steviehofe’s Blog

Brief Analysis: Rock Band

Rock Band is a music game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by MTV Games and distributed by EA Games institution. It is the first one in the Rock Band series as there is a second follow up and an expected due to its success.

 Rock band is a game where you can be part of a band and play in it to earn points and unlock more songs. It allows up to four participants with the ability to play four different instruments, drums, bass guitar, guitar and singing on the microphone. 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. All of this simulates to the target audience the feeling of playing real instruments in a real concert.

 Rock Band was originally released in the U.S in November 2007 on X Box, it was quickly (within a few weeks) released on playstation 3. A Playstation 2 version wasn’t release until the following month and then Nintendo Wii in June 2008 decided to interpret the game with their consoles. This shows the true extent of the success of Rock Band and how it went from only being released on one console to all the top consoles out there. Rock Band has become a franchise as it has a follow up game Rock Band 2 and is indefinitely releasing a third. This was an easy way for EA and the game producers to make easy money as the idea was already there just was developed and adapted on.

 I would classify this game as an interactive musical game as you are involved within a band and are in the game. The game requires hand-eye co-ordination.  

 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. It also attracts younger audiences as on playstation 3 and X Box 360 there is the opportunity to play online and interact new people, making it different and altering every time so the novelty doesn’t wear off as quickly. It gives choose and variety whether you wish to compete against someone else which becomes addictive as to beating others or playing against yourself which also becomes addictive as you want to beat your own score each time.

 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. Rock Band’s gameplay and on-screen interface uses a combination of elements from Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. Rock Band has up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass. The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals. Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally, similar to Karaoke Revolution. The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band’s virtual characters as they perform in concert.