Rock Band!
Rock band! That single phrase has such a different meaning nowadays, doesn’t it? When I was growing up, listening to Rock and Roll LPs on my cheap record player, and someone mentioned a rock show or a rock band, it immediately made me think of a live concert. A real, honest-to-goodness, balls-to-the-wall type of rock show. You know what I’m talking about here, right? I’m talking about a buzz, an unbearable anticipation in the air…until the lights finally go down. The arena goes dark and the lighters go straight up in the air. The band takes the stage and just rocks your socks off! The lights pulsating to the beat of the music, some killer pyrotechnics, plenty of fake fog rolling off the stage…and the music was loud. Really loud! And if you were lucky, you would see some lasers! Oh man, how I loved a good laser show! I’m pretty sure the amps went to 11 at the old Capital Center shows. I think my heart beat was altered forever at the AC/DC ‘Back In Black’ concert! And when you left the show, after at least two encores, you couldn’t hear a damn thing. It was like your ear canals were full of cotton. You were shouting to the person next to you just to tell them how great the show was!
This is a Rock band.
Okay, enough memories…let’s fast-forward to today’s Rock band. Hmm, that’s weird; I’m not looking at live people anymore. In fact, I’m not even at a concert hall. Where’s the fog? Where are the lasers? Where are the amps? Instead, I’m in a living room, staring at a television screen. I see these colored blobs heading towards me and animated figures of my Rock and Roll heroes belting out the tunes that made them famous. Is that Steven Tyler? Animated? Man, he’s uglier than in real life! But, I have to admit, at least they made his mouth big enough. Instead of just hanging out, listening to great music, I see people desperately trying to keep up with the music on a plastic guitar that was built for someone about the size of Verne Troyer. Or, even more entertaining, I see folks beating the piss out of a tiny drum set…again a slave to colored blobs being lobbed toward them by the animated drummer. Is that Lars Ulrich? Wow! I can even buy upgrades and extras for my instruments. The problem is, of course, the instruments are not real instruments! They’re just bad, plastic replicas.
- Just like the real thing…
Oh, how the guitar gods of the past must be rolling over in their graves. They’re staring down at us from above, six-string still slung around their backs and picks in hand, just laughing. Please forgive us Jimi!!! We mean no harm or disrespect! Oh Stevie Ray, please look the other way! No wonder the sky is crying!! I wonder what Joe Satriani thinks of Rock band? Can you even imagine Neil Peart drumming to Rock Band? I think he’d rather give up drumming all together! So, here’s what I’m thinking needs to happen…
Let’s take all the time, effort and money collectively spent on chasing those colored blobs with make-believe instruments and put it to a different, and better, use. Are you ready? Wait for it, wait for it…let’s actually learn how to play the instrument! What?! Did he just say what I think he said? Yes. Learn how to actually play the guitar, or drums, or whatever. Pick up the actual, full size instrument and start your musical education.
The real thing.
Look, I love music. I love listening to music. I love playing music. I wouldn’t be blogging about music if I didn’t love it so much! There is something extremely gratifying about playing an instrument and producing sounds and notes that come together in a good harmony and form a kick-ass melody. You don’t want to make original music? That’s cool. You won’t believe how satisfying it is to learn a song from your favorite band and then nail that song spot-on! I guarantee you; you’ll be playing it over and over again until someone tells you to stop. There is really no comparison between actually playing an instrument versus pretending to play an instrument. I love a good air-guitar solo as much as the next person, but you’re still not playing the guitar. (Besides, just between you and me; you look like a dork-wanna-be when you play air guitar in public) Get out there and play! Besides, I can barely put into words how freaking cool it is to perform on stage in front of real people. You talk about a rush! There is no comparison between playing live on stage and playing a bad imitation in your basement. Oh yeah, and remember what John Mellencamp said; “Forget all about that macho shit and learn how to play guitar!”
Vodes has just joined the meandthestereo community. He’ll be writing weekly columns for us about his experience with music, so keep coming back for more. Help us welcome him to the blog by sending him angry comments about how much you love video games! Comment below!
I, for one, could not agree more. Learning to play is half the fun, especially since, this one time, at band camp . . .
I have to disagree. I believe that Rock Band and Guitar Hero not only are not taking anything away from music but are actually helping the music industry. Since their founding, Harmonix (the creators of both Rock Band and Guitar Hero) have sought to make the experience of performing music accessible to the masses. Before, this was an experience that not everyone could have. Learning to play an instrument is very difficult. It takes a lot of discipline to learn to play. Being able to play well also requires some natural talent. If you don’t have the talent and the discipline, trying to figure out how to play a decent song is not going to be a fun experience. But you know what is a fun experience? Getting some friends together of varying musical and game playing ability, turning on Rock Band on no fail mode, and taking turns playing the fake instruments or singing along to songs like Eye of the Tiger or Any Way You Want It.
Still, these games are not taking anything away from those who can play the actual instruments. You’ll never see anyone with a bunch of groupies because of their Guitar Hero abilities. But you do hear about some people taking their experience with Rhythm Games and deciding to try their hand at playing actual instruments. And the experience with Rhythm Games does enhance their musical ability. Try playing Foo Fighter’s “Learn To Fly” on Rock Band a few times and then listen to it on your ipod and tell me you don’t hear beats you never heard before.
In the end Rhythm Games are just another way to enjoy music of which there are many. One of my favorite ways to enjoy music is accompanied by some visual image. Its one thing to listen to John William’s Duel of the Fates and another to listen to it while watching an intense light saber battle. I like the songs of Fatboy Slim but I love the video for Weapon of Choice that has Christopher Walken dancing to it. And I think one gains a new appreciation for Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy when one sees it as part of a good performance of The Nutcracker ballet. So its possible to get a new appreciation for Dragonforce’s Through The Fire And Flames while trying and failing multiple times to play it in Guitar Hero. And the great thing is that these games are bringing more and more music to more and more people. People are listening to great music that they never play on the radio anymore. New bands are being discovered because of their song’s inclusion on one of these games. Many bands have reported an increase in sales of songs that hadn’t been popular in years as a direct result of their inclusion in these games. I can’t wait to introduce my sister to some great Beatles songs she probably hasn’t heard before whenever I get The Beatles: Rock Band game.
Last week, Harmonix made a monumental announcement. They are going to release tools so that musicians and music labels can release Rock Band versions of their songs whenever they want. Sub Pop has already committed to releasing some of their back catalog and in the future releasing all new releases on Rock Band as well. I hope they release The Body, the Blood, the Machine by The Thermals. I have spent many hours listening to this album. I had a great time at a Thermals show a couple of months ago. And I can’t wait to jam out to it on my fake plastic drum set.
Hey “Vodes”!
http://www.macbrosplace.com/real-guitars-are-for-old-people/