I just came across this study and thought some might find it interesting.
"A new book examining the role of the modern guitar hero Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology, and Culture has been published by UK-based academics Jan-Peter Herbst and Alexander Paul Vallejo – and, for a limited time, you can download it for free.
Herbst and Vallejo’s study yields some interesting conclusions about the evolution of the electric guitar virtuoso and attempts to understand how and why the role has changed since the pioneering players of the 1960s first defined the trope.
Of course, we know that guitar playing is an art form that can match any medium in its expression, innovation and communication, but it’s fair to say it’s not always treated as such by the academic world. It’s always good, therefore, to hear about new studies that take the electric guitar and its players more seriously."
You can access the paper here:
It is currently free and available for download in PDF format. The link is on the webpage.
Also here:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0D40C7DF7198C027B276A85AD74B9E0D/9781009055970AR.pdf/rock-guitar-virtuosos.pdf
Here is the abstract.
