Is R&B out of the realm of possibility?

[Xx SteameR xX]

Hear me out on this one. I know the game is called ROCK BAND but there are no other outlets for this type of family fun and overall entertainment.

I'm not talking Rap but couldn't there be a good selection of songs by R&B artists that could work well in this game? I ask because I am Black, and that doesn't mean anything but it helps make my point. I know (or know of) a lot of the songs in RB but I'm not in the norm of my demographic. My family and some of our friends love the game. I always wanted to be a drummer. But the first thing my wife asked is "They don't have any R&B or Motown?" I did have to point out that the game IS called ROCK Band. But like I said, there are no other outlets.

The problem is our "band" will never go as far as some others because we don't know enough of the songs to do well enough to advance. I am doing pretty good in medium but it will be a while before I get good enough to play in hard or expert. Heck, Metallica's Sandman looked like expert on medium to me and I know and love that song! And my friends aren't nearly as far along as I am.

And the game would sell even more if there were some songs by R&B artists that used a live band. Beyonce has some interesting arrangements in some of here songs. Brian McKight, Boyz II Men (don't laugh, those guys can actually sing and they always used live music in their songs).

One last thing: take a listen to Amerie "1 thing". She is not even that good, but I bet that song would be fun to play in RB.


What you guys think? I really would like to hear from the guys at Harmonix on this topic. And again, I like the songs in the game, (My wife kills Maps!) I just would also like to play some stuff for people in my demographic, namely jazz or R&B. And I know that a lot of them don't have any sweet drum or guitar solos but it's not always about that is it?

steamer

[TNTales]

I mentioned some Stevie Wonder like Superstitious and people really jumped on me like "he plays keyboards." Yeah, but it's not just that. And I'd like some Bill Frissell or Bill Withers. We could get some Curtis Mayfield, Parliament/Funkadelic, maybe some Jackson 5. Marvin ***e. There's a lot of non-rock that would be cool to play along to.

Also wouldn't mind some Reggae like Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, etc.

[Thee Production]

It's kinda hard to find R&B with decent parts for all 4 instruments, but I'd love to see some stuff like Al Green, Sly Stone, The Spinners (RUBBERBAND MAN!), etc. They'd be a lot of fun to sing, and the bass lines would help with bass being so "dry", as Harmonix puts it.

[primet4me]

There are several R&B artist that can be used in the game

!) Prince
2) Michael Jackson
3) Mint Conditon
4) Terence Trent Darby
5) Lenny Kravitz
6) The Time
7) Rick James
8) Klymaxx
9) Hootie and the Blowfish
10) John Legend
11) Stevie Wonder
12) R. Kelly
13) Ray Charles
14) Tina Turner
15) Brian Mcknight

[Rotten Possum]

In GHI they had a Stevie Wonder song... but they did say 'As made famous by Red Hot Chilli Peppers"

You guys are forgetting Marvin ***e! What's going on? is one of the best songs ever.

[Badosh]

cause red hot chili peppers covered it, and thats the version they picked for the game....

[S1ashRev]

I think there is a lot of R&B that would work.

Oh, how I would love some Prince. When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, etc., etc.
He is a great guitarist that most people overlook.

And everybody else that people mention.

It would definitely make the bass playing more interesting. Then they might be able to make a bass solo career.

Also add in some Blues and Funk.
I think we'll see a little of everything before Rock Band done.:D

Edit: Reggae! Needs some Bob Marley!!

[Rock_Starman]

Jungle Boogie or Get Down On It by Kool & The Gang would be pretty awesome,not sure if that counts as R&B or Funk.

[JIrish780]

I had made a thread suggesting the Isley Brothers, and it sank like a stone. I still think that "Summer Breeze" would be a wonderful song for this game.

But, yes, some R&B would be good thing.

[XrossoveR]

that'd actually be pretty awesome if they could do it. good music there. i'm surprised nobodys said anything rude or obnoxious to you yet, haha. they usually shoot down any idea thats not from ancient history.. hah! i'll probly get some trash for that. anyways its probly cuz your black and they're scared hahaha :D :p

but for real, that'd be cool. good luck with it :D

[Xx SteameR xX]

anyways its probly cuz your black and they're scared hahaha :D :p

but for real, that'd be cool. good luck with it :D

Haha!~ LOL No doubt about it.
You guys offered some great possibilities. Think about it. Any of the funk tunes in the 70's would do well, The Commodores' Brick House would be AWESOME! But yeah, meybe this time they'll hear us...

steamer

[hodayathink]

Haha!~ LOL No doubt about it.
You guys offered some great possibilities. Think about it. Any of the funk tunes in the 70's would do well, The Commodores' Brick House would be AWESOME! But yeah, meybe this time they'll hear us...

steamer

First of all, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who thinks about this! I was expecting to see the idea get proposed and shot down, and it's good to see that people are being open-minded about it.

I don't think it's a matter of them hearing us, it's more of a matter of getting clearances for the right songs, and then having the time to put them in. And also, most people don't think about the fact that you should have a song that plays well on every difficulty. Sometimes a song does have all the instruments, but would be way too easy, even on an expert level where you would in theory be playing almost all the notes.

Also, I think most of us would agree that there are actual rock songs that would appeal to more of the game's audience that should probably be worked on first.

[Ble3d Th3 Freak]

damn kid, ur suggestions are really unusual

[Rotten Possum]

George Clinton and the Parlement Funkadelic would be BA.

[DasKonstruct]

I would love some Prince on RB. No one could even argue about his importance in rock history as well. The man is a legendary song writer, great guitarist, and all around smooth mofo. I would buy a Prince DLC in a heat beat.

[epp1e]

I was thinking more along the lines of Funk because Funk songs offer a lot of interesting parts for bass (in addition to vocals, drums & guitar). Seeing as to how my friends always play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who's "stuck with the bass", I don't think it'd be a bad genre to consider.

[BhindBluEyes430]

Maby old R&B like arehta franklin, James Brown or Marvin ***e although the vocals would be close to imposible lol. Superstion by stevewonder would be sick

[Xx SteameR xX]

See? with a little real discussion progress can be made. and let me just reiterate what hodayathink said: alot of R&B songs won't play well because of their lack of changeup during the song, but that is not always the case. But here again, there are definitely SOME songs that will play well.

I was playing through the solo drummer mode and there were a coulple of songs down the line where there was some horns and neither of the guitarists were doing anything. So I know it is do-able. then when the guitar parts came up, they continued. I contend that this would make the song more difficult because you could be lulled into not paying attintion to your note chart and when your part comes up, you may not be ready.

Who can argue with Purple Rain, Let's Go Crazy (which has a great guitar solo followed by a big rock ending) by Prince, Stevie Wonder's Superstitious (that electric keyboard opening and background could be mappedon the base I mean it was a senthesizer set to mimic a bass anyway!) , Skeletons in the Closet, or even Long Walk by Jill Scott (The drums might be boring on that one)?

C'mon HMX, hook us up! Oh and get some Heart (Barricuda, Crazy on You... need I say More?) And Hendrix, and Tenacious D (Who won't wanna play Tribute?) and... uh... oh... um... Matchbox 20... and...


steamer

[aries83]

i'm glad yall mentioned funk. you can't forget larry graham, sly and the family stone and the greatest of all time BOOTSY COLLINS.

[PHiNiX]

i think as a download back it may do well

so the people who want it can have it

i wouldnt download any of those songs though

but thats what you want so i guess it would work if there is a market for it (if not i dont think HMX would do it)

[Rock_Starman]

Suprised no one mentioned this yet:

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[Bishop]

There are several R&B artist that can be used in the game

!) Prince
2) Michael Jackson
3) Mint Conditon
4) Terence Trent Darby
5) Lenny Kravitz
6) The Time
7) Rick James
8) Klymaxx
9) Hootie and the Blowfish
10) John Legend
11) Stevie Wonder
12) R. Kelly
13) Ray Charles
14) Tina Turner
15) Brian Mcknight

I totaly agree with this list I just wanna add
1)Sly and the family Stone
2)Parlement
3)Robert Randolf and The Family Band
4)Earth Wind and Fire
5)Cameo
6)Isley Brothers

Rock_Starman I quietly hated that song. The lyrics were so overbarring I felt like I was listening to a PSA.
Also were is Muddy Waters?

[mistermono]

Some Prince would be aces. How 'bout "Let's Go Crazy"? Great solo on that one.

[darknessmoon]

Thread Name: "Is R&B out of the realm of possibility?"

Um, I agree with some of you with some of the artists you have requested, but just because the artist is African American doesn't necessarily mean that it's R&B.

Examples:

Michael Jackson, "The King of POP."

Lenny Kravitz, which falls more under alternative rock.

Prince, which I want to say would fall under funk, though I know some of his music contains R&B roots.

Hootie and the Blowfish, which is more pop/rock.

Jimi Hendrix, despite the fact that he opened up for R&B artist and such, I wouldn't classify his music as R&B...

So, to answer the question, "Is R&B out of the realm of possibility?" Perhaps it may be, but that doesn't mean that perhaps some of the above mentioned artists, that are not R&B artists, could possibly find a home in Rock Band. I don't know how hard it would be for Harmonix to gain rights to use Jimi Hendrix, but that would possibly be the main thing preventing them from adding it to the DLC.

HOWEVER, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, whom is considered to be a legendary R&B singer, is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so who knows? Again, it could be possible that getting permission for the rights to the music what would keep Harmonix from adding a particular artist's music to the DLC.

I, personally, don't know of any R&B music in particular that would be good on all instruments. But, for the above mentioned artists, I don't see why not. I just don't see how these artists fall into R&B, and I don't mean that in an offensive way. If they do, and I am wrong, please educate me.

[Johnny Webb]

There should definitely be other genre's of songs here besides rock, and if the requirement is that there are only guitars and drums, that's still a great deal of old raggae (Bob is a great example), soul, and r+b. Hopefully Harmonix keeps this in mind. They would quite possibly have on thier hands the one game that will NEVER get old.

[Rock_Starman]

;) I think they should put in Me Love by Sean Kingston *shifty eyes* It sounds nothing at all like a song by a band everyone wants but haven't got.

[erickOnasis412]

R&B would be a lot of fun! i'd love to see some great classic R&B artists as well as some 80's artists like michael jackson and prince that people have suggested

[primet4me]

SOme of the artist are R&B based. But I think they still would be great. Even looking outside of R&B there are other genres that have a variety of music that could be in rock band

Country, Blues, pop

I think the posibilities are endless

[Rock_Starman]

Angel by Shaggy would probably work and also sounds like a song that a lot of people want but haven't got.

[hodayathink]

I say we take this thread to the next level.

Let's see if we can think of some good 3-packs that would be non-repetitive enough and instrumentally varied enough to make the game. And to make it a little more interesting, let's do it 3 songs by 3 different artists. I'm formulating one now, but I can't think of my third song, and I'll post it when I do.

Edit: I finally figured out my third song, so here I go. I decided to do three songs separated by difficulty level (1 Easy, 1 Medium, 1 Hard). And before anyone asks, there's no Prince here because if you pay attention to The Purple One, he seems to be really, really, really possessive about his songs and something tells me he would never allow them in any game.

Easy - Chic - 'Good Times'

The funny thing to me is that disco is about as anti-rock as you can get, at least on a musical scale. But Chic was a great disco band (and band in general), and no one made better bass lines in R&B (definitely then, maybe ever) than Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. And this song has a slight rock connection, as the bass line was used for Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust'. The only bad thing about the song is that it is pretty repetitive, but I think it's just non-repetitive enough to be worth it.

Medium - Stevie Wonder - 'Superstition'

This is the space I was having trouble filling, so I looked at the other suggestions here and decided to pick this one. I think it would definitely be a good fit for the game, but not necessarily a great one. The guitar and drums would definitely make for interesting play, but I think the bass could do more if given the chance. This song could be great if it could go through the same process as 'Higher Ground' in GH1, i.e. have a rock band develop their own version on the song mapped out to the instruments and use that for the note charts as opposed to trying to use the original song. But then you'd have someone else doing Stevie's vocals, and I'd really like to hear Stevie if I'm doing the song.

Hard - Michael Jackson - 'Beat It'

Now this song would be absolutely perfect for the game. Good drums, good bass line, and an excellent guitar. It even has a very clear rock connection, as not only did Eddie Van Halen play the guitar in the song, he enjoyed it so much that he did it for free as a favor. I would love to see someone try to get through the solo at the end on expert. And it doesn't hurt that MJ is so strapped for cash that he's seriously considering a Jackson 5 reunion tour, so I'm sure he could use the money that would be offered. And Sony/BMG is the record company, and who knows, maybe they feel bad about the guitar issue and lower the price to license it or something.

[KingMob4313]

Great thread. This is a huge complaint of almost everyone I know here in Detroit: There's no soul in RockBand. There's just no representation from african americans in the game.

It's honestly embarrassing. There are tons of guitar and bass ready songs from Prince, Rick James,

As much as I love and worship Nine Inch Nails, if I'm forced to play keyboard and piano on the RB guitars, then we can see a bit of stretching to pay tribute to the roots of all rock.

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

Funkadelic's One Nation Under a Groove should be a an album download, btw.

[DarkHeartsDie]

really, i honestly think that R&B has no place what so ever in rock band, it's the worst music there ever was, prince and michael jackson? how could you even want them in rock band? that is honestly some of the stupidest **** ever :/ honestly R&B is more or less to be in singstar instead of rock band, we shouldn't even freaking have beastie boys in freaking rock band, what the hell is wrong with these people for putting that in the damn game in the first place? i honestly think that rock band should be and remain a R&B free game

[Klashton]

really, i honestly think that R&B has no place what so ever in rock band, it's the worst music there ever was, prince and michael jackson? how could you even want them in rock band? that is honestly some of the stupidest **** ever :/ honestly R&B is more or less to be in singstar instead of rock band, we shouldn't even freaking have beastie boys in freaking rock band, what the hell is wrong with these people for putting that in the damn game in the first place? i honestly think that rock band should be and remain a R&B free game

Wow it took until page 4. That is some overdue ignorance .

But yeah, I agree with the OP and looking at some of the info that has already come out about RB2 I think HMX agrees.

IGN: Are you broadening genres at all?

Teasdale: The Rock Band platform is all about the music, but we've always pushed to have our disc songs be both the best music and the best gameplay possible.

One of the great things about releasing multiple tracks, packs, and albums weekly through the Rock Band Music Store is that we can diversify and delve into specific subgenres and artist catalogues. You'd be hard pressed to justify Jimmy Buffett and Disturbed on the same disc, but the great thing about DLC is that we can push the boundaries of what players experience.

We also listen to all of the suggestions that are posted on the rockband.com forums. If you have your own pet favorites, you should rally up support there.

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

really, i honestly think that R&B has no place what so ever in rock band, it's the worst music there ever was, prince and michael jackson?

Prince and Michael Jackson (at least for most of their careers) are not R&B. They're pop. Although, I understand where you're coming from. Lots of artists these days that are just pop say they're R&B just to sound like they have substance.

[Kilyle]

Harmonix is going to be broadening out into other genres - there's no question about that now. They're going to get Country (http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55911). They're going to get some Ska (http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30096). They've already got two "shouty" songs and I'm sure they'll get more of those (thankfully as DLC, so I can avoid the rest of 'em). There's no reason not to get R&B.

I recognize a few of the artists you guys have posted. I'd like to play songs from the ones I recognize, and I'd definitely like to learn new songs, because for me - coming from a country background and an eclectic interest in various other genres - this game has been discovery from Day One.

I recognized all of one song - one - in GH2, and it wasn't even one I liked. Now I love about a dozen songs from GH2, a couple from GH3, a good couple dozen from RB so far... these are songs I never heard before but learned to tolerate, to like, to adore, and I'm looking forward to doing that with a lot more.

So I wholeheartedly support the addition of R&B to this game. (One more way to entice my dad into playing... eventually....)

[KingMob4313]

I'm just going to start naming songs with a little more soul in them that can be realistically played by the RB four piece...

1) Van Hunt - Dust
2) Rick James - Give it to Me Baby
3) Prince - 1999
4) Michael Jackson - Beat It
5) Bob Marley -Could You Be Loved
6) Kool and the Gang - Jungle Boogie
7) Parliment - Flashlight

All of these require no stretching, all have parts of the four piece, unlike a majority of the NIN songs, where you find yourself playing piano and synth on your RBguits for the majority of the songs.

[defenestrater]

Someone mentioned James Brown earlier in the thread. I'd really like it if Funky Drummer was in the game. Though actually any of the artists mentioned here would be welcome.

[lasalleb3]

I agree, Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie" would be ridiculous. There would be fights over who would play bass.

[KingMob4313]

I agree, Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie" would be ridiculous. There would be fights over who would play bass.

Yeah, I think we'd be playing that song constantly.

[darshy]

if rap is allowed in rock band, so should:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y&feature=related

[SickGuitarSkills]

Isley Brothers Summer Breeze (Watch until the guitar solo):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0g1y7irKk

Or anything by Prince.

[jayou521]

Jungle Boogie or Get Down On It by Kool & The Gang would be pretty awesome,not sure if that counts as R&B or Funk.
I definitely agree~ I'd add Celebration for a three pack~

[golden8]

Not sure if she really fits in this genre, but I can't find a better one really - Corinne Bailey Rae should definitely be making it into the game. She has some songs that lend themselves very well. 'Feels Like The First Time' is one I'd love to see in.