparhawk to be one of the great songwriters of his generation, and mostly overlooked.

 

After more than six decades, I think that it's fair to say that guitar rock as a genre has become a bit played out relative to where it was back in the 60s and 70s, when the field was wide open for fresh experimentation. This isn't to say that there aren't still talented artists out there delivering great new music. Ty Segall was mentioned above and I would definitely point to him as a younger artist who has assembled an impressive, varied body of work, though it has something of a retro feel to it. There are only so many times that you can reinvent the wheel without it becoming something unrecognizable, so guitar rock has largely been supplanted by newer forms like hip hop and electronic music in more recent decades. Hopefully, creative young minds will continue to find new wrinkles in the old formula.

 

Sorry kids, with a few exceptions, rock music stopped being interesting along time ago.

 

Ultimately, I think what really matters is good songs that speak to people. Whenever there's someone with something to say, that'll keep it alive. But I don't expect rock music to just morph into a brand new sound anymore, that's not likely to happen any time soon.

 

Uh oh... I think it's time for someone's nap...

 

I’m a guitar player. I love rock music. But everything that can be done in the context of tonal music with recognizable song structures with just bass-drums-guitar has been done. It makes me sad, but it’s just how it is.

I like a lot of new music outside of that mold, but the downside is the reliance on synths and sequences means the live performances often aren’t as satisfying.

 

No. Lou Reed would tell us it’s two guitars, bass and drums that you need.

 

Haram Scarem