Nickelback Frontman: Put Down the Guitar Hero

[Guest]

Guitar Hero and Rock Band represent millions of units sold and even more in dollars earned for their publishers. However, one rock n' roll frontman is calling for kids everywhere to put down the controller and pick up a real Gibson guitar.

Nickelback Frontman: Put Down the Guitar Hero : Read more

 

[Pei-chen]

Hey, maybe Rock is going the way of Disco.

 

[PsychoShoe]

I totally agree with this guy! Who needs videogames when you can go to war, fly a spaceship and be a rock star in real life? This really made me to sell my xbox and sign up for the Iraq war!

 

[theubersmurf]

I've heard the same argument from a lot of people. Really, when considered seriously, playing rock band/guitar hero is not the same thing...The learning curve for a guitar hero controller doesn't even compare to the learning curve of even being competent with a guitar. I've done both...the investment of time needed to learn to play guitar is far greater. And there is little satisfaction to playing guitar hero if you want to see your own material performed. The comparison is silly in all truth...in essence, a guitar hero controller is a single string guitar with 5 frets...whereas a real guitar is is six stringed, with 22 frets! I think if anyone is mistaking playing guitar hero for the real act of playing guitar...they're not thinking too hard about it.

 

[d_kuhn]

They also need to take into account the number of kids turned on to playing the real thing by the games. Both my boys wanted guitars within 3 months of getting GH2, my oldest just chose a new guitar (American Tele) over a CAR as his "made honor roll" payout.

I'd say that folks that are going to get into playing for real will be pushed along that road by these fun games, and for the rest of us it's an easy way to have a good time and listen to some cool tracks.

 

[NuclearShadow]

I never really saw the point in the game to be honest and can't understand how people like it. When it boils down to it all you do is press the right button at the right time. Very similar to DDR really but it manages to be even lazier. I recall a game I played at a expo about 12-13 years ago that was the same concept except it actually taught you how to play the guitar. I guess we went back a step...

 

[Nelz]

Maybe the rock industry could donate time or instruments to help kids get into REAL music and not games
There is a lot that can be done here, don't just talk about it, make it happen Chad!

 

[NuclearShadow]

[citation][nom]Nelz[/nom]Maybe the rock industry could donate time or instruments to help kids get into REAL music and not games There is a lot that can be done here, don't just talk about it, make it happen Chad![/citation]

Actually that would be against the industries best interests. The music industry likes to pump out what it knows and whats safe over and over again. They like to choose who and what is in the spot lite. Last thing they need is independent bands taking that spot lite away with non recycled material.

With the power of the internet today I am sure a band that plays in their garage like Metallica did in the past could achieve the same success and much less time. In fact this scares the shit out of the music industry because with digital distribution and free marketing through things like myspace and youtube why even go through them anymore? Record company's are useless today they just don't want people to realize that all they do is take the majority of the profits.

 

[NuclearShadow]

Oh and they make profits off of games like this because those games have to pay lots of $ to get those songs in the game.

 

[techtre2003]

It's easy for people who were born with a musical talent to bash Guitar Hero. Yes I know playing a musical instrument takes a lot of practice, but I think you also have to be somewhat musically "inclined". But some people, like me, don't have that talent. I bought a guitar when I was in college and practiced at least 10 hours a week for 2 years and never really got to the point I could play an actual song (besides the beginner stuff).

I can however play the crap out of Guitar Hero and have a blast doing it! Not everyone can grow up to be a rock star, Chad. And I don't think the lack of rock bands has anything to do with videogames; but rather the music industry as a whole churning out pop crap to make big profits.

 

[davewbrown]

I don't know what is best for anyone else; but my 13 year old daughter has taken music in grades 6, 7 and now 8. She does percussion and has had her own set of drums since grade 6. She liked playing the drums but never took a big interest in them outside of practicing for her music class. Then, I got her Guitar Hero, Rock Band and now Rock Band 2. Once she got into these she started taking more interest in her real drums. Now she plays them more often. She plays the songs on Rock Band (some in expert mode) and then tries on her real drums with just the music. She also plays the Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitar and sings (on hard mode and some expert).
As well, my 9 year old son and I join her in the game (on easy mode) and have a lot of family fun. For me, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have just increased the interest in music for the whole family. We even went to look at a real guitar.
Best of all, if you want to bond with you’re kids, grab Guitar Hero or Rock Band and "pretend" to play music with them.

 

[resonance451]

This is a culture of instant gratification. I wanna be a rock star without having to put any effort into it. It's a real shame. Yes, I understand there are positives to it but as a musician I'm disheartened that everybody wants to live the dream with zero effort and passion involved and then discard it a few years later when the latest game simulation comes out. I used to play lots of games, primarily fantasy games and the like. Why? Because in these games I could do what I never otherwise could, and I could be transported into a world that didn't exist and be any number of things that are impossible in this world. As for playing a guitar, that took me a little bit of effort and care, and suddenly it was easy to do a lot of basics. Even a lot of those Metallica solos you hear are simply collections of different kinds of scales, which just take practice.

I wonder how many kids play rock band and decide they want to get into it more seriously. Then their parents buy them one of those Fender Squier Starter Packs for Christmas, and the things go untouched after a few weeks since you actually have to be passionate and dedicated to playing them.

@davewbrown If you want to bond with your kids, you could also go out and do things in real life with them instead of engaging in simulations.

 

[gm0n3y]

I think the problem has nothing to do with having too few rock bands. It has to do with MTV and the record companies only wanting to play non-rock music. So there is just no airtime / decent record deals for rock bands. I follow my local music scene pretty closely and there are at least 5-6 bands that I consider to be really good (better than any crap on the radio) that can't get a record deal.

 

[encryptedband]

Maybe Chad should spend less time complaining about Guitar Hero and learn to play the guitar better himself! If it weren't for Guitar Hero my three cousins would never have learned to play any instruments and now they play guitar, drums, bass and have a band. So no matter what anybody says GH is the best thing to happen to the rock music industry in a long time. Its introducing kids to the great classic acts like AC/DC, GnR, CCR which in turn sells their albums and also inspires the kids to play GOOD music not the late 90s-2000s crap that most kids like. So I couldn't be more against this comment from Chad Kroeger who obviously hasn't considered the possible benefits of these excellent games/learning tools.

 

[fulle]

I have to agree with the majority on this one. GH, isn't going to do anything but increase the desire to learn a real instrument. What I think is disappointing, is the lack of software to help get over brutal initial learning curve of learning guitar. I mean, when I first picked up my guitar, it felt pretty impossible to try to learn even a few basic minor Chords. Sure there are lots of online tutorials and such, but as a beginner learning my first 4 chords was really difficult without an instructor. (I had played only brass, and string instruments before guitar).

Maybe GH will inspire a software developer to come up with something that'll bridge the gap further. If not, at least GH increases the amount of real instruments on children's Christmas lists. With public schools cutting music programs, I'm glad America's fat children are at least being exposed to classic rock... because God knows almost none of em' are learning to play J.S.Bach.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

I'm neither for or against those music games, but I don't nessecarily agrees with the nickelback dude. There is plenty of rock out there. It just ain't on mtv, cause mtv is for the teens, and they'd rather listen to hip hop and whatever else is on there. That's simply because mtv addresses a younger crowd than nickelback. When I was a kid mtv played pet shop boys and that sort of stuff - but pop music isn't what kids want today, so that's not what they're playing. It's that simple really.

I primarily listen to punk or heavy rock music (or gothic and that sort of stuff), and I somehow don't have any problems finding bands that play that kind of music. It just isn't mainstream.