Jack White: learning about music through Guitar Hero is 'depressing'

Speaking at a press conference for a documentary, both the White Stripes' frontman Jack White and legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page discussed the popularity of music games like Guitar Hero. "It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music," White said. It may seem hypocritical that the man saying this fronts two bands in the new Guitar Hero 5, but White said he doesn't attempt to dictate "which format people should get their music in..."

Page added, "You think of the drum part that John Bonham did on Led Zeppelin's first track on the first album, 'Good Times Bad Times.' How many drummers in the world can play that part, let alone on Christmas morning?" It's true -- video games aren't doing enough to teach kids to be like John Bonham.

Neither one said that the games weren't fun, or that they shouldn't exist, or anything like that. If anything, the two musicians were commenting on the way kids choose to get their music now, which we understand -- having our music handed to us in game form by Activision is very different from discovering it on the radio or trading tapes. Plus, well, Page is old, and therefore gets a pass on matters of technology. And Jack White wrote "The Same Boy You've Always Known" and can basically say whatever the hell he wants, as far as we're concerned.

[Via Eurogamer]