The fame game

On Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution and other video games, Becca Neun gives voice to countless wannabe rock stars. Now, the singer-songwriter wants some of that stardom for herself

By Colleen Dougher
City Link Metromix

Chances are good you've never heard the names Rebecca Neunuebel or Becca Neun, the legal and stage names, respectively, of a 27-year-old, Pembroke Pines-based singer. But if you've ever tried to master the Donnas' "Take It Off" on Guitar Hero, howled along with the Janis Joplin version of "Me and Bobby McGee" on Karaoke Revolution or mashed your fingers against an iPhone screen while playing Tap Tap Revenge, you've heard Neun's voice. For the past four years, the aspiring pop singer has loaned her vocals to these and other video games, providing further evidence that in this Twittering, Facebooking, Wii-loving, "American Idol" America, the traditional paths to a career in music—dues-paying gigs in dank nightclubs, dehumanizing record-label showcases and similar indignities—have been all but paved over.

"The music industry is changing. It's not like it used to be, where you have to have a major record label pushing your stuff on radio," Neun says while sitting outside a Starbucks in Pembroke Pines. Her glittery, blue earrings are the size of Oreo cookies. "The way many people listen to music now is through video games. So the way I see it, that's the new radio."

Neun isn't alone in recognizing the power video games currently hold in the music industry. Tommy Tallarico, who co-created the Video Games Live concert series and has earned more than 25 awards for his video game music, recently told National Public Radio that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be composing music for video games.