>Almost everyone who picks up a guitar, about 90 percent, abandons it within the first year, according to Mooney.I'd guess that a similar 90+% of beginners quit the clarinet, violin, piano, drums, etc.
If the macro trend of hobbyist guitar playing has declined, I think it's correlated with its lack of prominence in current music.
For curiosity's sake, I just clicked through the top songs on Billboard Hot 100 chart[1]. As of today November 22, 2016, the top 20 songs do not have any obvious guitars. It's all synths, electronic beats, and other artificial sound effects. The first song with obvious guitars is the country song "May We All" by Florida Georgia Line sitting at position 30.
In previous decades with higher guitar sales, you had the popularity of 50s Elvis, 60s Beatles, 70s Led Zeppelin, 80s hair metal bands, 90s Nirvana, etc. It's easier for guitar novices to stay motivated when everything on the radio had lots of guitars in it. At the moment, the zeitgeist is electronic music until guitars make a comeback in mainstream pop. However, it's possible guitars will never become fashionable again and will recede further into isolated genres like country and folk music.
[1]http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100
I'd guess that a similar 90+% of beginners quit the clarinet, violin, piano, drums, etc.
If the macro trend of hobbyist guitar playing has declined, I think it's correlated with its lack of prominence in current music.
For curiosity's sake, I just clicked through the top songs on Billboard Hot 100 chart[1]. As of today November 22, 2016, the top 20 songs do not have any obvious guitars. It's all synths, electronic beats, and other artificial sound effects. The first song with obvious guitars is the country song "May We All" by Florida Georgia Line sitting at position 30.
In previous decades with higher guitar sales, you had the popularity of 50s Elvis, 60s Beatles, 70s Led Zeppelin, 80s hair metal bands, 90s Nirvana, etc. It's easier for guitar novices to stay motivated when everything on the radio had lots of guitars in it. At the moment, the zeitgeist is electronic music until guitars make a comeback in mainstream pop. However, it's possible guitars will never become fashionable again and will recede further into isolated genres like country and folk music.
[1]http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100