“The guitar is still a very healthy ingredient in pop music. You get Ed Sheeran, and even Taylor Swift is playing a guitar”: Steve Vai answers the question ‘Is guitar music dead?’

Is guitar music dead? It's not – at least according to Steve Vai. In a recent interview with the Cincinnati Enquire ahead of his co-headline show with Joe Satriani, gave his take on the age-old question.

“Well, the guitar is still a very healthy ingredient in even pop music,” he responded. “You get Ed Sheeran, and even Taylor Swift is playing a guitar. As far as intense playing, it's just not accessible to the masses, usually – the evolution of shred, so to speak.”

“There's a very healthy underground movement of young artists that are just hitting the scene that are doing incredible things on the guitar. Their chops, their ability to navigate the neck is higher than I've ever seen. But it’s relatively niche.”

Due to his status in the guitar world, this is far from the first time that Vai has been asked this question. In a 2018 interview with Andertons Music Co, Vai said that, with every new generation, there’s a paradigm shift that “spreads itself out into evolution in technology and business.”

“And it's gonna happen on the guitar. It's just gonna be different than before. And those who were there when it happened before will think it will never be as good. But there are kids being born into the world now that have refined tools. These paradigm shifts that happen on the planet where things just rise up and then there's a different perspective and a different set of tools.”

Jacob Collier ft. Sarah Thawer, Steve Vai & Mono Neon - YouTube

Watch On

He also referred to Jacob Collier as an example of how the instrument is being used by the new generation of players: “Now, is he a virtuoso guitar player? Not like you would expect if I say, 'Check him out.' But he is just completely musical from head to foot in a way that you just don't see."

“There's people like that that are starting to come into the world, and their tools are just different. It's just natural evolution. And they're using technology in ways that we just can't imagine."

“So all bets are off on what's gonna happen that you might think would happen a particular way. But I believe there will absolutely be an evolution. It just takes that one person to come along and do it.”

Steve Vai and Joe Satriani grace the cover of the current issue of Guitar World. He is also part of the new King Crimson-honoring supergroup, Beat, alongside Tool's Danny Carey and King Crimson alumni Tony Levin and Adrian Belew.