R.I.P. Guitar?

Rest in peace, guitar. Fabled tool of musical gods, stringed wonder upon which the craft of Carlos Santana, Jack Black, and countless others was plied, the end is nigh. You have been brought low by the bane of true musicians everywhere, that accursed Guitar Hero and its estranged cousin, Rock Band. Or have you? Has the music or rhythm game genre truly rendered you inert and unloved?

I’ll admit, when I tasked myself with writing about whether or not Guitar Hero and Rock Band have caused the death of the guitar, my initial inclination was to go after the games hard. It’s not that I dislike them; I always found them a blast to play with friends in spite of my pitiful skill level and horrible knowledge of which wildly popular artists performed which songs.

However, as the son of a music teacher who also happens to be a practicing musician, one sure way to get the tempers flaring during family gatherings was to bring up the idea that Guitar Hero and Rock Band involved real music (y’know, the creating, practicing, and suffering kind) in any way. At least, until one of those ridiculous father-son moments. After sharing a chuckle over the epic Guitar Hero episode of South Park, we considered the alternatives.

Beforehand, with prominent and not-so-prominent musicians trashing the games and those who played them, I naturally thought detractors were right. In essence, the “Quit playing Guitar Hero, go play a real instrument, you dumb kids” is akin to the old “Quit playing Mario! Get off your ass and go play a real game,” argument many of us may have experienced in our gamer youths. I expected to go plumbing and find that yet again someone released a study proclaiming the games as the music industry’s real problem.

Instead, I found this gem about Activision’s claim that Guitar Hero is boosting real instrument sales. Though I have natural insecurities about the source (After all, have you ever heard a company providing information that would trash their game?), perhaps we’re approaching the problem the wrong way. Maybe, much in the same way that late night karaoke-bar binges make us believe we can sing, and Madden binges made me believe I could play football (At least until I spiked the football and nailed myself in the crotch), advanced level Guitar Hero skills make us believe we can rock.

Hey, if it inspires us to pick up a guitar and we suck, at least we helped stimulate the music industry and got the “You play too many games” monkey off the back. If we don’t suck, perhaps we’ve discovered our calling. I prefer to focus on the latter. Perhaps somewhere out there, the next star’s first experience with music comes not from music class but from a Rock Band session with friends. Annoyed by only having a few buttons to push, he takes up a real guitar and starts learning to play, improvise, practice, and create. Or maybe Rock Band and Guitar Hero are used by an innovative music teacher to convince gamers that hate music to give it another try in a teachable moment. The bottom line is, the games are here, and they’re popular. Make lemons out of lemonade, musicians. If my old man can do it, so can you.

For those of us who aren’t so inspired, the games still allow us to pretend to be dynamite musicians whether we’re musically talented or not. The games are just flat-out fun with friends, and despite my heritage, I know I harbor no secret desire to become a musician when I play. I suspect a lot of music game players harbor no such desire either, any more than those swept by the Dance Dance Revolution craze felt compelled to become dancers.

Thus, fear not, guitar. Perhaps your rumored death is nothing more than a bunch of uninformed hullabaloo, and like the phoenix, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and the others will permit you to rise from the ashes.