This week’s Rock Band DLC has gone a little bit country, which induces me to grimace at horrible, horrible memories of when Shania Twain and Billy Ray Cyrus were on the radio every other day – thank goodness that particular fad has passed before I was forced to go all Van Gogh on myself. But still, music is personal after all, and if you want to listen to hokey tunes with madatory banjo solos, that’s your business. However, I would still consider this to be a ‘niche’, and as such I feel that Harmonix now owe us some more British band DLC, because surely those who appreciate British rock bands must be more numerous than those who are into country. I hope. Sure we’ve had some like David Bowie, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, The Police, The Stone Roses, and Oasis, but come on, Britain has a rich culture of music that is going massively untapped compared to the number of tracks from North American bands.
I can rattle off a huge list of UK bands that have been cruelly overlooked: Arctic Monkeys, The Bluetones, The Charlatans, Coldplay, Def Leppard, Elbow, Franz Ferdinand (cover in GH1 only), Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, James, Kaiser Chiefs (yes, I know Ruby was in GH3 but that was rubbish), The Kinks, The Kooks, The La’s, Led Zeppelin (unlikely because of master track paranoia), The Libertines, Manic Street Preachers, The Magic Numbers, Morrissey, Nine Black Alps, Ocean Colour Scene, Pink Floyd, Primal Scream, Queen (see below), Razorlight, The Seahorses, Shed Seven, Snow Patrol, StarSailor, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, Supergrass, Travis, U2, The Verve, The Zutons – and I’m sure there are loads more.
On both a positive and negative note, I saw that Queen is finally due to make an appearance in Guitar Hero : Metallica – which is both encouraging and perverse. Encouraging that Queen is finally ready to release master tracks in band games, perverse because they have to stow away on a Metallica disk. Queen is a supporting act to Metallica? On whose planet?
I guess it’s because all these decisions are made in the States, where musical taste is somewhat different. For any Americans reading this, how many in the above list had you heard of, and would you be interested in any?
December 18th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Pink Floyd , U2 and Queen – that’s about it.
Frankly, I am not suprised Queen would be considered a supporting act for Metallica.
They are barely known over here … and frankly even world-wide, I would think Metallica would rank much higher.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:58 am
“They are barely known over here” (Queen)
Their music featured prominently in famous US film soundtracks like Wayne’s World, Flash Gordon and Highlander, and they played major stadiums in the US and Europe. There’s even a statue of Freddy Mercury in Montreaux, how many bands can claim that? Maybe you’re just too young
Metallica were certainly huge in the US and in the thrash metal scene they spawned, but I think they’re highly overrated – but then I’m not a big metal fan.
Shame you’ve only heard of the ‘classic’ oldie bands, if that’s normal I guess that’s why so many great bands get overlooked on DLC.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I would absolutely pee my pants if they added some SFA DLC. If you like them Steve, try to get a chance to watch their DVD. Their videos are awesome. Love that band…
I’m sure it’s more of a behind the scenes legal thing. If they could, I’m sure they’d put together as much Queen, U2, Def Leppard, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin content that they could get their hands on. Those bands are all “huge” (on “both sides of the pond”).
I think Led Zeppelin has about a 0.000001% chance of ever getting added to DLC. Cadillac had a commercial (Super Bowl commercial no less) once that had “Rock N Roll” on it and it was considered a BIG deal that the band even allowed that. It’s not like Michael Jackson bought the publishing rights to a lot of their music and started whoring it out to ad agencies (*cough* Beatles *cough*).
Hopefully it’s not a behind the scenes bidding war between the two big boys
.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Yeah, the one I remember most is “It’s not the end of the world” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUoc6Wv72cs. Genius, reminds me of LBP now.
I’m not expecting any LZ any time soon, they’re SO paranoid about anyone getting access to their master tracks. Shame, but there you go, it’s their financial loss (although I’m sure they’re not begging)
December 19th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
“They are barely known over here”
Um, no. They’re an older band, for sure, but they’re a classic band. They still get radio play where I live. Everyone over a certain age should be able to sing “We will rock you / we are the champions” and Bohemian Rhapsody. They are a huge band.
That being said, Metallica is probably in the “hugeness” range as Queen. They sold the most albums of any rock band in the 90s (I learned that from the random facts in Rock Band that pop up while loading).
Of the bands you listed, here’s the ones I recognized:
Coldplay, Def Leppard, Franz Ferdinand, Led Zeppelin, Manic Street Preachers, Morrissey, Nine Black Alps (think I looked them up one time when you posted about them Steve), Pink Floyd, Queen, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Travis, U2, The Verve.
Probably some of the others I’d recognize if I heard a song from them.
Canadian bands need some love too.
Our Lady Peace, The Tragically Hip, Mathew Good Band.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Glad to hear Nine Black Alps got your attention, they’re great – they don’t get as much attention as they deserve over here really either.
On the Canadian band front, I see Barenakedladies are getting a track next week. Shame it’s a weird xmas one :/ I like Our Lady Peace & Matthew Good Band!
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
[...] almost as if they read my last post on the subject, Harmonix have stopped overlooking Snow Patrol! Next week on DLC we’ll get ‘Take Back [...]