Young People Are Looking to Old Music to Feel Something New. Meet the Man Leading the Charge.
Welcome to a new series profiling customers and friends of Todd Shelton who are doing interesting and important work. We begin with Damian Fanelli.
The rock and guitar community has been left out of the pop and hip-hop surge that’s dominated young people’s listening during the past decade. Damian Fanelli, writer/editor at Guitar World—by far the most influential publication for rock’s serious thinkers—sees signs that change is coming.
For the first time in history, catalog album sales are outpacing new album sales (A “catalog” album is at least 18 months old). However, this stat refers only to physical album sales and doesn’t include digital. More here.
When you add up physical and digital sales, new music is still outpacing older music. But that doesn’t diminish the significance of this trend. Young people are discovering vinyl records–and since older music is more readily available on vinyl than new music–older music is being rediscovered.
Regardless of how young people are finding older music, they’re finding it, and Fanelli’s work supports this trend. “Being able to influence culture is one of my favorite aspects of this job,” he says. A hugely popular piece of content on Guitar World’s site is a series of videos of 16-year-old French classic-rock guitar phenom Tina S. This video alone has almost 14 million views.
When we asked Fanelli what he considers to be his most important work, he said it’s his “effort to expose up-and-coming generations to guitar-driven music. If rock is going to make a comeback, it needs youth.” Fanelli knows this. “I’m doing my best to picture what will capture the imagination of young people.”
Guitar World
Damian Fanelli joined Guitar World in 2011 as online managing editor. His work there has connected him with some of the world’s most influential guitarists. Some of his most noteworthy interviews include musicians such as Eric Clapton, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mick Taylor, Vince Gill, Jimmie Vaughan, Dave Davies, Kevin Bacon and Zakk Wylde.
Under Fanelli, online readership is up and Guitar World’s social media following has exploded from 69,000 followers in 2011 to nearly 2 million highly engaged followers in 2016.
Bottom left, Damian Fanelli and his wife Cindy. Some of Fanelli’s most prized guitars: top left, 1966 Gretsch Tennessean, top right, Fender Nashville B-Bender Telecaster,. And bottom right, Epiphone Elitist Casino.
Fanelli is lead guitarist for an instrumental surf-rock trio (think Dick Dale), in addition to a sixties cover band (think Yardbirds). His personal style is rockabilly, a subculture style commonly identified by cuffed, dark jeans and Fifties hairstyles.
Damian Fanelli and Todd Shelton in the Meadowlands. Damian wears Paper Poplin shirt in black and Pro Selvedge raw jean.
Later, Todd and Damian talked about great moments in guitar history. We were blown away when Damian shared Guitar World’s feature on Metallica’s Enter Sandman, performed in Moscow in 1991.
Photography: Bill Heuberger