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Guitar Hero and Rock Band

Guitar Hero and Rock Band

Date: Jun 09 2008

Themes: Hobbies, Tech

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Karaoke is fun, but why limit yourself to just vocals? You could do karaoke on guitar or drums. What’s that? You don’t play an instrument? No problem. There are some new video games that let you pretend you can.

In a way, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are even better than karaoke since you don’t even have to know how to sing to play them. It’s a lot like Dance Dance Revolution. As the music plays, the screen tells you what to do and your score is based on how accurate you are.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become very popular and are even helping to make bands like Cheap Trick and Aerosmith, who are featured in the game, sell more albums than they have been lately.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Marni

Mason

Mason

Marni:  Do you play Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

Mason:  I don’t as much as I want to because it’s that awesome.

Marni:  It is that awesome!

Mason:  I don’t have it. I won’t shell out for the equipment.

Marni:  And do you have a preference? I think Guitar Hero is great but then I think Rock Band really upped the ante by brining in drums and vocals and you can create your own band.

Mason:  I haven’t actually played Rock Band yet. But I’ll tell you what I like about the idea of Rock Band most is you can download the songs.

Marni:  Yes, you can.

Mason:  I heard a stat that just, like, more songs were downloaded for Rock Band than purchased on iTunes.

Marni:  I don’t doubt it. Where here’s an interesting thing. All these artists, you know, declined having their songs licensed so they had to have a lot of covers and things and now actually, they could have made a lot of money off of it. I think they were thinking that they didn’t want to give up the licensing, they’re not getting anything for it, and in fact they would have made a lot of money off licensing their songs.

Mason:  It’s really interesting how these have kind of created a new market. It really speaks to the way people want to interact with their media now. Right? We don’t want to be passive consumers anymore. We don’t want to listen to a song, we want to play the song.

Marni:  You want to be part of it. I know my brother feels like Rock Band has turned him into a better drummer, like by practicing the drums he feels like a better drummer. He’s drummed for years.

Mason:  I think it’s definitely going to be a gateway.

 

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Discussion

Mason plays Guitar Hero as much as he can, but he doesn’t own the game so he doesn’t play it as often as he’d like to.

Marni likes Guitar Hero but thinks Rock Band is even better because you form a band with your friends and play drums and vocals in addition to guitar.

One thing Mason likes about Rock Band is that you can download songs for it. Apparently there have been a lot of songs downloaded for it, even more than the number of songs downloaded on iTunes.

With all that downloading, having a song on one of those games is likely to boost your career. It’s funny because when Guitar Hero first came out, bands didn’t want their songs to be used on it. Guitar Hero had to hire musicians to play cover songs to use in the game.

People often wonder if these games are going to create more musicians or discourage kids from learning a real instrument. Marni’s brother says that Rock Band has made him better at playing drums.

What fake instrument do you play on Rock Band? What song do you like to perform?

 

Comments

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afufu

China

What is Rock Band, video game? I have never played that. Actually, I don't play any video game anymore. Games are just wasting of time. Some people think video games help you to relax, and you could get lots of fun from them. But I don't think that's true. At least, not totally true. You can always find better things to do. For example, reading is much much better than games. You can learn something from books.

If you spend too much time on games, you will become dumb. Even if you win the game, it doesn't mean anything. It's not real. So, if you love video games, you can still play them, but do not waste too much time on them.

02:53 PM Nov 26 2010 |

zhyar

Jamaica

i love guitar

02:35 PM Nov 22 2009 |

pavithraniranjan

India

hey,

Rock on

12:06 PM May 06 2009 |

novel pig

novel pig

China

i haven't played them yet, but it sounds great ,and i'll try it someday!

07:18 AM Aug 27 2008 |

alexv

alexv

Ukraine

Hm…

09:25 AM Jul 30 2008 |

Manfred&煇

China

好快好厉害Innocent

05:04 PM Jun 19 2008 |

Manfred&煇

China

好快好厉害

05:02 PM Jun 19 2008 |

Muzaffer69M_Ist

Turkey

MY FİRNED APTULLAH SON PLAY GUİTAR HERO ON PLESTEYŞIN AND İ TRY THE GAME İT MUCH FUN BUT SOME SONGS İS NOT OLDSCHOOL BUT GOOD

MY FAVİROUTE İS 

MOUNTAIN MİSSİSSİPPİ QUEENAM LİKİNG ENYTHİNK FROM 70'S)

08:29 AM Jun 16 2008 |

HERON WONG

HERON WONG

China

it's fun

01:16 PM Jun 15 2008 |

MIGUEL_C

Colombia

I played once the guitar hero…it's really amazing i would like to have the opportunity to play again, those games are for people like me, people who don't have skills to play any music instrument but you don't need to know how to do it to enjoy this good game.

06:35 PM Jun 13 2008 |

ola3

ola3Super Member!

Ukraine

It's interesting. I never heard of "Rock Band"Embarassed. But definitly I would play a real instrument. I like accordion Tongue out

03:31 PM Jun 13 2008 |

890106

China

i think it will be better if it can be played on this page !

07:28 AM Jun 13 2008 |

BereNice

BereNice

Mexico

this game looks funny, i'd like buy one, so… where can i buy one?

04:38 PM Jun 12 2008 |

Freak bOy7

Freak bOy7

United Kingdom

they rock !!

03:21 AM Jun 12 2008 |

ruanjable

ruanjable

China

Souds so interesting! I'll just have a try!

04:17 PM Jun 11 2008 |

ruanjable

ruanjable

China

Souds so interesting! I'll just have a try!

04:16 PM Jun 11 2008 |

VOLTS

VOLTSSuper Member!

Brazil

It´s very interesting lesson

12:37 AM Jun 11 2008 |

maab

Sudan

idont like it

03:15 PM Jun 10 2008 |

Olivia95

Olivia95

Taiwan

i was playing rock band two days ago. its very very funny game. at begining, i chose basic and simple songs and its not that difficult. but while starting a harder song, i cant follow each tempo. all i wanted to do is beating all the bumps Money mouth....of course failed the game but had a lot of fun. believe it or not,  drummers are the most important roll in a live band. they give parties hot so i love drummer most. although i never play guitar hero but i think rock band is more fun.  

03:00 PM Jun 10 2008 |

feresyosira

Turkey

This is the first time that I ve heard about this Rock Band stuff. It seems like interesting but I reckon it is rather artificial. As mentioned above, people may forget or disregard the taste of live music or they may not strain themselves to play enstruments anymore. 

09:52 AM Jun 10 2008 |

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