Mock and Roll

By Lev Grossman

Rock Band is a video game that comes in a box the size of a large cat carrier or a small steamer trunk. This is because along with the usual game disc, Rock Band comes with a collection of plastic musical instruments: a guitar, a drum kit and a bass (which looks exactly like the guitar), plus a microphone for vocals. Using these "instruments," you pretend to play along to songs by Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Radiohead, R.E.M. and so on. You're not actually playing--the instruments don't make any noise. The fun is real, but everything else is fake.

Or is it? Rock Band is the latest, hottest and most ambitious entry in the genre of music-based video games, and retailers can't keep it on the shelves, even at $170 a pop. "We can't make 'em fast enough at this point," says Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, which developed Rock Band as well as two Guitar Hero games. It would be easy to dismiss Rock Band as a fad or just a game, but there's something more to it. Besides being insanely fun, music-based games like Rock Band may actually be important. Consider these five reasons while I take another crack at the drums on Gimme Shelter. "It's just a shot away ..."

1.

Rock Band is social

Gamers sometimes get pegged, incorrectly, as alienated and antisocial. When you play Rock Band, you get to have a good time with real fellow human beings.

2.

It actually teaches you something about music

Seriously. The game tells you when your singing is sharp or flat, it forces drummers to stay in rhythm, and guitarists get to practice strumming.

3.

It gives new life to classic rock tunes

How many people under 30 know that before Ozzy Osbourne was a TV star, he was a musician? Rock Band has 58 songs from five decades.

4.

It's low tech

Too many games these days focus on graphics instead of the fundamentals of game design. Rock Band is fun because it has great game play and a great interface.

5.

It's good for gaming

There are plenty of nongamers out there, but there aren't that many nonrockers. And how long will it take till we get a game for them too? Coming in 2010: Cello Hero!