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Rock Band (view source)

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{{tropelist}}
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=== This series provides examples of: ===
 
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: And instruments, and vehicles. In the earlier RB games, you earned cash per song with which you could buy stuff; in RB3, you earn clothes and instruments from passing "goals" listed in the shops and detailed in the "My Goals" menu. Annoyingly, a few of the clothes in RB2 are only unlockable in 3 through much more difficult (and\or controller-requiring) means.
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** Trying to go for the Endless Setlist in 3? Worry not, as the game lets you see your score after each song in a setlist for as long as you want until you hit the green button to start the next one. No more annoyance with the [[Bladder of Steel]]!
*** Similarly, any song you're playing will rewind itself a bit after you exit the Pause menu, which means you can continue without [[Serious Business|disrupting your score]] and [[Rage Quit|flipping out]].
* [[April Fools' Day]]: In 2012, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueS7rbHqo_k&feature=player_embedded Rock Band Board Game].
** If one wants to try and play it, the game board can be found [http://www.rockband.com/content-assets/2012/03/boardgamePrintable.jpg here].
* [[Artifact Title]]: Arguably, now that the series is focusing on so many different genres of music, although the devs have claimed the title refers to the common lead-bass-drums-vocals ensemble that most rock bands use and not rock music in particular. And, for what it's worth, the vast majority of the series' music library is made up of rock songs.
* [[Audience Participation Song]]: On most of the on-disc songs, as well as a few DLC (such as the Best of The Who pack, George Thorogood's seminal Bad to the Bone, and The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary, as well as others), there's an additional audio track of a crowd singing along with key parts of the song.
** But only if you're doing well. Screw up even once (or a couple of times, depending on who's playing with you), and they'll [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|stop singing]], (even though you're still doing really well), but Improving your performance and you'll hear it again.
** The crowd also sings along to some instrument parts, like synth on Ghostbusters, the keyboard riff on The Final Countdown and Ruby and, most awesomely, the horns on Pick Up the Pieces.
** In "Wanted Dead or Alive", the audience will ALWAYS sing the second "wanted" during the chorus, even though that happens only once in the song. [[Fridge Brilliance|People do that ALL THE TIME when listening to that song.]] It really makes you feel like you are performing to real people.
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** Subverted a bit with the Rock Band 3 Hall Of Fame Induction goal setlists, which are just 8 predetermined songs.
* [[Bowdlerise]]: Being a T-rated game, swears such as "fuck" and "shit" are muted from the vocal track (and removed from the vocal chart). The themes, on the other hand, [[Rock Band (Video Game)/Radar|can be pushed pretty far]].
** Of course, they make sure that there's no penalty for singing during "empty" sections. If the swear is in the right place, [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|you can launch overdrive from it]].
* [[Bragging Rights Reward]]: Some songs like "Run to the Hills", "[[That One Boss|Visions]]", and most of the songs in the Mayhem Pack are difficult throughout their entirety, with no easy spots to gain overdrive from. As such, it takes less skill to simply survive those songs than it does to survive them ''and'' earn some overdrive on the way through. What this means is that you won't have the luxury of overdrive to help you beat these songs until you are good enough that you don't need it to beat the song.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In ''Lego Rock Band'', {{spoiler|at one point one of your roadies is carried off by an [[Pink Floyd|inflatable pig]]. This sets up a special gig once you reach the Moon stage, when he comes back... still attached to the inflatable pig.}}
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* [[Celebrity Power]]: [[The Beatles (Music)|Besides]] [[Green Day (Music)|the obvious]], ''Lego Rock Band'' contains in-game likenesses of [[David Bowie (Music)|David Bowie]], [[The Stooges (Music)|Iggy Pop]], and the members of [[Blur (Music)|Blur]], [[Queen (Music)|Queen]], and [[This Is Spinal Tap|Spinal Tap]].
* [[Censored Title]]: Some songs have titles that aren't T-rated, like "Beethoven's Cunt" by [[System of a Down (Music)|Serj Tankian]].
* [[CentipedesCentipede's Dilemma]]: Possible everywhere, but probably the hardest hit are drum charts with weird rhythms, such as Use It, and A Jagged Gorgeous Winter. "Hey, I'm nailing this, it's not as hard as it looks, I mean, it just looks hard because of this weird bass pedal here... uh... and then there's this weird snare here... and... uh... how I was I doing this again?"
** Backbeats on the drums will take a while to learn, then be easy to do, right up until you start thinking about it. The inclination to move your hands in time with your feet is easy, but if you think about it too much you ''will'' want to move them in the same direction at the same time.
* [[Chirping Crickets]]: This is what you could hear if you miss the notes after a Big Rock Ending.
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** According to their PR, almost every person on the development staff is a musician in a band and Harmonix is their day job.
** Well, given the large number of Harmonix bands in the games (Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, The Main Drag, Anarchy Club, Bang Camaro, That Handsome Devil, and Breaking Wheel to name a few), it's not hard to believe.
* [[Double Play]]: Not officially supported, but the game drops a lot of hints about using a mic with another controller. There are also Youtube videos of people doing [[Self -Imposed Challenge|all 4 at once]] using modified controllers.
** At least one person has [[Flawless Victory|Full Comboed]] Rock Band 2 (considered the hardest game in the series) playing guitar and singing at the same time.
* [[Downloadable Content]]: If each song is a pound, there's over a ton of it.
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* [[Drop in Drop Out Multiplayer]]: In ''Rock Band 3'' this is possible in menus, loading screens, and even during a song.
* [[Dueling Games]]: with ''[[Guitar Hero]]''. ''RB3'''s "realistic instruments" implementation is dueling with ''[[Power Gig]]''.
** And winning ''handily'', thanks to how [[They Just Didn't Care|painfully]] [[So Okay ItsIt's Average|mediocre]] ''[[Power Gig]]'' is.
*** Ubisoft's ''Rocksmith'', on the other hand, seems more like a suitable competitor in the "playing with real guitars" department.
* [[Easier Than Easy]]: Super Easy in ''Lego Rock Band''. No fret-work on guitar, no worrying about what drum you're hitting on drums, and no pitch detection on vocals.
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**** But completely played straight on the Wii version. Instead of shorter versions, you play the full song. This actually allows Wii players to get higher scores on Foreplay/Long Time (the tamborine notes during Foreplay are absent on the other versions).
** And now, we have 2112 from [[Rush (Music)|Rush]]. The whole twenty minute version.
* [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Dinosaurs]]: The [[Just for Pun|Securi-T-Rex]] in ''Lego Rock Band''.
* [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Spinning]]: More often than not in ''RB3'', you or any of your bandmates will spin around like he's standing on a spinning platform during songs as you do well enough in it. Expect it to happen at least [[Once an Episode|once or twice for every song you play]].
* [[Expansion Pack]] / [[Mission Pack Sequel]]: The Track Packs, which are largely intended for players without access to online who want to play a sampling of the songs available for downloadable purchase. These can be turned into [[Old Save Bonus|Old Save Bonuses]] with an included code.
* [[Expy]]: Several of the prefabs/session artists from Rock Band 1 and 2 are dead ringers for classic [[Guitar Hero]] characters like Clive Winston and Judy Nails.
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** Rock Band 3, however, should alleviate some (but not all) of the above with subtle changes to how some trills (see Crazy Train), drum rolls (Lasso), and tremolo strumming parts (25 or 6 to 4). Even unmarked tremolo picking (Green Grass And High Tides) gets a fix, due to fixing the aforementioned bug of dropping notes. You get a bonus for doing them perfectly, but being slightly off shouldn't kill you anymore. Unfortunately, with the exception of unmarked tremolo picking, the changes are not retroactive since they require certain notes not used in pre-[[RB 3]] charts.
*** However, Harmonix is looking at updating a handful of the older songs to add the RB3 features to them. Seems like you'll be buying them all over again when they do though. Additionally, they also put in a few more tweaks that DO affect tremolo strumming across the board and makes them slightly easier. (specifically, both NTSC and PAL handle unmarked tremolo picking in Rock Band 3 the way the PAL version of Rock Band 2 did)
* [[Five -Man Band]]: With the addition of keyboard in Rock Band 3, you can now make your own.
** Except that you can only have four members on stage at a time. Keys will replace either bass or guitar.
** Subverted in the DS version, where your guitarist alternates between guitar and keyboard during songs that have keyboard parts.
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* [[Hand Wave]]: Harmonix's explanation for why genres other than rock (the aforementioned country and funk) are in the game: "Rock Band" refers to the instrumental setup of the band, not the genre of music it plays.
** The fact that the argument even needs to made says [[Fan Dumb|something about some people]].
*** [[Money, Dear Boy|That's not the reason for the hand-waving]]. Even so, Concrete Jungle would be so nice to play. Fingers crossed.
** Sadly, this doesn't work for the Lady Gaga pack. You can easily tell the instrumental is NOT set up for anything remotely close to a Bass-Rhythm-Lead(s)-Drums instrument grouping.
*** That one can just be attributed to [[Rule of Cool]] and/or [[Rule of Funny|funny]]. [[Rule of Fun]] also works.
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*** And if you imported LEGO Rock Band into RB3, it's reincarnated as one of the many goals.
* [[Lego Adaptation Game]]: ''Lego Rock Band''.
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: The whole point of a Lego spinoff is to let the kids play without exposing them to [[Sex, Drugs and Rock And Roll]].
** Though many of the Rock Band characters (plus, [[Iggy Pop]]) appear in the game in Lego form.
* [[Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition]]: So far:
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* [[Mythology Gag]]: Beatles Rock Band is full of this. The dreamscape for ''Yellow Submarine'' sticks the band in the outfits they wore in [[Yellow Submarine|the film of the same name]], ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' appears to be performing in Pepperland, the dreamscape for ''Hello Goodbye'' references the promotional video for the song, and so on.
** Even the regular version gets in on this a little. When playing Gorillaz' song "Clint Eastwood", lines sung by Del are sung by the virtual band's drummer instead of their singer, a reference to the song's music video. Plus, the colours go inverted, and your drummer is blue!
* [[NamesName's the Same]]: Several, including:
** Testify by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, and Rage Against the Machine. Incidentally, that's another [[Mood Whiplash]] setlist.
** Also, there are three songs called "Monster": the one by [[Lady Gaga]], one by Skillet, and one by the Welsh band The Automatic (the latter available in ''Lego RB'').
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*** "You know what would solve [arbitrary problem]? Rock!"
** Although the inspired-by [http://www.mighthavebeen.net/ webcomic] has it - to ''12''. You'll never read those "you lost x fans" screens the same way again. And those Battle of the Bands? They're to the ''death''.
* [[PowerupPower-Up Letdown]] \ [[Dummied Out]] \ [[Missing Secret]] \ [[Urban Legend of Zelda]]: "Awesomeness Detection" in ''RB2'' has now been officially confirmed by the lead designers to {{spoiler|do absolutely nothing}}. Previously, speculation ran rampant on what it was supposed to do, ranging from narrowing the timing window down to nothing to sending hidden data to Harmonix.
** [[Crowning Moment of Funny|It's back in the third game's Modifiers menu.]]
** A more legitimate [[PowerupPower-Up Letdown]] would be Keys On Guitar mode. "Hooray", you think, after finally unlocking Keys On Guitar, "Now I can play the keyboard parts without having to buy the keyboard peripheral!" Sadly, the keyboard notecharts are frequently too complex to comfortably play on a guitar controller, and your playing doesn't count towards any of the game's keyboard-specific goals (well, technically, they do count, but they don't register as completed until you go back and play at least one song on an actual keyboard).
* [[Preorder Bonus]]: Done occasionally, often in the form of preliminary access to downloadable content or special codes to unlock new in-game instruments. Thankfully, none of it stays exclusive to preorders (songs are eventually put in the RB Music Store, and instrument codes make their way onto [[Game FAQs]] or message boards quickly).
* [[Rags to Riches]]: You get to see your band like this in ''3'', as you complete the Road Challenges.
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** Being randomly selected and all, Mystery Setlists/random setlists have a good chance of turning out this way.
** The pro Mode difficulty tiers in Rock Band 3 for guitar, bass, and keyboard (but not drums or vocals) can be harder, easier, or have no change (well, they're almost always ''harder'', but they can be easier compared to other pro charts than the normal chart is compared to other normal charts.)
* [[Self -Imposed Challenge]]: The game drops hints like crazy. Playing two instruments at once (one being singing) is popular (and fun).
** Players also have the option to turn off the note track that tells them what to do (meaning you must play from memory). You also can turn off the master track's vocals (so your voice is the only one you hear), and you have to play ''entirely'' from memory.
**** If you can do this as a band, go on tour as a real gig, and pick up your crowning moment of awesome on the way.
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* [[Trrrilling Rrrs]]: in Oye Mi Amor, there's one of these with no word attached to it, charted "rrr".
** Also in [[Rammstein (Music)|Du Hast]]. It's Till Lindemann we're talking about, after all.
* [[Unlockable Content]]: Rock Band 1 and 2 require you to unlock the setlist for quickplay by playing the career mode, and a few outfits and instruments can only be unlocked by playing particularly difficult [[Self -Imposed Challenge]] setlists. Rock Band 3 gives you all the songs right away, but somewhere between a quarter and a third of the wardrobe and instrument catalog has to be unlocked via achievements (which replaces the need to earn in-game money and buy them).
* [[Unwinnable By Mistake]]: Certain road challenges in Rock Band 3 are completely impossible for certain players to get anywhere on. Just from the on-disc songs, Antibodies on Vocals by itself during the Overdrive Chain challenge is an automatic loss of 5 spades - as even the full 13 seconds of overdrive obtained by the 3 overdrive phrases does not affect the spade meter.
** Rock Band 2 has the random event "Biggest. Show. Ever." which tasks you with getting 5 stars on every song in the setlist plus an unnamed encore song with no overdrive at all. The encore added is always Ace of Spades. Due to how Rock Band 2 determines star cutoffs, the difficulty of the challenge skyrockets with the number of people in the band. If you have a full band, it is impossible to get 5 stars on Ace Of Spades without overdrive.
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** Also seen in the [[Nintendo DS]] version of ''RB3''.
*** But not in the DS version of Lego Rock Band, because the overdrive multiplier goes up to 12.
* [[Updated Rerelease]]: In a manner of speaking. Harmonix, now that their position as a leading developer of music titles has been further cemented, likes to take the old cover songs featured in their old [[Guitar Hero]] games (the first game, its sequel and ''Rock The 80s'') and reintroduce them into the ''Rock Band'' franchise as masters, with full band gameplay, and the added convenience of having all your music on the same platform. Not to mention for new players who never bothered with those earlier titles. [[Fan Dumb|Some people,]] especially players who play games in both series, [[ItsIt's the Same, Now It Sucks|don't like seeing all these repeating songs,]] especially in light of the ''[[Rock Band]] 3'' track list announcement, which features at least eight repeated tracks from previous Harmonix games, and a handful of songs from Neversoft's [[Guitar Hero]] games, although the latter might not be so much a detriment considering Neversoft's habit for ludicrous overcharting.
** Also, the RB3 versions of some songs, from [[Queen]] and [[Bon Jovi]]. Mostly the same charts as before, only modified to take advantage of the new features (on Expert; the lower difficulties were also modified to accomodate use of all five lanes).
* [[The Unexpected]]: All over the place on the main-disc set lists; imagine how many people could've predicted The Muffs would make two appearances in the series. In fact, this phenomenon nearly got [[The New Pornographers]] cut from the first title.
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* [[We Sell Everything]]: The Rock Band Store, to some people's annoyment about what a game called '''''Rock''' Band'' should entail. Seriously, if there's not even one song genre (or even just one SONG) listed that you like, you're just trying to be offended at that point.
** Their store on the web used to sell quite a lot of things you wouldn't expect to, including figurines of the characters you created, as well as tee-shirts, mousepads and coffeemugs of your bands. With the new site revamp, the ability to take new pictures of your Rock Band 2 band was removed, although existing pictures are still there. No word on a Rock Band 3 equivalent for this, though.
* [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Awesome?]]: From ''Rock Band 3'': La Pesadilla Mexican Restaurant.
{{quote| Sure, it's a Mexican restaurant, but who's gonna turn down free guacamole?}}
* [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not for Kids?]]: Most of the outfits are either harmless or mildly sexy or badass looking. A few choices however are straight up BDSM clothing that would not be out of place in something really...well, not for kids.
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: The Rock Band Network's song compilation tool is called Magma. [[Word of God]] [http://vimeo.com/7706836 states] (about six minutes into the video) that this is "'cuz it's where rock comes from."
{{quote| '''Matthew Nordhaus''' ''(RBN producer)'': [[Deadpan Snarker|We actually developed a whole application so I could tell you that joke.]]}}
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[[Category:Rhythm Game]]
[[Category:Rock Band]]
[[Category:Video Game]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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