Air Guitar Nation
February 28th, 2007 by 
Rory Harper
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any sillier, we have this new movie coming out. You’ll need to click on ‘Trailer’ to play the preview.
As someone who actually owns a guitar, and isn’t afraid to use it, I’m aghast at the whole air guitar phenomenon.
But I was deeply amused by this preview, and will likely go see the flick.
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: Also, I think the video game ‘Guitar Hero’ is damn near the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. No caveats on that one.
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Posted in Music, Pop. Culture, Rory | 
11 Comments »
February 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
It’s kinda like they threw HOT music juice and goofy-ass star trek nerdiness into a blender, and set it on liquify. Yeah!
February 28th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I must admit that I’d give this one a miss.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
i just got a haircut courtesy of air guitar.
my friend eirik won the austin air guitar semifinals and one of the prizes was a gift certificate to bird’s barbershop, a rock-n-roll hair cutting salon. (they give you beer while you wait…) but eirik just shaved his head so he gave me the gift certificate.
therefore i say “long live air guitar!”
February 28th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Go, Katie! Somebody we know should profit from this horrid miscegenation.
Actually, I think air guitar is kinda cute and fun to watch. But I will *never* play guitar without a guitar in my hands.
I have been known to play ‘air drums’, though. That’s more challenging, since you have to coordinate both feet and both hands.
I bet Bradley has never played air drums, though.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:10 am
Katie! Does this mean you have air hair??
March 1st, 2007 at 10:37 am
Rory,
I’m with you on guitar hero. I can PLAY an instrument — not well — thankyouverymuch. Ironically, some of the people who made Guitar Hero were in a fabulous band from Boston called “Tribe.” I’ll try and get a link to some of their music.
And watching the trailer to the air guitar movie just depressed the hell out of me. We’ve really become a nation of people who would rather pretend to do something than actually learn to do something. Sigh.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Caroline — Thanks for the cranky support on this!
….I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play Air Bass, so I think you’re safe there.
I do understand the silly whimsey of the whole thing, so it doesn’t bum me out. But, like you, as someone who actually plays the instrument, I’m emotionally incapable of joining in.
I want to play my own licks, and get my own tone, however lame, rather than pretending to play somebody else’s music, however jokingly.
In a similar vein, I think lip-synching performances should be punishable by incarceration, and cringe at the mere thought of karaoke.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:48 pm
At least in Karaoke, people are using their own voices.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Yeah, that counts for something, and I’m sure it’s lotsa fun for some people. It just seems like a really embarrassing thing to do.
I also have a bit of a prejudice in that Sixth Street in Austin, which used to be Mecca for live music by local musicians, has, from what I’m told, gone pretty much all recorded music and karaoke. Guess the clientele these days can’t tell the difference or doesn’t care. And it saves the club owner the cost and hassle of dealing with actual musicians.
Kinda one of those issues where the bad, cheap mass entertainment drives out the real thing.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I think what really got my goat in the trailer was the guy being interviewed who compared it to figure skating and then made a snotty comment about figure skating. (Aside from his calling it “performance art.” Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little.)
I know figure skating has a high cheese factor, that’s part of what I love about it. But to compare the lame-ass gyrations of people so untalented that the only way they can garner attention is to *pretend* to play guitar to the athletic, and yes, sometimes lyrical, performances of world-ranked figure skaters was nothing short of infuriating.
I’d love to throw every one of those air guitar heroes onto a rink in a pair of skates and see their “performanace” art.
Don’t even get me started about “performace art.” An oxymoron if there ever was one.
I feel like the Human Torch right now. Flame on, baby.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, I think I’m uncultured, but the few performance art pieces I’ve seen have, IMHO, mostly just been people trying to do something either disturbing or downright silly, with the implication that you should read something Deep into it.
I got no problem with art being disturbing or silly, but the performance art seemed to not require any actual talent.
And, if we’re not careful, we’ll drag Rachael into commenting about the pretentiousness in the art world that pisses her off so much.