Pitchfork just put up a post titled Watch Kurt Cobain Sing Bush, Bon Jovi, Billy Idol in “Guitar Hero 5″. (They also apologized in advance.) While we already knew that you’d be able to “be” Johnny Cash in this latest version of the video game, we find the addition of Kurt Cobain a little shocking. There’s something about playing him that feels wrong — like it’s way too soon. (Pitchfork reports, “Cobain’s digitized form is pretty lifelike, right down to the ratty green cardigan and the Daniel Johnston t-shirt.”)
Cobain committed suicide back in April of 1994. Cash died in September of 2003. Are we being sensitive just because we wore black for a week straight after Cobain died? Or is there something tasteless about the fact that we can make him sing Bush now? Maybe it’s a gut feeling that he would have absolutely hated this. (Surprisingly, a cursory search found no organized boycotts in place.) Watch the video after the jump, and leave a comment letting us know what you think.
Comments (9)
this is HORRIBLE. i'm beyond pissed.
This is atrocious. i am sickened. just sickened.
Yeah, so what — he didn't want cult-like fascination over him either, and that happened too. He loved Beavis and Butthead and the way they made fun of pompous videos and such, and then he ended up making those kinds of arty-farty-videos too. The point is, to open up something special inside of Cobain or Nirvana's work, you have to take it out of the pretty envelope it's stored in now, and let it continue inside of the world — and believe me, this is the world, it wants him to be playing "You Give Love a Bad Name" and so on. But just like with mash-ups, someone will see this, and get inspried in some other way, and hopefully surprise us with something that Kurt would have loved.
Granted, I wasn't old enough to be "touched" by Cobain's work when it was new, but I can say that I'm a fan, overall.
And, quite honestly, I don't care that he's in the game. Who cares? He was a person who made music people liked it, and, at times, that music helped people out. Then he died, and people were sad. What am I missing?
It's like what was said in the article, Johnny Cash died six years ago, and Cobain died 15 years ago, and it's somehow "worse", and "too soon", that Cobain's featured? Get over yourselves, people. We're all just people. Nothing more, nothing less. If someone wants to feature an artist in a video game, so be it. Why should you care? If you don't like it, don't buy it/play it.
This generation REALLY needs to stop trying to find "icons" to latch on to so easily. It gets more and more rediculous with time. Love the stuff you want to love, just don't make it into something it's not.
Any Nirvana fan or anyone who dislikes the idea of manipulating a dead person’s image to sell games can’t help but feel a little sick. It might be different if he was someone who didn’t care what product you slapped his face on while he was living. Maybe this is supposed to be a parody, but it looks pretty crass from my angle.
i am an absolute guitar hero nut and have been since the earliest ps2 version. i adore the play mechanics of sheer rhythm and reaction and i find it one of the purest of gaming experiences available. i will never play this version. things have just gotten weird people…..
Twitch, what you are missing is that Cobain absolutely hated souless pop-culture. He hated Bon-Jovie style 80s rock, etc…his whole thing was trying to find something pure, some sort of substantive catharsis amidst the fake wasteland of pop culture. It is just flat-out wrong to do this to him…
He's dead. I doubt he cares.
Look guys, I’m also been a fan of Kort Cobain. And i dont like that fact that they wanna make a moving about him, cause just wont be cool, having someone else acting his part. But come on guys It a game I would rather him be in the game so people remember him then he just fades away!
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