Ten Signs Music Games have Jumped the Shark

December 04, 2008 | By: Libe Goad

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Music games have succumbed to the dark side of rampant commercialism and oversaturation. Don't believe us? These 10 prophetic signs might change your mind.

Music games take a walk on the weird side

It's OK, music has jumped the shark before. Remember Lou Reed's Honda scooter ad? Or Ringo Star shilling for Sun Country wine coolers? Music games – Guitar Hero, Rock Band and their many imitators – are the latest offenders, with goofy branded merchandise, me-too knockoffs, and plenty of other sins that will make you want to hang up your (fake) axe for good. Read on for 10 prophetic signs that music games have truly jumped the shark.

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powerfulone87 at 7:47 pm on December 4th 2008

I was in Wal-Mart like a week ago and this old man said to this other random old man, who seemed not to want to be engaged in such a conversation, how those things over there *Pointed to a Guitar Hero Guitar on display for play in the store* ruin the youth and how they spend hours playing that thing when they could be playing the real thing and how ridiculous it is. The other man would just grunt and nod here and there. Then the conversation ended and he came back towards my direction and I diverted my eyes and hoped and prayed that he wouldn't engage me. Then I thought about it. Hey, I'm one of those youths. He wouldn't dare tell me about my generation and how screwed up they are. Would he? Old people are crazy and unpredictable you know.....Hey wait a minute. Disregard everything I just said. I think maybe it was a Rock Band Guitar that was out on Display for play in the store. I've never played that one, so he could have talked to me about what an abomination THAT ONE is. Darn you Rock Band and you kids and your fake Drums!

revelations10390 at 6:59 pm on December 4th 2008

The John Mayer part at the end about Guitar Hero being fake made me laugh...He just doesn't understand it and he's probably mad that it's so popular. And I can honestly say that I'm one of those 2.5 million people that've gone on to play real guitar from playing Guitar Hero. I've been playing real guitar for about a year, and I've been playing drums for 3 years. I've played GH for about 2 and a half years, since the summer the 1st one came out and I think it's a great way to get kids into music that wouldn't normally hear it. Bands like Paramore, Tokio Hotel, Black Tide, even Judas Priest have gotten much publicity from Rock Band. I could go on and on but why do that?...Great list over all haha.