Today is the day that I’ve been mentioning with every ROCK BAND DLC update for the past couple of months. After more than five years… 281 consecutive weeks… April 2, 2013 will be remembered as “The Day the Music Died.” With the addition of DON McLEAN’s 1971 hit “American Pie,” weekly DLC for the ROCK BAND platform of games comes to an end, and Harmonix just hit The Rock Father with a special, 4-minute video entitled THE STORY OF ROCK BAND. Watch it below.
{source}{/source}
Though today marks the end of weekly DLC releases, Harmonix said in a statement that they plan “to continue support for the thousands of active Rock Band fans through ongoing Rock Band Network releases, server support and back-catalog promotions. Rock and Roll never dies, and Rock Band will keep rocking for years to come.”
Don McLean’s “American Pie” became is signature song from his 1971 album of the same name, spending four weeks as the Number One song on BILLBOARD Magazine’s Hot 100. The track is now available for ROCK BAND play on the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation®3 systems.
ROCK BAND holds a special place in my heart, as it’s the game that brought me into what was then-Next Generation gaming. After playing the first ROCK BAND at a party in late 2007, my wife bought me my first XBOX 360 and the “full band kit” for that Christmas. I’d later go on to play (and review for various sites) ROCK BAND 2, ROCK BAND 3, and GREEN DAY: ROCK BAND. In fact, while I was initially skeptical of “music gaming” (especially GUITAR HERO – having played guitar since ’92), it was ROCK BAND that taught me the basics of drumming… eventually leading to my purchase of a MAPEX Drum Kit. I might not be “good,” but the plastic instruments of ROCK BAND taught me to play drums for real… and now I’m teaching my daughters.
Feel free to share your ROCK BAND memories below…