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Music Video Games Help Original Artists

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 21, 2008

"This song is dedicated to Debbie Harry," Lisa Hsuan purrs into a microphone on the stage of Hyperion Tavern in Los Angeles.

The 30-year-old veterinarian is about to belt out "Call Me," which Harry - fronting the group Blondie - released 28 years ago. Accompanied on fake guitars and drums by three Web programmers, Hsuan begins.

They're playing the video game "Rock Band 2," which along with "Guitar Hero" is rocking bars and living rooms across the country. Many songs' sales have more than doubled after release in one of the games.

Aerosmith made more money off the June release of "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" than either of its last two albums, according to Kai Huang, co-founder of RedOctane, which first developed "Guitar Hero."

"The kind of exposure that artists can get through the Guitar Hero platform is huge," Huang said.

Artists from Nirvana to the Red Hot Chili Peppers have seen sales of their music more than double after being released on the games.

The addictive play-along games are a cross between karaoke and open-mic night. Players hear an approximation of a song and try to match colorful visual cues by pressing buttons on a guitar-like plastic game controller, pounding touch-sensitive rubber drums and singing into a specialized mic.

"As soon as you play it, you like it a lot more, and then you buy it," said Tan Doan, a 26-year-old Web developer from Long Beach. While playing "Rock Band" at the Hyperion every Wednesday, he discovered The All-American Rejects, got hooked on the band and then bought its CD.

Singer's Death May Change Policy

The death of R&B singer Sean Levert in Cleveland has led to a proposed new policy that provides more flexibility in giving inmates their anti-anxiety medication.

The member of the 1980s R&B trio LeVert and son of lead O'Jays singer Eddie Levert died March 30 after becoming ill at the Cuyahoga County jail in Cleveland.

The jail administrator and a jail doctor proposed the change to allow inmates to get their prescribed medication as soon as their prescriptions are verified.

Levert's widow, Angela Lowe, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in June accusing jail officials of neglecting his medical needs.

The lawsuit says Levert was not given the prescription Xanax that he had brought to the jail when he started serving a sentence for failure to pay child support.

Today's Birthdays

Talk show host Phil Donahue is 73. Movie director John Avildsen is 73. Actress Jane Fonda is 71. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 60. Movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 58. Singer Betty Wright is 55. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Chris Evert is 54. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 43. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 42.

Source: The Associated Press

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