Country in Rock Band "sooner or later"

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 October, 2008

Not necessarily December, despite report.

Harmonix has said that Rock Band will have country music "sooner or later" after Country Music Television reported that "select country tracks" would be released in December.

CMT, which broadcasts in the US, ended a snippet about the second game thus: "And country music fans, don't feel left out. In December, Rock Band 2 will have select country tracks available to download."

As GameSpot notes in its report, where we spotted this, the CMT bit provoked 31 pages of rambling on the Rock Band forums, before HMXHenry from the developer stepped in with an official response.

"As with any announcement/advertisement/rumour/'leak' that comes from anywhere other than these forums, please don't get all worked up about something unless it's officially been announced by HMX," he said.

"Until then it's safe to say that anything else you hear should be taken with a grain of salt." Apart from all those times when it's turned out to be true, obviously.

"Furthermore, this thread blows my mind. With so many genres represented in Rock Band already, why would the addition of Country be such a huge shock?

"We'll have Country in RB sooner or later. Ideally we'll have all the various sub-genres that people are clamoring for (hardcore punk, goth, ska, etc) eventually. We haven't shut the door on anything."

Excellent, because what we really want is Kylie. Surely they can at least mine that period when she was doing Nick Cave?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 3 years ago

    They just released the list of the 20 free RB2 songs on IGN, and not one of them have I ever heard of. I was expecting something better.

  • andywilkie35 #2 3 years ago

    Country music? Fuck that, not a chance I'll download that guff. Why would I play Dolly Parton when I can play Nirvana?

  • tonyferrino #3 3 years ago

    They should put some bluegrass in there. Banjo peripherals! (patent pending)

  • andromeda #4 3 years ago

    yay

    lets have some Dillards, Creedance, Stone Canyon Band, Willie Nelson, Poco, Charlie Daniels FTW!

    @andywilkie35

    just shut up , you dont know what you're talking about.

  • Wickerman #5 3 years ago

    Not for me, but more diversity in the music choice available can only be a good thing.

  • Zomoniac #6 3 years ago

    Groove > Grunge.

  • beef_spread #7 3 years ago

    Nooooo I didn't buy COUNTRY Band!! I thought they'd start pulling this stuff "sooner or later". We can stop this, mass peripheral burnings are probably the most reasonable course of action we can take. I just hope we have enough time.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 3 years ago

    I for one think they should cover both types of music - Country and Western.

    Move 'em on, head 'em up, Head 'em up, move 'em out, Move 'em on, head 'em out...

  • nickthegun #9 3 years ago

    I would just like to know if its going to be out in this country this year.

  • Trafford #10 3 years ago

    More choice is good.It could be a just as much fun as playing along to rock music you've never heard of.

  • UncleLou #11 3 years ago

    "I for one think they should cover both types of music - Country and Western."

    My favourite joke in the film. :)


  • coojam #12 3 years ago

    Sweet

    Home

    Alabama

    Please

  • Garulon #13 3 years ago

    Skullcrusher Mountain is country, isn't it? It's got slide guitars and everything.

    And a monkeypony.

  • kangarootoo #14 3 years ago

    Country music is huge, no big surprise really.

    And adding a greater variety of content won't mean less rock music gets included. These things scale upwards easily enough. Yet another case of some people complaining about things they don't actually have to buy, which don't even affect the availability of things they DO want to buy.

  • nervouspete #15 3 years ago


    Better by quality country, some Emmylou Harris, Robert Johnson, Merle Haggard and Drive by Truckers please. And Alea Diane. And half the 'O Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack. Ta. And yes, Dolly Parton too. Beneath all the comedy big-breasted show-girl act, she's one of the best song-writers ever to put pen to paper.

    Then if we could have a new-wave punk bunch with Joy Division, Magazine, Television, Talking Heads etc. that would be spiffing too. The public craves, m'lord.

  • andromeda #16 3 years ago

    @nervouspete

    love the truckers, and +1 to your suggestions too, hope we dont end up with Garth brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus !

  • andromeda #17 3 years ago

    oh and dont forget a dash of Steve Earle.

  • coojam #18 3 years ago

    I still want Dire Straits too.

  • layleeloo #19 3 years ago

    The upcoming version should not be called ROCK band, its should be simply called MUSIC band.

    The inclusion of coutry is great, becasuse andywilkie35 - not everone wants to play GAY pre pubescent music like Nirvana and similar pap all the time. Guitar hero's track list would be more suited to the game title ROCK band as that is what the earlier versions had predominantly, but now rock band is catering to more styles of music - which is GREAT for everyone cos not everyone wants to play depressing grunge balls, or brit pop wank, r&b durge or pop slop - but most of us want to play all genres of music no matter how good or crap they are - becasue its more fun to play stuff you dont always listen to. Its called variety, or diversity aswell - which is what gaming is about, and should benefit everyone so don't compain about new genres or styles - embrace them, cos it would be bloody boring as hell if it was all the same style of music which it has been up to the last half year of so!!!
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 14:27

  • sharky_ob #20 3 years ago

    @ layleeloo

    You immediately render everything you say worthless with the GAY thing.

  • cyacomini #21 3 years ago

    Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Meatloaf please.

    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 16:42

  • layleeloo #22 3 years ago

    @ sharky_ob

    Obviously another Cobain "groupie". Theres better music out there, get off the decade long bandwagon and go look.
    Edited by 2 at 22/10/08 @ 17:58

  • sharky_ob #23 3 years ago

    Nah mate, I do like Nirvana, I'm just not a homophobe.