Expansion to bring back bands into the sims 4
Music like many an art form has and will always be in some part an expression of the times, so I ask you to follow me in my semi thought out idea for how to bring a world of music into the sims 4.
Because I don't have a name for it we're just gonna call this the music expansion featuring the "four" neighbors of the music world.
First and foremost as a musician I've been dying to see more instruments in the game, and I already knew prior to listing them off, I'm asking for a lot, but here we go all the same.
The town in my head is separated into four areas. Three residential and one commercial. For now we'll call these oldies, hippies, modern, and downtown.
Every neighborhood here should have a story on its own communicated by the types of music found, and the style of homes build there. Every neighborhood is at war with itself.
lets start with oldies: this neighborhood would give off a 1920s/50s style feel with jazz, blues, and classical music at its foundation. The older generations don't get these new sounds, they think whatever the kids of today are listening to is nonsense. An interaction available between people the same age, taking about how their music was better, and when talking to a younger sim it's a mean interaction, putting down the of the youth of the neighborhood and their music.
Next we'll go to hippies, a neighborhood filled with bell bottom jeans, tiedie, and bandanas. The place breathes that van life hippies culture, filled with free spirits and good vibes, the youth here however want to make a statement on the world, they're inspired more by grunge rock and the hard rock of the 90s. They're punks with attitude and proud of it. This place musically is a battle of old school hippie rock and the kind of rocknroll parents used to fear their kids might be corrupted by.
The modern neighborhood is in its own kind of battle, while you might think rap, hip hop, and djs all should get along, they're constantly at odds arguing over if technology making music counts as art (could also mess with programmers making a.i. music could make for a better narrative for the neighborhood)
If you're still with me lets talk game play beyond young and olds sims arguing about what music's good or bad or what makes a real musician.
Technically there'd be two careers. To start there's music producer, which would branch into a more business type career as you first scout then sign people to a label, semi active job, recruiting happening on your own time outside of office hours, before becoming a manager, and then finally the head of the label. The other branch would be the producer role, mixing and recording songs in your own studio business, with the option to buy your own recording studio. Sims would come in and interact with musical objects as you record them.
(Also feel like some kind of composure would work but don't know where to put it. Also along with the obvious mixing skill as we'll call it, and the new instrument skills, this would also add music theory to the game. Not sure how this idea as a whole is still pretty foggy)
The other option as a career is to actually be a musician. I think this one would be set up differently than other careers. It would be active but locations would change. You'd be your own boss and have to pick and choose what kind of music you make. Are you the lead singer of band? Then you'll need to form a band. If you're a rapper who can't write then you'll have to recruit a poet (another new skill) to write for you as you proform. Or maybe you want to just play some jazz with a few friends now that you're retired, still got to get a venue to let you play if you want it to be more than a hobby.
Before I talk about the commercial district and how it'd work with everything else, I think the three residential neighborhoods all have one venue.
Oldies: has a recently opened jazz club that has the neighborhood divided.
Hippies: has an outdoor stage with food, drinks, vendors, and a gross porta potties. An area the rebellious young rockers want to make their own.
Modern: an old abandoned warehouse once used for local youth to express themselves through rap battles, is now seeing a new crowd come in from techno and djs to preform.
The comercial district would be made up of various buildings and parks where your sims can proform. It'd range from a cozy restaurant or cafe perfect for piano or an acoustic duo, to night clubs looking for the next big thing or a good dj to get people on the dance floor, to bars both gross and clean looking for bands for a night.
If your a musician of any kind your sims goal is to book gigs at these places. Not only does your personal reputation and fame matter, so does the reputation of your band/act and how famous your career is. Have you one people over or do you play night after night to empty crowds or the few friends and family members taking pity on you.
Music world is one out of time and would be one of the biggest expansions for the sims for.
New skills (non instruments):
- **bleep**
- Poetry
- Music theory
- Mixing/recording
- Poetry
Instruments:
- electric guitar: although I'm not always one for brand deals personally, to keep this simple we'll say one's a les paul and the other is a strat, while we could talk about brands all day or infuses I feel like these two styles of guitar are pretty iconic.
- Drums: I feel like for this we can add both a standard kit, an electric kit, and a cajon for those cozy sitting around a campfire setting. Could even add one of those little drum pad things as a thing for kids to learn creativity.
- Bass: more than anything I want to see an electric bass guitar, after that an acoustic bass guitar, and an upright to even it all out
- Amps for all instruments
Extra instruments I'd just like to see but don't really have thoughts on.
- Synth (honestly with piano already a think and keyboard this is something I'd just like to see and not something I think needs to be added for this pack idea.
- Banjo
- Saxophone
- Trumpet
- clarinet
- Flute
This whole thought has been stuck incoherently in the back of my mind for a few weeks now and wanted to share how I'd like to see the sims tackle music in an expansion even if not fully thought out on my own end. Still I think the best way to make music and bands work is to tell a story of a town perpetually out of time so fans of all types of music can find something for them to enjoy and experiment with.
