This is the first time that Guitar Hero has opted to include more than just the guitar. Obviously Rock Band from Harmonix – previous developers of Guitar Hero- have had success building on the music game genre by incorporating drums and a microphone, and now Neversoft have followed suit on World Tour.

First up is the new guitar; an improvement over previous editions. Straight away you’ll notice it’s the largest one yet, more closely resembling the size of a real guitar. The button layout is also much improved with the star power button being located under the strum bar, along with the start and back buttons. The big new addition, however, is the touch-sensitive pad located on the neck below the normal fret buttons. In context-sensitive situations you can use the touch pad to play notes by either tapping the coloured note – like you would with the normal fret buttons – or by sliding your finger across it. You can also use it to strum, simply by tapping it when necessary. It adds a new dimension to play but it’s not really something to get overly excited about. It can take a while to get used to, and since the pad is flat, with no bumps, it’s sometimes quite hard to tell where your fingers are located. I preferred just playing normally and using the pull-off and hammer-on techniques when playing in these context-sensitive situations, but it’s all personal preference really. It’s a nice new addition to match Rock Band’s solo buttons, but it could do with some work.

Next are the drums. Of course the two big new features here are the additions of cymbals and an extra pad – making it five, along with the bass pedal. The two cymbals are placed higher than the three other pads making the drum playing experience a lot more realistic than what we’ve seen before. It’s great fun crashing down on them and I severely missed the orange pad when using theWorld Tour drum kit on Rock Band. The bass pedal seems pretty sturdy, although sometimes the sensitivity on the other pads is all other the place; one time you’ll have to hit them as hard as you can to get a note out, whilst other times you can gently touch them. But other than that this is a quality piece of kit. It’s easy to assemble and then fold away again for storage, and the cymbals definitely make this the best kit out there.

And lastly we have the microphone. There’s not much to say about this, it’s what you expect. The only downside to it is that you need to connect a controller to use it in order to navigate menus, and so forth. It would have been much easier if they added buttons to the actual microphone; but this is a small gripe really.

But now, let us move away from the instruments and get into the meat of this review, the actual game. Guitar Hero: World Tour maintains the excellent gameplay we’ve come to know and love over the years. No matter what difficulty you play on there’s buckets of fun to be had here; it’s as good as it’s ever been. No, actually, scratch that; now it’s even better. Add in the full band experience and it’s improved ten-fold. But, of course, you already know that; there’s no way they could go backwards. It’s the new features that define it.

Firstly, World Tour has moved away from the monotonous old system of playing song after song until you unlock a new tier of more difficult songs to play. Instead it’s opted for a gig approach, making you play two or more songs, along with an encore, to complete the gig and unlock more. But, once again, it’s a monotonous process. Obviously it’s still fun playing all of the songs and working your way up, but there’s nothing here aside from that. There are no randomly selected special challenges, or even anything that involves an actual band. Instead the only interactivity you have is naming the band and then playing the songs. Sure it works, but it’d be nice to see a little more variety.

To spice things up, however, there are a few cameo appearances from well known figures in the music industry. From Hayley Williams of Paramore fame, to Ted Nugent – and his buffalo – and even Ozzy Osbourne. It’s a lot more entertaining playing the game when you have these personas on screen perfectly realised along with their brilliantly motion captured signature moves. They do, however, look a little odd when compared to the other cartoon-like characters on stage.

The character creation is a useful tool though. There’s a lot of depth to it that we have yet to see in a music game, allowing you to go in and edit things like the size of a nose, or the look of someone’s eyes. Apart from that though, there aren’t too many hair style selections, and the clothing range is a little limited – if you want normal clothes anyway; the place is chock full of crazy, spiked metal spandex if you’re into that kind of stuff. It’s fun to play around with though, it’s just a shame you can’t create a whole band when playing solo.

But the complete band experience is mainly what the game’s here for, and the set list represents that. There’s a nice variety of different music for fans of all genres, and they showcase songs that are fun to play as a band or when playing alone. There’s the tracks full of gut busting guitar solos and slick bass lines to mesh with the frantic drums, along with those that are specifically there just to make the single player more enjoyable so that you don‘t need a whole band to get the most out of it. It’s a good mix of the two that doesn’t compromise one over the other.

It’s not as strong as it could be though. It’s great that every song is a master recording, but there are a lot of forgettable songs in there, and the choice of foreign music is a strange decision. Normally this would be fine if it was just a guitar game, but obviously World Tour also has vocals, and trying to sing a song you don’t know that just so happens to be in a different language is a tough task. On the other side of the spectrum there are also some legendary additions. The fact that they managed to get Jimi Hendrix is a major coo, especially when the video game alliteration of Jimi appears on stage as well. It’s definitely a jaw dropping experience. Add to that songs from Metallica, Motorhead, Dream Theater and even Michael Jackson, and you’ve got a good mix of stand-outs as well; there just aren’t as many as one might hope for.

The presentation also favours the downside. Most of the menus are pretty boring, and I wish the songs in quick play were sorted by difficulty, like it used to be. I can’t falter the looks when it comes to playing the game though. Everything looks very similar to Guitar Hero III with some subtle changes here and there to make things easier to read; although the same cannot be said when playing with a band. You can’t tell if someone is failing unless you actually look at their highway, and it’s difficult to see how much star power you’ve all accumulated. There’s also no way of rescuing someone if they fail, everyone just fails. And with no way of turning on a ‘no fail mode’, it can’t always be the friendliest of games.

And the same can be said for some of the songs on higher difficulties. You always expect them to be challenging, and that’s not a bad thing, but Guitar Herohas a habit of adding notes where there shouldn’t be any; making things overly difficult. It’s a gripe only music purists will notice, but it is there and can seem a bit harsh, and even disrupt the otherwise enjoyable, loose way of playing the game.

Guitar Hero: World Tour is a solid effort. New additions like the tap-pad and slap bass for the bass guitar – a single line across the highway where you only strum – add a new way to play, and, more importantly, add a new challenge for those who think this genre might be becoming stale.

The impressive sounding music studio is a bit of a disappointment – being overly complicated and only producing ringtone-type songs – but a decent set list, enjoyable, and improved, guitar duels and a wealth of celebrity appearances make this a complete package. And I know I’ve avoided comparing World Tour toRock Band 2, but at this point I don’t think I can last any longer. The simple fact is that World Tour tries to do a lot of things that Rock Band 2 simply does better. They’ve got the fundamentals down, so hopefully we’ll see Neversoft build and improve upon it in the future. But in it’s current state World Tour is still a good buy; the gameplay has maintained its rock star status, and playing in a band creates a whole new party-atmosphere-experience that you must try if you haven’t already. I hate to end on a cliché but it‘s too tempting.

For those about to rock, we salute you!

From the get-go it’s clear to see that a lot of effort has been put in to make this the ultimate Metallica gaming experience – and rubbish any perceptions of it being a cash-in. No corners have been cut in production as the opening menus showcase plenty of artwork and fonts familiar to any fans of the band. As you make your way through to the extras there’s ample amounts of photos to view and videos to watch, with bootleg footage from shows from a plethora of different locales, as well as some thoroughly entertaining insight into the mo-cap sessions with James, Kirk, Lars and Rob. There’s a lot of great stuff to sink your teeth into if you’re a fan, with a lot of it being never-before-seen, even in the realms of the fan club.

But the best of all are the Metallifacts, which you can unlock after completing each song in the career mode. Here you can go in, without playing, and watch the digital performance of the band. This is all well and good on it’s own since the animation is stunning – with each band members stage persona and mannerisms shining through – but they’ve also thrown in a bunch of facts for each song, whether it’s about the songs meaning, how it got its name, or even just some fun info that you’ve probably never heard before. Along with the photos, videos and lyrics it provides more insight into the band and makes this the true Metallica experience, even away from actually playing the game. It’s pure fan service that could have easily been left out, so it’s great to have it here.

Although everyone knows the reason anyone will buy this game is for the music, of course. Just like Guitar Hero: World Tour, Metallicauses the full band set with guitar, bass, vocals and drums all featuring. You can go through the career with each one or play with a four-person band. However, the career mode has changed a tad this time around to revert back to the old tier system seen in each title before World Tour. There’s a lot more leeway this time, though, as you only need to reach a certain amount of stars to progress rather than complete each and every song in any particular tier. This means you can complete the career mode before you’ve even reached 50% of songs complete. It allows you to skip over any songs you’re having trouble with so you can go back to them at a later date without getting stuck and frustrated. It might seem a little easy, but there has to be some kind of compromise for new players since Metallica’s songs aren’t exactly easy.

It’s not an overly hard game until some of the later songs, but the lower tier stuff isn’t exactly a cake walk when compared to the ridiculously easy songs you’ll normally find in either Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the early stages of the game. But don’t worry you extreme metal heads, these tracks haven’t been dubbed down to make it more accessible; on the higher difficulty levels there’s still a degree of challenge with these songs, especially with the solos. And even if they were too easy they’d still be a blast to play since Metallica’s songs work exceptionally well with this format. For better or worse their musical style has changed through the years so the tracks are pretty varied for one band. You’ll find early, straight-up thrash from Kill ‘Em All, through to the bluesy, hard rock style of Load and ReLoad till you eventually reach the heavy metal sound of Death Magnetic; the set list spans every era of Metallica, and you’ll find all the songs you know and love (and possibly hate) here. Obviously there will be some glaring omissions for some people, but overall this is what you would expect to find if Metallica ever released a Greatest Hits album. It’s disappointing that tracks like Ride The Lightning and Blackened don’t appear, but they were featured as DLC for Rock Band so there may have been some issues there.

It’s also a shame that you can’t use any other DLC besides the full Death Magnetic album that was released for Guitar Hero III andWorld Tour back in September. It’d be great to use all the other DLC you’ve downloaded here, especially since there are a few new Metallica specific hair styles and clothes when it comes to creating your character and customising instruments.

Of course there are still a few other bands included as part of the set list as well. Whether they’ve inspired Metallica, been inspired by them or just relate on some level, there is a fairly good set list here with over 20 bands. Motorhead’s Lemmy even makes an appearance along with King Diamond on their respective tracks, and there’s also a few songs that were featured as part of Metallica’s cover album, Garage Inc. to give some familiarity to fans.

This is by far the best Guitar Hero to date. Metallica’s song structure is suited perfectly to the music genre, and each track is extremely fun to play. For fans of the band this is a definite purchase, and any other fans of this genre should at least take a look. The style of music might not be your thing but this is one of the best set lists so far and the new Expert+ difficulty level adds a whole new dimension of madness for all you crazy drummers out there. With never a dull moment on either instrument this is the cream of the crop as far as Guitar Hero is concerned. Seek and Destroy!

Thus, their follow up album Need You Now was expected to include the same musical precision while increasing the lyrical complexity, in both syntax and theme. Unfortunately, the latter expectation is unfulfilled. Although most songs are pleasant to listen to, the majority do not venture beyond simple lyrics, some consisting of remarkably similar words. The most satisfying exception is the title song “Need You Now” which includes delicate chord progressions over beautiful harmonies. Telling the story of an obsessive lover,  the song’s melody and guitar sections is reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac.

Despite the strength of the one song, Lady Antebellum’s second album leaves much to be desired.

Album Gems:

“Need You Now”

When he is performing live, it is at embarrassing venues such as small coffee shops and bowling alleys. Barely sober enough to play on the stage, rehearsing with his backup band is out of the question. His small, overly devoted group of fans overlook his sub-par performances which are usually interrupted by his running off the stage to vomit. Lonely, Bad settles for company from his dwindling female fan base.

Alcoholism and depression preventing further success or human companionship, Bad is the perfect fallen star for the young reporter, Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to write about. Bad is happy to do an interview, but wants to keep the questions simple and unobtrusive, particularly about his current state. In the shamefully unremarkable motel room, Jean tries to probe Bad for more answers about his relationship with his ex-wife and children, but he proves uncooperative. Instead,  Bad retorts: “I want to talk about how bad you make this room look”.

Bad makes it very clear to his manager (James Keane) that he doesn’t want to tour anymore, especially at such horrible venues. However, his manager makes it clear that Bad’s lack of new songs and unwillingness to work with his old mentor Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) don’t allow him to play for more than a handful of people. Luckily for Bad, but perplexing to the viewer, he begins to have a romantic relationship with Jean and becomes a father figure for her four year old son (which ironically, is the same age his son was when he last saw him). His love inspires him to write new songs. On his bed he writes a beautiful ballad in a matter of minutes, which brings Jean to tears, not because of the it’s eloquence but as she realizes that Bad hasn’t used his gifts to the fullest extent.

However, just when things seem to be turning in the right direction, Bad’s alcoholism derails everything again. While watching Jean’s son at a crowded mall, Bad goes into a bar, begins to drink, and looses the boy. In a painful sequence of shots, Bad is seen limping around the mall screaming out in desperation to find the boy. Although he is eventually found, Jean cannot bear to see him anymore while Bad finally realizes he has to address his problem.

With the help of his only remaining friend Wayne (Robert Duvall), Bad enters rehab and successfully becomes clean. Although he was completely dismissive of the idea before, Bad begins to tour with Tommy Sweet and also writes him some songs. He expects that he can regain those ruined relationships because he has turned his life around, but it is simply not to be.

Jeff Bridges’ performance as Bad Blake makes him the front-runner for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards, and with good reason. He portrays an alcoholic with a realism where it is often over dramatized. In addition, the power of the role is made all the stronger by Bridges’ singing the songs himself in his rough baritone voice. Much has acclaim has been given to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s for her performance, but I was less impressed. There seem to be a large disconnect between Gyllenhaal and the character. Part of this is the way she performed the role, but it is further exacerbated by the weakness in the character relationships in the story.

Although Bridges performance is extraordinary, the reasons why Bad has a good relationship with Jean and a poor one with Tommy is not adequately explained. Bad is not a suave man, but somehow he is able to seduce a woman 25 years his junior. His overtly sexual and flirtatious conversations don’t lend any credence to why a woman would fall in love with him–yet Jean becomes smitten. In the same manner, one cannot understand why Bad hates Tommy Sweet. Played by the real-life bad boy Colin Farrel, I was expecting an unappreciative, arrogant star in Tommy Sweet. However, he is enormously appreciative and wants to help his old mentor. When they perform on stage, Tommy gives Bad all the credit while he gives him many offers to join him on tour. In my mind, I asked myself what’s not to like about Tommy?

The brilliance of Jeff Bridges’ performance is certainly the best element of the film. However, one does get the sense that Bridges’ plays a more complex character than the script created and deserves.

The supergroup charity single is also interesting. On the one hand, there are classics like “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and “We Are the World”, anthems that defined the eighties and promoted hunger awareness and AIDS awareness in Africa, respectively. One the other hand, there are some songs that are so bad they do a disservice to the cause being promoted. Listen to the 2001 remake of “What’s Going On” and the only thing you’ll notice is that Fred Durst was once popular. Listen to it again and you’ll realize why he isn’t popular; he actually rapped “But everyone wanna live/Don`t nobody really want to die/You feeling me right?” Unfortunately, “We Are the World: 25 for Haiti” will not be remembered as fondly as the original and will serve as an example of everything that was wrong with music in the first decade of the new millennium (Yes, I know we’re in decade two, but it’s two months in. I’m rounding down).

The original - and still the best

First, there is no need for a will.i.am-penned hip-hop breakdown. The song is an unmanageable eight minutes in length. Charity single or not, there are only so many times that we can be told that we are the world and the children before it gets redundant. The hip-hop breakdown at the end of the song creates two problems. The first is that it artificially lengthens the song past an acceptable level. The second is that it allows for people that have no business being on this record a chance to sing. The guy featured on the latest Jay-Z single, Swizz Beatz, and the guy that has one song that I like to play at parties, Iyaz, close a song that features the legendary Tony Bennett and the outstanding Celine Dion. What a joke.

Second, the decision to shun everyone from the original record is asinine. The opening line, which was sung by the indelible Lionel Richie, a man already famous for his work with The Commodores and his solo career, is sung now by teen flavor of the month Justin Bieber (who at press time had less Facebook fans than a random onion ring). In the most egregious of sins, the legendary Bob Dylan is replaced by an auto-tuned Lil Wayne.

And that’s the third, and most important, problem: the use of auto-tune. I’ve already written about how auto-tune kills the emotion of a song and “We Are the World: 25 for Haiti” proves this fact true once again. When Wyclef Jean sings in Creole, you can hear the pain in his voice as he laments the utter destruction of his homeland. When T-Pain then auto-tunes some nonsense, the emotion is gone and the personal connection to the devastation in Haiti vanishes. For a charity single to work well, the audience needs to believe that the artists care about the tragedy and are thus pouring their feelings into this song. Auto-tune makes it impossible for an audience to believe that is true.

If you want to donate to the relief effort in Haiti, text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10. More money will go there and you won’t have to waste eight minutes of your life listening to such an awful song.

Yes, that statement has strong implications. Much like the NBA trying to find the next Michael Jordan, the comparison to The Beatles’ 1967 album means that greatness necessarily was present in the album. Indeed, Radiohead’s 2000 effort displays a bold vision of musical experimentation and a triumphant defiance of accepted music convention, making it a clear choice for album of the decade.

The risks in this album are enormous but ultimately paid off in the end. Forgoing the rock melodies that made their previous album, OK Computer, a dramatic success, Radiohead embraces the unconventional in Kid A. The album opens with “Everything In Its Right Place”, a mixture of piano and computer sounds, with nonsensically minimal lyrics (e.g. “Yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon”). But, what the lyrics lack in sense, the music makes up for with power and feeling. Never has there been such a deeply meaningful connection between listener and instruments. The complex rhythms and progressions allow for the listener to become lost in the depravity that is the focus of “Everything In Its Right Place”.

This experimentation continues throughout the album, particularly in songs such as “The National Anthem” and “Idioteque”. It is this experimentation that makes Kid A so unique. At the turn of the millennium, the prevailing trends in music were boy band pop, conventional rock, and the resurrection of rap. Radiohead broke with the prevailing trends in this album. While they could have created another rock album in the vein of OK Computer and it still would have been a hit, the group created one of the most uniquely intricate albums ever.

This defiant experimentation is what should be expected from music as a serious art form. A truly great artist will push past convention and create a masterpiece that will be remembered for generations. There are only a few such artists in any given time. This decade, the one who exemplified that spirit the most was Radiohead.

The Best of the Rest

Honorable Mentions:

• The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem (2000): There has never been, and never will be, a rapper as incendiary as Eminem. In his sophomore effort, Eminem intertwines the struggles of fame with the frustration of the state of popular music at the turn of the millennium. Equal parts comedy (“The Real Slim Shady”) and raw drama (“The Way I Am”), The Marshall Mathers LP, set the standard for rap in the 21^st century that hasn’t been met yet.
• Chinese Democracy, Guns ‘N Roses (2008): The album that is to music what Duke Nuke’em Forever is to videogames (often delayed, G’NR started writing material for the album in 1996 and started recording in 1998). Axl Rose’s magnum opus rocks and it rocks hard, recalling days when rock made no apologies for itself. Fans of power vocals, heavy guitar riffs, and audio clips of Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches (in “Madagascar”) will enjoy this throwback to the days of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. For the sheer magnitude of the project alone, Chinese Democracy deserves some recognition. Thankfully, the music itself is a great listen.
• Paper Trail, T.I. (2008): Recorded as he was anticipating trial and sentencing on weapons charges, T.I. provided the decade’s party anthem (“Live Your Life”) while appearing equally contrite and non-remorseful for legal woes. A deep display of human emotion and the best collaborative rap effort of the decade (“Swagga Like Us”) make Paper Trail and easy recommendation.
• Speakerboxx/The Love Below, OutKast (2004): The Grammy for Album of the Year went to this double album, and for once the Academy got it right. Each disc has a unique focus: Big Boi’s Speakerboxx is a traditional southern rap album, while Andre 3000’s The Love Below explores the ways which hip-hop, funk, and R&B come together. Each stand alone on its own merits, but combined make for one enjoyable listening experience.

The discussion doesn’t end here. Respond to Matt in the comments or on twitter (www.twitter.com/lamagnam or www.twitter.com/entertainium). The next installment of The Best of the Decade will run on Sunday, November 29^th with television in review.

(As an aside, what are we going to call this decade? There’s no convenient numbering system like the eighties or nineties. Do we go with the aughts? The Robert Parrishes? The one with the global financial crisis?)

So, to get you ready for our end-of-the-decade feature, I thought it would be helpful to list some of the events that happened this decade in music:

• Out of the fourteen members of the “Big 3” boy bands of the 1990’s, only one, Justin Timberlake, had any success after the dissolution of the group.
  • That number jumps to two if you count Drew Lachey winning Dancing with the Stars.
  • It jumps to three if you count Nick Lachey marrying Jessica Simpson and chronicling their life on the short-lived reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.
  • And it jumps to four if you count Nick Carter’s even-shorter-lived reality TV series House of Carters, which featured such memorable moments as the time Nick and Aaron fought over such pressing topics as dating Paris Hilton and the no music after 12 o’clock rule (NSFW-language):

• The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, in an effort to rectify past mistakes of not giving Grammys to Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan when they were relevant music groups, showed its age and awarded Grammys for Album of the Year to Steely Dan in 2001 and Robert Plant (and Allison Krauss) in 2009. In arguably the two best years for music in the decade, two aging representatives for the deification of classic rock were given awards instead of Radiohead or Eminem in 2001 or Coldplay, Lil Wayne, or Radiohead (again!) in 2009.

• In a shocker, the general public complained that the music from this decade sucked. This opinion was a direct contrast to the music of the nineties, which people said was…nevermind, people thought music then sucked as well (and in the eighties, seventies, sixties, fifties…). For audiences reading Entertainium in 2020, get ready for the Nick Jonas Grammy Award for Album of the Year! Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

No guitar licks and references to "Cousin Dupree" here

• Speaking of Nick Jonas, the Jonas Brothers go from playing an anti-drug concert at my high school in 2005 to playing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade the very next year. This is honestly the biggest music story of the decade. They went from basically booed off of a high school auditorium stage to fame, fortune, and a hilarious South Park parody.
  • By the way, I personally think that their music is awful. If I ever change this opinion, feel free to try and to do to me what those guys in Project Mayhem attempted to do when Edward Norton was trying to expose what the true purpose of the project was.
• And as a summation of music in the decade, here is the list of the top 20 best-selling music acts of the decade: http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/34074/chart-watch-extra-the-top-20-album-sellers-of-the-2000s
  • Interesting facts supporting the “this decade sucked” theory: The Beatles, which had not released any new material in this decade, were the number-two act of the decade. Most of this was due to the release of 1, a compilation of number 1 hits that moved over 11 million units and set a precedent for every musician to come out with a number 1 hits collection (see Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits, Michael Jackson: Number Ones, Rocket Man – Number Ones, Number 1’s Stevie Wonder, and Conway Twitty- Number 1’s).
    • As an aside on the “Number Ones” phenomenon, there are only a few artists (namely The Beatles and Elvis) that the criterion allows a greatest hits collection that encompasses their entire career. Stevie’s collection leaves out some hits from the sixties and eighties and Elton John’s collection doesn’t have “Levon”. Most egregiously, Jackson’s collection includes nothing before Off the Wall except for a re-release of “Ben”, completely ignoring his work with The Jackson 5, the Jacksons, and his solo work for Motown (but, at least it has “Earth Song” and “One More Chance”!)
    

    Not Included: "ABC", "I Want You Back", or, the biggest omission of them all, the song from Free Willy.

***

So, what is Entertainium’s end of the decade feature? Every Sunday, we will have a decade in review primer to get you ready for Tuesday- the day where we reveal the best of the decade in music, movies, television, and video games.

Here’s the schedule:

• Music: Primer 11/22 (today!), Album of the decade 11/24
• Television: Primer 11/29, Program of the decade 12/1
• Video Games: Primer 12/6, Game of the decade 12/8
• Movies: Primer 12/13, Film of the decade 12/15

This feature will bring an exciting conclusion to the decade and we hope that you continue reading our site through the end of this decade and the start of the next!

“The Best of the Decade” feature will be Matt’s primary focus on Entertainium until the end of the year. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/lamagnam

Its major plot points are all things that you will see in other high school, coming-of-age shows. “Preggers” included many character driven plot developments but the main focus was on Kurt’s sexuality.  Kurt (Chris Colfer) is a walking gay stereotype, yet he didn’t have the courage to tell his father. Kurt joins the football team to quell any suspicions and kicks the game winning field goal. Although his father is proud of him and all seems well, he decides to come out to his father. This is a pretty standard high school drama plotline and some people have criticized the show for being a rehash of an old formula.

But what makes Glee great is the addition of fantastic music and teacher’s comical lives. I was surprised at the former’s weakness in the episode. There were quite a few plays of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” but the show didn’t really have any memorable music numbers like in previous episodes.

What made “Preggers” such an entertaining episode was the introduction of new relationship dynamics—particularly those involving teachers. One was the old high school drama truism of teacher-student relationship. Finn (Cory Monteith) goes to Will (Matthew Morrison) in regular teacher-mentor fashion so as to tell him the shocking news that Quinn (Dianna Agron), the head of the celibacy club, is pregnant.

But the more entertaining one was the relationship between Sue (Jane Lynch) and Will.  Sue is intent on destroying glee club and putting all focus back on her award winning cheerleading program.  The confident coach opts for a segment on the local news to spread her advice around the community. Lynch delivered the lines flawlessly and her words of advice were the best part of the episode. Some of the highlights include:

• “Not everyone is gonna have the walnuts to take a pro-littering stance. But I will not rest until every inch of our fair state is covered in garbage.”
• “Caning works! And I think it’s about time we did a little more of it right here… yes, we cane!”
• “I often tell homeless people, ‘Hey, how’s being homeless working out? Maybe you should give not being homeless a try’”

Sue is very passionate about her segment but the show’s producer will cancel it if she fails to win the cheerleading national championships. She has already lost some of her top athletes to glee and creates a new plan to destroy the club.  Sue is becoming one of my favorite characters on the show, even if her plans seemed destined to fail.

Fox extended the show for a full season this week. It’s a fantastic, if obvious, move as they have a popular juggernaut in Glee.

The Beatles: Rock Band holds the distinction of the most anticipated video game ever. All of the blockbusters such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo 3, and the yearly release of Madden cannot hold a candle to the amount of hype that The Beatles: Rock Band received over this past summer. The appearance of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for a grand total of about two minutes was main story of E3 2009. The game was featured on television shows that wouldn’t normally give thirty seconds to video games on a normal day (Today and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien are two that instantly come to mind).

The hype isn’t unexpected. The Beatles defined a generation and constantly innovated, expanding the limits and expectations of what music could do. Even after their dissolution in 1971 and the deaths of John Lennon in 1980 and George Harrison in 2001, their music has endured through the generations and has influenced contemporary music.

Yet, there is potential for such a game to fail. Music games that have featured a band-specific focus have not fared well critically. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and AC/DC Live: Rock Band have not been able to equal the same Metacritic scores as their full band competitors: Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, Rock Band, and Rock Band 2.

The instruments look great and play like the Rock Band 2 ones. For some, this fact is a negative more than it is a positive.

Luckily, The Beatles: Rock Band does not fall into the same pitfalls as the band-specific games before it. It plays exceptionally well, utilizes the license effectively, and offers tremendous fan service. However, there seems to be room for improvement, especially in the areas of song selection and innovation.

The best compliment that can be paid to the game is that it continues in the tradition of excellence that has characterized the Rock Band series. Every gameplay related aspect of the Rock Band series remains intact, with a few slight modifications. This statement means that there is no over-charting, broken vocals, or dumb shared star power meter. Basically, the compliment is that it plays like Rock Band, not Guitar Hero. Additionally, the vocal section has been expanded to include vocal harmonies. Up to three players can sing a different vocal part depending on the song. Because the riffs of The Beatles’ songs are not complicated, the game encourages the player to try their hand at singing and playing at the same time (to that end, the premium edition of the game bundles a microphone stand).

However, if the game consisted solely of the songs of The Beatles with a traditional Rock Band overlay, players would be disappointed. Suffice it to say, the game does not slouch in license utilization. Every song has a unique setting, and throughout the career mode, players experience Beatlemania firsthand. They see The Beatles’ humble beginnings in the Cavern Club, the British Invasion of The Ed Sullivan Show, to the pandemonium of the 1965 Concert at Shea Stadium, the 1966 concert at Budokan, Abbey Road Studios, and the concert on the Apple Corps rooftop. Each setting is recreated accurately and with careful attention to detail. The wardrobes of the Fab Four match what they wore at each of the actual concert venues. For the songs that were not played live, a “dreamscape” enables the songs to come to life in a fantasy world. The outfits from The Magical Mystery Tour make an appearance in “I Am The Walrus” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” gently glosses over the fact that Ringo quit the band when the song was recorded (that’s probably for the best).

"We'll be coast to coast with our favorite host...Ed Sullivan!"

The recreated settings don’t begin to scratch the tip of the fan service iceberg. Rare records are offered as rewards for progress throughout the career mode. Diligent fans can listen to The Beatles’ Christmas fan club record and view outtakes of the band rehearsing for The Ed Sullivan Show concert that launched the British Invasion, for example. Additionally, the inclusion of new remasters of every song represents the first chance for fans to hear The Beatles in rich clarity (the bass in “I Saw Her Standing There” just kicks, there is no other word for it). Simply put, the fan service in The Beatles: Rock Band makes Super Smash Bros. Brawl look like an absolute joke.

This game is not without fault, though. As American Idol judge Randy Jackson would say: it’s all about song choice. Though the game avoids the pitfalls of previous band-centric games by sticking to the main band’s catalog (there are no songs by “friends of the band”), some of the songs have no business being in this game. One such song is “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows”. This track is off of 2006’s Love album, which is a composition of clever remixes and cues for the show performed by Cirque du Soleil. The song is a good song, but it is easy to question the judgment of including a song created after half of the group passed away. The album Help! is underrepresented though it marked an important turning point for the band’s sound (folk rock and the expansion of the traditional rock and roll music). Additionally, the final number of 45 songs leaves something to be desired as the career mode can be completed in only a few hours. Though downloadable content will remedy the relatively small amount of songs, the first real batch will not be released until late October and it favors the overrepresented late Beatles catalog by a heavy margin.

Furthermore, the Rock Band platform does not match the innovation that characterized the music of The Beatles. Aside from adding the vocal harmonies, the core gameplay mechanic hasn’t changed. It should have. On a considerable amount of songs, four distinct parts were played aside from vocals: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. However, the only guitar option is simply titled “guitar”. John and George did not play the same part on “I Wanna Be Your Man”, yet the game only offers one choice to the player. For a band that pushed the envelope of accepted musical norms, one could expect that a video game developer could push the envelope of accepted video game conventions. There is no hard and fast rule that says a game must only use four controllers, and if there is, The Beatles: Rock Band represented a perfect opportunity to change it.

Three stringed instruments there...too bad you can only play two

Yet, when examining a game such as this one, it is evident that the pros outweigh the cons by a significant margin. The negatives of the game don’t make the game unappealing. Rather, they only represent grievances particular to my musical tastes or a missed opportunity that was never really on the table. The game still stands incredibly well on its own merits and should be played and enjoyed by all music and video game fans.

In the epic that is 21^st century rap music, the siren’s song isn’t performed by mythological creatures, but rather by computers. Auto-tune, a pitch correction technology used in pop music, has enchanted the rap world as multiple artists have used the technology to create a distorted vocalization for their songs. These artists include Kanye West, who released 808s and Heartbreak, an entire album of auto-tuned tracks, and T-Pain, a man who has more performances as a featured artist than a solo artist. By all accounts, these artists are successful. The RIAA certified 808s as a platinum album (over one million sales) and T-Pain won a Grammy Award for best rap song.

Yet, even with all of the success that auto-tuning artists have achieved, auto-tune is a negative for the rap industry. First, it takes the emotion out of a form of music that has relied on emotion to make great music. No one listens to rap music for intricate three-part harmonies. Rather, the cadence is more important to the success or failure of a rap song than the pitch. For proof of this assertion, we’ll compare two songs by Lil Wayne, the self-proclaimed “best rapper alive”: “Ride 4 My N*****” from the underground mix-tape Da Drought 3 and “Prom Queen” from the forthcoming album Rebirth (videos NSFW):

In “Ride”, the listener understands the raw emotion with which Lil Wayne raps. He clearly demonstrates loyalty to his friends and ferocity to his enemies. Wayne’s tenacity convinces the listener that, for him, the sky is truly the limit. His bravado and swagger are the main features of the record and add emphasis to the rap’s lyrics. The bravado and swagger disappear from Wayne’s voice in “Prom Queen”. The auto-tune effect makes his voice sound generic and stale. His lyrics, instead of being explosive, sound like the desperate moaning of an emo teenager. The auto-tuned music fails to inspire the listener to do anything other than change the dial on his radio station.

Additionally, the proliferation of auto-tune caused the performance aspect of rap music to be forgotten. T-Pain performed at my college last year and the only people who enjoyed the show did so because they enjoy unintentional comedy (this fine writer included). No one enjoyed the show on its artistic merit because it had none. Every song sounded exactly like its CD counterpart. Because of the auto-tuned nature of his music, I could have had the same experience listening to his songs on my iPod and pretending that I was seeing him live.

One rapper is beginning to fight against the auto-tuned madness that has plagued the airwaves. Jay-Z’s newest single, “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)”, addresses the rise of the technology how it has worsened the quality of rap music.  He raps, “I know we facing a recession/But the music y’all making going make it the great depression/All y’all lack aggression/Put your skirt back down, grow a set man.” By doing so, he is issuing a challenge to all of today’s rappers: create quality music without the aid of auto-tune. He understands that today’s auto-tuned music is inferior to the music that preceded it. He wants to continue the evolution of rap music and ensure that it does not stagnate.

Unfortunately, it seems like the music industry has ignored Jay-Z’s call. The past two songs to hold the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart have featured heavy use of auto-tune. However, in contrast to the rappers that have used auto-tune, the artists behind those two songs were The Black Eyed Peas, an R&B group. Groups such as The Peas and artists like Akon have used auto-tune effectively. Because they are singers at heart, the use of this technology doesn’t hinder their music. Hopefully, rappers will listen to Jay-Z and leave the auto-tune where it belongs: in the hands of the R&B musicians. If rappers resist the siren’s auto-tune temptation then we can all enjoy quality, emotional, rap.

Additionally, this man can use auto-tune whenever he wants: