Ready Up

Where is The Love?

My blogs seem to be centring themselves around the Guitar Hero franchise more and more these days. A short time ago I caught a little snippet of information while I was scouring the internet. It brought both shock and the word “hypocrite” into my mind.

Said snippet of news involved Chad Kroeger of Nickelback being interviewed by MTV, urging kids to “put down their Guitar Hero controllers and pick up a real guitar”. His outburst at the game was mainly sparked by the fact that he is unhappy with the dwindling number of rock bands around, and those available to support Nickelback on tour. Now, I have nothing against Nickelback, but I simply believe they have no support for this argument. We’re talking about the band that just recently added their own song Because of You to Guitar Hero: World Tour’s growing list of downloadable tunes. Plus that was announced after Chad had a go at the franchise. So to put it bluntly: it’s okay to get involved with something you’re publicly against. As long as you are paid.

After I shook my head disapprovingly at the above god-knows how many times, I decided to find out if any other “celebrities” shared his views. So following a scour through my search results, I found another news piece by another musician – John Mayer.

From a Rolling Stone interview: “Guitar Hero was devised to bring the guitar-playing experience to the masses without them having to put anything into it” is a quote from Mr. Mayer that seems rather harsh to me. After that, he then goes on to say “and having done both, there’s nothing like really playing guitar. I mean, what would you rather drive, a Ferrari or one of those amusement-park cars on a track?” Has he had a bad experience with the guitar peripheral or something? It seems to me to be more: “Ha, I can play real guitar and you can’t!!!” He most likely sucks at Guitar Hero though.

At least the Jonas Brothers love Guitar Hero. Hooray?

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9 responses to “Where is The Love?”

  1. Tony avatar
    Tony

    “Guitar Hero was devised to bring the guitar-playing experience to the masses without them having to put anything into it”

    I don’t think that’s harsh. I think it’s exactly bang on. That’s the point. Playing real guitar takes ages and is hard work. Playing Guitar Hero is easy to pick up and fun, which is precisely the point of it.

    As for Nickleback, well, they’re sh*t anyway.

  2. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    I do see their point – moving away from the pleasure and casual game aspect, the sheer hours and dedication that some pour into a plastic guitar can be seen as a real shame when that same grit and perhaps undiscovered skill can be poured into real music. Fair enough.

  3. GamerGeekGirl avatar
    GamerGeekGirl

    I don’t think its that hypocritical; I think it depends on the intent behind what he said –

    Whether it was “Playing Guitar Hero is fine, but don’t spend dozens/hundreds of hours doing it when you could be learning a real instrument” or “Guitar Hero sucks! Play Guitar!” (Me thinks it was somewhere in between)

    My feelings about Gaming (especially MMOs) lie in that kind of area too… (Well, the first statement) – Gaming is awesome, amazing, great, my life’s obsession – but hey, you need to get away from it and read, see friends, have fun outside of it 🙂

  4. Duncan Aird avatar
    Duncan Aird

    The Prodigy like Guitar Hero. If they are in support of it – who are we to argue?! 🙂

  5. Nick avatar
    Nick

    I can understand where he’s coming from, but saying that he should at least practise what he preaches.

    Unless of course the record label (Roadrunner Records) had control over songs and decided to make a cheap buck off Nickleback without Chad’s (or anyone else out of the band’s) say.

  6. avatar
    Anonymous

    it’s okay to get involved with something you’re publicly against. As long as you are paid.

    Thats rock and roll right?

  7. Donna avatar
    Donna

    I’m with Nick. It’s very likely that Nickleback had no say in the song being used in GH.

  8. Gary avatar
    Gary

    The comment about putting down the GH controller and picking up a real guitar is less of a bashing of GH and more of a call to arms to get involved in the creation of music as opposed to putting effort into the recreation of music. Sure, you could make the case that GH:WT’s music studio allows you to create music but let us be honest, it sounds horrid.

  9. Swift avatar
    Swift

    Don’t listen to Chad Kroeger, he’s a douche. Or maybe (correctly) backing Rock Band.

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