I don't think anyone's out to kill off the 70's really guitarman, there is a huge progressive rock/metal/etc following on here that would chime in; a lot of my favourite records of certain genres would not be the same without the supreme skills of the artists - Frank Zappa, King Crimson albums, rah rah, not to mention hundreds of others that don't involve widdly solos or indeed guitars.
I think musicians and people that work in guitar shops (god help them) listen to music in a different light anyway, they aren't capable of understanding things I might believe to be inspired and vice versa. I'm not going to try and change their minds either.
Virtuosity I think (in a broad sense) has it's place in those continuums of classical and jazz. Classical>>prog>>metal. However virtuosity has no place in, to use your example, techno, the aims, performance aesthetics and outlook of which are completely removed from that tradition. i.e. there are rarely multiple performers and there are no solos. One I almost left out is hip-hop - turntablism - youtube that and what you'll see I think you will agree is virtuoso stuff.
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