“Now it’s coming back and everyone is getting excited about it”: Liam Gallagher’s son thinks guitar music is only now making a return – and the Oasis reunion could be to thank

Liam Gallagher’s son believes that guitar music is making a comeback, and its return could have something to do with Oasis' impending reunion.

Speaking to W Magazine, Gene Gallagher, who fronts the indie band Villanelle, reckons music fans have long been without guitar music, but all that is now starting to change.

“People have been deprived of guitar music,” he says (via Guitar.com). “But now it’s coming back, and everyone’s getting excited about it.”

Of course, the guitar had been in perfectly fine health prior to any word of Oasis' reunion, and as Gallagher alludes to, its presence throughout all corners of the music world has been keenly felt for years now.

Indeed, as recently as last weekend, Glastonbury 2025 was packed with stand-out electric guitar moments from act who are – and have been – flying the flag for a new generation of guitar artists for some time. Wet Leg and Wolf Alice are just two examples, but the list is far longer than that.

Elsewhere, Olivia Rodrigo has even been labelled as her generation’s Eddie Van Halen for how she is shoving guitar music back into the limelight and inspiring new generations of players to pick up the instrument in the process.

Then there’s Chapelle Roan injecting guitar solos into chart-decimating pop bangers, and of course, Taylor Swift’s influence cannot be underestimated either.

Outside of the popular music sphere, players such as Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi have catapulted the progressive contemporary guitar landscape into a new era with their unique playing style. In fact, the Polyphia virtuoso recently pointed to another unlikely hero: Machine Gun Kelly.

The guitarist, who raised eyebrows with his Chibson-esque razor blade Schecter, started his career as a rapper, but pivoted to the guitar for his more recent releases – another example of the instrument's evergreen presence in the music world.

Henson muses, “...MGK got a number one record with a guitar on the cover, [2020's Tickets to My Downfall], which is really cool.”

And, on the topic of guitar music’s resurgence, Sleep Token have to be involved in the conversation. The band's mix of R&B, gospel, pop, and prog metal is helping introduce a legion of new fans to the majesty of the electric guitar.

Justin Hawkins, meanwhile, sees a through line between Polyphia and Sleep Token, noting that there has also been a steep rise in the interest for technical playing.

“People have more respect for bands like Sleep Token, who are doing something really interesting, complex, and difficult to pull off,” Hawkins explains. “There’s a new appreciation for virtuosity, and I’m all for it. That’s why bands like Polyphia and Sleep Token have exploded. The way we think about the guitar and what the instrument is supposed to do has changed.”

Gene Gallagher is also a musician to enlighten his father on some of the heavier acts that rose to prominence at the same time the Manchester indie rockers were conquering the world. It’s steady progress.

“Heavy guitar music – that’s what I like,” he says. “My dad wasn’t fond of the grunge stuff, but I made him come around to it as he got older.”