My first (and probably last) twenty minutes with Band Hero

I know what you're thinking. This guy's about to complain about the music in it like everyone else with any taste. Well, that's part of it. I'm not complaining that there's bad music in it, I'm complaining that there's good music in it. Allow me to explain.
Had Band Hero just been a bunch of tween-targeting pop crap, I would not have cared. The GH franchise sold out years ago, this was inevitable. However, rather than do that, Activision decided to put some damn good music in with all the other crap. There were two songs I absolutely had to play. "I Want You to Want Me (Live) by Cheap Trick, and "Angels of the Silences" by Counting Crows.  The issue seemed to be that Band Hero has the same trouble distinguishing between "pop" and "fairly upbeat rock" that games like inFamous have distinguishing between "anti-hero" and "villain." I rented the game and just... dear Lord...

I know it's cheap to go into list form but it's the best way to do this. Here are the problems:

1. "Family" Movie Syndrome.  If you've ever seen a movie commercial for a recent non-pixar disney movie, you know what "fun for the whole family" implies. stupid slapstick and/or musical numbers for the kids, and cameos by actors and only their parents would know that are supposed to keep them from totally hating it.  They provide entertainment for both groups but fail to unite them. Your kids liked the scene with the lousy fart jokes. You liked the scene with Harrison Ford. If it were really for the "whole family" there would be entertainment that crossed generations. Like one with Harrison Ford making fart jokes.  That's the problem with Band Hero. you have one substantial part of the setlist being strictly pop crap, and another part containing irrefutable classics or songs that just were not aimed at kids. 

2. Ass-backwards compatability. Why the hell? WHY THE HELL am I able to port GH5 songs onto this, but not vice versa! That doesn't make any sense. In the game's defense, you can port a huge number of the songs, unlike with World Tour. However, I'd much rather be playing the songs with the GH characters I've known and loved, not

3. The metrosexuals that murdered the GH cast and stole their names. You know, what was great about those characters was their variety, they each brought something from each music genre. Now, they're all freaking pop and if your favorite characters were anyone other than Judy Nails (circa GH2) or Midori, you will want to gouge your eyes. Also, in custom character creation, you can put make-up on dudes. 'nuff said. But wait, we could do that in Rock Band, couldn't we? Why was it okay there? Firstly, that was mostly for glam metal purposes. And it was so over-the-top, it was hard not to like in a way. Band Hero is just pop and only allows basic eyeshadow and blush for guys. It KNOWS it's wrong, but it keeps doing it!

4. Why are the songs I actually KNOW in the spinoff? How many songs did you recognize in GH5? If you can't count them all on your fingers, you're doin' better than me. I actually know songs in Band Hero and that's the worst part of it all. This came way too soon after GH5 for them not to have at least had the rights to a lot of songs that would have made great additions to the flagship series' setlist. My only hope now is that they allow you to port over to GH5 and that the game goes down in price.  Heck, I'd have paid $30 just for those two songs I wanted to play as DLC.

On the other hand, Lego Rock Band seems pretty awesome.

[OptimalDruex]

Dude I absolutely agree with you man! I think Activision perposely put good songs in this game so people would be forced to buy it. Why not make it DLC? Because they can make a bigger profit off this crap. It sickens me. If it wasn't for GH gameplay I would be a Rock Band guy. But alas, when it comes down to it Rock Band has better songs while GH has better gameplay. In my opinion anyway.