In a recent interview with NME, pop producer Greg Kurstin lamented the current state of guitar music. Kurstin, who is best known for his work with Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson, and Lily Allen, said that rock music is at an "all time low," particularly in the United States.
"I'm still waiting for rock bands to come back, something raw, and relevant," Kurtsin told NME. "There are a lot of rock bands out there, but it's a hard time for rock. Everything is so pop right now so I'm waiting for something to be the anti-version of that. Something raw, maybe a guitar band. I know there are a lot of guitar bands, probably more so than in the UK than there are in America, but it's really at an all-time low in America. So I'm waiting for something exciting, raw, and that to me will hopefully be the next thing after pop has exploded as much as it possibly can."
To be fair to guitar music, it doesn't sound as if Kurstin is very interested in helping revive it. When asked about the particular sounds he's been working with recently, he replied, "I've always been interested in electronic music and synths. You hear more digital synths now; there was a point when those weren't very cool."
NME points out that Kurstin has also worked with more alternative, "rock" oriented acts such as the Flaming Lips and Yeah Yeah Yeah's singer Karen O, though some of the more recent work by both artists isn't as "raw" and guitar based as it has been in the past.
