BOWLING GREEN — For anyone raised on rock and roll there is one pop culture image that transcends all the rest as a symbol of power, freedom, and the God-given right to make an unholy racket: The electric guitar.

From Chuck Berry duck-walking across the stage with his low-slung Gibson to Jimi Hendrix muscling a Stratocaster and Bruce Springsteen making his Telecaster talk, the guitar is the most important instrument in the musical melange that flavors rock.

Which makes the free Electric Guitar in Pop Culture conference at Bowling Green State University Friday and Saturday especially potent for fans who relishes power chords, instantly recognizable riffs, and taking time to ponder what it all means.

The two-day event will feature presenters from around the world — France, England, Canada, Finland, India, and the United States — performances from some great guitarists, and a number of scholarly looks at an instrument that has been deeply embedded in pop culture throughout the world for more than 60 years.

“It really highlights an international perspective in relation to the electric guitar, and it’s not just an American phenomenon,” said Matt Donahue, director of the conference.

Donahue, who has a doctorate and is a faculty member at BGSU’s pop culture department, also organized a recent conference on heavy metal music at the university. The seeds of the electric guitar conference were planted then.

“I kind of thought there really hasn’t been a conference about the electric guitar and wouldn’t it be neat to bring some folks together who are interested in the same thing: the electric guitar and its impact in popular culture,” he said.

The event will include a performance by guitarist Skip “Little Axe” McDonald, a Dayton native who pioneered the funk/​fusion genre and worked as a Sugarhill Records session musician, writer, and arranger for seminal recordings such as “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash. He will perform with Finnish guitarist Kimi Karki.

Also playing will be Cincinnati blues master Kelly Richey, BGSU jazz faculty member Chris Buzzelli and the BGSU guitar ensemble, Donahue and his agit-punk outfit Mad 45, and Toledo hard rock and heavy metal veteran Chuck Stohl.

‘Scholarly study’

A number of scholarly papers will be presented by journalists, pop culture professors, and others, including Martin Popoff. The prolific Toronto music journalist who has written a number of books will discuss his passion — heavy metal — in a keynote speech at 10 a.m. Friday entitled “A Vulgar Display of Power: Six String Milestones in the Creation of Heavy Metal Guitar.”

It is the result of his most recent work, a 120,000-word book that tackles the daunting task of determining who invented heavy metal.

The short answer: Black Sabbath.

Popoff can break down the first few Sabbath albums in great detail, bring forward the notion that perhaps Deep Purple was just as integral in creating the genre, and then toss in a band like Blue Cheer and its role.

But as he said, “Somebody has to be first and [Sabbath guitarist] Tony [Iommi] actually invented that, which is really interesting.”

His bigger point is that metal is a genre that is immune to the fickle nature of pop music, which tends to downplay the guitar at various times (more on that later), and without the electric guitar you can’t have heavy metal.

“The guitar is so tied in with heavy metal and hard rock because of things like distortion, feedback, shredding, and even tapping,” he said. “There are no guitar heroes in pop.”

He is excited about the global nature of the conference and the opportunity for academics to get together for two days and wallow in all things guitar.

“I think it’s very refreshing to have deep scholarly study on all these things that weren’t studied before,” Popoff said. “These things turn into or come from papers that can be fleshed out into books.”

‘Security blanket’

For Kelly Richey everything associated with the guitar is personal. A powerhouse who plays with a fiery passion, she fell deeply in love with the instrument when she was just 15. Now in her 50s, she is a respected blues player who used the guitar to overcome a learning disability and troubled adolescence.

The guitar transformed her from a “lost teenager” to a force to be reckoned with.

“I just remember plugging that in for the first time and it was like ‘AHHHHH!”, she said laughing. “It was probably the way someone feels when they get on a skateboard or a motorcycle. It was a lot of fun.”

She played constantly growing up, taking lessons and developing into a road warrior who has traveled a million miles — literally — and played nearly 4,000 shows. The guitar helped her through a battle with addiction and served as a tool to express herself when she felt overwhelmed.

“It’s really been a security blanket for me. What started out as a battle axe turned into a security blanket as soon as I mastered it on several levels,” she said. “The guitar has facilitated that journey, but it started out being my voice.”

Now sober and more at peace with herself, Richey exudes enthusiasm and energy as she talks about how important the music is to her. She still teaches guitar, records, and tours, but she is relishing ongoing musical growth that sees her playing more solo shows and pushing herself in new directions.

Her performance at the conference Saturday at 3 p.m. in Union Theater will reflect her personal evolution.

“I’m excited to do this conference as a solo artist kind of putting myself on the hot seat and putting a stake in the ground doing something new,” she said. “I think we’re always in transformation and either coming into a new phase or finding that we’re burned out on a phase and are transforming out of it.”

‘Ebbs and flows’

It is not lost on Donahue that his conference comes at a time when the electric guitar is not exactly front and center in terms of popular music. With the exception of the Guitar Hero video game, the mainstream is dominated by bro country, female vocalists such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce, rap and hip-hop (never guitar-friendly genres), and electronic dance music.

He is not daunted.

“I think it ebbs and flows. I often think back to the 1980s when you had the whole electro pop sound going on and becoming highly popularized. I remember hearing this talk that the electric guitar was going away and they’re going to stop making electric guitars,” he said.

Then heavy metal took off and “blew that all away” to be followed by grunge and big, noisy, guitar-dominant bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

Donahue noted that heavy metal still is popular; nearly every big city has an underground punk movement that is built on guitars, and plenty of bands still focus on the guitar even if they’re not on the top of the charts.

The electric guitar is a timeless symbol that transforms generations and represents creative expression and a sense of possibility, he said.

“If you think about it, take a look at the Fender Stratocaster design or the Gibson Les Paul design or the Fender Telecaster, those designs haven’t really changed since the 1950s. But look at the car, their designs change all the time,” he said.

“I think a lot of it still goes back to a younger kid basically going to the music store or seeing a guitar player on TV and saying, ‘I want to learn that instrument.’”

The Electric Guitar in Popular Culture conference begins Friday at 9 a.m. with registration. All events are free and will be in Bowling Green or at BGSU. Most will be in either Union Theater 206 or Mylander Room 207. Friday night at 8 p.m. Chuck Stohl and Friends and MAD 45 will perform at Grounds for Thought, 174 S. Main St. Saturday night Skip McDonald and Kimi Karki will perform at 8 p.m. at Grounds for Thought. For more information go to scholarworks.bgsu.edu/​egpc

First Published March 22, 2015, 4:00 a.m.