Personally, I'd have picked "B.O.B." for a hip-hop song.
You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!
Jackass Detector
I would've added "The Seed (2.0)". Hip-hop is a vastly underrepresented genre, there could stand to be more choices. Also, I disagree with Linkin Park being labeled nu-metal for every song they do. "What I've Done" and "Waiting for the End" got tagged for it and if you've listened to those two songs, you'd know how ludicrous that is. Also would've preferred "Smooth Criminal" over "Thriller" because let's be honest, how many people actually like Alien Ant Farm?
edited 13th Apr '11 12:46:50 PM by KitsuneInferno
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.
Lazy?
As for LP, there's a massive conflict I've had with that.
Pros
Cons
As for MJ, I'm trying not to be cliché by getting Beat It for the guitar solo, but I was kind of stuck as for where to go from there.
Jackass Detector
The guitar's only present in the latter half of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and that made it through. Yeah, I realize that "BR" was heavily requested but I'm often stuck on guitar and I can't possibly be the only person alive who has a neutral opinion on Queen.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.
Lazy?
That does make sense. Fine, I'm convinced; B.O.B. has a great solo, in line with BH. I'm also realizing how limiting my "20-songs-per-decade" has become. And since RB3 didn't even have any nu-metal or emo, I suppose a certain level of faux-diversity can be skipped (so yeah, LP is under Alt-rock now).
Seriously, this has helped a lot. I've even added a few new songs. Just two more hip hop songs and I'll be happy (since there's never been a hip hop song on-disc, it'll be a great move for the series to have four).
edited 13th Apr '11 12:42:36 PM by Alucard
"Bat Out Of Hell" is actually a reasonably easy song to play on the piano as soon as you get past the introduction.
If you want a really tough piano pop song, include "Root Beer Rag" by Billy Joel.
I don't really know much about the keyboard peripheral or how it works, though. I doubt my own moderate piano-playing abilities would be much use for the game. Same goes for the pro-guitar, actually. Is the money I'm spending on guitar lessons wasted? 
edited 13th Apr '11 2:41:05 PM by TheGloomer
Lazy?
Well in the words of our article:
It's still a great primer in the same way Pro-Drums are to real drumming: kind of shallow, but still valuable. This video should give a good idea for it
Oh this sounds fun...
edited 13th Apr '11 3:37:17 PM by Alucard
Well, it's not as if a lot of pop stars know very much about music theory.
I don't know; it's not a fair perspective for me to hold, but I can't help but feel kind of wary about a generation of musicians dispensing with learning the theory because they can learn to play from a computer game.
Maybe I'm overestimating the capabilities of the system, or maybe I'm just disillusioned by the fact that your average pop song doesn't seem to require much knowledge to compose. Who knows?
edited 13th Apr '11 3:48:51 PM by TheGloomer
Lazy?
Well, I personally cast a pretty wide net over who counts under the term "pop star", so even the musical geniuses in progressive count as pop starts to me. I wouldn't discount them, and I'd certainly never discount a person who doesn't know music theory as long as they can write good music.
Let's think of it this way: Harmonix originally formed with the noble goal of getting more people interested music. I think this step is probably a culmination of that goal. Since the pro-guitar amounts to a labor of love, it can't hurt to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Alright people, something else to bring up; aside from wanting to add at least two more applicable hip hop songs (maybe more), I'd also like to expand on the female-fronted songs. RB1 had 6 songs with women on vocals, RB2 had 11, Lego had 4 and RB3 had 12 (14 if you count duets with men and women). Would love to break that record.
*
edited 14th Apr '11 2:58:39 PM by Alucard
Well, so long as they're prepared to diversify their setlist. The last thing we need is another bunch of nutters going on about "fighting back against pop in the name of rock and metal". Those guys drive me nuts.
Lazy?
We've been seeing a steady move to that philosophy lately, with recent sets having less and less of a rockist approach (unlike Guitar Hero who went in the opposite direction). It's actually a pretty common complaint that Rock Band song selection tends to be overrun with "nobody-bands". Without companies vetoing their ideas, HMX's next product should probably be pretty eclectic but catchy.
Wait, wait, Rap? In mah Rock Band? It's more likely than I think? NO.
I mean, I can enjoy a good rap song or two, but it's ROCK Band, isn't it? It seems that the broader an audience you try to appeal to, the less there is for any one demographic to enjoy...
/devil's_advocate
Jackass Detector
There are about forty country songs on Rock Band. No disrespect to the genre, but rock fans are typically more receptive of hip-hop than country. And yet, there's maybe ten hip-hop songs that are available for download.
So, how about 'Runaway'? The entire nine minutes. The vocoder stuff can probably be tracked to guitar without much protest. Also, Killing Joke's "Pandemonium".
edited 17th Apr '11 7:44:31 PM by KitsuneInferno
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.
Lazy?
". If that riff does not get bouncing around the room while air guitaring, I dunno what to say to ya.Since I haven't been getting all that many replies, I've mainly been using this thread for archival purposes. The actual set is pretty different now; I've cut certain bands, changed songs, that sort of thing. First off, I've solved the problem with there not being enough women; I'm at 14, with 2 duets involving men and women. Secondly, I noticed how few keyboard songs I have on here, so I've made it more key-centric while maintaining my fun/popular/difficult music approach. Third, I noticed later on that I was passing over 100 songs, so I chopped most of the dead weight bands.
The setlist by this point is nearly perfect, so I can't accept too many suggestions without breaking the decade/genre balance. At this point I only want hip hop suggestions.
Cuts:
- Bedouin Soundclash - Walls Fall Down: Too short and not that popular; hardly worth having.
- Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone: Pointless addition. Low difficulty and included because "it's a classic".
- Creedence Clearwater Revival - Suzie Q: I chose this for difficulty purposes and because it's CCR. Then I realized that if it was any other band, this song would have no business being here
- Hanoi Rocks - Tragedy: Not well-know enough; hardly a gem at the low difficulty it would have for that matter
- Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath: An all-round unworthy song. Can't even begin to list the reasons why.
- Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone: Boring, uninteresting. I only added it because it was a female pop star with rock instrumentation. The song I switched it for is much better.
- Kid Rock - Bawitdaba: I realized after a while that I only had him here as an F-U to Powergig. Difficulty is why he was cut (also, his style falls squarely into Love It or Hate It)
- KISS - Rock And Roll All Nite: Another "classic" that wasn't pulling its weight.
- The Kinks - You Really Got Me: Same as above.
- Lamb of God - Redneck: Had it here mainly for aggression, but found listening to it more that it wouldn't be all that difficult (also, Pantera already fills that role)
- My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow: Had it here for the sake of representing shoegaze. That's not a very good reason
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop: I already mentioned that I don't really think they deserve it. It was a mistake to have it here.
- The Rolling Stones - Paint it Black: I'd actually prefer they got their own game instead of taking up space.
- Slade - Cum On Feel the Noize: A token glam hit that was eventually Covered Up. It was mainly here to give them A Day in the Limelight
- Soft Cell - Tainted Love: Not hard enough, and the weakest link among the new wave hits
- Soundgarden - Rusty Cage: Not a big enough hit and not as hard as it sounds
- The Strokes - Last Nite: I needed to cut out some modern rock. This was it.
- Tool - Vicarious: This song wasn't adding anything; no keys, no harmonies and not much difficulty. Give them a DLC pack instead
- U2 - Beautiful Day: Same with the Stones, they're be better off with their own game. I'd rather not detract from the potential sales of that game.
- ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man: Pointless in having it. It was mainly here for its "hit" status, and nothing more.
Jackass Detector
"Runaway" was released in 2010.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.
Lazy?
While some more 2010 music would be nice, I can't really work with it; it's too long, not that fast and not that hard, plus I want the hip hop songs I use to be the kind that can introduce rockers to the genre without scaring them off. A hip hop epic would rile them up worse.
Can you think of something difficult, radio-length that rockers would like?
To the curious, the songs I changed were Cemetery Gates to Cowboys From Hell, Life in the Fast Lane to Hotel California and My Immortal to Lithium.
edited 17th Apr '11 10:00:12 PM by Alucard
Beastie Boys?
Lazy?
They've been in the game twice, and they hate (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!). Also, I get the feeling Intergalactic wouldn't be very hard.
edited 18th Apr '11 5:41:10 AM by Alucard
How about Run DMC? Early Zebrahead? I'm not sure.
edited 18th Apr '11 6:06:14 AM by TheGloomer
Lazy?
Researched them and couldn't find any hits with the right instrumentation (aside from King of Rock, but GH: Aerosmith already used that, and I'd prefer to be original).
Jackass Detector
Lazy?
*
An Epic Riff for sure. I just can't seem to find any bass guitar in it. That shouldn't be too much of a problem since Imagine didn't have any guitar, but I don't want to make that a habit (I worry bassist get a complex from feeling unimportant).
Funnily, I was hoping for 80's hip hop earlier, but now my list has just 1 too-many 80's songs. I can't really remove any of them since most of them have keys, are difficult or are more popular hits* . It's hard to justify knocking one of those off for a song that lacks bass.
On the other, there is a free spot in the 90's since I knocked out What's Up by 4 Non Blondes* (good song, but probably too weird; at least Jerry Was a Race Car Driver justified its presence with a hard bass part).
edited 18th Apr '11 7:53:58 AM by Alucard
The Collective
Rap songs with guitar? Here's one that samples a guitar bit...
Hooray! Bubble Party!
As for DLC songs, considering how they had six Sponge Bob songs but left out the most appropriate ones (which should have been in in the first place), I propose Goofy Goober Rock and Sweet Victory.
Also, since RB3 had Super Meat Boy songs, I want Ballad of the Burning Squirrel.
edited 20th Apr '13 6:52:40 AM by MagcargoMan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8yAjWvAqyM
Since Rock Band is Serious Business, I made a whole topic about this (in the Music sub-forum forum no less). But seriously, I'd love some opinions on this before I put it up on the RB forum. Set is subject to change.
Genres
Years
edited 17th Apr '11 9:08:43 PM by Alucard