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October 12, 2008 2:32:39 AM CDT

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'Rock Band' Reinvents the Cover Band

Posted Jun 17, 08 8:07 AM CDT in Technology,  Arts & Living 

(Newser) – The hugely popular "Rock Band" is more than just a video game—it's a musical revolution, Brett McCallon writes in More Intelligent Life. The game, which expands "Guitar Hero" to two axes, a drum kit and a singer, finally realizes “the democratizing dreams of the punk movement.” McCallon should know, because his "Rock Band" band plays live—and has amateur musicians grousing.

Because they play to recordings, McCallon's group—known as Lamb Hammer—is better than most cover bands, and adds audience participation to boot. Invited up on stage, gutsy audience members can become “thundering drummers, sultry bassists and preening guitar gods before their very peers.” Not bad for a video game.

Source More Intelligent Life

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A screenshot from Rock Band. The game creates a "strange new entertainment frontier, somewhere on the border of karaoke and terrible cover bands," Brett McCallon writes in Intelligent Life.   (AP Photo/Electronic Arts)
In this Jan. 9, 2008 file photo, attendees play the video game Rock Band on the Xbox 360 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
Rock band eliminates the band-audience dichotomy, Brett McCallon writes in Intelligent Life.   (AP Photo/EA Games)
"Any reasonably competent Rock Band band is going to be just as good as the band that played your sister's wedding," Brett McCallon writes in Intelligent Life.   (AP Photo/Electronic Arts Inc.)
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A demonstration of Rock Band, to Radiohead's "Creep."   (kishy214)

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