Opinion: Rock stars should embrace music games

Looks as if a growing number of musicians just don’t “get” the Guitar Hero game series. Prince told Tavis Smiley he turned Activision down because it’s more important for kids to learn how to play the guitar. Jack White and Jimmy Page have expressed similar sentiments.

Then there’s the bewildering fiasco of Courtney Love, who’s suing Activision concerning the use of Kurt Cobain’s avatar even though she signed over the rights for them to do so.

You know, it’s probably a good idea for anyone considering signing over rights to appear in a video game to actually play the game in question for a few minutes.

Love would have been able to see that Guitar Hero avatars – gasp! – cover other people’s songs. I’m going to go out on a limb and say at some point before Kurt Cobain became the Kurt Cobain, he covered some other people’s songs. The Guitar Hero franchise does a good job of covering the travels from backwater bars to sold out arenas.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr gave their input for The Beatles: Rock Band so they could be pleased with the finished product.

PS: If perhaps the greatest band of all time has no problem being in a video game, some of these other musicians should probably check their egos. How does it really sound to in effect be saying, “Yeah, Sir Paul McCartney can be in a game if he wants to but my music is way more important than his.” Pretentious, no?

I think musicians should want young people to experience their music in any way possible. There are millions of kids that would never tune in a classic rock station or listen to any music that predates Britney Spears. They may pick up a Guitar Hero game and be exposed to music they would never hear any other way. Would these same musicians deny a film company that wanted to use their music in a blockbuster film? Doubtful.

Whatever their reason, it’s trendy to bash video games for society’s ills. No need to go after the politicians who don’t give schools enough money to fund fine arts programs when Activision’s there as a ready scapegoat. Don’t you love when adults blame the lazy, good-for-nothing kids for problems that us grown-ups created? I know I do.

Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other such music games address a basic reality. It’s fun to pretend to be a rock star, but 99.9 percent of us will never play well enough to do so, even if we practiced from infancy to our deathbed. I won’t even start on how hard it is to succeed in the mainstream music industry if you don’t have “the look.” No, the games are as close as most of us will come to selling out arenas. I suppose next they’ll tell us that kids shouldn’t play Madden because if they spend all day outside, they will all make National Football League rosters. The fact is, the majority of us have about as much chance to be Sonic the Hedgehog as we do to lead the life of a rock star or NFL player.

Walk in any game or electronics store and you’ll see 100 video games people can take home with them. Musicians should be encouraging the growth of music games rather than bashing them.

Read [Tavis Smiley] Also Read [Wired]