Hip Hop needs to man up! Now this might not be for the Blind I user who’s not into the music business, but its important nonetheless:
I spotted this article in today’s Chicago Red Eye, and found a related article on ZDNet. The band Motley Crue (for those only hip to certain genres of music, the band with Pamela Anderson’s ex Tommy Lee as the drummer), has decided to release their next single through XBOX 360’s Rock Band video game for 99 cents. For those who haven’t played it, the game gives 4 players the opportunity to be a part of a band that tours while playing well-known rock songs. It features a lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and even a microphone for the lead singer, who has to match vocal intensity and lyrics scrolling on-screen. Now I love this game, having played it last weekend with a few friends over drinks. This article, however, excited me (pause) and frightened me at the same time. It seems as if every stretch of musical genre except for Hip-Hop and it’s Urban counterparts are finding ways to legitimately cash in on New Media initiatives. Sure, there’s no Hip-Hop Act videogame out, but it sure would be a great idea to keep a LOT of wack rappers daydreaming about rapping in their living rooms instead of trying to take it to the Pro Tools and the stage.
Motley Crue found one of the most valuable secrets to instilling new media initiatives - slip it in under their noses! People don’t EVER want to be forced to do anything, and the best way to make things happen on the new musical frontier of digital consumption is to make it a supreme desire. Playing your Rock Band game….finished with all the songs offered to you through the basic package, it makes super sense for a largely-acclaimed group like Motley Crue to release music in this way and explore another tributary to making revenue, since we all know album sales are dead as a doorknob. Welcome back, singles. We missed you.
Hopefully hip-hop can get in the swing of things, be SMART, and develop platforms to get people interested in BUYING for reasons other than ones like this:
Sorry, Ghostface. I’m still a huge fan.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I’ve listened to my fair share of rock, but I’m not a big Motley Crue fan. That’s a cool point you have there, though. People are complaining about bad album sales, but maybe that’s because people are tired of that medium.
Anyways, did anyone else think it’d be cool as hell for there to be some hip-hop songs on a game like this? It definitely wouldn’t fit in and it probably wouldn’t happen, but something like Lupe’s “The Instrumental” would be cool to try to drum to.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Applauding Motley Crue and chastising Ghostface? That doesn’t add up. Do the words integrity or quality mean anything to you? How about creativity? Motley Crue hasn’t had anything to do with either of those words for over fifteen years. Motley Crue doesn’t have anything do with art period, they’re a brand name, and allowing some corporation to use your name to sell video games doesn’t seem very innovative to me(even if you get to sell your song in the process). If I were to view that as innovative as your post suggests or “smart”, it’s certainly not the kind of innovation I would encourage from an artist like Ghostface. With regard to Big Doe Rehab, Ghost delivered a quality product, people who value that kind of artistry in hip hop should support it. I don’t see the fallacy in that kind of thinking. Comparing Ghostface to Motley Crue on it’s face is what’s kind of ridiculous.
“rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop”…that still holds true for a lot of music still being created today.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:09 am
Oh Barry,
I know my Photoshop work is supremely ill (lol), but the game isnt’ a Motley Crue game. Neither is the song featured on it when someone buys the game. The Rock Band game has an itunes-like store that can be accessed through the XBOX that allows people to pay 99 cents (quite like iTunes charges for a single) to buy any available new song, namely Motley Crue’s new song, for play on the game. It’s not about the musical quality whatsoever….more so the fact that artists like Ghostface and most other hip-hop acts fail to truly explore their new boundaries within new media.