THE NEW BREED
“The guitar is dead!” The chances are, you’ve heard that phrase over the last few years. It seems that barely a month passes without a celebrity or mainstream news outlet reading the last rites to the humble six-string.
You’ve probably also read some of these articles. In 2017, The Washington Post broke the news of “The slow, secret death of the six-string electric,” while The Independent last year proclaimed: “The electric guitar itself appears to be facing an existential threat.” Even Eric Clapton has had a go, musing in 2017 that, “maybe the guitar is over…”
In reality, the guitar has simply done what the guitar has always done–evolved. From Robert Johnson to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin to Nirvana, Oasis to John Mayer, the guitar has remained the defining tool of popular music over the last 100 years because of its chameleonic ability to change with the trends.
By way of evidence, we present The New Breed–35 diverse young musicians who represent the most exciting new talent in guitar. Some are boundary-pushing virtuosos, or sonic experimentalists planting the flag in new genres. Others are operating in spaces where in the past, they’ve not always been welcome.
The guitar is not dead–in fact, the guitar is thriving. Read on to discover what a wonderful six-string world The New Breed are building…
OMAR APOLLO
First-generation Mexican-American guitarist and songwriter Omar Apollo (aka Omar Velasco) is an example of the broad and interesting church that guitar has become as we move into the 2020s.
Apollo’s music effortlessly fuses blues, jazz, R&B and Latin elements to create a compelling laid-back pop brew. But at the heart of it all is guitar–listen to Ugotme and bask in the languid Strat chord stabs and bluesy meandering lead lines that provide a bedrock to his breakout Spotify hit.
LISTEN TO Omar Apollo–Ugotme
MATEUS ASATO
Brazillian guitar-slinger Asato has attained guitar stardom in a way that would never have been possible even a few years ago. After all, this is a guy who’s got nearly a million followers on Instagram, 335,000 YouTube subscribers and a
