Song Selection Theory

[TheTogfather]

tmanrocks made a good point in the Boston thread about the songs that they appear to be selecting so far. As opposed to the Guitar hero games, where they seemed to choose songs based solely on the guitar parts rather than the songs popularity, for Rock Band, the songs that have been announced so far appear to be some of, if not the, most popular songs from that band. I can see two possible reasons for this:

1. The world consumer deserves more credit than we give them and it just so happens that songs that have the best combination of guitar, bass, vocals, and drums also happen to be extremely popular, and Harmonix is simply picking songs solely based on these four criteria.

2. Choosing the most popular songs possible will sell the most copies of Rock Band. In this case, it would make sense to choose the most popular songs that you can, then use DLC to showcase the more obscure stuff, since everyone who buys Rock Band will get the songs on the disc, and only those Rock Band owners that want a particular DLC song are going to buy it.

Personally I think it's a combination of the two. I think they're looking at the most popular songs for the artists that they want to be included on the disc, and only THEN looking at whether it has good parts for all four instruments. For instance, perhaps it was determined that Smells Like Teen Spirit doesn't have that great of a bass line, so they passed it up for In Bloom, knowing that they could later perhaps release SLTS as part of a Nirvana DLC offering.

I dunno, but I find the topic interesting. So how do you think they're making their selections?

[StartSomething]

By what songs will be fun for all 4 parts.....

[Coldplayer]

Actually I would prefer The Hives' "Walk Idiot Walk" over "Main Offender"!! Also QOTSAges "Noone knows" over "Go with the flow". I also think the songs I'd prefer are the more popular songs.
Hmm... anyway, I like the songlist so far, I'm looking forward to the next songs, I'm excited about what will come. And there will be a lot.

[tmanrocks]

I love it when people think I'm right :D

[Teh_Jakester]

As opposed to the Guitar hero games, where they seemed to choose songs based solely on the guitar parts rather than the songs popularity.

Wrong. Why did they choose Sweet Child O' Mine over Coma, Garden of Eden or Nightrain? Why Bark at the Moon over Suicide Solution? Why Iron Man and War Pigs over Children of the Grave and N.I.B.?

[tmanrocks]

Wrong. Why did they choose Sweet Child O' Mine over Coma, Garden of Eden or Nightrain? Why Bark at the Moon over Suicide Solution? Why Iron Man and War Pigs over Children of the Grave and N.I.B.?

Jake... normally I agree with you but >_>

Bark at the moon > outroless suicide solution

[Teh_Jakester]

Jake... normally I agree with you but >_>

Bark at the moon > outroless suicide solution

...I meant with the outro solo.

[tmanrocks]

...I meant with the outro solo.

ok then

anyway as the last song in the game even with the outro suicide solution is easy untill the outro.. bark at the moon is a bit faster and tougher to play on guitar hero as like... a whole song

Like... you might actually fail bark at the moon within the 1st minute rather than like 3 minutes in

[blackmarketpanda]

popularity > combination of parts. That's how its going on in my head.

[TheTogfather]

Wrong. Why did they choose Sweet Child O' Mine over Coma, Garden of Eden or Nightrain? Why Bark at the Moon over Suicide Solution? Why Iron Man and War Pigs over Children of the Grave and N.I.B.?

Hmm...you make a good point w/ Sweet Child. Although, with GH2, they also had to keep in mind bass/rythm parts...dunno how the second parts compare on those other songs you mentioned...but I do think it's likely that they probably did keep in mind poplarity, at least as a secondary concern I guess, for the Guitar Hero games. But still the majority of songs they choose sure didn't seem to be the most popular songs available for each artist. It may not be the polar opposite we're seen with Rock Band songs, but at least there does seem to be some kind of shift in their selection criteria...and I'm just trying to see if it's due entirely to the four-part issue, or if it could be due to popularity of songs...