Baby Boomers get ready! Your beloved band of the 60s and 70s has reinvented itself in the form of a video game (yes a video game!). Now die-hard Beatles fans, who still have vinyl recordings of the boys from Liverpool (e.g. my father), don’t fret; Sir McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon (yeah I’m talking about Yoko), seem to understand that the Beatles are not a museum piece set to be enclosed in amber. The Beatles have a message that ought to be passed on to the Baby Boomers babies, babies. If the way to do it is through a video game then so be it.
The reinterpretation of the essential symbol of one generation through the technological channel of another, The Beatles: Rock Band game offers an alternative entertainment experience. Which, according to my father, could possibly be the most important video game made.
This is cross-generational, with cultural resonance. Most video games are targeted to one demographic, The Beatles: Rock Band game gets the whole family to connect. When I first played Guitar Hero in college I was surprised at the song choices; thinking, my dad used to play these songs all the time. However when I told him about the songs and how cool it was to feel like you were playing, he couldn’t relate. He couldn’t understand why I was strumming a fake instrument and pretending to play music.
Now my father is up on technology—he keeps me updated with Snow Leopard and the like, however he still appreciates (to put it nicely) playing a vinyl on the old turntable he still has from the 70s. When I told him that Rock Band was going to do something with the Beatles I swear I saw a twinkle in his eye. The hope that generations to come would stop defeating aliens or zombies and appreciate a great band that defined my fathers, and all other Baby Boomers, generation.
Peace, Love & Rock&Roll
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Comments: 7
It's the music, pure and simple.