Last night I was playing Guitar Hero 5 with some friends and we came across the song Du Hast by Rammstein. I took the vocals (because I love singing!) and when the song ended I felt really, really aggressive.  I asked my band mates if that song made them feel aggressive as well and they agreed. We were all really focused on the song and when we completed the song it felt like a surge of adrenaline shot through us.  So that got me thinking… if rock and roll music can make people do bad things and if videogames make people do bad things… what happens when you combine the two? Surprisingly I haven’t seen any studies on violence in videogames with games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. 

We all know (from movies such as Footloose) that music brings out the devil in you and we are consistently  inundated with articles telling us the ‘truth’ about videogames and violence; but no one ever talks about what happens when the two marry.  What happens when you play a videogame AND it plays the devils music? Shouldn’t we feel twice as violent and want to cause even more mayhem? 

It would be interesting to see how Rock Band holds up against Grand Theft Auto IV on the aggression tests certain researchers like to use to measure the aggressions and arousal of participants.  My initial response is NEIN! But, I really felt a surge of emotions after finishing the song, and I didn’t even know what the heck I was singing since it was in German.

On a side note; my avatar looked awesome rocking out on stage! Love that option on Guitar Hero 5!