Why are all demos shitty blues?

[goroth]

Yeah yeah, there are demos that aren't. But by and large demos consist of dudes playing shitty blues.
Do people even listen to this music?
I don't know of anyone who listens to or plays generic knock off stevie ray vaughn trash. I don't hear it on any radio stations, or at the gym. Only on demos.

I don't think "hrr hrr, blues lawyers" is a valid explanation. It's not just old guys, it seems to be a pretty broad age demographic. Though a very narrow gender and ethnic demographic...

Why?
If no-one makes this sort of music, and no-one listens to it, why are all demos made of this? Is this what guitarist do when they play guitar? They sit down and play shitty blues, despite playing in bands that don't play that music, and despite not listening to that music?

I don't get it.

Rephrase the question however you want so that we don't land in "I watch demoer X who is not a shitty blues person"

[MechaGodzilla]

something about the john mayer-black keys spectrum and its prevalence among the youtubularly-minded blokes aged 20-40?

[Dandolin]

laziness?

[Blackened Soul]

It's the same reason bass demos have slapping or fretless jacoisms... The whole hero sales tactic that coincided with the hotlicks vhs learning tapes in the 80s, guitar magazines and music store clinics. You have a machine designed to sell hobbyist and hero worshipers a lifestyle similar to how mall stores like hot topic do for alternative music teens. These pushed the ideas of the useless guitar wanker and after grunge happened pushed the idea that being playing blues licks in a resurgence of the golden era of guitar playing where Eric Beck was King with feeling made up for not being able to or not liking to shred and were sold tubescreamers and prs's by the guitar center full.. so you already had the playing culture and the gear culture in place before some of these people were born to attempt to be youtube lifestyle pedal influencers.

[backwardsvoyager]

laziness?

yeah
isn't shitty blues just what you get when you learn yer pentatonics and can't be arsed going any further?

[echorec]

Even weirder is caucasian funk. Where did this come from? I see these fucking youths playing bedroom funk and you know they weren't raised on Curtis Mayfield. WTF is that about?

[UglyCasanova]

laziness?

yeah
isn't shitty blues just what you get when you learn yer pentatonics and can't be arsed going any further?

This is my theory on this as well.

Also, translates well into how something sounds. It's recognizable melodies and lines. So, now you know what X pedal sounds like. Take for example Knobs demos. I love them, but it's not always super easy to pick up what the pedal is doing VS what weirdness is being played/produced by the instrument leading up to the pedal.

Tldr: it's safe.

[repoman]

I dunno. It sucks. Maybe because a lot of people learn that kind of thing the first thing. On the other side of the spectrum I have a very hard time identifying what a pedal being demoed actually does with someone like Knobs because his style is so unique and the production quality is so high and well done that sort of the simple gist of the pedal is usually lost on me. I like demos with simple/"bad" players just showing the no frills action of the pedal.

[qersty]

Even weirder is caucasian funk. Where did this come from? I see these fucking youths playing bedroom funk and you know they weren't raised on Curtis Mayfield. WTF is that about?

I suspect it is what you learn at jazz school plus the resurgance of city pop and other crystaline 80s garb with the seapunk scene and all. At least that is what I perceive it as. Kinda like how all theory guys on youtube talk about bartok or coltrane or kenton but play Toto IV stuff with some fancy chords. You could probably not explain it other than being some random trend and its easy to listen to casually but at the same time achieve a musician coolness level too.

Dosn't the """"blues""""" think come from Mayer being huge with american Moms? Does not really explain all the dudes who want to play shit like his but I guess MILF pornography getting more popular and especially among the youngsters could be a theory (this is where it is revealed I stayed up late chainsmoking and drinking brandy after a 12 hour night shift and it has effected my cognitive abilities somewhat) so i guess you could say that the mature ladies fucking on camera are to blame for the dead and company which is a deep rabbithole. Somebody who goes to their shows here is a fun idea for a sign: MILFs play faster

Excuse the tangent. Will leave with my favourite terrible demo as of late were yatchepi42 plays the reuss rsh pedal. Dont know if the demo it self is better comedy or the kids in the comment sectoin

[Dandolin]

that demo would work quite effectively spliced into the Clockwork Orange torture/conditioning scene

MILF's aside, someone get qersty another brandy if it results in posts like this

[Blackened Soul]

MILF's, brandy, results like this

[coldbrightsunlight]

I definitely play shitty blues from time to time when I jam by myself at home. Wouldn't put it in a demo though. For me it's just that it's something I learned when learning guitar because it's easy to do something relatively respectable, I listened to it, it's a simple thing to jam on when you get a few beginner guitarists together, and I spent a decent part of my teen years playing in a cover band doing music the people want to hear, part of such is some blues classics

I think blackened soul kinda hit the nail on the head - it was and to an extent still is sold as the kind of music some of the "greatest guitar players ever" play. Therefore if you're learning guitar you have a culture telling you to check this out and learn it.

[Dandolin]

just to clarify - my "laziness" comment, beyond snark value and brevity, wasn't directed at why people play blues, but, rather, why they do it so frequently in demos
definitely a "lazy" comment and impressed that people have been as thoughtful and relatively snark-free as they have
gotta say tho - there are other ways and styles to be simple, forthright and direct in yer demoingz, demoerz

[qersty]

an example look at brett kingman. he obviously comes from the blues rock thing being a huge DG fanboy but he still manages to do other things in demos just to bring out the piece hes demoing rather than running thru the same licks in every demo. hes far from my favourite demo guy but hes not stuck in a box like the other demoers in his genre.

sorry no brandy today dandolin

[Dandolin]

we all have to pace ourselves