Guitar Hero and Rock Band were some of the most popular video games for about half a decade, starting in the mid 2000’s. The developers behind the Rock Band franchise, Harmonix, were releasing new songs every week for pretty much 6 years straight until 2013.
From 2007 to 2010, both Guitar Hero and Rock Band seemed to release new games every year. It eventually led to the downfall of the music games genre. They oversaturated the market without really innovating.
Guitar Hero Adds Musicians Avatars
From 2007 onwards, as Guitar Hero got more popular, they started adding avatars of famous musicians to their games including Billy Corgan, Shirley Manson and Kurt Cobain.
In 2009, Rock Band developer Harmonix released the highly anticipated Beatles version of Rock Band, while Activision released Guitar Hero 5. Guitar Hero 5 didn’t really feature many new innovations or improvements. Just a new track list including Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium” as well as some new playable avatars, one of which was former Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Around the time of Guitar Hero 5’s release, Activision put out a promotional trailer of Kurt Cobain’s avatar, performing both of the Nirvana songs. It garnered a strong reaction online, most of which was negative.
In order for Kurt Cobain’s likeness to be used in the game, his widow Courtney Love had to approve it, while the surviving members of Nirvana, including bassist Krist Novaselic and drummer Dave Grohl had to sign off on the band’s music being included.
Kurt Cobain Avatar Sing Non-Nirvana Songs
The controversy with Kurt Cobain appearing in the game took a strange turn when it came to light that his avatar could be used to perform non-Nirvana songs. A video of the avatar performing Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” hit the internet shortly after the game’s release. The reaction was universally one of disgust.
Jon Bon Jovi commented on the matter, telling BBC News, “I don’t know that I would have wanted it either. To hear someone else’s voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don’t know. It sounds a little forced.” It would come out later that Jon Bon Jovi was actually asked to be included as an avatar in the game, but he declined.
“It’s disgusting and vile and is the result of a cabal of a few assholes’ greed.” – Courtney Love
Fans would blame Courtney Love for allowing Cobain’s avatar to be used in the game and she would take to twitter to deflect blame, saying, “It’s disgusting and vile and is the result of a cabal of a few assholes’ greed. Not in twenty jillion years would I ever have allowed this.”
The surviving members of Nirvana put out a statement that they were, “Dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game,” adding, “The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate — we have no control whatsoever in that area.”
“It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters.” – Krist Novaselic and Dave Grohl
The pair asked Activision to “re-lock” the Cobain character and stated, “It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”
Activision, the game’s publisher, issued a statement that read, “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”
“Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like…” – Activision
In another article, Activision did say it was too expensive to simply lock the character. In the run up to the game’s release, Rolling Stone Magazine sat down with one of the game’s developers, Tim Riley who told the magazine, “Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like. She picked the wardrobe and the hair style, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look, then we went back and forth over changes — some subtle, some not so subtle. She was actually great to work with. She got back with comments pretty quickly.”
“I do know that there’s absolutely a contract and we know that the cheque has been cashed.” – Dan Rosensweig, Guitar Hero franchise CEO
The Guitar Hero franchise CEO Dan Rosensweig, told NME.com that the franchise would not be re-locking Kurt Cobain’s avatar, putting out his own statement that read, “I do know that there’s absolutely a contract and we know that the cheque has been cashed. I can only deal with the facts. It’s very clear what the terms are.
We care about the artists more than anyone else and we would like to make artists happy in every circumstance. I’m disappointed in this case that there seems to be confusion between the band and the estate. I can’t speak for everybody being happy, but it gets done with complete consent from artists. Here are the artists who fans love. We hope over time that the estate will appreciate that.”
In early 2010, Courtney Love seemed to change her tune, telling an interviewer, “What pisses me off the most about it is I think about it. Kurt would be fine with having five Kurt Cobains singing the Spice Girls. I think he’d find that really funny.”
Guitar Hero Sued by Other Musicians
It would turn out that these avatars that Guitar Hero and their spin-off game Band Hero used became a legal headache for the franchise. One by one, bands and artists lined up to sue Activision for using their avatars to sing other artists’ songs.
No Doubt & Adam Levine of Maroon 5 sued the publisher. It’s not clear what happened in the case of Adam Levine but Activision and No Doubt would settle out of court. Courtney Love claimed she was possibly going to join No Doubt’s lawsuit, but it’s not clear how things actually were resolved.
Like this story? Check out Scott Weiland’s Tragic Death
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