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

Kind of like how the little kiddies "learning" blues and rock through Jack White is depressing.

Sorry, I know there is no use getting worked up over reader comments or any other internet posting by anonymous people whose minds you cannot change. But I can't sit idly by with someone calling Jack White a hack or a nobody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03YUgHAshSo&feature=related

I've said this a MILLION times!!!!!

Give us Rock Band: Led Zeppelin & my money is yours on announcement, fuck the recession or my dislike of more peripherals!!!


I love the Beatles and feel they are the king's, but Led Zeppelin is the "ROCK BAND". Oh how I wanted The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as games but seeing as now we got the Beatles and Pink Floyd really isn't Rock Band game material because it transcends it Led is where it is at. Imagine all the people playing are playing the best of that position. Top dog singer, guitarist, basses and drummer. ROCK FEST CITY MAN!!!! A super no brainier.

The issue as I see it here is that musicians are losing their "indentity" factor. Seeing the White Stripes and being a fan of THEM is different than discovering their music through Guitar Hero or Rock Band, because then the fan appriciation is for the GAME, not the MUSICIAN. When you have "85 songs by 83 artists", there is very little in the way of being excited by a single band. You tend to find a SONG in the GAME you like and become a fan that way.

Most bands do not have the fanbase to warrant an individual game, like Metallica or ACDC, and most bands can not even get an entire album of content up in a game (like Judas Priest, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters), so the excitement of being a "WHITE STRIPES" fan via music games is not as appealing to the MUSICIANS themselves.

It is the new kind of "shelf space" - rather than fighting for space on the racks, you are now fighting for space in RB/GH. But in the past, where the bands drove a place like Tower Records, now the bands drive Rock Band or Guitar Hero, games who themselves have a "fan base". There was a never anyone I knew who was a diehard "TOWER RECORDS" fan. But I know plenty who are RB/GH fans because it is something they can do at home, by themselves if necessary - and it does not take a specific band to fill the need when you have RB/GH and DLC for both.

Trust me, if The Beatles: Rock Band makes a GAZILLION MOTRILLION QUADBILLION dollars, you will see people like Jimmy Page change their tune real quick, because you can do more with an all "Led Zepplin" game than a game with some Led Zepplin in it along with 30 or so other bands. The former allows the actual musicians to be the center of attention, the latter does not.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith showed this - as their album sales went up right after the game hit. Why? Because it was easy to identify the "musicians" involved. You had cutscenes WITH THE BAND, stories FROM THE BAND, places the BAND PLAYED. With a basic RB/GH setup, that is not usually the case, and therefore it is harder to form an attachment to a musician (at least, the way THEY want it...)

XBox 360 - They should be happy they get to make money with their "job", but again, the musician's ego is a fragile thing indeed.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band have only ruined songs for me. I used to like "One-Armed Scissor" before it was combined with the ghoulish (In a bad way) and cheesy avatars in Guitar Hero.

IMO marrying images to songs is awful. I'd rather put headphones on, close my eyes and space out.

I'll never understand why musicians get all butt hurt over Guitar Hero. I've never seen anyone claim they're an awesome guitar player because they got a high score in GH or RB. What are they so threatened about? You don't see football players whining about people who play Madden '09. Rhythm games are excellent fun and easy to pick up and enjoy by gamers and non-gamers alike. If great bands can take advantage of video games as a new medium to showcase their work, then good for them. Any "artist" that doesn't see this needs to evolve or get left behind.

I don't like the way Joystiq picked side in this article...

point taken or not, this topic is all about the "good ol' days". as pompous or ridiculous as he may sound (or not), i've seen many a comment on other posts that rag on video games themselves (old-school, graphics/gameplay, casual/core gamer, j/western rpg, etc.).

i can understand his nostalgia because while i may not have been into music back then, i still remember the good ol days of a time when jrpg's were really up there (especially during the SNES era).

for better or worse, times are changing so we too have to adapt. if anything, i think indie music still has that touch of nostalgia (mostly because the only indie music i hear about is from friends or from non-mainstream channels).

I kind of agree kind of disagree with them. It's not depressing that someone learns about new music through a video game, it's depressing when they hear it and only like that song because it's in the game. I once heard someone humming a song from Guitar Hero (I forget what song) and when I asked him what other stuff he liked from the band he had never heard any of it, yet he had the whole note chart memorized almost, that's depressing.

Oh and will people stop calling White a hack or talentless. White is an amazing songwriter, guitarist and singer. You just need to listen to him. May I suggest listening to Elephant. It's one of my favorite albums.

Sorry guys, I for one am glad that the first time I heard 'Stairway to Heaven' or 'A Day in the Life' it wasn't while holding a plastic guitar... staring at an lcd with poorly animated rocker avatars.

I wouldn't like it less, but the game would always be intrinsically tied to my memories of the song. I grew up in the heyday of MTV and for better or worse the images of those videos are always with me when I hear that music. If I hear 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' I see Kurt Kobain in that strange orange gymnasium with the creepy cheerleaders and that old janitor.
Not all those videos were good, but a lot of them had damn fine visionary directors at the helm. I don't argue that games aren't art, but I think David Fincher or Spike Jones make better images than what I get from Guitar Hero.

I don't think anyone is cracking open a Rock Band bundle and busting out any song on drums at the expert level X-mas morning. I've had it for months and I'm still struggling on Medium with a lot of the songs. I've played guitar for 13 years, but I bought RB2 as a drum trainer and that shit is hard! I feel like if these games get people involved in playing and inspire them to learn real instruments, that can only be a good thing. Plus, I know it's selling a lot of old albums that these kiddos would never be exposed to or want if not for their music being included in the game. These guys should just sit back, relax, and count their money.

Wow, a perfectly reasonable negative statement on music games from a rock star? I need my inhaler.

This reminds me off picking up a Who album the other day with a giant sticker that said "Features 'Who Are You', from the hit TV show CSI!" I then proceeded to kill myself and am actually posting this from hell.

Maybe they didn't mean that it's sad that it's coming from the a game but it's sad that it's not coming from the medium it should be, like the radio. I kinda took it as a slam to how the music industry is atm.

Well, I play actual guitar, and picking up the plastic guitar wasn't nearly as easy as I expected. Part of it is lag/timing issues, but it's still tricky on expert.

GH/RB changed my perception of many songs by forcing me to pay closer attention to the part I was playing in the game. Several songs I wasn't particularly fond of turned out to have interesting bits which I hadn't noticed before. It really enhances your appreciation for the music.

Ever since the first time I ever played GH, it has been incredibly obvious that from now into the future every song should come with data tracks to allow it to be used in music games like GH/RB.

As far as non-guitar instruments are concerned, drums on expert are a blast and ridiculously hard, and I'd also say that any male vocalist who can rip through a Steve Perry/Brad Delp/Sting/Bon Scott/Brian Johnson/Rob Halford/etc. song has my ultimate respect.

Anyway, I echo the sentiment: Page, bring on the Good Times Bad Times for Christmas morning! If you do not, I swear I will convince every aspiring drummer I know to play nothing but Rick Allen drum parts until the end of time.

Rock

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