Molding Tomorrow’s
Music Junkies, Today

Beware the pop machine. As a music junkie, it’s scary that some kid you care about might just let his or her musical tastes spiral into oblivion with the constant bombardment of brainless mixtape rap and rehashed boyband beats. The Messianic complex might kick in, but you sure don’t want to act like your parents probably did when you played your stash of tapes or CDs while you were growing up.

Many people may rant likewise about the crop of last year’s auto-tuned songs - it’s cyclical, one generation’s feeling of superiority over subsequent ones. However, how do you help impressionable minds broaden their musical choices? It’s especially a hardsell when pre-pubescents who Facebook/Twitter constantly are those that you, the unhip, relatively unconnected luddite want to educate. Enter, quite possibly, an inadvertent purveyor of taste.

Budding Guitar Heroes and the Rock Bandwagon

Even with the fare one can find on the Internet, it’s not usual for a listener to veer from what is comfortable and familiar. Youngsters and their posses are listening to the same homogenized, manufactured stuff, quite possibly encompassing a very limited spectrum. Here’s where GH and RB come in: after a few days of immersion in the world of these video games, one is bound to absorb a few songs from the playlists. In no small part, this is because the games offer mostly solid tunes that run the gamut and cover many of the subspecies of the animal Rock.

The learning curve for the game isn’t all that daunting. Even those who aren’t musicians by any means can take on bass or lead guitar duties, man the drums, or be the frontman (complete with a microphone-tapping feature during instrumental breaks) with the easy or medium difficulty levels. These selfsame levels can turn any ragtag bunch into a ‘band’ no matter the aptitude of the individual players, although a number of slip-ups can get your band booed and game-overed. The game mechanics are cohesive, intuitive, and very, very addictive – you can help save a bandmate’s lackluster performance, or get your own bolstered by how well the band plays as a whole. The bass drum pedal adds a lot of depth to the experience as well. Of course, for those with faster fingers or better senses of rhythm, there’s the excruciating ‘expert’ level.

A couple weeks after, you may find your little brother humming a few bars off ‘Epic,’ a Faith No More song released two decades ago. What if he hunts for the band’s discography, downloads a few other songs, or even reads up on Fantomas? Much like weed be a gateway to other psychotropics, so could RB or GH be towards meatier, more diverse types of music that he wouldn’t otherwise listen to (the upside being that rehab isn’t going to be as emotionally fraught or expensive). Hackneyed analogy notwithstanding, isn’t this a godsend? Of course, the criteria for inclusion in the game franchise is a tad arbitrary, with notables including ‘What I’ve Done’ by crybaby rap-rock outfit Linkin Park, or ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ by the unfortunate Panic! At The Disco.



These video games aren’t exactly what you would call a tool for social change, but it’s nice to think that these expose Generation Now to 70s rock and other songs from bands or eras that are a bit under the radar. It may also ignite a spark of interest where the dankness of current commercial pop permits none. At the very least, the songlists per se can suggest to a player that hey, there’s other stuff to listen to out there, and some of it’s actually quite good. While you’re at it, wouldn’t drum tutorials or voice lessons be a great way to spend the weekends? This is how the phenomenon could work in our favor, with the video games as a starting point for fledgling music enthusiasts. They probably won’t eschew MTV entirely due to this, but it could least give ‘em a grasp of rock evolution and music history. For example, Green Day may not be as abrasive as we were used to with ‘21 Guns,’ but an adolescent could benefit from the knowledge that the Clash (whose song was a part of the initial Guitar Hero release) is a major influence. He could then proceed to learn more about the two groups, their respective contemporaries, and so on.

Due to the phenomenon, at least more and more people know about Rush, The Allman Brothers, and other dinosaurs. Maybe a Jazz Hero installment wouldn’t be a bad idea: play as Coltrane or Miles, with upright bass controller and analog-type mike included – The Beatles: Rock Band turned out to be a success, plus DJ Hero and the turntable peripheral are already out, anyway. It’s all wishful thinking, what the games can do for today’s up-and-coming music fan, but the potential is definitely there. Through the game, many older gamers have recently rediscovered the joys of hair metal, and ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ is no longer as alien to gamers who have yet to come of age. Imagine the possibilities.