Just a few days ago it was reported that the iconic guitar brand Gibson could be facing bankruptcy. The news beckoned a prevailing question – where could rock music possibly be heading?
Although “guitar” based genres seem to be thriving at the moment (just suss how many “rock” tracks dominated this year’s Hottest 100, check out how many local up and coming acts will be storming the Download Festival Australia stage etc.), pessimists seem to squander in the idea that its a mere notion of the past.
Matt Bellamy could be contributing to this mindset, revealing recently in an interview with BBC that he believes the guitar “is no longer a lead instrument”.
In the interview, Bellamy expanded on the idea that he thinks that rock bands have “one foot in the past, playing instruments like guitar, bass and drums” because now genres like “classical and hip hop” can be fused.
Considering Muse have managed to maintain the status as one of the most commercially and critically successful rock acts of the last 15 years, he continued to state that thought that rock music was more of an “aesthetic” that people “attached themselves to”, removed from the music itself.
“It’s almost like genre was an aesthetic that people attached themselves to, not just in music but also in the way they dressed and the kind of friends they hung around with.”
“I feel like that age has come to an end and what’s interesting about music now is not just the style-blending but the era-blending.”
This comes after the band announced the release of their latest single ‘Thought Contagion’ that was written with the “concept of memes” in mind. Considering ‘memes’ could quite possibly be the most symbolic marker of the 2010’s, Bellamy believes that acts have the opportunity to create “timeless” music.
Check out ‘Thought Contagion’ below:
