steviehofe’s Blog

Brief Analysis: Rock Band

Rock band is a game where you can be part of a band and play in it to earn points and unlock more songs. The mise-en-scene behind ‘Rock Band’ is all the essentials in a concert: a concert stage; an audience; crowd noises; instruments; concert lights; the band in rocky costumes; microphone. This type of game is really popular at the moment because it links in with the current popular style of television, reality TV.

 Rock band is made by EA Games and is available on all consoles, this shows it is a popular game and also successful as the game originally only came out on Xbox 360 but Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 also now have access to this game, this confirms its success rates. Furthermore the release of Rock Band 2 also emphasises the successfulness of the game.

 I would classify this game as an interactive musical game as you are involved within a band and are in the game.

 In the game you are represented as a rock star. The rock stars in this game are represented as godly, as the mise-en-scene emphasises this. The bands within the game are represented as legends, as the songs can be familiarized to the target audience. By being in the game as a rock star it makes the audience feel superior as they are no longer a ‘nobody’.

 The target audience of Rock Band varies but I think their main aim is to draw new audiences in that haven’t been targeted specifically before. The songs in Rock Band seem to be fairly old and by well renown bands from an older audience. I think this was to draw in an older audience, perhaps males, as there are many older males which had aspirations to be in a band before they grew out of it.

 Rock Band idolizes Rock and Rollers and particularly the bands within the game.

 The narrative of the game is simple basically you have to complete a song in order to earn points, pass and unlock other songs. This narrative is fairly linear.