JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Guitars and Guitarist Forum When did guitar playing become a competition?

I think up until the sixties most guitarists wanted to play like someone...not necessarily better than someone but like them, the sixties is when acts started becoming famous across the pond and had fans on two continents, clearly the British invasion spurred the competiton along, Clapton, Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, Jimi...these guys were good and loud and had amazing amounts of fans. They were way more melodic in their playing than what we call shredders today...most shredders develop a cult following or niche market fan base...I think Van Halen bridges areas of fan base alot of the other shredders don't- and again he is very melodic in his playing at times. Competition amongst guitarists, mostly by way of the media and the fans, seems to me, started there in the sixties with that British Invasion---til then everyone just liked the other cats sound and wanted to pinch some licks...MJ