Archive for April 14th, 2010
Put an electric guitar in your hand and you’re virtually guaranteed to feel like a rock star, even if it’s just for a moment. Few people stop to consider that jazz musicians employed the first custom electric guitars. The instrument would later come to play a major part in other diverse musical styles, of course, including rock and Chicago blues.
Later on, certain genres widely considered to be “acoustic-only” began to plug in as well. Country music, which had previously been limited to acoustic guitars, banjos, fiddles and the like, joined in with the trend in time. And few could forget Bob Dylan’s controversial move in 1965: plugging in an electric ax at the Newport Folk Festival and razzing the audience with an in-your-face ditty called “Maggie’s Farm.”