Everybody loves music video games like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” right? Then why is Rolling Stones’ former bassist Bill Wyman talking trash about them?
During a recent recording session at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios where Wyman along with many other Brit musicians were recording a charity Beatles song for “Children in Need,” the musician told the BBC that music video games don’t teach children how to learn.
“It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument,” Wyman said. “I think [it] is a pity so I’m not really keen on that kind of stuff.”
Wyman’s years with the Stones as the bassist to Charlie Watt’s drumming has given the musician a keen sense of timing. Wyman’s remarks are hitting press outlets right before the much-heralded Sept. 9 launch of “The Beatles: Rock Band” game which features 45 tunes from the Fab Four’s catalog.
But Wyman wasn’t the only musician disparaging music video games. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason also has strong feelings about games where players mimic playing instruments, calling them “interesting new developments” but questioning whether folks are getting any real value out of them.
“It irritates me having watched my kids do it,” Mason said. “If they spent as much time practicing the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they’d be damn good by now.”
However, Mason hedged his comments by saying Pink Floyd has not ruled out a Rock Band or Guitar Hero collaboration.
“I think we’d consider it,” Mason said. “I think everyone’s looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared.”
Meanwhile, Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of Harmonix Music Systems’ Rock Band series, defended the gaming genre and noted that not everyone has the chops to play an instrument.
“Most people try to learn an instrument at some point in their lives, and almost all of them quit after a few months or a year or two,” Rigopulos told the BBC, saying the early years of playing an instrument are the “least gratifying.”
“We’re constantly hearing from fans who were inspired by Rock Band to start studying a real instrument,” Rigopulos said.
Click here for the complete BBC article.