{"id":1104,"date":"2007-12-05T09:07:34","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T17:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2007\/12\/why_we_should_care_about_guita\/"},"modified":"2007-12-05T09:07:34","modified_gmt":"2007-12-05T17:07:34","slug":"why_we_should_care_about_guita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/why_we_should_care_about_guita.php","title":{"rendered":"Why we should care about Guitar Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

KCRW’s The Business<\/i> radio program has a great segment<\/a> (about 20 minutes in) on the continuing rise of rock-performance-related video games like Guitar Hero<\/a> and the hotly hyped Rock Band<\/a> from MTV.<\/p>\n

While the addictive games may seem more like mimicry than musicianship to some (the goal is to click the correct buttons on your plastic guitar game controller, in sync with the music and fret boards on-screen), there’s something more to the experience than that.<\/p>\n

The radio interview features Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems, and co-developer of both the original Guitar Hero and the new Rock Band games. Says Rigopulos about the origins of the idea:<\/p>\n


\nWhen we started the company, we weren’t thinking about video games at all. We were really just motivated to fix what we believed to be a problem in the world that needed fixing, which is that playing music is one of the most profoundly joyful experiences that life has to offer. Everybody feels this innate urge to make music. And yet very few people get to have access to what it feels like.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The games have created a frenzy of toy-guitar-cranking among all ages, and even inspired an entire episode of South Park<\/i><\/a>. Further, they’ve generated a new and unexpected stream of money to the music publishers that hold the rights to the classic rock songs (yes, Virginia, video game companies pay royalties on those rock songs). And since my kids have started playing it (it was a gift, I swear), they’re mysteriously drawn to classic rock radio stations. I even catch my 10-year-old singing ”Smoke on the Water” and old Allman Brothers Band music. Very odd.<\/p>\n

Certainly, there’s the same eye-body reflex challenge in these games as the ever-popular Dance Dance Revolution games. But there is also something in the feeling of making music, however approximate it might be, that’s well worth our attention. And the evolution of group performance — in the multi-player, multi-instrument Rock Band — ads the element of ensemble to the mix. Making the feeling even more powerful.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if Cello Hero<\/i> or Lute Hero<\/i> would do the same for more historical forms of music, or Brecht Hero<\/i> for theater lovers. But we can ponder the idea, can’t we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KCRW’s The Business radio program has a great segment (about 20 minutes in) on the continuing rise of rock-performance-related video games like Guitar Hero and the hotly hyped Rock Band from MTV. While the addictive games may seem more like mimicry than musicianship to some (the goal is to click the correct buttons on your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}