Week 4: Videopodcast Review - "Plasticky Goodness"

"PLASTICKY GOODNESS"

"Plasticky Goodness" is truly the epitome of geniusness. Plastic guitars can go a long way! The members of "The Guitar Zeros" have shown that when you find what you're passionate about and really put your mind into it, nothing is impossible. It opens up options for those who wants to learn music in a different way. This videopodcast was able to portray this message well.

"Guitar Hero" can be described as the new finger-tapping, whammy bar-pressing, guitar-tossing, video game that allows regular individuals to feel like rock stars in their own living rooms. The concept of this video game has been adopted by a band called "The Guitar Zeros" who creatively transformed these plastic guitars into actual music playing ones. They were able to achieve this by writing software that allows them to create thousands of sounds with the Guitar Hero instruments. They have been rocking out with these souped up plastic guitars by playing songs from the actual video game. Their creativity, resourcefulness has truly captured and inspired many indivuals, such as myself. Essentially, many people, including myself believe that "Guitar Hero" would ultimately discourage people from learning actual instruments. However, this videopodcast has changed my perspective.

The videopodcast began with an interview of a girl who introduces the band, Guitar Zeros. After the introduction, a brief but detailed presentation of how the plastic guitars were transformed was shown. Here, it was suggested that these new guitars could potentially be "an alternative way" to play the guitar. The guitar has 32 possible combinations and can be plugged into other devices such as an amplifier etc. This segment promotes and alternative way of learning the guitar. The next segment are various clips of the creators commenting on what, how and why they created the guitar. One of the comments made was "we're just really harnessing the raw energy of rock, the best we can". This comment showed a lot of passion and dedication put into both playing and creating music. Towards the end, were clips of the band performing and fans acknowledging their talents. In this segment, fans were going up on stage and congratulating the members of Guitar Zero. This is moving because it shows that these avid musicians were able to reach out and help others appreciate music in a completely different level.

Overall, the organization of this videopodcast was excellent. The images, sounds and the interviews were all neccesary and relevant in getting the message across. The information provided was sufficient. The sound quality was clear however the image quality was mediocre and could be improved. Despite these minor areas that require improvement, the content and the story was depicted well and the message was effectively conveyed.