Guitar Hero Must Die!
The new generation of music games are sounding a widdly-widdly death knell for rock 'n' roll, argues MOJO's Mick Farren.
Saturation yuletide advertising has finally convinced me
that virtual music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, in which participants
attempt to "play" classic metal solos by following flashing light sequences on
guitar-shaped plastic peripherals, pose an even greater threat to the future of
rock 'n' roll than Simon Cowell.
For confirmation that these games are an unpleasant victory for short-attention commercial exploitation, we need look no further than a South Park episode titled "Guitar Queer-o," in which Stan and Kyle become Guitar Hero heroes, and, when Stan's dad attempts to teach the fourth graders to actually play a real guitar, Cartman scathingly responds that "real guitars are for old people."
What's being exploited here is as old as rock 'n' roll itself. Few of us have not, at some time in our lives, or perhaps as recently as this morning, played clandestine air guitar or posed in front of a mirror pretending to be Elvis, Jimi, Joe Strummer, or even Joe Satriani. But the global electronic game corporations who have co-opted this youthful narcissism into a competitive game of manual dexterity, with plastic reproductions of Gibsons and Fenders, are having a negative impact on music's future. OK, so we tolerated Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear to Bob Seger in Risky Business, but enough is, culturally speaking, enough.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band broaden the perceived gulf between performer and audience by pandering to the most juvenile extremes of rock 'n' roll idol worship. Worse than that, they betray the great populist promise of rock 'n' roll--which has held good from the days of The Shadows--that any garage band with a set of cheap instruments and perfunctory chops can achieve icon status if it gets the breaks and is sufficiently relentless.
Equally unpleasant is the unseemly rush by many of our current guitar "heroes" to lease their music for inclusion. Among the shameless are Aerosmith, Metallica, Motorhead, AC/DC and the Sex Pistols, while The Beatles and the Jimi Hendrix estate are reportedly ready to deal. Whether or not this is more heinous than flogging one's songs for TV commercials is open to debate, but the basic absurdity is underscored by the song "Thunderhorse" by DethKlok--the fictional death metal band from the U.S. TV cartoon show Metalocalypse--being incorporated in Guitar Hero II.
At a time when musical education in schools has become a cause célèbre, the promotion of video games that offer nothing more than a closed loop of virtual experience, devoid of creativity, does nothing to help. A spokesman for the game makers has claimed that they teach "sensitivity to rhythm, as well as develop the dexterity and independent hand usage necessary to play the instrument," but this seems disingenuous when the games do nothing to impart the real fundamentals of music.
And just to add injury to insult, an outfit called Mad Catz in San Diego, California will retrofit a perfectly good Fender Stratocaster, replacing strings, pickups and fretboard with the input controls for Rock Band.
Is nothing sacred?
Commune with fellow music maniacs at MOJO4music.com. Mick Farren blogs at Doc40.blogspot.com.
And the bands aren't helping either. All my favorite bands are selling out to this stupid game.
Thank GOD for Led Zeppelin.
The human that produces the music is fallible, the music itself is divine.
Also, it certain circumstances the kids actually get interested in the guitar. Case in point, my friends son got guitar for christmas after getting interested in playing...by playing guitar hero. I understand that guitar sales are up across the board.
The author is just spewing nonsense.
The thing that is REALLY sad is that that a REAL guitar company like Fender, Ibanez, etc. hasn't taken the logical next step and found a way to make some kind of attachable "pickup" or interface that could transmit REAL guitar data into a game.
Instead of fake playing by pushing 5 buttons, you would have to ACTUALLY hit the exact frets and strings. It would make the game much more challenging, and harder to master ( meaning more bragging rights ), and much more fun and popular.
I would LOVE to be able to test my skill against Steve Vai or Warren DiMartini.
The game industry is almost as big as the music industry, if not bigger. How much have games sold? around 5 BILLION dollars. If they want to keep music from the years of Metallica and AC/DC around, putting them in games is going to be just about the best way.
I like all the old music, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Steppenwolf, The Knack (MY SHARONA), all those, and i'm only 19. If they never made games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, kids that are younger than me would have NO CLUE who Bob Seger is. They'd never hear all of 'Old Time Rock n' Roll,' just parts from movies and commercials (usually the chorus).
So look at the whole thing before you write a blog about it.
This game offers something entertaining and non-violent. I personally love the game but I don't profess myself as a musician. I have always been a music junkie since a young age and I think it's great that younger generations are exposed to older bands. Years ago, you had to really dedicate yourself to really find out info about certain bands but today with iTunes and GH, it's so readily available; bottom line, it gives kids options. Frankly, if GH would be responsible for my kid listening to Heart and Reverend Horton Heat over the friggin' Wiggles, I'd be damn happy.
It's a game, get over it!
P.S. If artists such as yourself are so against it, maybe they should stop selling their art to corporations for a quick buck!
My son was inspired to play drums after owning the expert level on those games. We have had countless hours of enjoyment from both guitar hero and rock band. Of course it doesn't teach real music theory, but it does help people to gain an interest, and rhythm is integral to the game.
I for one am glad rock and roll is being showcased on these games - all the garbage (C)rap music that tops the charts these days, thank god for Guitar Hero, many bands are being showcased and kids are introduced to lots of different great music that they wouldn't know about otherwise.
Get off the hater wagon!
I think that it will increase awareness about rock and roll, because the true culprit in the demoralizing of playing instruments is rap. This style of music is nothing more than excessive rhyming with maybe a couple instruments and computer generated sounds to make a beat. Real rock and roll, the stuff that I have been listening to since I was a little girl, is true music, and Guitar Hero may help bring that back.