When Kylee Hench '11 plays Guitar Hero, his eyes glaze over and he hunches down, assuming game-play position. Every time he misses a note, which rarely happens, he lets out an angry sigh before continuing his ferocious finger movements.
Hench, who is one of the best players in the world according to ScoreHero.com - he's ranked 13th - takes Guitar Hero very seriously. And now, Assistant Professor of Music Kiri Miller is taking the popular video game seriously, too.
Miller, an ethnomusicologist, is researching the emotions Guitar Hero players feel when they match the notes on screen with buttons on their plastic guitars. Her research, along with casual conversations among students, bring to light some of life's essential questions: What makes people feel creative? How do we experience music? Which is better: Rock Band or Guitar Hero?
An online survey Miller is conducting has found 70 percent of Guitar Hero players do not feel creative when their fingers are frolicking across the plastic guitar. Miller said she wants to know more about those who do feel creative. "I'm really interested in that 30 percent," she said.
Miller is planning to ask students to play Guitar Hero in her office so she can observe them and ask questions about the experience.
Many of that creative-feeling 30 percent wrote that playing the game "teaches them to be more creative listeners and inspired them to write their own songs," she said. "The movements involved in playing are also creative."
Hench holds the more popular opinion about Guitar Hero. "There is not much room for creativity," he said. "It is a lot of fun, and it has certainly gotten me into a lot of different types of music than I used to listen to, but I usually play for the score. I go on ScoreHero.com and see a song I'm behind on and work on that song."
Jason Lee '09 doesn't play the game to satisfy creative needs, but rather for what he called its "technical challenge." He added, "I'm not making any original music, but I'm having fun."
Ben Flaherty '09 said he often plays because he enjoys the competition. "But you are still simulating playing music, so you feel part of the song. Imagine if it was just lights on a screen without the music. People probably wouldn't be as interested."
Kevin Lee '11 isn't sure something as mechanical as Guitar Hero qualifies as music. "Every time someone plays sheet music it sounds different because of personal style," he said. "But every time someone plays Guitar Hero at the same level it sounds the same because the buttons you press always make the same sound. I don't think it's a form of music."
Miller said that some argue that video games like Guitar Hero are especially detrimental because they are "fooling people into thinking they're being real musicians when they're not."
"I would question assumptions about what music is," Professor of Music Jeff Titon said. "Music is organized sound that people consider to be music. People might not think it's worthwhile music. Some people believe that there is a music hierarchy with classical at the top. That is an elitist view, and the majority of people now think that all music that involves human beings is worth studying."
Miller's research is also beginning to incorporate a comparison between Guitar Hero and its chief competitor, Rock Band. Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II were designed by Harmonix before the rights to the game were bought by Activision, which released the most recent version, Guitar Hero III. Facing the challenge of competing with their own invention, Harmonix created Rock Band, which has an almost identical guitar part but also incorporates drums and karaoke.
"Guitar Hero III has gone in a classic gamer direction," Miller said. "Rock Band is geared towards women and younger people and older people."
"Rock Band is oriented around being a party game," Jake Eakle '10 said. "It is also much easier than Guitar Hero."
"Guitar Hero I and II are more like Rock Band because they have much more of an indie music community," Lee said. "Guitar Hero III seems much more corporate. It's more score-oriented and not as casual as the other Guitar Heroes and Rock Band."
The identities and experiences that go with each game are crucial, Titon said. "These games are a human phenomenon," Titon said. "We're interested in how people make music, and experience is part of that."
Although Miller's research mainly focuses on players' perceptions while playing Guitar Hero, she is also interested in how video games are affecting the future of the music industry.
"There is definitely going to be competition between Guitar Hero and Rock Band for who will get which artists," she said. "Artists will start releasing albums to Guitar Hero or Rock Band for download."
"The downloads are available for really serious players," Lee said. "They want really hard songs that aren't on the original Rock Band."
Miller still has a lot of research to complete before she has anything publishable for a journal, she said, but she plans on continuing to explore the many reasons why players value Guitar Hero and why society values video game prowess.
"I like Rock Band better," Lee said. "It's a party game, and I like to show off."
