[thatwebdude]

When I was teaching guitar, the overarching trend I saw again and again, from the South the Midwest (so not a complete profile, but one large enough) was an interest in playing guitar but no real influences to latch onto.

My first question to a prospective student was "who are some of your favorite bands?". With enough blank stares I changed it to "what is some of your favorite music" with equal stares.

Kids (and adults) want to play guitar, but the initial excitement and rush comes and goes fast as they have no real guitar music to get into anymore.

Pop music has changed, and that's fine. It gets hard to find a memorable or "cool" guitar part in pop music. The last one I can think of is "Party in the USA", and that, of course, is subjective (and quite old now).

[scrumper]

Well for one, Bieber is doing quite a bit of guitar stuff these days. I've actually been surprised by the amount of very obvious guitar sounds in pop in the last ~12-18 months or so. Try your local top 40 station with fresh ears, it's really quite prevalent.

You can argue about whether it's influential of course. Guitar isn't really being used in these songs in a way that carries the entire production, so tough to play on your own with any degree of satisfaction (again though Justin Bieber is an exception).

[thatwebdude]

I was speaking more about "riffage" over presence, but I'll keep an ear out for it. If anything to say, "here, listen to this".

[autotune]

Songs and bands with good guitar parts:

Pink Floyd - Wishe You Were Here

Modest Mouse - Missed The Boat

Young The Giant - Apartment

The Joy Formidable - The Ladder is Ours

Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body

José González - Crosses

Maybeshewill - Red Paper Lanters

the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and all you need to do is look for it.