Guitar Heroes – Where Are They?
I recently posted an item on MMR's website (also in the June issue's UpFront section) about a psychological study conducted at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France that had concluded that, "women are attracted to men with guitars." The write-up was meant to be lighthearted ("Well, duh – Of course girls dig guys who play guitar. Otherwise, why would teenage boys pick up guitars in the first place?"), but after it was put online, I found myself reconsidering an issue that's been troubling – or at least… has "caught the attention of" – our industry for the past decade: Who and what is going to keep younger potential customers interested in buying instruments?
A quick glance at the May 10th Billboard charts here in the U.S. shows maybe two – maybe two – artists who could be considered "traditional instrument-based" acts in the Top 10. And that's been the trend for quite some time. Dance, hip-hop, electronica, and the like have unquestionably been the most popular genres, in terms of sales, since the mid-'90s and the end of the post-Nirvana/grunge wave. Even the nu-metal "blip" of the latter part of that decade (Limp Bizkit. Ugh…) and the hiccup that was "radio friendly punk" (Blink 182, Sum 41… What the hell was up with the name-number thing that was going on, anyway?) didn't truly account for a sizable slice of the “poplar music pie.”
The beginning of the "aughts" saw the emergence of the garage-rock fad here in America, with the likes of The White Stripes, The Stokes, The Hives, et. al. giving some MI retailers new hope that kids would be inspired to strap on a six-string or buy that first starter drum kit. But, as with all fads, that came and went without much fanfare or tangible impact.
Then arrived what some considered at the time to be the “game changer” (Pun un-intended, but it stays. Read on, you'll get it). The Guitar Hero video game franchise launched in 2005 and was, surprisingly to many – myself included – almost instantly a cultural phenomenon. "Guitar Hero nights" began popping up at bars and clubs (And they were packed! I was obliged to attend a few – but more on that in a minute…), people would bust out their little plastic guitar peripherals at cocktail parties and assembled guests would jam out to ’70s classic rock hits, and the bands featured in the games started seeing their back catalogs sell at previously unimagined rates. Rock Band followed, as did many other “wanna-be” video games, and drums, bass, and vocals were herded into the mix.
Some thought at the time that this was the thing that was going to really drive business. Sure, there hadn't been a Slash or an Eddie Van Halen topping the charts since the '80s, but kids were eating this stuff up. If they like playing fake guitars and if they dig the tunes enough to be downloading all these antique tracks from iTunes, then of course a good portion of the gamers will take the next step and want to become "real musicians." Right?
I have a sort of unique insight on this particular cultural wrinkle. One of the bands I’m in was in Guitar Hero I and II, as well as the first iteration of Rock Band. And (not coincidentally) my oldest friend is one of the bigwigs at Harmonix Music, who published both the first couple GH games and were the architects of the Rock Band brand. I can attest that iTunes sales for bands included in those games really did spike considerably (our rinky-dink Boston band sold WAY more than we had a right to). I can also attest that, like MI retailers and suppliers, the folks at Harmonix genuinely hoped that these games would inspire younger players to become “real life” music-makers.
The data in the years that have followed, however, doesn't really seem to illuminate such a monumental shift. A lot of the “facts” are anecdotal – plenty of retailers claim that, by tying into GH and Rock Band (hosting "Guitar Hero nights" and the like), they were able to attract new customers and a number of suppliers were confident that these games were key to future success, but just as many were never bullish on the idea that video games could have any meaningful, positive impact on instrument sales. In 2008, MMR ran a cover feature on this subject, exploring both sides of the argument:
“We want nothing to do with them,” says MI retailer Stephanie Wilds, of Acoustic Corner, Black Mountain N.C. “They run counter to everything we’re trying to do.”… “Oh yes, I’ve played both [GH and Rock Band]!” says Clay Lyons, Fender’s business affairs manager. “They are great fun. Both have a pretty quick learning curve, so anyone can plug in and play immediately. A lot of other games you have to play for hours to build up characters and speed … of course it’s worse if you actually know the song in the game on guitar!” he laughs. “When we set it up around here, it was perplexing to the true guitarists at first.” In Rock Band, Lyons says that the drumming aspect is the closest to actual music making, and that the bass guitar 'is pretty close' to reality. But the guitar playing aspect suffers a bit. “I’ve seen plenty of people who are good guitarists and terrible at the game because it’s a right brain/left brain kind of thing.”
But, as with the "garage rock fad," these games have now faded, for the most part, from our collective consciousness – without having made much of a measurable positive impact on MI.
So – where are the real guitar (or bass, drums et cetera) heroes? When is the next Beatles (or Zeppelin or Nirvana or Guns N Roses…) going to come along? It's all well and good for the Université de Bretagne-Sud to tell the world that musicians are attractive to the opposite sex, but until there's compelling evidence on the charts and on television – the kind of data that makes sense to kids and that might tear them away from Facebook and their smart phones – we're all looking at something of an uphill battle.
