Music from the games: Guitar heros beware

With the release of the “Guitar Hero” series and “Rock Band,” many people have considered taking the Guitar Hero persona to new levels. In the general case, this means that they finally have implanted into their minds that song A from group B is awesome to play in “Guitar Hero,” hence group B is somebody I should listen to. In the more extreme case, there are the few individuals who believe that now that they rocked the songs, they are ready to rock the world with their own guitar, most likely paid for by their mom, touring local clubs and wondering why they get kicked out of clubs when they just can’t nail their solo. If you’ve reached this state, you’re too far gone my friend. Pray you married young and that you can throw the guitar in a wood chipper to feed your family and move on. For you other more casual and less hardcore readers, the question is what kind of albums you should buy to soothe your rock desires?

The big point of the track lists on “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” are these are songs that are popular enough to be recognized and adds incentive to the player to be rocking out with their favorite songs. This is also true with the bonus song content as the bands while being less “mainstream” are still rising stars in the music world. Everything you’re playing in the game is some of the most popular music these bands have to offer so of course you’re going to be led in with an expectation of what is good from the band and what is bad. While it’s alright to have expectations, a band cannot be judged by one song. A band also cannot be judged by a slew of singles. If everybody really listened to KISS, they’d see an entirely different picture than that of “Detroit Rock City.”

This is the simple point of what I’m saying; buyer, beware. When you first break into liking a band for their one song, develop that into more of a search for what the band is. If you want to read reviews, that helps but music is supposed to be experienced, not manhandled by sponsored writers trying to sell the CD. If the option is there, try and listen to the CD your favorite song is on. If you like the CD, awesome, if not, maybe the group doesn’t have the all around feel you like. If that’s the case, greatest hits albums are a nice middle ground though it again distorts the expectations the listener has of the group. These options are absolutely better than just buying the single; it’s a waste to put yourself in the “musical corner” and just cut yourself off from exposing your mind to new things that you might like. At least in following through on a band, you might find something else you like and then you can say you’ve broken out of the constant loop that is the game track list.