Beatles Come Together For New "Rock Band"

The Beatles are coming to a game console near you.

For the first time, the legendary group's music will be featured in the lucrative video game market in a deal with MTV Games and Harmonix, creators of the "Rock Band" series. The game is scheduled to make its debut in time for next year's holiday season.

"The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out," Paul McCartney said in a statement.

The game will not be titled "Rock Band," but will work with the existing instruments - a guitar, drums and microphone. Game developers were cagey about whether new instruments, such as a keyboard, would be incorporated.

"I would say that there will be interactive performances of The Beatles' music as well as new dimensions that you haven't seen from us before," Harmonix Chief Executive Alex Rigopulos told reporters on a conference call Thursday.

The video game has become a key and profitable market for established musical acts such as Metallica and Aerosmith to expose their music to a new generation of fans; some bands have even debuted their music via video games.

"The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that The Beatles' legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in," said Beatles drummer Ringo Starr in a release. "Let the games commence."

Grammy winner Giles Martin, son of The Beatles' producer, George Martin, will serve as music producer, with input from McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.

The game will feature sampling of music and imagery from throughout the band's career, from "Please Please Me" (1963) through "Let It Be" (1970).

Talks on the game have been in the works for almost a year and a half, said Paul DeGooyer, MTV's senior vice president of electronic games and music.

But the news doesn't mean that long-awaited digital downloads of the band's music would be available anytime soon.

"We're still working out the details," said Jeff Jones, chief executive of Apple Corps Ltd., the London company formed by The Beatles that helps guard their legacy. "We have no announcement to make."

[psk123-2009]

Interesting how they should play it up as if the group itself were getting back together. It would be an impossibility as John Lennon and George Harrison have both been dead many years. Must have been one heck of an interesting contract negotiation as well because both of their wives are very protective of their husband''s musical rights.

Love the Beatles when I was kid, still do. Now my kids listen to a lot of their tunes too.

[barbaram99]

Now yer grown and passing the same to yer children..Well nice people did/do listen tomusic of the 50s,60s,70s,etc. It did not warped my mind. Parents said all sorts of stuff. Ma said visaul games were bad. Some are. Pop dear hear the music yer folks were wrong in telling yer no. Ye might just like it. I was not allowed to watch the news growing etc. It was and is wrong. i can see yer parents saying no to things that will hurt ye. Music. I don''t care for hip hop. But is is there. IS IT BAD YES AND NO.

[barbaram99]

I was raised in foster homes and foster mums would not allow us to listen to pop music. I know who the brit bands were. It called censorship if yer parents said no. Bet they said ye could not enter the military.. I could not.

[random_radar]

"I grew up in the 60''''s but I came from a nice family and we were not allowed to listen to popular music.

Posted by gop_will_win at 02:56 PM : Oct 30, 2008"

Your family was nice because you were not allowed to listen to popular music? But would you have listened to it if you had been free to choose?

Are you one of those nice people who wants to take away our freedom to choose so we will all be nice like you? The nice people who sit in judgment and look down their noses at their neighbors?

I like the song "Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson. It kind of sums up how nice people behave. And I grew up in the 60''s too :).

[gop_will_win]

Dear ye don''''t know who the Beatles are? they not a new band. They came to America in 1964. I take it yer a young person pop_will_Win. ''''membrt I Wanna Hold Your Hand..They played it othen in 64. Ye don''''t then ye have older folks who do, I am 54.


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Posted by BarbaraM99
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I grew up in the 60''s but I came from a nice family and we were not allowed to listen to popular music.

[antoniof123]

Who are the Beatles? Is this a new musical group? I grew up in the 60''''s and never heard of them before.
Posted by gop_will_Win at 01:37 PM : Oct 30, 2008

gop will lose you must live under a rock.

[barbaram99]

Dear ye don''t know who the Beatles are? they not a new band. They came to America in 1964. I take it yer a young person pop_will_Win. ''membrt I Wanna Hold Your Hand..They played it othen in 64. Ye don''t then ye have older folks who do, I am 54.

[gop_will_win]

Who are the Beatles? Is this a new musical group? I grew up in the 60''s and never heard of them before.