How does an adult -- a gamer -- explain Nintendo's strongly touted Wii Music without conveying an overwhelming feeling of dread? It's like the Fisher-Price version of music games and in some dark nightmare it could become a major hit. The skill required to play Wii Music is comparable to putting a three-year-old in front of a toy piano and just letting them bang away, but no matter what key the child hits it continues to play the correct note to create a song. Wii Music is not a game, it's a toy; another glorified tech demo to keep Wii Sports and Wii Play company.

If music snobs dismiss the skill required to play games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, which do require talent to play and succeed, then those folks are going to have a full-blown aneurysm if Wii Music becomes a best seller. Our experience with the game was interesting, but we can't imagine spending more time with it beyond testing out the features or using it to entertain a child toddler when company comes over and the adults want to talk.

Rumors have been flying left and right all day that The Who would be gracing the stage at the Rock Band party tonight. Well, we decided to visit the The Who's website to see if we could glean any clues. Yes, there's a huge clue right there in left hand news feed. "According to REUTERS, The Who are playing a private show at a historic theatre in Los Angeles this evening to help promote the "Rock Band" video game..."

It makes a lot of sense, because The Who's Rock Band content just dropped this week, so they should just change that to "according to our official website," but hey, The Who. Live in town to promote Rock Band 2. Now you're talkin' bout my generation. Rock on. Maybe Roger Daltrey isn't so bored by the game anymore. Or maybe all it takes to excite him is the smell of a paycheck.

We'll have a full report tonight, or tomorrow, depending on how coherent we are later. If we're lucky, it'll even have video and audio goodies in it.

Sega has confirmed earlier rumors that its upcoming Wii-vival of Samba de Amigo will support downloadable content. That's the good news. However, with the first pack of three songs scheduled to debut alongside the game's launch on September 23, the announcement feels less like a gift and more a reason for Sega to dip its hands in our back pocket by charging for content that should already be on the disc.

While no pricing model has yet been announced, the first set of downloads will include 80's radio chant, I Want Candy, from Bow Wow Wow; Jet's Are You Going To Be My Girl?; and Lou Bega's Mambo Mambo, with future tracks expected to be made available "on a regular basis." We hope not too regular, unless a little thing called storage is sorted out first. Perhaps we should be diving into couch cushions, looking for SD cards instead of loose change.

[Via press release]

No longer will Belgium virtual rockers have to settle for playing air guitar to dreams of living room stardom, as Harmonix and MTV have announced plans to bring Rock Band to Belgians, as well as those in six other countries later this month, including Italy, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

According to the duo, the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band will be the lead SKU in these territories, shipping on July 24, with other fake instrument flavors arriving sometime later in the fall. As with the existing European release, the disc will include all 58 tracks found on the North American version as well as nine non-English tunes such as Die Toten Hosen's Hier Kommt Alex, Oasis' Rock 'n' roll star, and Playmo's New Wave. We welcome our new friends to the stage -- may you never fail out and your fingers never cramp.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of newly minted mega-publisher Activision Blizzard, has forecast the "the natural evolution" of the Guitar Hero franchise: iTunes. "I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential," Kotick told Financial Times.

While Kotick stopped short of actually detailing the proposal (we're imagining a typical music download service that features some Guitar Hero compatibility), Activision's merger with Vivendi Games ostensibly unlocks the Universal Music catalog, and Vivendi chief exec Jean-Bernard Levy added that the company has payment and processing capabilities in "virtually every country." Certainly, Activision Blizzard has a strong enough backbone to launch an iTunes competitor -- and an untold war chest ($3.5 billion, you say?) to make a bid for the highly coveted Beatles songs -- but to date, releasing 3 or so tracks a month ain't gonna cut it. Let's just get the Guitar Hero DLC updates on par with Rock Band's. Then we'll talk iTunes, m'kay?

Ludwig's on vacation, but we're sure he'll check the site sooner or later and see that we have news to report on his most wanted game ever. Sony's lovely, yet elusive safari sim, Afrika, has surfaced again (albeit briefly) in a new behind-the-scenes clip of its soundtrack being recorded in Hollywood.

Afrika's score is the work of Wataru Hokoyama, who is new to games but not other media. In addition to film scores, Hokoyama has brought his talent to TV, including orchestrations for "Once More, With Feeling," the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also conducts his own works, as you can see in the above video. Now that we've seen and heard the game, here's hoping (if only for Ludwig's sake) that we finally get to play it next week at E3.

[Via MTV Multiplayer]

Rock star and noted media violence expert Noel Gallagher used a recent public appearance to speak out against the influence of violent video games, according to the BBC. While accepting an award at London's Silver Clef Music Awards, Professor Emeritus Gallagher mentioned games as one possible cause for the prevalence of youth-oriented knife violence throughout England.

"People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it," said Gallagher, whose wide-ranging, cross-cultural sociological studies on the relationship between media exposure and real-world violence have changed the way we all look at this complex problem. "If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised [sic] to crime because they're playing these video games, it's really, really scary," he added while adjusting the Amalfi Prize hanging around his neck.

Gallagher is the best-selling author of Burning the Razor's Edge: How Super-Skunk Smoking and Our Knife-Obsessed Media Landscape are Turning Our Kids to Crime.

[Thanks, GunForHire]

In celebration of this week's Fourth of July holiday, Activision plans to serenade Guitar Hero III players with in-your-face patriotism and ambiguous homo-eroticism -- that's right, the "Top Gun Anthem" will be available as a free download on July 3rd. The film's instrumental theme, obtainable from both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, is sure send your fingers up and down your instrument as you dream of being Val Kilmer's wingman. No, Tom Cruise's wingman!

A recent ad for John McCain's presidential campaign features music from Medal of Honor: European Assault, which GamePolitics believes may be the first time video game music has been used as such. The awkward thing here is that the composer of the piece, Christopher Lennertz, is a passionate Barack Obama supporter who is "dismayed" by the use of his composition in the ad.

Lennertz doesn't own the rights to the piece, but he did release a statement saying that he wishes he'd been consulted before his music was used to promote a campaign that he does not agree with. He says he respects McCain, but has "never supported his candidacy nor his agenda for this country." Lennertz concludes, "As an artist, business owner, and patriot, I proudly support Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States of America..." We've placed the campaign ad after the break.

Having mastered every single one of Guitar Hero III's songs (including that one), perhaps you and your freakish, mutant fingers are yearning for some new notes to enliven those increasingly soporific shredding sessions. If you've got a PlayStation 3 copy of Activision's guitar 'em up, why not grab the promised God of War track, "The End Begins (to Rock)," from the PSN later today? It's epic, it's free and it sounds like this.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

You wouldn't castigate us for saying that many classic video games are loved and remembered not just for their gameplay and characters, but their memorable music. Why, just think of The Legend of Zelda's dum dum, da da da dadum, da da da da daaa da da da da da dadum! Or Sonic the Hedgehog's dada da da dee dum dum, da dada da dum dee dum dum. And who could forget Mega Man's dada dada dadee dum, dadum dadum dum daaa?

If you're a video gamer who appreciates everything from 8-bit beeps and boops to rousing orchestral scores, we encourage you to drag those big ears of yours to a Video Games Live concert. Created in 2002 by composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, Video Games Live honors a wide range of games in -- thanks to its 50-show strong world tour -- a wide range of American and international venues. See a complete list of planned concert locales (including France, China, Taiwan, Scotland and Portugal) and dates after the break.

While video game music is no longer simply the series of 'beeps' and 'boops' it was in the past, it has nonetheless remained one of game design's -- groan -- unsung heroes. This isn't lost on tune-focused Music4Games, and in a recent interview with Kingdom Hearts composer Yoko Shimomura, she spoke out on a number of topics, including her thoughts on creating music for the PlayStation 3.

According to Shimomura, who is responsible for the tunes we'll be humming along to in Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the PS3, composing on Sony's current platform is much less limiting than it was in previous generations. "With the PlayStation 2, sound production...was a constant battle with memory and limitations," she recalled, adding that "with the PlayStation 3, I'm expecting to have it sound the way I please, without limitations." It's encouraging to hear someone at any level talk about creating content on the PS3 that doesn't involve the words "difficult" or "costly." However, with Square Enix continuing to play coy with regards to when its decade of Final Fantasy will actually kick off, it may be some time before our ears ring with the fruits of Yoko Shimomura's musical labor.

The official Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots soundtrack came out in Japan today. The score was composed by Nobuko Toda and Harry Gregson-Williams, who have both contributed music to past MGS titles.

The soundtrack is available for import via Play-Asia for $28. We caution, however, looking at the track listing as they contain minor spoilers (such as the "This is The Song You Hear When Snake Shoots Himself in the Head 78% Into the Game" – we're kidding). A copy of the soundtrack is also included in the Limited Edition version of the game. MGS4 is just two weeks away.

A new name has emerged within the already crowded rhythm game landscape, this one focused on stamping out mad beats in the casual game space. Aptly-named Music Video Games, the new company was founded by David Warhol from Intellivision Lives! creator Realtime Associates and former TDK Mediactive CEO Vincent Bitetti to put a casual spin on music games in order to make them more accessible.

While we're name dropping, the company's roster also includes former Warner Bros. Records and THQ execs Mark Goldstein and Tim Walsh, both of whom serve as strategic advisors to the fledgling startup. However, nothing specific has been revealed concerning the outfit's upcoming projects, with the company stating only that it plans to "develop, publish and exploit technology and proprietary music beat matching game designs." We're curious to see what comes of this, though honestly with games both big and small already appealing to a wide range of players, whatever Music Video Games comes up with will have to be infectious to keep it from being yanked off the stage.

We've heard tell of the incredible success Harmonix has seen with their weekly downloadable tracks for Rock Band. Often, their sales numbers are matched up against those of Guitar Hero III, where tracks are more seldom, but also sell like diamond-encrusted hotcakes. As enjoyable as these track packs are, we've yet to see any comparison between them and actual music retailers, digital or otherwise -- that is, until Mötley Crüe's new single simultaneously rocked the faces off of music downloaders and DLC collectors alike.

The song, "Saints of Los Angeles", came from the glam-band's upcoming album, and dropped onto iTunes, Zune, Amazon, and the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band on April 15. In it's first week of availability, digital distributors sold 10,000 copies of the single, but dedicated faux-rockers downloaded 47,000 copies of the track from the 360 Rock Band Music Store, according to Reuters. Could this inspire more record labels to debut new albums and singles on Harmonix's golden goose title? We certainly hope so.

[Via Evil Avatar]