During my tenure mixing in clubs, the number one instrument sold at Guitar Center shifted from "guitars" to "turntables." Hell, during my tenure mixing in clubs, Guitar Center became a thing.

Here's the thing - it'll take six months of intensive study to become mediocre on guitar. It'll take ten minutes with a beer in one hand to become mediocre on a pair of SL1200s. And then of course the CDJ came out and you could hash up anything on CDs and then Serato came out and it would fuckin' force your shit into the same tempo and now nobody even really cares anymore and the DJ is basically the guy who bought the big speakers and the lights and the used minivan because the ability to actually entertain the crowd has become so devalued that we all retreat into our Spotify playlists and pay Steve Aoki a million dollars a night when we're in Vegas because we remember that used to be a thing once upon a time.

The internet was a newer tool - you had to know what you were doing, or be able to fake it. I used to do eBay auctions in Dreamweaver because it was the easiest way to make them stand out. But I mean, eBay. That there is a utility that makes posting shit online easy. Craigslist. Wix. GoDaddy. You no longer need a "tool." You no longer need to know how to use a tool. You just need to show up.

The Internet used to be a place where interested people could do something new. It is now a place where disinterested people can do the same old same old. The tools are still there - you can still buy a guitar - but you're not hanging out with guitar players anymore. You're hanging out with people who just want to listen to music.