Despite falling out of fashion in recent years, rhythm games played with plastic instruments formed a massive part of 2000s gaming culture due to iconic franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Now, over fifteen years after the first Rock Band launched, a real-life band plans to pay homage to the series in a music video.
Rock Band is a rhythm game series started in 2007 by developer Harmonix, which had previously created the Guitar Hero series in collaboration with RedOctane before both companies were acquired by MTV Games. Both series would be developed in parallel from that point, with Harmonix creating Rock Band and Activision subsidiary Neversoft continuing the Guitar Hero series.
Inspired by the Rock Band series and wanting to pay homage to it, the band Vella la Vella customized a car using the car from the Rock Band intro cinematic as reference, making room to fit a drum set inside and taking a picture with several band members posed standing on the vehicle. In the original Rock Band and Rock Band 2, a similar car is seen driving through a desert with a similar drum set and a drummer and singer riding on top. The only changes to the design are out of necessity and safety concerns, as the band actually plans to shoot a music video using this vehicle.
In the same post showing the car, Vella la Vella puts out a call for music video producers to help re-create the intro from Rock Band. Doing so would no doubt be an impressive feat, but there are numerous safety concerns with shooting a video on top of a moving vehicle; even with the wooden structure behind the drummer, it would be very easy for something to go wrong and for band members to be injured. As such, it seems likely the car will be used more as a static prop in a CGI video, but Vella la Vella has not revealed what the exact plans are just yet.
The Rock Band series at its peak managed to use the foundations laid in Guitar Hero to expand to a wider target market with a variety of music genres. As such, it only makes sense that both series inspired players to learn actual instruments, with the later Rock Band games even functioning as actual learning tools with Pro Mode.
Despite sales for the genre stagnating in the 2010s, plastic instrument rhythm games are beginning to make a comeback in fan efforts like Clone Hero, Phase Shift, and Unplugged Air Guitar. Harmonix’s own Rock Band 4 is also an option, and with Activision executives discussing reviving Guitar Hero thanks to the newfound resources of Microsoft’s acquisition, plastic instrument rhythm games may have a bright future.
Rock Band 4 is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit
