Are You Ready to Rock? (Band)
Over the past few months, my favorite pastime has been playing the video game Rock Band with whoever happens to be over at the time. This has become an unofficial official activity for the crew involved with BPRLive and Boston Progress. Peep the picture, in which Eugene sings while Theresa and Sophea back him up.
For those who are unfamiliar, Rock Band is a video game in which custom-made controllers allow gamers to pretend to play drums, guitar, or bass in a rock band, or even sing lead vocals. My initial reaction when I heard about this game was if you’re gonna waste that much money and that much space, why not just start a real rock band? But then, I played the game, and realized it’s way better than being in a real rock band. Last week, we won a jet and played a show in London! You know, without actually having to go to London.
So! The game is fun, even though of the 60 or so songs that come included with it, I know roughly 5 of them. And of the default characters to choose from in the game, only one of them is clearly a person of color. The rest are white, or white-but-if-you-squint…
I guess the stereotype says Asians love karaoke and video games, so this hybrid of the two should be like the new hot Asian shit, like on the level with Korean soap opera VCDs, turning student organizations into dance troupes, and voting for Obama. But one thing that may be holding it back from that level of hype might be the lack of representation of Asians and all people of color in the game.
Running through the list in my head, I know there is a song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs included and Karen O, their vocalist, is multiracial. But I also know Karen O doesn’t seem to have much to say about her heritage, like she’s one of those “race doesn’t matter” types of folks. The other musician I can think of in that game who is of our community is James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins. And you know, he’s kind of dismissed his ethnic background as kind of irrelevant to him. You know, I don’t even judge these two, I’m just saying, their views on race are either not progressive, or non-existent.
And I know, it couldn’t really be a game full of API songs. It would be gratuitous to include 20 songs by the Boredoms and Death Angel and The Jets. But really, how to explain the absence, if not of API music, then of Black music in the game? Rock music is Black music (if you don’t think so, you are fooling yourself son!), and so shouldn’t Rock Band make an attempt to represent that, even superficially? Granted, I don’t know all the songs and bands, so perhaps I’m wrong, maybe there are Black musicians up in there, but it’s just kind of surprising that there’s no Living Colour, Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, Lenny Kravitz, or even Rage Against the Machine included. And if you want to get really technical about it, Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, the O’Jays, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Earth Wind and Fire, and hundreds of other Black artists all make and made rock music. They all had and have bands. It would be a natural to have at least a few Black artists in Rock Band, wouldn’t it?
Man I would love to rock out on the drums to “If It Isn’t Love.”
When it comes to rock music, I’m pretty much a dun. I like what’s on the radio. I don’t spend much time looking into bands that aren’t already kinda famous. I might do it with hip hop or even R&B, but I’m just not into rock like that. So it’s kind of funny that whether consciously or subconsciously, the creators of this game really made it for white people…and people of color who just happen to only like white bands.
So where does that leave us? Nowhere really, I’m not gonna petition the creators of the game or anything. I’ll just end with this YouTube clip of a dude who would be awesome at Rock Band drums. Please, when the next version comes out, have this song on it. Please.
Last 5 posts by giles
- Love or Something or Other - July 15th, 2008
- Hollywood? - July 9th, 2008
- That's All You're Good For... - June 25th, 2008
- Apologies to My Man - June 20th, 2008
- Sublingual - June 10th, 2008
Tags: Commentary, Video.
Funny, check out this letter I sent a couple of weeks ago to one of the nation’s largest video game magazines:
With great interest, i’ve been reading the letters and editorial responses to the touchy subject of race and music in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
First, i’d like to say that I don’t think race determines what type of music a person listens to, nor do I think that a game called Rock Band or Guitar Hero needs to include hip hop songs or classical music. And I don’t think the companies that make them are being overtly racist.
But I do think issues of race and representation are being danced around, and not being addressed. If race is not an issue, why are there so few rock songs by artists of color? Sure, there’s some Rage Against the Machine, Santana, Living Color - where’s Prince? Chuck Berry? Jimi Hendrix? Hell, i’d love to play the drums or the guitar riff from Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’.
And Guitar Hero offers some great, underground songs from unknown bands as unlockables - how about some Japanese punk? Some rock and roll from around the world? And how about a create-a-rocker featrue (like Rock Band) instead of making us choose between Xavier Stone or the Midori? Yeah, I know that Red Octane is created and run by Asian Americans - so why can’t you play an Asian dude who rocks in their game?
Again, I’m not saying the game makers are being overtly racist, but I don’t think you can deny that the selections of rock songs that happen to be by people of color are relatively slim in these games. I know dozens of friends, across the country, that love Rock Band and Guitar Hero - who happen to be people of color. As gamers of color in every genre of the video game world, we are often forced to play as white male characters, and asked to step in their shoes. Maybe it’s time white guys considered what it’s like for us.
Bao Phi, Minneapolis
Giles,
Great post, of course, and I can’t believe you name-checked Death Angel. That right there, made MY day.
“… like turning student organizations into dance troupes.” =)
I don’t really look like a rock star in that photo. It must have been when I was singing that song by the Killers that I kind of know. Lack of visibility of Asian American musicians in real life is reflected in the video game. Sad that in a fantasy world, we all can’t be heroes for just one day.
And I didn’t know you enjoyed watched Korean music videos too. You are indeed a man of many interests.
unofficial official past time. how do we make it official?
can’t we get some MIT computer geniuses (cough cough, eugene) to program some sort of code so that we can play songs by the ides on rockband?
Well as for Asian American rock bands, there was one that almost made it big: SuperChink. They had the right idea. Supposedly they had a record deal but it fell through just as they were finishing the recording of their first album. Luckily they’ve made some of their songs for available on MySpace for free download. Don’t know what they’re up to now though. http://www.myspace.com/superchinkmusic
huh… i swear i have a superchink cassette somewhere back from when bert was in peeling the banana.
if only i had a machine that played those things…