Interesting Masaya Matsuura point of view about the state of music games.
"In Musika, [NanaOn-Sha’s first iPod game] we tried generating game data from ID3 metadata, while, in our most recent game, Major Minor’s Majestic March, we allowed the player to play with the tempo of music, as well as its rhythm. These are just some of the early steps we’ve been taking in trying to expand music gaming beyond ‘Rhythm Action’."
And we sure can do a lot more. Guitar Hero/Rock Band even if they generate millions of dollars are basically always playing the same Rhythm Action card. It’s really fun no doubt about it, but it’s starting to get old as we can see a drop on sales for those two games (-49% overall and a staggering –67% for Rock Band).
I think it’s not really the Rhythm gameplay’s fault. It is very efficient and addictive, I think it’s about music genre and Matsuura-san nails it very well:
"I would be so happy to see a game based around traditional Japanese music, or one featuring Buddhist prayers or chanting," he said.
"Rock Band: The Beatles will fulfill the dreams of many rock fans. But what about fans of other musical styles? Why not give players the chance to conduct the London Philharmonic, for example?"
I think more about Funk and RnB. These are in the real world –and believe me or not, I played a lot of genres with my 4 strings- the funniest music patterns you can musically play: with a strong emphasis on poly-rhythm especially on bass/guitar/drums, killer breakbeats where people need to be sync’d as shit, improvisation where they need to be creative, vocals challenge where they need to go further, a constant call/response design inside songs pushing the band spirit higher, Funk & RnB have everything you need to have fun with. Don’t even get me started on dance moves.
Parappa the music game that every gamer addicted to this sub-genre in games love, is about Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop comes from…Funk and RnB which are the Mothership of all the community dance pop driven music of today, especially with electro music from House to Jungle or whatever, Santogold or Datarock (a “rock” band, I only can hear FUNK in it) or even this Genesis:
You can’t resist this phat bass and the boogie flow, I know. It’s the funk man.
Why not doing games around these genres or more widely, around these patterns? Why not make games about these playful musical roots? It would make non-player people dance around the living room while the plastic band would be playing this funky, complex, heavy fun music. From the 60s to now there’s a gazillion songs ready to make people happy, to challenge them in a way Rock music can’t. Plus from a sad but true opportunity business perspective, a lot of the musicians of these old bands are dead or don’t have the rights of their own music, at all. It would be easy to licence it I guess.
Anyway I don’t really know anybody not loving some groove, at some point. Even the most Sweden metal hardcore fan ever can dance to some Abba disco music sometimes. Maybe not. But the point is that there is not a lot of music capable of making people dance, having fun and be happy, men and women, all across the diversity of this world.
It sounds cheesy but still, the world needs more of that. Fun.
Think about it, simply look at how much MJ has generated funky revenues since he passed away. Music demand since his death surpassed those of Elvis Presley or John Lennon after their suddens death. You can’t look at it and say Funk/RnB music is a niche market targetting a specific public. There’s room. Even for the non-dead non-king ones.
Look at the last.fm statistics of one of the most listened “rock” band in the world:
Red Hot Chili Peppers: 108,435,122 plays (1,944,790 listeners)
It’s better than Metallica, Muse, U2, Queen, Pink Floyd or even the Beatles. This band always had a foot in the Funk. They got produced by George Clinton himself, they have some incredible powerful funk tunes (Sir Psycho!!) and they have the GROOVE. People tend to forget it pretending RHCP is a rock band because culturally speaking the groove is not a “marketable white” thing. Meh.
After observing that the 2000’s music successes were always having some funky parts in them, I think it’s time to get down for real, and use these plastic instruments for other stuffs that power trios, no offense.
From a patterns point of view a lot of Funk/RnB artists old and new could perform well or even insanely well in regards of some infectious songs architectures. The 4 C’s of gamedesign (ppt) are intrinsically embedded in this music.
So Harmonix, if you need (and I guess you do) to extend your games for example to the funkiness, if you need an expertise on this vast music fun fest, we totally should do business together. I’m the funkiest game developer, game audio designer on earth, here’s my playlist and here’s some of my bass playing if you think I’m faking the funk.
Also, follow Bootzilla and Dr Funkenstein on Twitter. They may have something to say like “Harmonix you need to get on the 0ne..”
