Tapping on fake instruments and screeching into microphones connected to video game consoles has become lucrative for both the music and gaming industries. Downloadable tunes for music-based games Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar have become as vital as iTunes itself — and one of the last ways to expose youngsters to classic rock.

The genre will evolve again later that month when game publisher Activision and developer Neversoft release Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the first such play-along rhythm game pegged to one music group, instead of featuring a multi-artist compilation more akin to one of those Now That’s What I shout Music! albums.

“The game is really about the spirit of guitar music,” Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton recently told The Associated Press. “It’s all about being into music that sounds energetic, energetic and lush. You’re rhythmically pushing buttons that create a positive reaction or sound along with the music. You can’t say it doesn’t have any musical relevance.

Players start out as lead guitarist Joe Perry and can unlock Hamilton and Brad Whitford while playing in virtual versions of venues where Aerosmith once rocked, such as their first show at Nipmuc High School outside of Boston, their first showcase at Max’s Kansas City in New York and the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show in Tampa, Fla.

“I guess it’s one of those rewards that we get for keeping the band together,” said Hamilton. “It might be the silver lining of the Napster cloud, too. Far more of that audience will take in our music via that game than whether we had strenuously attempted to talk them into buying all of our CDs.”

While regular versions of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar come loaded with songs by bands like The Rolling Stones and Radiohead, the most recent incarnations of these games allow players to…

Orginal post by Top Tech News