Do we really need to smack the guitar or the strings or a stompbox to provide a beat?
When we speak, walk, most any body movements, we are expressing a rhythm. Without that rhythm, there is (in a sense) chaos. When somebody asks your phone number, there is a rhythm to reciting it, just as when we were learning multiplication tables when we were kids. Without that speech cadence, that phone number wont' make any sense.
Listen to any GOOD solo fingerstyle player for example who doesn't slap, and you will hear this same sort of cadence that gives structure and forward motion to the music.
We don't need all that pounding and slapping to give the music structure and forward motion.
There are definitely are people who like that sort of thing and for them, a performer would have to include it to reach that crowd. For those (such as myself) who don't like all that pounding, the performer would do well to leave it out to reach that crowd.
Fortunately, there are (and always have been) performers of all types to reach people of all types. The key is to listen to music that pleases and entertains you, and leave the rest to entertain other people.
Tony
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