Former Nirvana Members "Dismayed" Over Guitar Hero 5

[Mr.Pandah]

...Nobody was aware he was in GH5? This should've been taken care of a while ago.

 

[Vuljatar]

I think the point is that this is a guy who wrote "Rape me" as a love letter to the corporate recording industry. I'm sure that the other members of Nirvana have a pretty good idea how the man himself would react to seeing his image playing random songs in a video game. Love signed the contract, though. . . so no going back.

This.

I'm not a fan of the man or his music--far from it, in fact--but I think this is just despicable and awful. Obviously though, I blame Love every bit as much as Activision, since she apparently signed away Cobain's image without even reading the fucking contract...

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

Uh oh, I bet EA better watch out since they have all sorts of dead hall of famers available in Madden 2010...

 

[CD-R]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8249994.stm

She added: "This trust are my employees, but whatthey [sic] are tryong [sic] to do is sickening, and they need to be fired, and repairations [sic] need made."

This just keeps getting better and better. lol

 

[Undercover]

"Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5," the company said.

-She was probably just too wasted to remember. Activision is a huge company and there's no way they would use Cobain's image without the proper legal permission. I'm kind of on the fence about this one. On one hand, I agree with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic that it might be construed as disrespectful to have Kurt's likeness playing other people's songs, etc. but at the same time, from a legal standpoint Activision did secure the rights to use it.

If I decide to pick up GH5 and manage to unlock the character, I don't think I'll use it. But that's just me.

 

[skeanthu]

Courtney probably threatened them into saying something or she would come over and sleep on their couch for a month.

 

[laikenf]

I think the point is that this is a guy who wrote "Rape me" as a love letter to the corporate recording industry. I'm sure that the other members of Nirvana have a pretty good idea how the man himself would react to seeing his image playing random songs in a video game. Love signed the contract, though. . . so no going back.

This.

I'm not a fan of the man or his music--far from it, in fact--but I think this is just despicable and awful. Obviously though, I blame Love every bit as much as Activision, since she apparently signed away Cobain's image without even reading the fucking contract...

If Cobain where alive today I'm more than sure he would refuse to even come near Activision. We all know that Love has been a media whore ever since she got together with Kurt, so who knows what would've really happened if he where alive today. But this is the kind of things he hated, and actually stood up against.

 

[Archemetis]

Recycling dead guys is nothing new; The Beatles: Rock Band [http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/] certainly didn't shy away from it

But in fairness, the Beatles Rock Band... You're only gonna be playing their songs, and if not, then why bother getting the Beatles version? if you want other songs, then get just plain Rockband... I entirely understand the diliking from the formers Nirvana members.

And Courtney Love was probably just too drunk to remember reading or signing a contract.

Seems it's been a huge oversight on Love's part, She obviously for some reason didn't read the contract thoroughly enough and just assumed he'd be featured in the game, whereas Activision have clearly planned more for Cobain as a character.

I'm all for respectful use of a person's likeness provided it's associated with their own material, but using him to sing other people's songs, with another singers voice and mannerisms is just a step on the disrespectful side.

It'd be like creating a virtual Fat Elvis, slapping a tutu on him and making him do Swan Lake, Or even just watching him sing Nightwish songs...
It'd be funny for a few people (Myself included) but at the end of the day you're not showing any respect.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

Honestly, I can testify against this. I bought the game for two reasons: 21st Century Schitzoid Man, and to have Kurt Cobain play Kryptonite with three avatars. Even I felt this was a little mean upon doing it.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

...Nobody was aware he was in GH5? This should've been taken care of a while ago.

it probly took this long for Courtney's drugs to wear off and her to realize what was going on

i think it's kinda dumb for them to allow you to play him as a character

 

[this_was_a_mistake]

Me being a huge Nirvana fan and having nothing but respect to the late great Kurt Cobain, I promise myself to never play as him in any other song once I get that game. There, problem solved.

 

[cobra_ky]

I personally don't care one way or the other about Cobain's inclusion in the game but I am curious about why so many people seem to be up in arms over it. Recycling dead guys is nothing new; The Beatles: Rock Band [http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/] certainly didn't shy away from it and Cobain is sharing the Guitar Hero 5 stage with the late, great Johnny Cash, yet nobody says a word about his presence. I can't help but think there's a certain loss of perspective at work here. Maybe it's still too soon (perhaps Activision should have held off until Guitar Hero X) but at what point does it become okay to start using dead people to sell your crap?

Well, Harmonix made sure that both spouses and the remaining band members all had creative input during development, whereas Activision got courtney love to signed a contract while stoned and went and did whatever they wanted.

and dammit, why aren't more people pissed about johnny cash?

 

[HardRockSamurai]

I don't blame them. They probably saw this:


Nothing screams RAPE louder than having one of the kings of grunge rock sing Bon Jovi love ballads...

 

[Treblaine]

Nirvana was a decent band, made a few classic songs. But they are far from inspirational as grunge was just too shallow and pessimistic and died away so quickly where all that was left was that manufactured rage MTV-fodder like Linkin Park. Pearl Jam refusing to perform for 3 years certainly didn't help.

The death of one man should not have killed a genre of music, it just lost out to Britpop and other music movements that were much more sustainable. Grunge just didn't know how to stay alive. Maybe they were taking the wrong kid of drugs. Anyway, drugs are bad M'kay, Kobain would probably be alive today if he had stayed clean.

Hey, this is just my personal opinion, but to illustrate I am more a fan of classic rock like AC/DC, Black Sabbath and KISS as well as electronic rock like Justice, Pendulum and Daft Punk for the more recent stuff. Also a bit of black/extreme metal with Cradle of Filth as well.

 

[thiosk]

Haha, yea he was the drummer.

Oh right, I've only ever thought of him as being in the Foo Fighters. But then again I don't really like Nirvana so I wouldn't have known.

I'm fairly sure the foo fighters were composed of the surviving nirvana members, at least initially.

Also, "Smells like Teen Spirit" is widely considered to be the "theme song" for my generation. As one of the first bands whose music I owned on a new-fangled shiny plastic reflective disc, Nirvana to this day holds a special place in my heart.

I also hope courtney love falls off a building.

 

[Tiamat666]

I think if I was dead and could look up to Earth from Hell, I'd find it pretty cool seeing people play as me in videogames.

Still, that's only my opinion and doesn't mean Kurt Cobain would feel the same way.

 

[dark_taint92]

Haha, yea he was the drummer.

Oh right, I've only ever thought of him as being in the Foo Fighters. But then again I don't really like Nirvana so I wouldn't have known.

He's on Queens of the stone age too. His the drummer again there.

Yea, I checked out his Wikipedia article, he also played drums for Nine Inch Nails at one point.

he also plays the drums for tenacious D he's the devil in the pick of destiny at the end.
just a little bit more info ondave grohl for you there

 

[tsb247]

When I saw the first Guitar Hero game, I figured it was just a matter of time before Kurt's likeness made it's way into the franchise. I can honestly say that I saw this coming a mile away.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Again I go back to Yoko Ono and John Lennon on Rock Band.

 

[Xan Krieger]

My first thought on hearing the name Kurt Cobain: BOOM HEADSHOT

Second thought after reading the article: It's not like they're using him for cheap comedy (see above). He's singing songs like so many other characters that have appeared in the series. So long as he's not singing anything blatently offensive like a song about him offing himself I say let him stay in the game.