Jimmy Page, What's Your Problem?
- Thread starter tendo82
- Start date
Not all musicians take this old fashioned approach to music video games; actually, I think Jimmy Page is the first musician I've heard take this stance. Still, he is completely and utterly wrong. I'm guessing that he saw a picture of someone playing a color, plastic guitar and thought to himself "parody" rather than "tribute" or "innovation." What the people who think this don't understand is that imitation is the best form of flattery; and in a way, it's kind of an advertisement for the source object.
You make an excellent point about reaching the next generation. However, I tend to think of music games as the first shock wave in the aftermath of the initial "ogod napster, our monies are gone now!" freak out that happened years earlier. Artists, including legends, are getting pissed off that the music itself isn't what draws people anymore.
Why would you buy a CD that only works in a CD player, when you can get an MP3? Why would you download an MP3 for $.99, when you can download it on Rock Band and play along?
It's all about cash flow, unfortunately. When the sense of propriety goes away from an art form like music, the art loses a bit of its meaning (and hence value). Like how a chef's recipe doesn't taste the same when you make it at home, or how your oil-paint landscape will never look quite as good as the one Bob Ross is showing you how to make. (Note: I'm not trying to say that Rock Band is teaching people music. Just that Rock Band devalues the original art in a way.)
Why would you buy a CD that only works in a CD player, when you can get an MP3? Why would you download an MP3 for $.99, when you can download it on Rock Band and play along?
It's all about cash flow, unfortunately. When the sense of propriety goes away from an art form like music, the art loses a bit of its meaning (and hence value). Like how a chef's recipe doesn't taste the same when you make it at home, or how your oil-paint landscape will never look quite as good as the one Bob Ross is showing you how to make. (Note: I'm not trying to say that Rock Band is teaching people music. Just that Rock Band devalues the original art in a way.)
But we don't agree! We're entitled to whine!shophius said:
I do that while I play Guitar Hero.Lithran said:
I know a bunch of people who play in a band and also like playing GH/RB. I've asked some of them if the games actually help them in any way, and aside from the furious strumming that comes along with the higher difficulties, there is really notheing to gain. The expriences are nothing alike, and the people who are good at it are also the ones who play games anyways. (It is kind of funny to see a band's lead guitar player fail horribly on easy)
I wonder how many of the musicians that are against GH/RB don't play videogames anyways.
I wonder how many of the musicians that are against GH/RB don't play videogames anyways.
A great article, and I agree with what you're saying. I suppose change is just a hard pill to swallow.
Great article, but consider this: These people are part of a rather older generation of music (Nickelback obviously excluded) The way they see it, is that the fact that more people are playing a music game controlled by a plastic guitar and a MIDI drum kit is essentially going to make them lazy to the extent they won't bother to get music lessons, hence the amount of musicians will slowly die out.
I know it sounds like a Chicken Little Sky is Falling scenario, but that's my two cents anyway.
I know it sounds like a Chicken Little Sky is Falling scenario, but that's my two cents anyway.
Nobody ever had any complaints about Led Zepp stealing music, why does he feel entitled to whine about this? Yes Jimmy, we get it! This generation sucks and this used to be all fields. Now stop waving your cane and go back to bed.
You do feel a different connection to music through music games, but Jimmy Page is so good at guitar that he probably doesn't have the ability to come down to a mortal's level and realize how we feel while playing a song.
Maybe someone should go to Jimmy Page and get him involved in making a music game that gets more and more complex with a real guitar plugged into it so you do actually learn how to play. Then he will have even more money and be able to buy the rest of castles in england.
Maybe someone should go to Jimmy Page and get him involved in making a music game that gets more and more complex with a real guitar plugged into it so you do actually learn how to play. Then he will have even more money and be able to buy the rest of castles in england.
Much as I was a huge Zeppelin fan in high school, and still respect Page & crew for all their contributions to rock music (on stage, in the studio, behind the console and the business side of things), this is hardly surprising.
Zep have always been album-oriented: they barely released any singles during their career (most notably, they never released "Stairway to Heaven"), they released one concert film of dubious quality while they were active, and they were notorious about not licensing songs for television, movies or commercials until very recently. So it took them over 30 years to get to that stage--they'll probably all be dead before their estate starts licensing songs for video games.
Zep have always been album-oriented: they barely released any singles during their career (most notably, they never released "Stairway to Heaven"), they released one concert film of dubious quality while they were active, and they were notorious about not licensing songs for television, movies or commercials until very recently. So it took them over 30 years to get to that stage--they'll probably all be dead before their estate starts licensing songs for video games.
I wonder if it's just that these musicians are not in touch with what it is these games are and how they operate. A lot of these people are very busy in their own personal world of music and money and being famous, and I get the feeling they really don't play or care for video games to begin with. Even if they're not that old, they get very stereotypically "parental" about games: they think they're a waste of time, ruin your social life, and drain you of energy you could be spending on something they consider more valuable.
Unless they stop disliking games in general, they're going to keep disliking music games. Especially music games, because these step on the boundaries of their own insular worlds. If they regarded games more highly, they'd be hard pressed to find complaints, as the article clearly points out.
Unless they stop disliking games in general, they're going to keep disliking music games. Especially music games, because these step on the boundaries of their own insular worlds. If they regarded games more highly, they'd be hard pressed to find complaints, as the article clearly points out.