Guitar Fear-o

Hey, it's that time of the week when an aging rocker comes out and says something poorly informed and ignorant about young people / new technology / new music / gigs / drugs / the internet (delete as applicable)! In this case, it's actually three aging rockers. And, to their credit, although they've all said silly things about a shared subject, two of them are against it and one of them is trying to promote it. This being the case, you'd expect at least one of them to have got the right end of the stick.

But no.

I want to start by stating that I like these three people - the music that they have created has diverted the course of my life at important junctures, and had a profound educational and emotional effect on my growing up. After all, where would any of us really be without the Beatles, Pink Floyd or Bill Wyman's Je Suis Un Rock Star?

Let's start with the big dog - Macca. He's been talking about the upcoming the Beatles: Rock Band game. I have to say I commend the Beatles (which apparently now consist of McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison) on going down the video game route - it is a great way to introduce the music to a new generation who might otherwise ignore it, and I wouldn't mind picking up a copy myself, if I can stump up the cash. The silly thing that he said though regards the ongoing arguments about the Beatles' music being available online, that is via iTunes or a similar service:

"We've kind of bypassed that [download problems] because now you can do it in 'Rock Band'. I always liked that, when you're told you can't do something and suddenly there's a little route round the back."

In writing this, I do feel a bit bad about calling him up no what he's said, mostly because it's not too surprising that a 67 year old man isn't bang up to date with digital media and it's various forms. But hey, I'm feeling a little bitter and stir crazy, so I'm going to anyway. I think it just annoys me a little that he's not aware that releasing your music through this game is not the same as making it available as album downloads. If it were a less important body of work, then it wouldn't matter so much, but the fact that you cannot, on the internet, legally access ANY Beatles material for download is bordering on criminal. These albums represent one of the most important journeys of modern music, and to be so behind the times is pathetic. So, Paul, please don't think that this game has solved a problem, you still have to be pushing to get that music out there.

The second two old-timers can be grouped together, enter Billy Wyman and Nick Mason. First things first, any time Bill Wyman is mentioned, I feel it is only responsible to direct people to this video:



Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to what he's said, also about the phenomenon of the Guitar Hero / Rock Band games:

"It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble. It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think it's a pity so I'm not really keen on that kind of stuff."

Do we really believe that's true? I don't. I don't believe that less children are learning guitar for the same reasons I did. I don't believe that playing guitar games and learning the guitar are mutually exclusive activities. I don't believe that playing these games would put you off playing a real instrument. I don't believe that all of the techniques learned within the games are unhelpful compared to those required to play real instruments. I don't believe that computer games 'rot your brain' (a phrase often banded about, but never really explained) and I don't believe that Bill Wyman knows what he's talking about. Remember, this is a man that spends most of his time metal detecting. Metal detecting, people.

Last is Nick Mason. I've no reason to attack Nick Mason, he was in Pink Floyd and if that's not enough, he wrote a rather wonderful book about the whole thing as well. He had this to say about the issue:

"It irritates me having watched my kids do it. If they spent as much time practicing the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they'd be damn good by now."

All I'm going to say is this: Do you think that a generation or two ago, some people might have been saying exactly the same thing about learning how to play the actual electric guitar? You can pick at that argument all you want, I realise it is a little flawed. But come on. If we can get a generation of bedroom-locked, square-eyed, violent, stupid, brain-rotten, porn-guzzling, McDonald's-scoffing teenagers into contact with a band as wonderful as the Beatles, isn't that a good thing?

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