Guitar Zero to Guitar Hero!

The world is in turmoil, the masses are in panic and there’s only one thing that can save us…

It goes without saying how much of a pickle we all at Audio Addict feel the industry has regressed over the years and ultimately how much tension has been put onto it this year, as this year is the year the pro's are going to be able to start predicting what exactly is going to happen. Blah Blah right? Wrong! This is great! This from the get-go was an exciting time for a lot of people, Audio Addict were nervously clicking pens and doodling for an entire 6 months! So, here's the deal that fate and our glorious universe had in store for us. According to Janine Bulman, who has worked in the industry with popular names such as Pete Doherty and Franz Ferdinand, 2009 is going to be a very interesting year.

A lot of money has been lost to record companies through the internet and online piracy, back catalogues are being used and used again to try and sell and make money through CD sales and recently collectable vinyl sales, but it's not working. Festival prices have gone up because they are now a prime source of money for almost every major band, most being paid a sweet million to headline. The days of going ‘on the road’ are dead. But, look what gloriously stands tall and offers that helpful hand to the newly founded 'sell-out' industry.

Guitar Hero and many other industries such as advertising, holidays, touring companies, clothing and other branded merchandise has been the saviour in all honesty, they’ve never been more important. Bands nowadays have fell into the sell-out trap where selling their image to get by has become a necessity. For example, look at how Metallica's Lars Ulrich uses his image to help sell the Sonisphere Festival with a long winded and, no doubt, paid babble about how great this Festival is. Even Management companies make piles of money from extensive advertising campaigns costing merely one E-Mail while Karen O from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs has become an image driven goddess on the stage and artistically with a sweet ass album to boot. Another example we could always use though is the mainstream model of promotion, as everyone in the room spits out their drink in disgust, yes, I will explain. An article in the NME about the Channel 4 Drama Skins describes the prime example of how new music promotion models come from the stereotypical fat man in a suit. However, this article reflects how good an idea promoting new music to teens and young adults through a teen drama is. Giving that chance to unsigned and signed acts and in one particular case of the Paper Heroes, creating a label and signing the band, is an interesting example of how useful it is having a pie man around with his fingers in everything.

Now in a lot of eyes music authenticity is a major issue, a lot of important people still like to appreciate the idea of a genuine experience. This is where Guitar Hero comes in, for a while people have mentioned that Guitar Hero was a good idea, like a passing comment you usually hear from your parents when you're 5 when you drew this really impressive picture of yourself next to a tree with your dog using bits of chocolate, glue and some strawberry laces. The 'parents' of the music world don't tend to mention how impressive this display of effort Activision made towards authenticity actually was. A lot of people nowadays can appreciate music in many forms of media, however, the one thing people were missing in their lives was the experience of not just being there but actually playing the track. This isn't entirely an authentic experience, however. That didn't matter to anyone though, to most gamers it's a new high score and to most musicians it was a joke but those people in between, it was fundamental. Aerosmith, when they released their own version, sold more of that copy than any of their albums ever did. Metallica are heading for the same record. Even other bands want in on the action, Limp Bizkit have been rumoured to want their own game too! Now like a rebellious child that wants to get heard, Guitar Hero has whipped up something gastric and it's coming like a storm. The in-betweeners I mentioned now hold music close to their hearts, they buy albums that are featured on Guitar Hero to play on the game itself or to play on their iPods and some even seek tuition on their instrument of choice, even some of the PR crew for Guitar Hero are having guitar lessons! There's not a lot else that's getting people actively involved in music this much, X Factor tried but Social Networking is just bigger and by god it paid off.

This does create problems however, Metallica complained that their game was better produced then the albums themselves, which caused quite a stir. Licensing companies are enjoying the ride, leaving the record companies in their dust too. To put it simply, this is the change. 'Sell-out' sells well! The world is more hands on now because the new generation just needs it and because of that, online pirates caused a drop in record sales at the same time people just wanted to see gigs more. All the old fogeys can't keep up and don't want to change but they are. It's proven and behind it all was those pesky Social Networking applications, MySpace, Facebook, Xbox Live, Last Fm, iTunes and Guitar Hero too. The future's bright, the future's digital.