Guitar Hero

I still can't beat "Bark at the Moon", "Frankenstein", or "Cowboys From Hell" on Expert level and it pisses me off.

As a side note, I downloaded my first Stevie Ray and Edgar Winter albums because of this game.

I saw a couple girls doing Helmet's "UNSUNG" at my local Sony shop. It looked pretty easy, maybe too easy. I think playing (non-VG) guitar might be more fun and worthwhile.

I've been trying to play guitar for about six years and I still suck at it and it is way more fun for me to play Guitar Hero.

And also, when I play stuff on my actual guitar, it doesn't add vocals and drums and rhythm guitar to the mix.

I'll shut up now.

also, i feel very cool being able to pretend to play 'ace of spades'. that song rules, but i can't play it in real life. really though, the coolest thing about this game is that it has actually improved my rhythm guitar skills! i was never the type to sit down and play along to records, but playing these white zombie and megadeth tunes has done wonders for me. haha

http://damiandodd.com/Images2/Sitar_Hero.jpg

We were on about this game yesterday.Had a right interesting chat.

Just learn to play the fucking guitar!!!!!

My bassist claims that GH has improved his arm strength a lot, so that he never gets tired from fretting during practice now. I mean, I dunno, since I've never played it. He's probably better at wanking too.

improves rhythm

A friend of a friend is a developer who says that GH: London Calling is in the works as an upcoming download.

Just wondering. It seems a larger and larger number of teens are getting into old heavy rock. Bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Guns'n'Roses and AC/DC's back catalogues are selling more than ever. But it's mainly their back catalogues.
It also seems the kids aren't really getting into more recent bands in the same genre. Other than five minutes of fame for The Darkness, neo-hair metal has never done much outside Eurovision.

This has made me think, has this got to do with "Guitar Hero"? I mean, that game contains a lot of those old hard rock "classics", and it is natural that the game may have helped the kids discover the old stuff that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten into. What do you think?

Don't underestimate the power of fossilized classic rock radio in the US. Or what one hears at frat parties every weekend during football season. Or AC/DC being played every Saturday by ESPN during breaks in college football games.

It also seems the kids aren't really getting into more recent bands in the same genre

This has a lot to do with the degree of difficulty in marketing new heavy rock bands (aiming at a mainstream rather than a niche slot) in the US.

That said, Metallica's new album was number one for the last two weeks. And if you want to do classic rock and you're a young band, it's modern country music for you. Which is where many classic rockers, even heavier ones, now go to reach their audience.

Like Bon Jovi

There's a definite correlation between those sales and Guitar Hero. I doubt it has much to do with classic rock radio. The new Dragonforce has sold really well, and that's largely because of Guitar Hero. It's kind of a gateway drug.

One of my friends (who doesn't like metal) actually posited the same theory a couple weeks ago. Apparently, he got his young cousins (who had no real interest in music) Guitar Hero III as a gift, and they've gotten really into hard rock and metal because of it.

I saw a 9 year old boy buying a Dragonforce cd in Glasgow a few weeks ago. I put it down to Guitar Hero.

I doubt it has much to do with classic rock radio. The new Dragonforce has sold really well, and that's largely because of Guitar Hero

With regards to Dragonforce, you're a semi-expert, yes. But the game isn't the only reason the band has been doing well. Being marketed in the aisle end-caps at stores like BestBuy didn't hurt. And that generally indicates a more concerted and persistent promotional drive on the part of the label.

While no airplay on classic rock FM, they received quite a lot of good genre mag press and initial buzz.

Airbourne's first record presumably sold because people heard numbers as part of a computer game. But it's also not entirely separable from other factors having to do with press and them hitting a niche of supplying AC/DC-like rock adequately when AC/DC wasn't within spitting distance.

"Mississippi Queen" is a song in both Guitar Hero and Rock Band editions. However, the song is generally heard more than enough on TV, in movies and on radio to still make it a part of growing up, rather than just heard on computer game. So are Mountain records more popular now because of the computer game? In stores, foreign imprints are still the most common place to find complete Mountain and Leslie West reissues, of which there are quite a few.

The thing to do would be to see release dates for various editions of Guitar Hero, what songs are on each, and see if there was an short-term uptick in sales for various artists attached to them. I would expect to see some positive results, but not anything universal. Making a good argument for establishing it as anything more than a transient driver would be harder.

I bought a Mountain cd for 99p about 10 years ago. bargain!

Dragonforce were promoted rather heavily by Roadrunner, yes. And they got their initial foothold in the US because of MP3.com. But the promotion of their latest album, and the amount of copies that it's sold (and the amount of copies that Inhuman Rampage sold) is almost entirely due to the popularity of the song that they had in Guitar Hero II.

As far as songs like "Mississippi Queen," they are heard in a lot of movies/sports events/restaurant/whatever. But the interesting thing about Guitar Hero is how it has brought those songs into sharp relief to people who formerly regarded them as background music. One of my friends, who normally listens to stuff like My Chemical Romance, loves Rock Band, and it's gotten her into more classic bands like Megadeth and Blue Oyster Cult. Another one of my friends, who has no interest in music whatsoever, actually knows what I'm talking about when I mention hard rock or metal bands that are on the Guitar Hero games. I mean, you have to notice the cause and effect here. The most challenging songs on both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are classic, hard rock or metal songs, and those are the genres that have gotten the biggest boost. Right now it may be a temporary driver, but the crazy popularity of those games has definitely helped expose kids to, and love, hard rock and metal songs. It's a new way to deliver content.

And supposedly new Metallica album sounds better on guitar hero