"I believe that every person has uniqueness - something that nobody else has"
About this Quote
Schenker’s line reads like a gentle credo, but it’s also a musician’s defense of individuality in an industry built to sand it down. “I believe” is doing quiet work here: it’s not a fact claim, it’s a stance. In rock culture, belief isn’t just private spirituality; it’s an aesthetic commitment. You pick your sound, your tone, your phrasing, then you live or die by it.
The phrase “every person” flattens the hierarchy that music scenes often create - virtuosos up top, “regular people” below. Schenker, a famously technical guitarist, could have framed uniqueness as an earned badge. Instead he hands it out universally, which signals a particular kind of confidence: if everyone has a singular core, then his own gift doesn’t need guarding. It also hints at a lifelong tension in guitar culture between copying and becoming. Players start as mimics. They learn licks, chase idols, buy the same gear. Schenker’s point is that the last mile - what separates a competent reproduction from a voice - can’t be purchased or downloaded. It’s the irreducible fingerprint that shows up in timing, touch, restraint, and even mistakes.
Context matters: Schenker came up in an era when “originality” was both a marketing term and a moral one, with rock rewarding mythic authenticity while labels pushed formulas. His sentence lands as a corrective to that contradiction: uniqueness isn’t a brand strategy. It’s the raw material you’re supposed to protect before the world tells you to optimize it away.
The phrase “every person” flattens the hierarchy that music scenes often create - virtuosos up top, “regular people” below. Schenker, a famously technical guitarist, could have framed uniqueness as an earned badge. Instead he hands it out universally, which signals a particular kind of confidence: if everyone has a singular core, then his own gift doesn’t need guarding. It also hints at a lifelong tension in guitar culture between copying and becoming. Players start as mimics. They learn licks, chase idols, buy the same gear. Schenker’s point is that the last mile - what separates a competent reproduction from a voice - can’t be purchased or downloaded. It’s the irreducible fingerprint that shows up in timing, touch, restraint, and even mistakes.
Context matters: Schenker came up in an era when “originality” was both a marketing term and a moral one, with rock rewarding mythic authenticity while labels pushed formulas. His sentence lands as a corrective to that contradiction: uniqueness isn’t a brand strategy. It’s the raw material you’re supposed to protect before the world tells you to optimize it away.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
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