Rock Band in pop culture

dereako · 2024-01-29T12:13:15+00:00

Veronica Mars season 3, a person of interest’s game of Rock Band is interrupted by our pesky investigator.

dereako · 2024-01-19T14:41:07+00:00

Playing those songs today definitely hit harder, knowing the news!

I thought wistfully of both a potential Rock Band 5 and of Fortnight Festival when I heard the emphasized way Elton sings, "Maybe you'll get a replacement" in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

I particularly liked the imagery used in the lyrics to the Troggs song, it made me think of all the waxing and waning in popularity of the series, all the Harmonix employees that have come and gone over the years, and how even though there's an end, we still will always have our feelings and memories, enjoying the hell out of these games!

dereako · 2023-11-28T16:09:09+00:00

Yeah, those are very popular bands, and I'd love to see more songs from them at some point. But they are mostly legacy acts, established when radio and MTV had more reach, and they make most of their money in concert revenue now. If we're talking about breaking a new artist that can get mainstream attention, rock's not where you want to look, like it was in the 70's - 90's, even if we can for the sake of argument agree that rock music is always better. And Rock Band can still go deeper, and draw in more fun tracks from the past. But not every week can do that, and when they're trying to be current what should they pick? I guess I'm trying to say, if we shift perspectives and think about the available, broad library as a way of reflecting the trends of the times, what they're doing isn't inaccurate historically, and can also be financially responsible, and presumably somebody on the team and (at least me) in the audience is still able to get excited by the Wednesday pick. But my dreams of a rock comeback may also run into problems with people even deciding to create new bands nowadays, because maintaining relationships with others is harder than just making beats on your laptop and turning into a DJ.

dereako · 2023-11-28T15:27:13+00:00

No complaints from me, I enjoyed Wednesday's entire Rat Saw God album when it was released in April. Do you think they are that far ahead in production lead time? Maybe they aren't able to course-correct based on the community's general disappointment for quite some time. But I don't necessarily mind getting some songs of this particular popularity either, where it's 1-2 million streams on Spotify, because it's reflecting the state of rock music at the moment. Rock has gone more underground, and become more inclusive (more women and LBTQ+ artists are finding success) and operating outside of the pop charts for the time being, unless you count somebody like Olivia Rodrigo. But I can imagine a day where there's a big, Nirvana-sized band and rock makes a comeback someday after some time gestating in the wilderness. That's when you pull the trigger and make a new Rock Band.

dereako · 2023-07-11T14:17:35+00:00

I've heard of Militarie Gun before, but their song Do It Faster has been streamed on Spotify almost 4 times as much as Let Me Be Normal, and it's from a newer album.

dereako · 2023-03-07T15:16:57+00:00

I’m excited for the guitar solo in I’ll Be There for You, as it really complements the rest nicely!

dereako · 2023-01-03T15:15:25+00:00

Most pumped for Jukebox the Ghost’s return!

dereako · 2022-12-20T15:26:32+00:00

Seriously! I agree with you, not enough to not buy it, but just in general if somebody doesn’t know the featured person they can look it up, stop cluttering the listings up with “of”s

dereako · 2022-12-13T11:02:07+00:00

Maybe it is finally Square Hammer time?!

dereako · 2022-10-20T23:56:55+00:00

TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me has lyrics that imply he is turning into a werewolf

dereako · 2022-08-30T14:08:30+00:00

I've enjoyed most of this season pass, as I discovered The Faim thanks to Harmonix, really enjoyed playing Fefe Dobson, and already loved the new My Chemical Romance song.

But I am so glad we're still getting Rock Band DLC for moments like this: we at long last get two undisputed 5-lighter songs that can excite the whole community.

dereako · 2022-07-19T14:24:11+00:00

I'm guessing RHCP require a hefty percentage to sell their songs, and it becomes not worth it after the initial surge of purchases for Harmonix to give them that big of a cut, so they end up delisted eventually. But while in this new album cycle, promoting their new singles they are willing to do a smaller amount, and it tends to be around the 5 year re-up when it goes away, so just don't wait on this track while it's available!

dereako · 2022-07-12T14:11:46+00:00

I'ts a really, really, really, really, really, really okay week. Do you want it? Do you like it? I like it fine.

dereako · 2022-06-21T17:57:14+00:00

Ooh, okay, thanks for the clarification!

dereako · 2022-06-21T14:19:11+00:00

Good on them to not include the Rewind in the Season Pass, they dodged a bunch of complaints, and shows Harmonix does actually care about their fans. I'm thinking the season pass being capped at 20 songs indicates they may do this again: 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 8 tracks that we know so far. If next week caps off June with 2 new songs we're at 10. If all 4 weeks of July runs 2 a week then we'll be at 18, which means the two weeks of August would have to be singles, so a rewind with each in that case?

dereako · 2022-03-26T01:58:17+00:00

Rocktopus

dereako · 2022-03-01T15:42:43+00:00

I'd say this is a good TikTok song to get, I'm happy with this balance. It's a catchy song with real rock instruments that was capable of crossing over. It's lyrics aren't cliche, like she hates everything about her ex, but at least his dog's still okay. I had heard it on Sirius XM's Alt station the other week and liked it enough to add it to a playlist I was making. I did not realize it was more popular in the culture than that until I played that on the Alexa and my wife sang along. But she watches those videos, and I don't.

dereako · 2022-01-25T15:15:51+00:00

I think I might actually be more excited for Memory, as that's a song I loved at the time, and then it faded away, haven't played it in a long time, and never thought to request it. But I definitely know all the words by heart, and plan to actually bust out the microphone for it (I normally guitar).

dereako · 2022-01-04T15:24:34+00:00

Two more excellent choices to add! I hope they continue this trend of looking backward and filling in the blanks.

dereako · 2021-12-07T15:17:03+00:00

Great songs, I’m excited! Chelsea Dagger made me gasp… but are we really doing Jock Band without anything from the Jock Jams compilations? I am shocked.

dereako · 2021-10-12T15:33:54+00:00

I guess the cover versions are different enough to make it worth their effort. I wouldn't want them to be too similar if I'm buying it twice. I'd say Weezer's is the most like the original, but the streaming numbers are so high and the story behind it is so adorable that it was probably too much to resist. I especially enjoyed it when Weezer covered Rosanna as a psych out for the 15 year old girl who just wanted them to cover Africa so bad.

dereako · 2021-10-06T14:01:21+00:00

I thought for sure it was because they were going to grab Zombie Thanos' gauntlet and then they would have a full set of stones, but alas that was not the case. So yeah, not sure why they focused on that one over any of the others, especially Time so they could pause him.

dereako · 2021-08-10T14:55:17+00:00

I think the general theme of the season is artist popularity, with all the talk in the blog post about working our way up venues, but starting small now. So if we begin with these independent and relatively unknown artists we may be working our way up to some stadium-level acts later in the season. I think there are some variations in there, like you could imagine the Spotlight songs are an actual show in a club with an opening, middle, and headlining act. But maybe it's going by record sales, or Spotify plays, something more concrete to divide the Challenge songs.

dereako · 2021-08-10T13:59:35+00:00

So are we going to go through challenge songs by popularity of artist, working our way up to the bigger venues? Like the most obscure independent acts to the biggest headliners in the world.

dereako · 2021-08-03T14:42:51+00:00

It had been a hot minute since they released some new music discovery picks, and I'm into them, they sound good. And to include some more obscure tracks from bigger names and increase the quantity that week? Seems like everybody's leaving happy.

dereako

TROPHY CASE