New research reveals that guitar skills in extreme metal music are more linked to male competition and status than to attracting mates. The study, focusing on heterosexual male guitarists, suggests that technical proficiency in guitar playing serves more as a display of dominance among peers.
The disconnect between dominance among male peers and “mating success” is presumably a modern development.
That’s if such a disconnect actually exists. I think there are different sorts of peers one can be dominant among. Being someone who is really serious about being an amateur guitarist is something I would consider a “nerd” behavior. It’s going to impress other guitar nerds, but they’re almost exclusively male. People outside the guitar-nerd community won’t be impressed.
Skill is sexy, but intense hobbies are also sometimes a cope (or I don’t know a better word at the moment I don’t mean it in a negative way) for social anxiety or other difficulties, so you’d have to account for that in the statistics.
Try “outlet”
That’s better
Yeah people who don’t play guitar can’t even tell whether something you played is even difficult or not. Just noodling around high on the neck and touching the whammy bar can convince any normie I’m good at the instrument (I’m not)
I force my gf to watch me play every single riff I learn and the reaction is always a polite “that’s very nice Rab good job” all while barely holding her attention, even when it’s 10/10 difficult and I just spent 10 hours learning 10 seconds of a solo
Why do you keep forcing your girlfriend to watch you play guitar, Rab?
Validation
Found the nerd.