Rock Band has been a big part of my life for years. I may not be SSBlind or VDOG, but I’ve put in my time and I really love Rock Band. I feel as if people assume Rock Band is used to aggrandize players to be in a real band. Well, I don’t view it that way. Maybe I’m biased because I may or may not be talented enough to be in a band, or that I don’t have that opportunity, but I enjoy Rock Band for the recreation.
When i was young, I used to hate music. I said it gave me a headache. I had no taste for it. I think the first song I liked even a little was by Blink 182. Took years after that before I took value to band names and albums. I eventually started to get into really mainstream Rock because I grew up listening to Rush, AC/DC, Metallica, Pink Floyd, and the sort. Once I out value to those bands, I started listening to bands like Staind, Shinedown, Sick Puppies, Foo Fighters, Disturbed, and whatnot. I was in that phase for a long time. I absolutely loved Disturbed and thought it was hard hitting and ground-breaking.
So my buddy brings over Guitar Hero 3 one day and I wasn’t interested at all. I hadn’t been interested since it came out. But i gave it a try and was addicted right away. I took to expert fairly quickly and eventually, I was beating songs like “One” by Metallica on expert, and I thought it was cool. It wasn’t long after, I heard about Guitar Hero World Tour and the drums being part of it. I then learned about Rock Band 2. I compared GHWT and RB 2 because they came out around the same time, as if RB 1 didn’t have drums, but thats because I didn’t know drums was really what I liked. Anyway, I got GHWT and thought the drums felt more rewarding but much more difficult. I had a really hard time not smacking my sticks, keeping my drum rolls on beat, and especially the bass pedal. I didn’t get to great. I got to expert, but I had to avoid a LOT of songs. I got Rock Band for christmas not too long after and thought it was stupid. I thought, “What… Only 4 notes? Pff, so realistic” and “Wow, I get like NO lenience for note timing”. It wasn’t long until I realized that Rock Band was far better for the drums. There was a MUCH bigger selection of songs and the timing window proved to be such a newbie thing to hate on. Man, I played Rock Band all the time. I was beating “Shoulder to the plow” on expert and passing “Visions” on expert as well. I was fed up with my destroyed bass pedals and dissatisfying drum heads, so I saved up my money and bought an ION Drum Rocker. From then on out, I was dedicated. I spent my money on EVERY single song I thought would be fun. I would watch the chart on Youtube and download it if it was fun. I didn’t care about the genre. I wanted songs by Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin, but it didn’t matter. Bluegrass, pop, hardcore, death metal, indie, classical, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t too many years of Rush and Greenday later for me to notice that the majority of songs I liked to play were metal. I downloaded “Clouds Over California” and “This Calling” and was offended by the vocals. “Wow, that is annoying. This is stressful. This gives me a headache”. But The charts were challenging. They were so much fun! When i was able to beat them, I was ecstatic. I’d play them every day with my other favorites, and suddenly my old favorites were too easy. I wasn’t impressed.
I started to enjoy listening to the songs I played every day. I would listen to different songs by All That Remains and think, “The screaming is more prevalent in this song, but the drums are so insane! This is beyond impressive”. That viewpoint spread like a disease and I slowly grew into metal. The more metal songs that would come out on Rock Band, the more my tastes would broaden. This is where i hit a plateau of sorts. The more i played, the better I got, but the songs Rock Band put out were so disappointing and boring. I was a true fan, though. I kept looking at every chart no matter what genre the music was, and payed the $2 no matter what. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent on Rock Band and I kept at it.
Unfortunately, I had a PS3, so I was missing out on the songs I started to want the most. All the “(2x bass pedal)” charts were on Xbox. When Rock Band stopped releasing DLC, I forked out $200 for a new Xbox, and bought all the songs I had been missing out on. It was a big learning curve to play with two bass pedals, but I learned. And then not too long after that, I heard about customs. “Finally, free songs! I deserve it. AND they’re fully charted! WOO!”
I was like 2 or 3 years late to the custom scene, lol. All the songs I could find were preserved in one or two places. When I ran out of customs, I became desperate. So I learned how to make customs for myself. I make that sound so easy even though it wasn’t. But it’s because I had bad teachers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all those that helped me because, without them, I wouldn’t have figured it out. It is just hard to teach others when you don’t care, and I get that.
The teachers I had were the only guys left in this scene and I just don’t fit in with hipsters. They condemn my opinions because I need a certain level of challenge to enjoy Rock Band and don’t like a single song they put out. They are the only guys who care enough to make Rock Band songs to this day. I think it is great, the things they do, but they don’t fit the demographic of Rock Band players who enjoy a challenge.
I am here, doing this, because I don’t have a place. At this point, its just me and a couple people who subscribe to my Youtube channel and play my songs. So from here, I have to decide the content that will be on this blog or if I am to take my content elsewhere. My initial thoughts of content….
- News about songs being worked
- News about albums by bands (especially bands I would chart)
- Links to my songs
- Every idea I can think of to support my viewers desires
- Honesty. And just to break it in… I have no more ideas right now, but I’tll all be figured out as I go!
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