The Beatles, "Rock Band" Makers To Release New Video Game in 2009

As predicted yesterday, MTV, Harmonix and the Beatles' Apple Corps. LTD. announced today that they will partner to create a video game based on the music of the Beatles, slated for release before the end of 2009. Representatives from the three companies said that the game — which was conceived with input from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison — will aim to feature the entire Beatles catalog and will offer an "experiential journey" off the band. This is the first time the Beatles music has been presented in an interactive, video game format. "This game will take you on a journey from the Beatles first album Please Please Me until the last album at Abbey Road," said Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones. "It will span samples of the whole catalogue all the way through." The three companies would not clarify whether Beatles content would be available for Rock Band or whether the game would feature avatars of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. "The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of the Beatles and their music," McCartney said in a statement. "I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out." The acquisition of the video game rights to the Beatles catalog is a major, scale-tipping coup for Harmonix and MTV Games as they fight for music video game dominance over the like-minded Guitar Hero.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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