(apologies to the tl;dr gang)
I’m really glad Rock Band et al is taking off to profitably these days. I heard Creep on the way in to work, and I was struck by how much more complex it sounded since I’ve played it a half-dozen or more times on Rock Band.
The bass, for instance: I always heard the “dum, dumdumdum, dum dum, dum dum dum”, but I never paid attention to the ascending return after that.
Also, though of course I could have picked it up by googling the lyrics, some of the words he sings go so high into the stratosphere that they’re difficult to discern – hearing someone else sing them, especially while you’re playing the song really pulls it into focus.
And the physical act of playing – I know it is a terribly rude and shallow version of actual guitars, but in some songs, when you’re reaching for one moment you know is coming and the hair stands on the back of your neck, the fulfillment of that moment is totally like something very similar that also involves no clothes. Well, if you’re playing Strip Rock Band, anyway.
I would love to see this grow – a great interface on purchasing songs, maybe even a common song environment for all of the games. I would love for artists to make their money this way, providing a new way for their audience to sink their teeth into their music.
After all, why do we listen to music? It’s an expression of emotion, and we’re trying to feel what someone else feels, to identify. PLAYING that music, feeling (more or less) what they feel when they play it, that is one step closer to empathy.
