Video Games Are Launching Rock-n-Roll Careers

jillduffy writes "Steve Schnur, a high-level music exec at Electronic Arts, talks about how video games are launching the careers of top musical artists these days. Some of his examples: 'Avril Lavigne was first introduced to European audiences through FIFA 2003. Fabolous was first introduced in America via NBA Live, and went on to sell over 2 million albums here. JET got their American iPod commercial based on exposure in Madden 2004. Avenged Sevenfold were an unsigned act when we featured them in Madden 2004...' Schnur explains how the phenomenon is made possible by the new generation of media junkies, who feel a song becomes real when they 'play it.'"

I agree

[Dr. Eggman]

Nearly all the music I have (that was made in this decade or the previous) has come from video games. There is very little I like in the music industry, but video game music provides me with music backed by experiences, settings, characters. It creates a strong connection that evokes thoughts and images far better than detached music does for me. I hate lyrics, which really reduces the set of enjoyable music for me, but video games provides some of the widest variety in music I like.

Full Throttle

[jannone]

The Gone Jackals.

Only band "from games" that I really cared about.

Re:They already had their break

[Brian Gordon]

I was introduced to a lot of great artists that I had never heard through Guitar Hero and its sequals. How else do you expect a slashdot nerd to be introduced to that kind of music-- by my first birthday, the 80s were over. I've also been pleasantly surprised by SCGMD2 [kongregate.com].. you'd think that some indie music ripped off newgrounds would suck, but some of those are real pro-quality music (here's looking at Hollywise)..

Re:They already had their break

[R2P2]

One of the reasons I bought Rock Band and skipped Guitar Hero 3 was that GH3 didn't include the "bonus" bands that the first two games introduced me to, and Rock Band did. Anarchy Club and Freezepop FTW!

Journey tried the reverse

[zakezuke]

I think Journey can be credited with the first video game tie in with their Journey Escape [wikipedia.org] game in 1982. Wiki says it was released for the 2600, however I do recall a coin up version, but as I remember it from a disused machine in a pizza place circa 1986, I imagine it could have been their later release.

Journey [wikipedia.org] attempted to tie in their 1983 Frontiers album with a coin-op arcade game which featured a cassette of their music on a loup. Given Dragon's Lair was also released in 1983, there was not enough time to learn how unwise it was to use a mechanical system in an arcade box.

They get points for being innovative, but given the limits of technology at the time, someone who even knew their music would have a hard time recognizing the vintage beeps and boops [youtube.com]. It didn't help the fact that the game it self wasn't very good, but the idea was sound.

But needless to say the band was already successful before this tie in, and the tie in was hardly what I would describe as being successful.

Re:I agree

[zaguar]

But artists like Aphex Twin (SAW 85-92 for example) were popular before the internet became the massive file-sharing place it is today. I'd argue that whole genres of music were created out of the internet, rather than the internet popularising it.

Ambient/IDM artists like Helios, BT, Solar Fields are products of the Brian Eno 70's and 80's, which created AFX and then led onto the ambient/techno, but EITS and Mogwai are post-rock and are more influenced by the more instrumental indie like Hex and Slint. That's my theory anyway.