While the music journalism industry is hyping itself up over 'Beatles week', mostly due to the re-release of several of their albums and the much-anticipated Beatles version of the 'Rock Band' console game (review here), I was surprised to discover a couple of things (more after the u toob)
MV/Viacom pay millions to produce likenesses of the band members royalties for the songs and even to produce instruments that look like the ones John Paul and George used to play. This last one is particularly fascinating - they are paying through the nose to have permission to make a similar copy (not identical) of a guitar - while real instrument manufacturers have been copying, borrowing designs and reproducing each other's styles ever since they went into mass production.
Now these mini-Gretsch, Hohner and Rickenbacker are very cute and I sort of want one badly (although I've been promising myself I'm holding out until they come out with a Vox Teardrop like Brian Jones or Ian Curtis both used to play), but it also seems kinda silly - why can't they just make generic copies that look a bit similar - what is it that anyone thinks is 'genuine' about a half size plastic guitar that can't produce sound of any kind on it's own but is used as a game controller?
It's stuff like this that reminds me why Monkey is the 'gamer' guy on this blog - I don't think I quite get the appeal of some parts of it.
The licencing of a likeness can also have some pretty unhappy implications -
Activision's use of Kurt Cobain's 'Avatar'in the new video game 'Guitar Hero 5 has lead to former band mates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic condemning company for disrespecting his legacy. Apparently there's a couple of Nirvana songs in the compilation that the company sought to gain permission for using Cobain's likeness (by paying a licence to Cobain's estate) but somebody (Courtney Love, ladies and gentlemen) didn't read the contract closely, and once players have mastered those tracks they can 'unlock' the character and play as Cobain for the whole game. In essence, this means you can play guitar hero and make Kurt Cobain perform a Coldplay song, a Bush track, or Bon Jovi, or indeed any of the tracks listed here.
Not so bad? See for yourself (link via Stereogum)
I think I'd rather just go and read Billy Corgan's new spiritual blog.
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