News Hit

The crowd goes wild. I blast out some killer riffs, nail the bridge and shred though a fierce solo. I close my eyes and bask in the glory of my rock’n’roll victory.

My instrument may only have five coloured buttons but in the world of Guitar Hero, I am a rock legend.

Activision’s mind-blowingly addictive Guitar Hero series has taken the world by storm. Rock and roll is no longer a world just inhabited by die-hard musicians and fans, but one that is now accessible to the broad market of gamers. And whilst it may be a little infuriating watching your musically inept gamer friends thrashing around the lounge room pretending to be rock stars, the music industry is thriving from it.

The Guitar Hero series is still the most popular entry in the music-based gaming genre, which includes other hits like the Rock Band series from Harmonix and the ever-popular party hit, Singstar. Not only have all these games sold millions of copies but have also become invaluable marketing tools for the bands involved, and inspired a refreshed interest in musicianship. Now boasting Aerosmith and Metallica themed special editions (along with the recent mega-exciting release of Beatles Rock Band), these music-based games are inspiring musical interest like never before.

I’m the first to admit that I was once a non-believer. Being a real guitarist makes the idea of playing music on a plastic guitar a little lame, if not unsettling. But the first time I picked up that plastic Stratocaster and blasted through Weezer’s My name is Jonas, I was hooked. The Guitar Hero experience takes the music medium from something passively enjoyed to something actively enjoyed, even for the most musically untalented amongst us.

And of course there are the music elitists who will claim that discovering music through Guitar Hero is ‘depressing’, but we have to accept that the nature of Generation Y requires a music experience more compatible with a digital lifestyle. The format in which people are discovering music is never going to be the Pink Floyd record moment we may have had in our adolescence.

The benefits that music-based gaming offer to the music industry are widespread. Record companies and retailers have already seen a 200-300% increase in sales of songs and bands featured in the series. The more recent titles in the Guitar Hero series also feature unlockable songs by indie artists, a huge source of publicity for these bands. I’ve lost count of how many times I have heard from someone that they downloaded a song or bought an album after discovering the band on Guitar Hero. As much as I would love to believe that everyone already knows the musical brilliance of Warrant’s Cherry Pie, I have learned to accept that sometimes, people just need that little push in the right direction.

And if Guitar Hero is the source of that push, I say let there be (simulated) rock.