Just a Game ... Or Is It?

From the beginning, rock music has been nothing if not controversial. In the early days, rock records were banned, burned, and blamed for everything from corrupting the morals of America's youth to causing tooth decay. Now, 50+ years later, not much has changed.

The latest cause for choosing up sides to debate the merits is the release of the The Beatles: Rock Band video game. It's not that anybody's proposing that it be banned or burned, but there seems to be a pretty even split over whether it (and all the others like it featuring other rock bands) encourages or discourages the serious pursuit of mastering a musical instrument.

In our current About.com Classic Rock poll on the subject, 45% (as of this writing) see music video games as a positive force in encouraging would-be musicians. 31% disagree, and nearly a quarter (22%) either aren't sure or just don't care.

Not surprisingly, comments from poll participants split about the same way, ranging from "I started playing the drums because of Rock Band" to "Whatever happened to craft, talent and experience?". (By the way, feel free to vote and/or comment if you haven't already.)

And from the About.com Classic Rock Forum: "The games are just that - games. The desire to learn an instrument has nothing to do with the desire to play a game." (You're invited to join the discussion there, too. And see the end of this article for yet another opportunity to make your feelings known.

Around the blogosphere, the objections to video games raised by artists like Jimmy Page, Nick Mason and Bill Wyman (ex- Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones, respectively) have, in one instance, been described as "the old rockers' equivalent of 'hey you kids, get off my lawn.'" A wide range of blogger reviews runs from a simple "if you like The Beatles and you like video games, this is for you" to a spirited diatribe about how The Beatles shouldn't be considered a classic rock band.

Of course, the criticism has done nothing to affect sales of Rock Band: The Beatles, which "exceeded expectations" with first week sales of 650,000 in the U.S. and Europe, according to the Industry Gamers website.

One thing that is not in dispute is that music video games are here to stay. And question of whether they are good or bad for music will continue to have conflicting answers.