A study conducted by Fender in the United States and the United Kingdom finds that 50% of the new guitar players are young women who are the new aspiring musicians of today.
“Today’s players have grown up in a different cultural context and popular music landscape, and rising artists like Mura Masa, Tash Sultana, Youngr, Daniel Caesar, Grimes and Ed Sheeran are changing the way guitar is being used,” says Fender CEO Andy Mooney. “As a brand, we are committed to creating tools – both physical and digital – that this generation of creators needs for self-expression, now and in the future.”
The study prompted a new campaign to reach this new audience and made the company recalibrate their efforts with new acts like Warpaint and Bully.
“The fact that 50 percent of new guitar buyers in the U.K. were women was a surprise to the U.K. team,” Mooney admits to Rolling Stone, “but it’s identical to what’s happening in the U.S.
“There was also belief about what people referred to as the ‘Taylor Swift factor’ maybe making the 50 percent number short-term and aberrational. In fact, it’s not. Taylor has moved on, I think playing less guitar on stage than she has in the past. But young women are still driving 50 percent of new guitar sales. So the phenomenon seems like it’s got legs, and it’s happening worldwide.”
Fun fact about Fender’s CEO’s statement is that he doesn’t quote any Metal guitarist and we know there are many of them who were inspired by female guitarists as Lita Ford, and now Nita Strauss.
Remember that Nita Strauss told us so (read the article here)?
