They have their own mindset just as we did.And their own music.They do like good rock and roll and country music.But are not often exposed to it.The sadthing to me about say...rap or hip hop is that the guitar has been all but removed,the bass has risen up to rule which I should not complain about since my primary work onstage is as a bassist.But if you look at rock and roll it was black guitar players that set the whole mode of it.Coming up out of the church of all things!I think the most totally unique stylist of all was Muddy Waters on guitar,NOBODY plays guitar like he does.It is immediately recognizable to him.On all of his records that guitar is as raw as a bone,no slick production tricks necessary,he just drags his fingers across the fretboard of that telecastor.It is not even lyrical...just raw meat totally pure.He did not "borrow it" from someone else,it belongs to him.It actually was the essence of JIMI HENDRIX'S guitar playing if you listen closely enough.Muddy,like howlin'wolf had a good lead guitar man,Jimmie Rodgers, but Jimmie had to forego doing th slick lead solo's like Hubert Sumlin did with wolf to intertwine with Muddy's style.You cannot tell who is doing what.I mean it is just a mess of blues!the youngsters are not into that directly although what they are hearing is influnced by that.And so on into the guitarless future.Perhaps the most soulful of instruments is taken out of the mix like Brian Jones.There are so many great black guitar players who now have no place to play.I purchased copies of the masters from my work with "Blackstar" at criteria studios in Miami because I knew the guitar work was going to be cut from the final mix.I was paid very handsomely to cut those tracks and I loved the approach to it.Not a lot of guitar,just very tasty tight licks played over and over again,the same way every time.Yet the band after the sessions informed me that they were going for a keyboard oriented sound and would I stay on as the road manager doing occaisional guitar?Ahh..thanks but no thanks and I was heartbroken over it.I was lead guitar for the baddest ass black band on the planet.Backing up Shawn Brown.Every bit a Jessie Johnson!It was very tight in that room.I did not play a lot and every note had to count.At that point in time I considered myself to be the cleanest and tighest guitar player in the world.But all of that was lifted from the final mix.And as a result the band failed just as bad as I did.They were not the same without their crazy white boy on guitar.And they could not handle that I was white.How fucking stupid is that?Two shows I did with them I had to play in the wings,not seen onstage.I still got paid so I did not care and the re-mixes without guitar did not work,the european tour was cancelled and the band died a hard death.I saved the original sessions just for you.Bought them from the engineer.I laid in my bed at night thinking I had finally made it.The sound had every element of massive success!A sea of black faces onstage!But no,instead you have got music missing the guitar.And that auto tuner thing on the voices of all new recordings.All over the voices actually,that is a precision made device that works very well for a surgical slice.To the tune of milli-seconds.And it is all over the radio.As a producer that is the last resort you want to have to use.And it is so timely you can repair a tiny thing very well without having to set up another session to record.That is just scientific fact...every time you use it for whatever you are using it for Music/voice when you use it it is going to create a glitch elsewhere in the recording which you have got to track down.It is better to hit it for real in the composite tracks as they are being recordded.A professional singer does not hit that vocal mic without at least a half hour vocal warm up.And you are going to be at that mic for the rest of the afternoon because it is going to break down to word by word.When you go from the recording stage to the mixing stage you want to be working with clean and totally dry tracks.Unless you have pre-planned an effect to be there.Sometimes a forty dollar stomp box on the guitar may be the perfect thing.Yet as a rule it is better to use the studio onboard effects.Judiciously.I have a multivox "Little David" given to me by a friend that is to die for in the studio.It does unbelievable rotary and phasing effects.It is from 1964 I think and it looks like hell.It has tape holding it together and a spliced and soldered power cord and when the engineers see it they raise their eyebrows but it to this day operates with no noise and rivals onboard effects costing thousands of dollars.In fact this is really crazy..you have to turn it upside down to use it.The plugs all go into the bottom of it.I do not really worry about,you know trying to cop to the younger generation.They dig what they dig and that is okay,some of the production techniques are very appealing to me.I am free to do my thing,nobody is stopping me.And it shall find it's own audience.Some will hate it and to focus upon that or correcting that...you know...if you don't like it you will just leave the site.Some will stay on.They will return again and again and they will be looking for something new to be there.There is enough traffic to substanciate that.I do not play to lose.Nor to get rich quick.Just smilin' on and doing my thing.