It Might Get Loud: Go Your Own Way

At one point during It Might Get Loud, White Stripes guitarist Jack White says that as a child:

I didn't want to play guitar.
Everyone plays guitar.
What's the point?

White is talking about the ubiquitous surplus of skilled and unskilled guitarists that brings to mind Eric Clapton's There's One In Every Crowd.

However, any one of the three guitarists featured in this film could've uttered a similar sentiment with just one small edit.

I didn't want to just play guitar. What's the point?

The Point? Simply playing the electric guitar was not enough for the ambition of any of these icons. Each had to find a way to make a new, original statement with the instrument. Each guitarist featured in this movie felt compelled to create their own singular style by defining themselves against the dominant musical ideas of their era. Ambitious axe-slingers, take note: Paradigm shifting Smiths / Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr makes a cohesive argument for this approach in an excellent essay here.

Ack, Blog writing protocol demands I PUBLISH NOW rather than finish a complete thought. So I'll be back to expand on this essay in a future post.

In the meantime, go put on Led Zeppelin III, U2's WAR, or go make a diddley bow on your front porch, as Jack White does in the opening scene from the movie.

A bit of the latter here in the trailer:

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