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 plastic guitar game controller, in sync with the music and fret boards on-screen), there’s something more to the experience than that.
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:
When 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.
The games have created a frenzy of toy-guitar-cranking among all ages, and even inspired an entire episode of South Park. 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.
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.
I’m not sure if Cello Hero or Lute Hero would do the same for more historical forms of music, or Brecht Hero for theater lovers. But we can ponder the idea, can’t we?
Or we can ponder the idea that perhaps, say, Clarinet Heros are already out there.
I was pretty surprised to learn that the clarinetist in the Cambridge,MA-based Radius Ensemble, with whom I’ve worked with for several years, is also a Harmonix developer who worked on both the games you mention. I gather they’re all pretty musical folks, but you don’t necessarily expect a classical clarinetist to number among them.
The challenge, I agree, is to figure out how to stimulate the kind of interest in music that comes with playing an instrument, even in those who don’t play. And less and less people do, having not been exposed to mandatory orchestra lessons in elementary school. I’m not sure about Lute Hero, but certainly the sort of participatory shows and games other performing arts have benefited from–Dancing with the Stars comes to mind (though I’ve never watched it)–could serve classical music.
Maybe they already are. Just a few weeks ago a mezzo friend of mind participated in an Opera Idol competition in New Hampshire. To me, that doesn’t sound a like a far cry from Handel’s performance practice. Why not give it a shot?
I just came out of a meeting where my colleague jokingly brought up a conducting game for Nintendo Wii. Wouldn’t that be great fun, conducting Beethoven’s 9th or Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben yourself?
We were already imagining famed conductors in motion-capture suits….
Guitar Hero got my 15 year old son comfortable enough with musical rhythm and meter to pick up the tuba and play it in his high school band. It broke the ice for him and showed him that practicing his video game is the same as practicing his music — it gets you somewhere. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I thank the makers of Guitar Hero and will endorse any other instrument game they care to make.
Speaking of fixing things, I have founded a new discussion blog on how to fix the Arts and Arts Education programs in the public schools throughout the nation. The learning of the Arts is a cumulative process, and what the Higher Education institutions see in its students is the direct result of the educational years through which the students learned and grew as artists. Of course the public Higher Education institutions have their own Arts education programs, which are included in the discussions I hope to have.
The blog is for teachers, parents, elected officials, educational planners, community program planners, students and other interested parties, to bring together thoughts and ideas and the airing of the problems now faced, as well as for the fixing of the Arts and Arts Education in public schools- lack of budgets, severe space inequalities, demoralized and unmotivated teachers, educated parents (as support groups/mentors/artists), area artistic input; the list is exhaustive.
There is a great deal wrong with the Arts educational system in the pre-K-through high school years, but I prefer to bring awareness to the subject as a believer in the public school system, with a whole-hearted desire to fix what is wrong. “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable” (Raymond Williams).
While there are many websites to promote the Arts Education programs in schools, I don’t know of any that actually ask the grass-roots of the Arts Education community to offer their thoughts. It is vitally important that those who are participating in the system have the ability to speak out from this unique vantage point. It is in this way that the Boards of Education on every level will have real insight into what is happening now and what can happen in the future. It is at heartsinthearts.com that they can speak their minds, too.
I am hoping that you will visit and comment at heartsinthearts.com often and that you will suggest it to others.
Thanks for your time and attention, I hope to be hearing from you at heartsinthearts.com,
Katrina S. Axelrod
Founder and Administrator
Meriden ArtsTrust
You know….I’d rather learn how to play guitar!!!!!!!!
They’re not mutually exclusive. Two years ago, I picked up Guitar Hero and loved it. Last year, I got Guitar Hero 2 and won a real guitar (unrelated events).
This year, i have Guitar Hero 3 (for the Wii), three real guitars and a year of practice playing guitar. I’m better at Guitar Hero but I’m working on that.