A Hero for Our Time

In high school, I quit guitar lessons after just six months. I have really tiny hands and got frustrated just making chords — plus, my teenage self thought it'd be more fun to date an ax master than to be one. Later, I decided that writing about rock bands was a lot more satisfying than pining after them. But I've always wondered if I shouldn't have been so quick to give up on those lessons. What if I had kept with it? Could I have been the next Joan Jett? Crooning "I Love Rock & Roll" at karaoke bars is one thing, but groping a glossy Gibson or Fender and making it explode with beauteous bombast? That's something else entirely.

Pushing multicolored buttons on a fake plastic guitar while virtual fans cheer isn't exactly the kind of high I have in mind, but it is the idea behind Guitar Hero, a video game that's become a phenomenon these past few years, transcending the gamer geek contingent and sucking in real rock fans, not to mention turning a new generation into rock fans too. Maybe more significantly, it's given the flagging record industry a nice kick in the amps, and not just for dinosaur rockers either.

When the game's new version, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, featured the song "Through the Fire and Flames" by the band DragonForce, its label, Roadrunner Records, reported a 183 percent sales increase for the single, and another spike for its aggro metalers Killswitch Engage, who also have a featured cut. Early SoundScan numbers for all Guitar Hero III's singles — from Weezer's "My Name Is Jonah" to the Strokes' "Reptilia" — show download increases across the board.

My first Guitar Hero fix came late — at the after-party for the Sex Pistols show (which the game sponsored) at the Sunset Strip's On the Rox. I did a surprisingly good job on the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," and, like Keef, Slash, Jonesy and an ex who shall remain nameless, I think I now finally understand the rhythmic bliss of shredding. From its vibrant visuals to the music selections themselves, however cheesy it sounds (and looks), Guitar Hero is a love letter to rock & roll, and it just might be saving it.

While Hero, its recently released rival, Rock Band, and other interactive games like Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution and SingStar, have music-driven functions that help to popularize songs in an overt way, it's really the video game industry as a whole that's changed the playing field for music artists. And it's been doing so way before joysticks starting looking like musical instruments.

"We are in many respects the new MTV," says Steve Schnur, worldwide executive for music and marketing for Electronic Arts, creators of popular titles like Madden NFL and the Need for Speed racing games, and a distributor for Rock Band. "We warm up the marketplace and create a familiarity for many artists."

A couple of days before the highly anticipated release of Rock Band, I pop into the Best Buy on Los Feliz Boulevard to check out the demo. A posse of skater boys from nearby Marshall High (my alma mater) pounds on the faux drums. An Afro'd teen does a slamming good job on the Hives' "Main Offender." His score comes up at the end of his "set." It's a 95 percent. Now it's my turn. I pick Bowie's "Suffragette City" — which these kids probably recognize from commercials — and begin to tap the color-coded skins (with real sticks) to the corresponding shades that light up on the screen. I suck, the kids next to me smirk, and even the faux fans on the screen look disappointed (they're programmed to react according to your performance). I get a 40 percent.

Rock Band is essentially Guitar Hero with more bells and whistles — not only can you play guitar (lead or bass), you can drum and even sing, either individually or with a group of friends to create a real group experience. The two games are battling neck in neck for sales this Christmas, but this isn't your typical retail war. Band was actually developed by Harmonix, the same company that originated Hero. But not unlike the drama that comes with fame and fortune in the real rock world, "creative differences" led to a breakup. Game publisher Activision brought in a new company, Neversoft, for Hero III, while Harmonix, now part of MTV, decided to come give 'em a little competition with Band. In group terms, if Guitar Hero is Axl's Guns N' Roses then Rock Band is Slash and Duff McKagan's Velvet Revolver.

Ironically, Slash is now a figurehead for Guitar Hero III. The fuzzy fret-ster's hat-topped mug is all over the packaging, centered directly under the "Legends of Rock" subtitle, and he even had his strumming captured by motion sensors so you can play as him in the game. Also depicted in Hero is Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello — guess Xbox, PlayStation and Wii aren't the kind of machines he's raging against these days.