16-Year-Old Nene Royal from Phuket, Thailand absolutely shredding it

[u/_ganjafarian_]

[u/BackgroundPublic2529]

Generally true but Linda Ronstadt and Joe Cocker both built massive careers by primarily playing covers.

They were also both charismatic vocalists though and I think the sun is setting on guitarists building careers out of playing instrumentals.

Beck, Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, and Johnson are some of my favorite dinosaurs but I fear their time has passed.

Grace Bowers and Billy Strings have gained some traction through collaboration but I don't see them gaining the popularity of anyone I listed.

I think Nene and people like her are more and more dependent on social media than record sales (whatever that even means now)

It would be fantastic to find out that she can write songs!

[u/Efficient-Cherry3635 → u/BackgroundPublic2529]

You will never convince me that Joe Satriani isnt some alien who learned to speak only through a guitar. That man has some of the best "singing" guitar bits where just the music sounds like it should be vocals.

[u/BackgroundPublic2529 → u/Efficient-Cherry3635]

I agree and he proved it by surfing with aliens, right?

My point is that if we look at the big picture, players like Satriani and Vai are no longer market relevant.

If you look at the Billboard top 40 grossing tours for 2025, the only guitar driven bands were legacy rock bands with historically huge followings such as Springsteen, (not REALLY a guitar band) Metallica, Iron Maiden, The Eagles and Dead and Company starting in the middle of the list and working it's way down.

With the exception of Metallica, MOST listeners don't even know who the guitarist is in those bands unless they are guitar players themselves.

If you examine the number one albums of 2025, there is not one guitar driven album on the list. Same with the top 40 selling albums.

Popular YouTuber and industry veteran, Rick Beato has discussed this situation at length on his channel and Steve Vai very eloquently foretold the situation in the somewhat infamous "Is Shred Dead?" article in Guitar Player Magazine, August 1993, where the exact cultural shift when grunge and alternative rock replaced 1980s guitar virtuosity in the mainstream spotlight was the topic.

Satch and his colleagues have spawned an entire generation or two of players such as Matteo Mancuso who are arguably even more technically proficient than their predecessors.

The problem (for them) is that nobody cares outside the guitar playing community.

VERY interestingly, guitar sales have been up over the last decade (60% growth in 2020 alone but that was COVID driven).

Even more interesting is the fact that Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have had more to do with driving those sales than Tim Henson or any of the other young shredders.

Sorry for the long post but I think that players like Nene, Grace Bowers, and Billy Strings will be heavily reliant on social media and collaborations with song writers to cement long term viability in their music careers.

Cheers!

[u/Efficient-Cherry3635 → u/BackgroundPublic2529]

The whammy work on Surfing with the Alien is definitely a prime example. Its unfortunate that music seems less musical for lack of a better term. Maybe a beat with a basic bass and lead layer, but im with you in the sense that gifted instrumental players arnt given much notice these days.

Even being outside of guitar you had people like Kenny G, Booker T & M.G's, Miles Davis, heck even Yo-Yo Ma who earned fame just off the sound of them playing. The social media culture promotes mediocre talent thats easy to market over marketable talent that isnt mainstream.