‘Rock Band 4’ Set List Debuts, Is It Already Better Than ‘Guitar Hero Live’?

Harmonix announced the first set of songs Friday for Rock Band 4 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The competition in the music genre is expected to be revived with Activision also releasing Guitar Hero Live this year. Does Rock Band already have a lead, thanks to its initial set list and the ability to import older songs?

The first six songs for Rock Band 4 were shared with IGN by Harmonix and reveal a mix of old with Fleetwood Mack and new, fun, and hard. Songs from classic artists like The Who and Fleetwood Mac are intermingled with newer tunes from Avenged Sevenfold, The Killers, and Jack White.

The first 6 songs from Rock Band 4 have been announced! http://t.co/mqIICRlQ7L

— Rock Band (@RockBand) May 15, 2015

• Avenged Sevenfold – “Hail to the King”
• Fleetwood Mac – “You Make Loving Fun”
• Jack White – “Lazaretto”
• The Killers – “Somebody Told Me”
• Spin Doctors – “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”
• The Who – “The Seeker”

By comparison, here are the first 24 songs for Guitar Hero Live as shared by Rolling Stone.

• The Black Keys – “Gold on the Ceiling”
• Blitz Kids – “Sometimes”
• Ed Sheeran – “Sing”
• Fall Out Boy – “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”
• Gary Clark, Jr. – “Don’t Owe You a Thang”
• Green Day – “Nuclear Family”
• The Killers – “When You Were Young”
• The Lumineers – “Ho Hey”
• My Chemical Romance – “Na Na Na”
• Pierce the Veil – “King for a Day (feat. Kellin Quinn)”
• The Rolling Stones – “Paint it Black”
• Skrillex – “Bangarang”
• The War on Drugs – “Under the Pressure”
• Black Veil Brides – “In The End”
• Rage Against the Machine – “Guerrilla Radio”
• Judas Priest – “Breaking the Law”
• Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell”
• Sleigh Bells – “Bitter Rivals”
• System of a Down – “Chop Suey!”
• Alter Bridge – “Cry of Achilles”Alt-J – “
• Left Hand Free”Broken Bells – “Leave It Alone”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Higher Ground”

Aside from the curious inclusion of Skrillex, that’s not a bad list of songs to start things out. Guitar Hero Live also has the potential for many more songs via the GHTV video network. It serves up multiple channels of music video channels from different music genres that owners of the game can play on demand. It’s an important differentiator, but so is Rock Band 4’s ability to import music from previous versions.

As Harmonix revealed in its Rock Band 4 FAQ, all DLC songs purchased from the Rock Band Store can be transferred over to the PS4 and Xbox One game. Additionally, music on the discs of previous Rock Band games can be exported over. That’s literally hundreds of songs and a strong incentive for previous owners of the Rock Band series to stick around for the next iteration instead of jumping to Guitar Hero Live.

How do you Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live compares so far? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Harmonix]