2011 – Year in Review
As 2011 draws to a close, we take a quick look back at the franchise we all know and love. While it was a year with no new Rock Band titles, it didn’t skimp on adding new content. This year saw the release of 318 official DLC tracks (just over six songs released per week), as well as 783 Rock Band Network songs (just over fifteen songs per week), totaling just over 1,100 new songs released in the past year. While new songs come out on either Tuesday or Thursday, if the releases were spread out evenly across the week, we would see three new songs every single day! And for those interested, RockBand.com claims that there are 3,429 songs available to play in Rock Band! In addition to new content, 2011 also saw the release of the Fender Squier, as well as a new Facebook app for requesting future DLC.
In the latest Harmonix podcast that was released today, they talked again about the Top Ten most played official DLC and RBN DLC of the year, which is included below for those who have not yet listened.
2011 Most Played DLC
10. Blink 182 – All The Small Things
9. Linkin Park – Numb
8. Avenged Sevenfold – Bat Country
7. Avenged Sevenfold – Afterlife
6. Dragonforce – Through the Fire and Flames
5. Avenged Sevenfold – Nightmare
4. Boston – More Than a Feeling
3. Linkin Park – In The End
2. Evanescence – Bring Me to Life
1. Journey – Don’t Stop Beliving
2011 Most Played Rock Band Network DLC
10. All That Remains – Hold On
9. A Day to Remember – I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?
8. Creed – Higher
7. Attack Attack! – Stick Stickly
6. A Day to Remember – All I Want
5. Asking Alexandria – A Prophecy
4. Evanescence – Going Under
3. Attack Attack! – Smokahantas
2. Asking Alexandria – The Final Episode
1. Drowning Pool – Bodies
Next week, we plan on featuring a poll that will let visitors to the site vote on their favorite week of DLC in 2011, so start thinking about that now!
Rock Band celebrated their fourth birthday in November of this year, as well, and featured many in depth interviews with many of the big players at Harmonix responsible for making it a reality. In case you missed much of the fanfare from Harmonix, we’ve included directly below a video titled “The Untold Story of Rock Band,” followed after the jump by a video interview with co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, a video interview with The Beatles: Rock Band project lead Chris Randall, a video with Harmonix employees talking about the manufacturing process of Rock Band peripherals, and discussions from Harmonix employees talking about their favorite Rock Band moments.
Harmonix interview: Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy
Harmonix interview: Chris Randall
Rock Band: Manufacturing the Hardware (also, a very thorough explanation of the Rock Band prototypes)
Harmonix employees talk about their favorite Rock Band moments:
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You can thank my daughter for Going Under # of plays. That was our warmup song every time.
I wonder if people don’t know that Creed is on RBN
I didn’t know Creed was in RBN. I would have bought it, too, but I looked at a video of the pro drums on YouTube and found that the toms aren’t charted properly.
How are you supposed to know if RBN songs have been charted properly if you don’t know to look on YouTube first?
AnonymousBroccoli Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Anything released early in the RBN life will not have Pro Drums, as RBN authors were not made aware of the different ways to mark toms and cymbals (or something like that). And nobody outside of Harmonix was aware of the details of RB3 or Pro instruments yet. Anything from RBN 2.0 forward (release of March 2011 or more recent) will have Pro Drums. Many older songs will as well, though before RBN 2.0, I don’t believe there was a way to formally test the songs to ensure everything was charted properly. I’m pretty sure there’s at least one mis-charted note in “Strong Tower” by Kutless, for example.
DLCQuickplay has a fairly extensive listing of which RBN songs do or don’t have Pro Drums. This page should show the last bunch of RBN 1.0 songs (at least until more songs are added):
http://dlcquickplay.com/dlc.php?sub=2&page=12
Those lists make me completely lose hope that we’ll ever see a big push of modern or indie rock on RBN or as official DLC.
Surprised to see Don’t Stop Believing that high up considering it’s missing about 3 playable parts. RB3 version pl0x!
tdc002 Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I was thinking the same thing. Sounds like a sign there should be a RB3 version, but then how many casual players would complain about Harmonix “forcing” them to pay $2 for a song they already bought?
I’d gladly pay $2 for keys and harmonies on Don’t Stop Believing.
nathan Reply:
December 31st, 2011 at 8:33 am
they should re-release anyway you want it and maybe that whole album, that could possibly help sell it better
samjjones Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:51 pm
HMX is well aware of Journey’s popularity, and know that they would sell very well.
HMX isn’t the reason why we haven’t seen more Journey.
Hoping 2012 brings Rock Band 4. Really want a deeper career similar to Rock Band 2. Perhaps more realistic looking avatars and better online play. All in all 2011 was a wonderful year DLC wise. A few WTF’s but overall really good. Thanks for keeping me rocking’ in 2011 Harmonix!!!
You missed the best part of the 2011 Year In Rock Band blog post over on rockband.com.
From this page: http://www.rockband.com/blog/2011-the-year-in-rock-band
“Rock Band will continue to have weekly DLC releases in 2012, starting with the artists we announced at our holiday livestream – Hall & Oates, Bush, & Men At Work”
Looks like Men at Work are coming to RB.
Dustinator Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
This was already covered by RBA the beginning of the month…..that said, this was an awesome year of DLC imo. A whole year of stuff with keys support. Yay!!
Ospero Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Not the Men at Work part, IIRC. It was Hall & Oates, Bush and Huey Lewis and the News.
Eric Reply:
December 30th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Indeed it was, thats why I specifically talked about Men at Work in the last sentence.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 4th, 2012 at 11:15 am
FYI, send this to us via the Contact Us page (http://www.rockbandaide.com/contact-us/) and we can give you credit for finds like this in the future!
Is it just me or there’s not a single Amberian Dawn song up there?
“Don’t Stop Believing” was overplayed to death on the radio and on TV because of that fucking Glee Cast cover. As a result, I got sick of hearing that song all the time!
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 1st, 2012 at 3:02 am
Have you tried turning off the Radio and Television? It does wonders.
Oh yeah 3 times Avenged Sevenfold… I bet we’ll get another DLC pack soon. I really dig their music atm.
the_void Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:33 pm
I too am hoping the same thing
Glad to see All That Remains, but I was hoping to see some Seether on there. Every Thursday morning I come here anticipating to see Tonight as upcoming RBN DLC. :/
And Creed… uh, no. I still wish it were an Alter Bridge 6-pack instead.
With the exception of A7X and Dragonforce, most of those rarely ever get played around here. We’ve been big on cherry picking songs this year since I stopped insta-buying everything last March.
I account for 79 plays of smokahantas :\
LOL. The kiddies sure love their nu-metal/metalcore.
2011 was a great year for DLC.
Wow, I must have completely different tastes that 99% of RB players. I don’t have any of those songs, and I have tons of DLC.
Not a fan of 80′a pop rock bands like Journey, and not into nu-metal like Avenged Sevenfold.
the_void Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Avenged Sevenfold =! nu-metal
Taker34 Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 10:06 pm
Avenged = Metal/Alternative/Modern Metal
Nu Metal = 1999 – 2002 (papa roach, korn, linkin park…)