So Rock Band is a mess. Not the game mind you, which as the titular description suggests, rocks (nay, rawks) but the path of chaos and destruction it inevitably wreaks on your living room:Â
So all this musical inspiration makes me think of how David Jaffe has recently often said he’d like to make the video game equivalent of pop songs – short, fun, light hearted. Nothing wrong with any of those things, but…
But there is a lot of popular music that is, without a doubt, a much deeper emotional experience - Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, and many other artists. The emotions conveyed can be quite negative, complex, haunting. All still fit within the realm of 3-5 minutes.
The games that come to mind first are of course Ferry Halim’s Orsinal series, especially ones like High Delivery.
Just because something is short and fleeting does not mean it has to be devoid of meaning.