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Guitar Hero Is Big Hit With Bands
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "An unlikely but growing group of rock stars are also avid players of Guitar Hero, a PlayStation title that uses a miniature plastic guitar to let gamers pretend to be, well, rock stars, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Michael Einziger, the 30-year-old guitarist for the hard-rock band Incubus, says he was "shocked at how hard it was" to play the videogame's version of his song "Stellar." He admits he was handily beaten by his then-14-year-old sister, Ruby Aldridge, when the two of them squared off earlier this year. "It doesn't have anything to do with playing guitar," Mr. Einziger says. "It's all rhythmic." When the four members of the punk-pop band the Donnas got together to play Guitar Hero last week, guitarist Allison Robertson took some good-natured ribbing from her bandmates, says drummer Torry Castellano. That's because Ms. Robertson had a hard time playing along with the band's own song "Take It Off." "Expectations for her are pretty high because she's the guitar player and because she's so good at videogames in general," says Ms. Castellano.'"
male guitarist often make jokesabout women not being able to play guitar (we know it's not strictly true, it's just about a one to ten ratio in comparison to males) but the donnas couldn't play that song with real instruments anyway so they were bound to be at a disadvantage. (christ girls, there's more to the guitar than power chords)
Guitar Hero is totaly fun to play, that's why you play it. I think that anyone who plays it because they want to learn to play guitar a deluding themselves, It's a game, nothing more. It's kind of like playing DDR to learn to waltz, just not going to happen.
The point isn't to play along with the band, the point is to play along with your friends and have a good time. If you have friends who are musicians then you could probably all get together and have fun playing real music. Otherwise I think the majority of people (who are most likely not very musical) would prefer the video game version. Also I think it's a bit easier having one person carrying a slim PS2 and a couple of fake plastic guitars to your friends house then everyone hauling around heavy equipment... and then worrying that the neighbors will complain.
Collector's Edition
Hi, and welcome to the world of marketting.
This article was not written to talk about the bands in question and their love of playing a video game. It was written to give exposure to the Guitar Hero franchise of games, and bring attention to the impending release of the game's sequel, which is now an MTV property (who incited the writing of this article to generate sales).
Now that you realize your error for even giving it attention, please take your haughty "Hi I'm a real musician, allow me to tell you how much better I am than you" attitude elsewhere. It's really worse than the brainwashing corporations responsible for this kind of media in the first place.
Thanks.
I agree. It's like when I bought DDR to learn to dance. No chicks come flocking when I bust my moves on the real dance floor, but I score 100% every time. Weird.
I'm an Air Guitarist and personally, I care greatly for Guitar Hero.
... so why play guitar hero? To play with the bands! I want to do that, while jumping off my sofa and falling to my knees like I do when listening to Van Halen MP3s through Winamp.
... but it's a far cry from the thrill of finishing Crossroads on expert.
I mean, I've already got a PS2 and a HDTV in my living room
I find it odd that someone who has an appreciation for powerful guitar music would not enjoy to play an adrenalin-pumping video game. Well, to each their own, I guess. I think amateur guitarists would rather just sit in an empty room playing with themselves than dream of being in a big-name band like Korn...I can't imagine ever getting tired of that.
The funniest thing is, I've got several family members who play guitar. They've tried to teach me, but I have no guitar skills whatsoever. This summary hits it right on the head that you can still feel like a rock god and skip the blisters and the arthritic knuckles and angry neighboors.
Fender Strat = 1399. PS2 + Guitar Hero + 40" DLP HDTV is about the same. Take your choice. I suspect a real Stratocaster would be a great chick magnet