The same applies for bass, drums, and vocals, all of which make up the full Rock Band experience. Succeed and the virtual crowd cheers fail and the guitar portion of your favorite song is replaced by some clunky blips and choral jeering. Rock Band 4 more or less keeps to the long-standing rhythm game formula: You, the wannabe rock star, play along to popular songs using a guitar-shaped controller, holding down some combination of five large buttons on the guitar's neck and plucking as those corresponding 'notes' appear in rhythm. But like any good VH1 Behind the Music story, the genre is making a comeback, with both a new Rock Band and a new Guitar Hero coming out this month. Five years, 30-plus titles, and millions of plastic guitar / drum / DJ controllers later, the rhythm genre seemed to fade out of the public eye just as fast as it had emerged. After the equally successful Guitar Hero II, Activision bought RedOctane and the Guitar Hero IP, while MTV picked up Harmonix, who then created a new rhythm franchise, Rock Band. A brief history lesson: In 2005, Harmonix released the wildly successful Guitar Hero in partnership with hardware maker RedOctane and publisher Activision. ALL OTHER LOGOS, COMPANY NAMES, BRANDS, IMAGES, TRADEMARKS AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.For those who missed out on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero craze, let me just say you're also probably too young to have experienced Animaniacs or Legends of the Hidden Temple. GUITAR HERO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ACTIVISION PUBLISHING, INC. THE BEATLES IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE CORPS LTD. BEAT SPORTS IS A TRADEMARK OF HARMONIX GAMES LLC. DROPMIX DEVELOPED BY HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, INC.

FUSER, ROCK BAND, DANCE CENTRAL, SUPER BEAT SPORTS, BEAT SPORTS, SINGSPACE, A CITY SLEEPS, HARMONIX MUSIC VR, RECORD RUN, VIDRHYTHM, PHASE AND OTHER RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DEVELOPED BY HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, INC. HARMONIX, FUSER, ROCK BAND, AUDICA, DROPMIX, DANCE CENTRAL, SINGSPACE, ROMANCE CENTRAL, A CITY SLEEPS, HARMONIX MUSIC VR, CHROMA, RECORD RUN, VIDRHYTHM, PHASE AND ALL RELATED TITLES AND LOGOS ARE TRADEMARKS OF HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, INC.

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