It happens every time. Someone will post something about Guitar Hero or Rock Band, some innocuous comment, often in an unrelated context, and somewhere in the comments or forum thread, someone else will chime in with something like: “Why don’t you learn to play a real instrument?” or “These games are ruining music” or “All that time wasted playing a game when you could just go buy a guitar for less money,” and so on, et cetera. You even occasionally hear similar gems from people who should know better…like, say, Jimmy Page and Jack White.
So, okay. Hyperbole aside, let’s talk about what effect these games actually are having on music, the music industry, and the appreciation of music. Is it keeping kids from learning to play instruments for real? This guitar teacher doesn’t think so; he’s seen a jump in students of about 35 percent since music games became popular. This event organizer doesn’t seem to think so either.
And the folks who make instruments seem to have similar opinions; the president and CEO of industry association NAMM specifically cites music games’ popularity as encouraging people to take up music in real life.
Well, what about the music industry itself? Doesn’t sound like music games are hurting traditional music sales much, if this editorial at the New York Times is any indication. “Back in July, twelve of the The Who’s greatest hits were released for Rock Band,” David Edery writes, “and in two weeks, fans purchased over 715,000 tracks. During the same two-week period, all twelve tracks experienced a 159 percent increase in SoundScan sales. (SoundScan measures physical CD sales, as well as digital music sales.)” [Emphasis mine]
“Well, that’s fine for big artists,” say detractors, “but music games are killing independent music.” Not so fast. Putting aside the fact that the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have routinely highlighted indie and unsigned acts, Rock Band has recently announced the Rock Band Network, a method whereby any artist can get their music in the Rock Band store.
Face it, folks: Music games are good for music. And how could it be otherwise? Players of music games are digesting music in a new way, actually experiencing it from the inside out. Listening to the work of, say, Pete Townshend, I can gain an intellectual appreciation of what he’s doing. Seeing him perform live, I can get a somewhat deeper, but still intellectual, appreciation.
But by playing “Who Are You” in Rock Band, even in its necessarily stripped-down form, I get a visceral understanding of his unique approach to chord progressions and phrasing, an understanding and appreciation that I never would have gotten otherwise — and I actually do play guitar.
Unless you’re soulless, brain-dead, or both, that kind of visceral appreciation creates a bond between you and the artist. If you like what you’re hearing (and what you’re playing), you’re far more likely to go out and track down more of that artist’s music. And even if it doesn’t particularly strike you, it’s going to stick with you, and at the very least give you a greater awareness of that artist’s work.
So yeah, music games are good for music. I might not go so far as to say they’re going to save the music industry…but I can’t say I’d be surprised if they did.
Picture: Some of my colleagues rocking out to “Any Way You Want It” at the Rock Band party at E3 2008. My photos of The Who playing later that night are just too awful to post.
