No, I didn't recieve a fab make over from What Not to Wear or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. And for the record, this isn't the first time I've been cool. Its just been awhile thats all. To achieve my "coolness resurrection" (exhumation?) I didn't have to do anything other than what I've been doing all along. I merely had to sit tight and"cool" came and found me.
I owe it all to PlayStation's hit video game Guitar Hero. For the few of you not familiar with this game, instead of the little thumb dependant game controllers you usually use to play Mario Bros and shoot aliens with, in this game you use a guitar shaped controller. In this game, you "practice" (sort of) get groupies, work your way up the levels to bigger and bigger stages till you hit the big time!
There are a series of these games, each has been a best seller. There are legions of Guitar Hero players out there clicking away on their tiny plastic guitars as you read this. The sound 
tracks the game uses is jammed with classic rock favorites. I haven't tried playing it yet. I'm too used to rocking the real thing to get excited by a simulator. It'd be like an inflatable date for me, but fans of the game seem to be having a great time with it and it sounds like a novel idea.
Our daughter's boyfriend's were present at a family dinner last year. The songlist of my merry band of classic rock curmudgeons came up. I named a few tunes we were playing. Kiss' Rock and Roll All Night, Cheap Trick's Surrender. Song after song these guys would look at each other with glassy eyes and say "That's on Guitar Hero!"
One of our girl's boyfriends reportedly spends hours a day perfecting his Guitar Hero skills. (I gave him a pick for Christmas. Ya never know.) He waited till midnight to be among the first to purchase a new version, took it home and rocked till dawn. Who knows? Maybe after there are no more levels to beat, he'll even try playing a real guitar. Its proved to be a "gateway drug" that has induced some gamers to pick up the real thing.
Thanks to Play Station, I am once more relevant to teens and twenty somethings. All because I play songs from Guitar Hero. Will the young female music enthusiasts I fondly recall from my gloriously misspent youth reappear next? Not likely. But I'd best be prepared. "Hey babe. How ya doin? Wanna hear something from a video game?"
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Comments: 36
Also, Bret, dear- you were never uncool!
Since my son wants to play the game so bad, my husband decided to check out some video's of it on You Tube. It kind of looks cool and sounds awesome... has some really good tracks! LOL.
Are you rocking hard Heather? I hear the new controller is a wirelss Les paul (my fave!) shape.
Melanie, You'll have to locate "The Pick of Destiny" for your son. Get him a Dio poster, I think that'll help .From what I've seen of the track lists the tunes really wail. Now if they figure out an interface for a real instrument that puts me in my favorite bands at a sold out Oakland arena...
But you've completely lost us fifty-somethings. (You're probably grateful for that.)
Guitar Goddess! Utter defeat to everyone under 30 now and forever! Taste the boot of experience green horns! ha ha.
So................Bret, wutcha doin tonite?
By the way did you see the of that young kid playing the most advanced levels, quite well? I didn't have the heart to show that to my sons.
OK, Sony? If you can hear me out there, I'll take a Gibson SG (make it an Angus Young model) for boosting the profile of your fine product that everyone should own two of. ;)
Guitar Hero has got to be good for classic rock bands and guitar related manufacturing concerns alike. A rising tide lifts everyone's boat as they say. Fans of this game (and the root word is "fanatic" you know) will be buying concert tickets to some of these bands and buying guitars, amps and wah wah pedals.
Aunt Boni, you sound like you're in my demographic. To answer your question, I'll be eating a sensible dinner and trying to reduce my salt intake. Sexy enough? I knew it would be. ;) I think Monkey picked up the German lingo from that summer she spent in the Scorpions tour bus.
Amy G. tell Sony Corp to throw some Stryper tunes on the next edition!
Lesli, how about some headphones? I mean for you? Remember when we used to say "If its too loud, your'e too old"? Oh the foolish remarks one utters at 25.
Susan * Thanks to modern tech and processing power, you too can be a Juke Box Hero. Rock on!
I married a former H.S. clarinet player.
It's wireless, but as for the type of guitar... well I couldn't tell you!
Careful Cortney, this "harmelss fun" could lead to a $5500 trip to Guitar Center to grab a Les Paul Standard and Marshall amp. ;)