Air guitar

The air guitar is a pantomime played imaginary electric guitar. The air guitar player shows in non-verbal communication with his facial expressions and gestures to play an electric guitar. Typical of this is the attitude and movement of the arms and hands. The figures shown include, for example, the Duck Walk and the Windmill. Since, moreover, still typically the entire body movement is mimicked by electric guitar players to the clock, creates a kind of dance. An evaluation criterion is the Airness called Luftigkeitstauglichkeit the performing person. The World Air Guitar Federation Airness defined as the ability " to transcend the air guitar beyond the mere imitation addition ". Some air guitar players imitate it also guitar sounds with their singing.

History

Became popular air guitar in 1969 at the Woodstock Festival by the appearance of Joe Cocker, who even accompanied his air guitar playing live vocals. The popularity of the air guitar has always continued to increase since the 1970s, mainly through the genres Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Punk.

Research

The German professor of Media Studies Mathias Mertens ( University of Hildesheim ) explores the air guitar leads seminars on the topic of media Aesthetic Considerations air guitar and takes part in competitions themselves. He writes: The air guitar was created as a response to collective experiential music, it is an expression of participation in the rock culture and it only works as feedback in a control loop of aesthetic production and reception. The air guitar works accordingly so only for an audience that knows the characters and attitudes shown and has internalized.

Competitions

Since 1996, the Air Guitar World Championships as part of the Oulu Musiikkivideofestivaalit (Oulu Music Video Festival ) will be held in Oulu ( Finland). Was started in 2004 as a national association, the German Air Guitar Federation, which has since been hosting the German Air Guitar Championship. The performances of the participants are here - evaluated according to the criteria of the Air Guitar World Championships - as well as in many other competitions. In the competitions both air guitar and Luftplektra are allowed. In addition, roadies are allowed to these competitions. The performances by a piece of music of your choice as well as a preset song, each lasting 60 seconds.

2011 won the 27 -year-old Aline Westphal from Burgwedel the Air Guitar World Championships and won the title the first to Germany. She came 2008 on Mertens ' seminar at the University of Hildesheim air guitar and is working on a thesis on the cultural history of air guitar.