Kurt Cobain’s Avatar Unlocks Laughs, Blame, Controversy
Guitar Hero 5 came out quietly, in the shadow of the fanfare of Rock Band: The Beatles. That is, until one gamer uploaded a video exploiting the exploits of an unlocked Kurt Cobain avatar, singing utterly un-Cobain-y tunes like Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
The video went viral (cuz its funny), but Cobain fans and journalists were not amused, so the usual suspects came forth to defend themselves.
Courtney Love took to Twitter to clear her name, firing off 140 (x10) characters to say she never signed off on the avatar use. Whether or not you’re convinced, she clearly couldn’t have been sober enough to sign anything (she shouldn’t even hold anything as sharp as a pen…).
Former Nirvana-mates Krist Novoselic (who emerged from the Where Are They Now? file only to be re-filed into the There You Are But Where’s Your Hair?! file) and Dave Grohl released their own statement:“We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area… We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character.”
Activision responded, “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. Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl… have no say whatsoever in the usage of Kurt Cobain’s likeness.”
Even Jon Bon Jovi… the real victim here… spoke out to the BBC, “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.”
Calm down everyone. Hate the player, not the game! The object of Guitar Hero is not to give Kurt a bad name. It’s a secret nerd feature you can only access by “unlocking” him, whatever that means. Fans shouldn’t be interested in making Kurt act a fool, and haters (or cynical fans) will have a laugh and try to get viral attention at any opportunity, handed to them or not. Would this be as big a deal if not for this nerd’s viral clip? If it were different songs? If it were a hack instead of a secret feature?
From the moment some geek conceived the first Guitar Hero, we’ve been bastardizing classic rock tunes. Pushing colored buttons is not the same as strumming, tweens who can sing “Kool Thing” aren’t Sonic Youth fans, and a modified long-haired Mario isn’t meant as a homage to our real guitar heroes.
Edited: September 19th, 2009
