THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Guitar Center’s $1 billion in debt reveals this truth about musical tastes.

Ratings agency S&P Global downgraded Westlake Village-based Guitar Center Holdings Inc. for the second time last week as the troubled instrument retailer seeks to refinance and restructure more than $1 billion of debt.

“Most of what’s really selling today is rap and hip hop,” said George Gruhn, owner of the Gruhn Guitars shop in Nashville. “That’s outpacing other forms of music and they don’t use a lot of recognizable musical instruments.”

I used to be with it, but then they changed what ‘it’ was…