Body Blow to Guitar Hero by White and Page… That’s got to hurt!

It Might Get Loud is the latest feature-length rock doc following on from the success of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, this time featuring Jimmy Page and Jack White.  The real life guitar heroes are doing the publicity rounds and at a recent press conference (19th June) both slammed the popular rock based console game.

White was quoted in the article featured on the Gibson Lifestyle website also reported on the Gamespot UK site (source links are below), saying that he finds it depressing that kids are learning about and experiencing music in this way.  Page goes on to say that the game has little value as a learning tool.  Now,  while I greatly admire both guitarists, I don’t think anybody would seriously consider the game a learning tool for playing guitar (I mean, c’mon!) apart from helping to develop a sense of timing, perhaps.  The games have some awesome tracks on there and if kids are getting a taste for rock music in this way, why not?  (Although from this blog entry you can see that some have a bit further to go than others in developing their rock appreciation).  Maybe it will inspire them to go out and learn to play for real and that can be no bad thing.  In fact, I read a newspaper article recently, stating that downloads of original recordings of the tracks featured on the game (Aerosmith for one) have risen sharply with each new release of the game, which is good for the artists as well, isn’t it?  Love it or hate it, and let’s be straight about this, the game has divided the rock community firmly down the middle… Guitar Hero is here to stay. 

Guitarists and bands who dig the game include Slash (see a cool interview with the guitar legend Slash here), Joe Satriani (see below), AC/DC, Van Halen, Aerosmith and most recently, Metallica.  Along with Jack White and Jimmy Page, Prince also disapproves, turning down the chance to license some songs for Guitar Hero.

It Might Get Loud is due to be released in August 2009.

Sources:  Gibson Lifestyle and Gamespot UK News

 

Do you agree or diagree with White and Page?  Please feel free to comment.

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