ABSTRACT
The guitar has gained a central place in, and has helped to define, musical genres worldwide. Both electric and acoustic variations of the guitar are commonplace elements in the music of a variety of cultures around the world. Some instruments in the late twentieth century operate as indispensable ingredients of artistic expression simultaneously at the levels of culture, commerce and creativity. They are now part of a global cultural economy and circulate in transnational networks of practice, commodities and aesthetics. Instruments migrate along with musicians or are bought, sold and bartered in a multi-million dollar-a-year musical marketplace. The chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book examines the cultural significance of the guitar in some of its myriad everyday local contexts and, in doing so, begin to establish a picture of guitar performance, collecting and making – as well as the reception of guitar music – as both a global and a local phenomenon.
