Someone at the Web site associated with the hyperbolic British music tabloid NME decided to ask Dan Rosensweig, CEO of the Guitar Hero franchise, about his take on the whole uproar over the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s avatar being used in the game, and singing songs like Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” to boot. After finding out that Cobain could be used to sing songs that weren’t by Nirvana, Courtney Love freaked out on Twitter and threatened lawsuits; shortly after that, surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic asked the game to lock down Cobain’s karaoke ability. But Rosensweig says that it’s all legit! More »
In response to Courtney Love’s protests that she had nothing to do with the likeness of her late husband, Kurt Cobain, being used to sing Bon Jovi songs in Guitar Hero 5 and subsequent lawsuit threats in regards to that matter, a statement has been released by Guitar Hero manufacturers Activision in concert with Nirvana’s Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic. What does the statement sound like? A denial, a denial, a denial, of course. More »
The memory of deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has seen quite a few licensing-related blows over the past couple of years. There were the shoes. And the ash-smoking. And the Cold Case episode. But can any of those things compare to the spectre of America’s No. 1 Raincoats Fan miming Bon Jovi’s monster hit “You Give Love A Bad Name”? The makers of Guitar Hero 5 are apparently hoping that they don’t, and that you’ll channel your outrage over Kurt playing frontman for New Jersey’s favorite hair-shakers, neo-grunge pretenders Bush, and other bands that would never talk shit about corporate magazines into a “curiosity purchase” of their game. A clip of some of his finer moments, after the jump. More »
I normally shy away from “ooh, look, another Guitar Hero track list” stories, but the prospect of the game’s next edition featuring Spacehog’s “In The Meantime” is pretty exciting. (Of course, the NME announcement of the series’ next installment only lists its participating bands, and not specific song titles–trickle that news out, Activision!–so I could be getting pre-emptively stoked over a track from The Chinese Album.) [NME] More »
After all, you do sell Ride The Lightning boxer shorts on your Web site. Not to mention thongs. How could you pass up such an easy cross-promotional opportunity?
Though I remain an avid Rock Band and Guitar Hero player, I’ve long ago stopped caring about the releases of new songs for in-game play. I have more than enough to play right now, and I’m broke as a joke most days, so downloadable content is out—well, unless those songs can be as good as one of the new tracks that will appear on the first portable edition of Rock Band. See for yourself; one of these things is not like the others.
We’ve taken aim at Wired‘s Panglossian attitude when it comes to the relationship between the Internet and the music business before, mainly because the powers that be at Conde Nast’s ever-shrinking tech bible just make it too easy. Witness the magazine’s latest, and somehow most witless, entrant to its ever-growing “we can write about music, honest!” canon, “Why The Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero,” which somehow manages to be offensive, wrong, and a testament to why Wired should maybe think about scrapping its print edition and just go online. All at once!
Sure, last year, people were scooping up Guitar Hero and Rock Band like crazy, and those who weren’t helped the cause by writing pieces about how the wild success of those games would swoop in and save the music industry from file-sharing oblivion. But in 2009, things are slowing down for plastic instruments, possibly because in this dismal economy, $200 doesn’t seem like as insignificant an amount of money as it did a year ago.
It’s been a bad week in the video game world, what with the announcement that sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band may have peaked, the dissolution of the industry’s leading magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly (it had 600,000 subscribers!), and the layoffs at EGM‘s sister web portal 1up.com (which ain’t even loading for me today). From Penny Arcade comes news that’s somehow even worse: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is getting into this gaming fad he’s been hearing so much about.
