Description: The electric guitar is one of the most important musical instruments and cultural artifacts of the 20th and 21st centuries and enjoys popularity worldwide. Designed for students, this Companion explores electric guitar technology and performance, and the instrument's history and cultural impact. Chapters focused on the social significance of the electric guitar draw attention to the ways in which gender and race have shaped and been shaped by it, the ecology of electric guitar manufacturing, and the participation of electric guitarists in online communities. Contributions on electric guitar history stretch the chronology backwards in time and broaden our ideas of what belongs in that history, and those addressing musical style investigate the cultural value of virtuosity while providing material analysis of electric guitar technique. The Companion's final section considers the electric guitar's global circulation, particularly in Africa, the Afro-Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.
Brief description: Jan-Peter Herbst is Reader (Associate Professor) in Music Production at the University of Huddersfield. His background as a rock guitarist has led him to specialize in the study of electric guitar playing and rock and metal music production. Herbst has also edited The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music (2023).
Review Quotes: '... by shining a light on the corners and interstices of electric guitar world, editors Herbst and Waksman have illuminated many of the missing pieces of a bigger picture that will be of interest to the academician and professional musician, as well as to the amateur and connoisseur of the electric guitar.' Pandel Collaros, Notes, the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association