Have you ever found yourself wondering what a statistical breakdown of all the songs in Rock Band 2 might look like while in the midst of one of the game's heavy metal power solos? Admittedly, that's not the most hard rockingest thing we've ever heard -- still, you may want to point your mathematical curiosities at gaming blog Pwn or Die, who recently sorted the series' 591 tracks into different categories using simple bar graphs and delicious-looking pie charts.
Here's some of the more interesting tidbits we gleaned from the charts -- nearly three-quarters of the available songs come from DLC, though only about one-quarter of said content is currently available on the Wii version of the game. The decade that spawned the most of the available tracks is the 2000s (making up about 40 percent of the songs), while the tunes of the 1920s remain tragically unspoken for. You can check out the rest of the charts here!
Reader Comments (44)
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 6:14PM AwesomeTown said
I'm sorry, I can't hit +1 more than once.
Frightened Rabbit on there would make me so freaking happy.
Reply
Frightened Rabbit on there would make me so freaking happy.
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 4:39PM (Unverified) said
genres are inherently flawed to begin with, but harmonix certainly doesn't strive for accuracy when labeling tracks in rock band.
Reply
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 4:51PM (Unverified) said
What the hell is Pop/Rock... and why are there separate categories for Pop Rock and Pop/Rock?
Reply
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 4:54PM ChooChooCharlie said
It's very important to separate sub-categories. For instance, sometimes I feel like some Funk Rock, but other times I feel like some FUNK Rock. And then of course, there's always Funk ROCK.
Reply
Posted: Mar 12th 2009 1:10AM The Man with a girls name said
omg i love you for that stella reference. I LOVE STELLA!!!!
Reply
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 5:05PM (Unverified) said
Proof Harmonix needs to add more 5x and 6x difficulty songs. The two added together come out to about as much as 4x, and significantly less than any other typical difficulty tier.
Love Rock Band, but it's mostly too easy on Expert. Just sayin'.
Reply
Love Rock Band, but it's mostly too easy on Expert. Just sayin'.
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 5:27PM 343 Guilty Fart said
Pop/Rock versus Pop Rock, Alternative vs Grunge vs Indie Rock. It's like we're splitting hairs here.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2009 5:31PM WiNGSPANTT from TopTierTacticsco said
These charts are cool.
Cool for cats.
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Cool for cats.
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 5:36PM (Unverified) said
The Hold Steady for Rock Band.
of course, in my wildest dreams Rock Band is populated by tracks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjpbjCH5L0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjMsSIc_EoM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7WajZjKhII
Reply
of course, in my wildest dreams Rock Band is populated by tracks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjpbjCH5L0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjMsSIc_EoM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7WajZjKhII
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 7:07PM Dr Toboggan said
You lost me with the last two, but Hold Steady and Neutral Milk Hotel would be amazing. Most of NMH's songs would be hard to sing, though. Mangum never takes a breath, it seems.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2009 5:55PM falcomadol said
So, what's the difference between Pop/Rock and Pop Rock?
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Posted: Mar 11th 2009 6:12PM (Unverified) said
There are a lot of great indie rock songs that just don't translate to the game because they're just a bunch of chords blasting with no solos. As much fun as a lot of Neutral Milk Hotel would be to sing it would be hard to write good guitar patterns for it I think. The amount of focus on the frets is tough when trying to use modern music because the guitar solo is practically dead, I'm hoping GH/RB will maybe revive it actually.
Dinosaur Jr. - Back To Your Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGBz7Rv8O9s
Now there's a good Rock Band song. There's tons of good older stuff by them too but they'd probably have to get them to re-record it since it's lo-fi.
Reply
Dinosaur Jr. - Back To Your Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGBz7Rv8O9s
Now there's a good Rock Band song. There's tons of good older stuff by them too but they'd probably have to get them to re-record it since it's lo-fi.
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 6:21PM (Unverified) said
So either they forgot to classify "Visions" or they left out the "Utter Crap" category.
Reply
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 7:13PM (Unverified) said
Ugg, that amount of Pop Rock crap is way too high.
Seriously, Rock Band 2 was such a disappointment largely because ever other song was some shitty pop rock junk.
Reply
Seriously, Rock Band 2 was such a disappointment largely because ever other song was some shitty pop rock junk.
Posted: Mar 11th 2009 9:15PM tracer bullet said
Ok, so, to make it more balanced, how about....
Rock Band: Devil at the Crossroad.
BB King, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, Howlin' Wolf & other Blues legends
Now, that would be interesting.
Reply
Rock Band: Devil at the Crossroad.
BB King, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, Howlin' Wolf & other Blues legends
Now, that would be interesting.
Posted: Mar 12th 2009 9:50AM Keithustus said
Hopefully those charts will help Harmonix realize that there's WAY too many 2000s songs and to start concentrating on some 1960s and 1970s ones for awhile.
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