title: Prunus mume

text: In Chinese cuisine, plums pickled with vinegar and salt are called "suanmeizi" (; "sour plum fruits"), and have an intensely sour and salty flavour. They are generally made from unripe plum fruits. "Huamei" () are Chinese preserved plums and refers to Chinese plums pickled in sugar, salt, and herbs. There are two general varieties: a dried variety, and a wet (pickled) variety.


title: Prunus mume

text: "Umeboshi" () are pickled and dried plums. They are a Japanese specialty. Pickled with coarse salt, they are quite salty and sour, and therefore eaten sparingly. They are often red in colour when purple shiso leaves are used. Plums used for making "umeboshi" are harvested in late May or early June, while they are ripe enough in yellow, and layered with much salt. They are weighed down with a heavy stone (or some more modern implement) until late August. They are then dried in the sun on bamboo mats for several days (they are returned to the salt at night). The flavonoid pigment in shiso leaves gives them their distinctive colour and a richer flavour. "Umeboshi" are generally eaten with rice as part of a bento (boxed lunch), although they may also be used in makizushi (rolled sushi). "Umeboshi" are also used as a popular filling for rice balls (onigiri) wrapped in laver. Makizushi made with plums may be made with either "umeboshi" or "bainiku" ("umeboshi" paste), often in conjunction with green shiso leaves. A byproduct of "umeboshi" production is "umeboshi" vinegar, a salty, sour condiment.


title: Prunus mume

text: In Korea, there is 'maesil-jangajji' which is similar to 'Umeboshi'. It is a common side dish in Korea.


title: Prunus mume

text: A very similar variety of pickled plum, ' or ' is used in Vietnamese cuisine. The best fruit for this are from the forest around the Hương Pagoda in Hà Tây Province.


title: Prunus mume

text: Plum blossoms have been well loved and celebrated across East Asia, and in Vietnam of Southeast Asia.


title: Prunus mume

text: The plum blossom, which is known as the "meihua" (), is one of the most beloved flowers in China and has been frequently depicted in Chinese art and poetry for centuries. The plum blossom is seen as a symbol of winter and a harbinger of spring. The blossoms are so beloved because they are viewed as blooming most vibrantly amidst the winter snow, exuding an ethereal elegance, while their fragrance is noticed to still subtly pervade the air at even the coldest times of the year. Therefore, the plum blossom came to symbolize perseverance and hope, as well as beauty, purity, and the transitoriness of life. In Confucianism, the plum blossom stands for the principles and values of virtue. More recently, it has also been used as a metaphor to symbolize revolutionary struggle since the turn of the 20th century.


title: Prunus mume

text: Because it blossoms in the cold winter, the plum blossom is regarded as one of the "Three Friends of Winter", along with pine, and bamboo. The plum blossom is also regarded as one of the "Four Gentlemen" of flowers in Chinese art together with the orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo. It is one of the "Flowers of the Four Seasons", which consist of the orchid (spring), the lotus (summer), the chrysanthemum (autumn) and the plum blossom (winter). These groupings are seen repeatedly in the Chinese aesthetic of art, painting, literature, and garden design.


title: Prunus mume

text: An example of the plum blossom's literary significance is found in the life and work of poet Lin Bu () of the Song dynasty (960–1279). For much of his later life, Lin Bu lived in quiet reclusion on a cottage by West Lake in Hangzhou, China. According to stories, he loved plum blossoms and cranes so much that he considered the plum blossom of Solitary Hill at West Lake as his wife and the cranes of the lake as his children, thus he could live peacefully in solitude. One of his most famous poems is "Little Plum Blossom of Hill Garden" (). The Chinese text as well as a translation follows:


title: Prunus mume

text: As with the literary culture amongst the educated of the time, Lin Bu's poems were discussed in several Song dynasty era commentaries on poetry. Wang Junqing remarked after quoting the third and fourth line: ""This is from Lin Hejing's [Lin Bu's] plum blossom poem. Yet these lines might just as well be applied to the flowering apricot, peach, or pear.""—a comparison of the flowers with the plum blossom to which the renowned Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo () replied, ""Well, yes, they might. But I'm afraid the flowers of those other trees wouldn't presume to accept such praise."" Plum blossoms inspired many people of the era.


title: Prunus mume

text: Legend has it that once on the 7th day of the 1st lunar month, while Princess Shouyang (), daughter of Emperor Wu of Liu Song (), was resting under the eaves of Hanzhang Palace near the plum trees after wandering in the gardens, a plum blossom drifted down onto her fair face, leaving a floral imprint on her forehead that enhanced her beauty further. The court ladies were said to be so impressed that they started decorating their own foreheads with a small delicate plum blossom design. This is also the mythical origin of the floral fashion, "meihua chuang" (梅花妝; literally "plum blossom makeup"), that originated in the Southern Dynasties (420–589) and became popular amongst ladies in the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties. The markings of plum blossom designs on the foreheads of court ladies were usually made with paintlike materials such as sorghum powder, gold powder, paper, jade and other tint substances. Princess Shouyang is celebrated as the goddess of the plum blossom in Chinese culture.


title: Prunus mume

text: During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the garden designer Ji Cheng wrote his definitive garden architecture monograph "Yuanye" and in it he described the plum tree as the "beautiful woman of the forest and moon". The appreciation of nature at night plays an important role in Chinese gardens, for this reason there are classical pavilions for the tradition of viewing plum blossoms by the moonlight. The flowers are viewed and enjoyed by many as annual plum blossom festivals take place in the blooming seasons of the "meihua". The festivals take place throughout China (for example, West Lake in Hangzhou and scenic spots near Zijin Mountain in Nanjing amongst other places). Plum blossoms are often used as decoration during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and remain popular in the miniature gardening plants of the art penjing. Branches of plum blossoms are often arranged in porcelain or ceramic vases, such as the meiping (literally "plum vase"). These vases can hold single branches of plum blossoms and are traditionally used to display the blossoms in a home since the early Song dynasty (960–1279).


title: Prunus mume

text: The Moy Yat lineage of Wing Chun kung fu uses a red plum flower blossom as its symbol. The plum blossoms are featured on one of the four flowers that appear on mahjong tile sets, where "mei" () is usually simply translated as "plum" in English.


title: Prunus mume

text: It has been suggested that the Japanese practice of cherry blossom viewing, Hanami, may have originated from a Chinese custom of poetry and wine under plum blossom trees that was replicated by Japanese elites. This is supported by the fact that Hanami started in urban areas rather than rural areas, and that classic Japanese poetry does not associate cherry blossoms with merriness like Hanami. However, the debate is charged with nationalist currents.


title: Prunus mume

text: The National Flower of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was officially designated as the plum blossom ("Prunus Mei"; ) by the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China on July 21, 1964. The plum blossom is symbol for resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity during the harsh winter. The triple grouping of stamens (three stamens per petal) on the national emblem represents Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, while the five petals symbolize the five branches of the government. It also serves as the logo of China Airlines, the national carrier of Taiwan (the Republic of China). The flower is featured on some New Taiwan dollar coins.


title: Prunus mume

text: In Korea, the plum blossom is a symbol for spring. It is a popular flower motif, amongst other flowers, for Korean embroidery. Maebyong are plum vases derived from the Chinese meiping and are traditionally used to hold branches of plum blossoms in Korea.


title: Prunus mume

text: Plum blossoms are often mentioned in Japanese poetry as a symbol of spring, as well as elegance and purity. When used in haiku or renga, they are a "kigo" or season word for early spring. The blossoms are associated with the Japanese bush warbler and depicted together on one of the twelve suits of hanafuda (Japanese playing cards). Plum blossoms were favored during the Nara period (710–794) until the emergence of the Heian period (794–1185) in which the cherry blossom was preferred.


title: Prunus mume

text: Japanese tradition holds that the "ume" functions as a protective charm against evil, so the "ume" is traditionally planted in the northeast of the garden, the direction from which evil is believed to come. The eating of the pickled fruit for breakfast is also supposed to stave off misfortune.


title: Prunus mume

text: In Vietnam, due to the beauty of the tree and its flowers, the word "mai" is used to name girls. The largest hospital in Hanoi is named Bạch Mai (white plum blossom), another hospital in Hanoi is named Mai Hương ("the scent of plum"), situated in Hồng Mai (pink plum blossom) street. Hoàng Mai (yellow plum blossom) is the name of a district in Hanoi. Bạch Mai is also a long and old street in Hanoi. All these places are located in the south part of Hanoi, where, in the past, many "P. mume" trees were grown.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen or traditionally St Gall, in German is a Swiss city and the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 167,000 inhabitants in 2019) and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. Its economy consists mainly of the service sector. The city is home to the University of St. Gallen, one of the best business schools in Europe.


title: St. Gallen

text: The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of Saint Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Abbey's renowned library contains books from the 9th century. The official language of St. Gallen is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. The city has good transport links to the rest of the country and to neighbouring Germany and Austria. It also functions as the gate to the Appenzellerland.


title: St. Gallen

text: The abbey is said to have been built at the site of the hermitage of Irish missionary Gallus, who according to legend had established himself by the river Steinach in AD 612.


title: St. Gallen

text: The abbey prospered in the 9th century and became a site of pilgrimage and a center of trade, with associated guest houses, stables and other facilities, a hospital, one of the first monastery schools north of the Alps. By the tenth century, a settlement had grown up around the abbey.


title: St. Gallen

text: Saint Wiborada, the first woman formally canonized by the Vatican, reportedly saw a vision of the impending attack and warned the monks and citizens to flee. While the monks and the abbey treasure escaped, Wiborada chose to stay behind and was killed by the raiders.


title: St. Gallen

text: Between 924 and 933 the Magyars again threatened the abbey, and its books were removed for safekeeping to Reichenau. Not all the books were returned.


title: St. Gallen

text: On 26 April 937 a fire consumed much of the abbey, spreading to the adjoining settlement. However, the library was spared. About 954 a protective wall was raised around the abbey; by 975 abbot Notker finished the wall, and the adjoining settlement began growing into the town of St Gall.


title: St. Gallen

text: From the later 12th century, the town of St. Gall increasingly pushed for independence from the abbey. In 1180, an imperial reeve, who was not answerable to the abbot, was installed in the town.


title: St. Gallen

text: In 1207, Abbot Ulrich von Sax was granted the rank of Imperial Prince ("Reichsfürst") by Philip of Swabia, King of the Germans. As an ecclesiastical principality, the Abbey of St. Gallen was to constitute an important territorial state and a major regional power in northern Switzerland.


title: St. Gallen

text: The city of St. Gallen proper progressively freed itself from the rule of the abbot. Abbot Wilhelm von Montfort in 1291 granted special privileges to the citizens. By about 1353 the guilds, headed by the cloth-weavers guild, had gained control of the civic government. In 1415 the city bought its liberty from the German king Sigismund.


title: St. Gallen

text: In 1405, the Appenzell estates of the abbot successfully rebelled and in 1411 they became allies of the Old Swiss Confederation. A few months later, the town of St. Gallen also became an ally. They joined the "everlasting alliance" as full members of the Confederation in 1454 and in 1457 became completely free from the abbot.


title: St. Gallen

text: However, in 1451 the abbey became an ally of Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus who were all members of the Confederation.


title: St. Gallen

text: Ulrich Varnbüler was an early mayor of St. Gallen and perhaps one of the most colorful. Hans, the father of Ulrich, was prominent in city affairs in St. Gallen in the early 15th century. Ulrich entered public affairs in the early 1460s and attained the various offices and honours that are available to a talented and ambitious man. He demonstrated fine qualities as field commander of the St. Gallen troops in the Burgundian Wars.


title: St. Gallen

text: In the Battle of Grandson (1476) his troops were part of the advance units of the Confederation and took part in their famous attack. A large painting of Ulrich returning triumphantly to a hero's welcome in St. Gallen is still displayed in St. Gallen.


title: St. Gallen

text: After the war, Varnbüler often represented St. Gallen at the various parliaments of the Confederation. In December 1480, Varnbüler was offered the position of mayor for the first time. From that time on, he served in several leadership positions and was considered the city's intellectual and political leader.


title: St. Gallen

text: According to Vadian, who understood his contemporaries well, "Ulrich was a very intelligent, observant, and eloquent man who enjoyed the trust of the citizenry to a high degree."


title: St. Gallen

text: His reputation among the Confederates was also substantial. However, in the late 1480s, he became involved in a conflict that was to have serious negative consequences for him and for the city.


title: St. Gallen

text: In 1463, Ulrich Rösch had assumed the management of the abbey of Saint Gall. He was an ambitious prelate, whose goal was to return the abbey to prominence by every possible means, following the losses of the Appenzell War.


title: St. Gallen

text: His restless ambition offended the political and material interests of his neighbours. When he arranged for the help of the Pope and the Emperor to carry out a plan to move the abbey to Rorschach on Lake Constance, he encountered stiff resistance from the St. Gallen citizenry, other clerics, and the Appenzell nobility in the Rhine Valley, who were concerned for their holdings.


title: St. Gallen

text: At this point, Varnbüler entered the conflict against the prelate. He wanted to restrain the increase of the abbey's power and at the same time increase the power of the town that had been restricted in its development. For this purpose he established contact with farmers and Appenzell residents (led by the fanatical Hermann Schwendiner) who were seeking an opportunity to weaken the abbot.


title: St. Gallen

text: Initially, he protested to the abbot and the representatives of the four sponsoring Confederate cantons (Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus) against the construction of the new abbey in Rorschach. Then on 28 July 1489 he had armed troops from St. Gallen and Appenzell destroy the buildings already under construction, an attack known as the Rorschacher Klosterbruch.


title: St. Gallen

text: When the Abbot complained to the Confederates about the damage and demanded full compensation, Ulrich responded with a countersuit, and in cooperation with Schwendiner rejected the arbitration efforts of the non-partisan Confederates. He motivated the clerics from Wil to Rorschach to abandon their loyalty to the abbey and spoke against the abbey at a meeting of the townspeople at Waldkirch, where the popular league was formed. He was confident that the four sponsoring cantons would not intervene with force, due to the prevailing tensions between the Confederation and the Swabian League. He was strengthened in his resolve when the people of St. Gallen re-elected him as their highest magistrate in 1490.


title: St. Gallen

text: Ulrich Varnbüler had made a serious miscalculation. In early 1490, the four cantons decided to carry out their duty to the abbey and to invade the St. Gallen canton with an armed force. The people of Appenzell and the local clerics submitted to this force without significant resistance, while the city of St. Gallen braced itself for a fight to the finish. However, when they learned that their compatriots had given up the fight, they lost confidence, and they agreed to a settlement that greatly restricted the city's power and burdened the city with serious penalties and reparation payments.


title: St. Gallen

text: Ulrich, overwhelmed by the responsibility for his political decisions, panicked in the face of the approaching enemy who wanted him apprehended. His life was in great danger, and he was forced to escape from the city disguised as a messenger. He made his way to Lindau and to Innsbruck and the court of King Maximilian. The victors confiscated those of his properties that lay outside of the city of St. Gallen and banned him from the Confederation. Ulrich then appealed to the imperial court (as did Schwendiner, who had fled with him) for the return of his property.


title: St. Gallen

text: The suit had the support of Friedrich II and Maximilian and the trial threatened to drag on for years: it was continued by Ulrich's sons Hans and Ulrich after his death in 1496, and eventually the Varnbülers regained their properties. However, other political ramifications resulted from the court action, because the Confederation gained ownership of the city of St. Gallen and rejected the inroads of the empire. Thus, the conflict strengthened the relationship between the Confederation and the city of St. Gallen. On the other hand, the matter deepened the alienation between Switzerland and the German Holy Roman Empire, which eventually led to a total separation after the Swabian War.


title: St. Gallen

text: Despite the unpropitious end of his career, Ulrich Varnbüler is immortalized in a famous woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution's woodcut collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.


title: St. Gallen

text: Among Varnbüler's sons, the eldest (Hans/Johann) became the mayor of Lindau. He is the patriarch of the Baden and Württemberg Varnbülers.


title: St. Gallen

text: Starting in 1526 then-mayor and humanist Joachim von Watt (Vadian) introduced the Protestant Reformation into St. Gallen. The town converted to the new religion while the abbey remained Roman Catholic. While iconoclastic riots forced the monks to flee the city and remove images from the city's churches, the fortified abbey remained untouched. The abbey would remain a Catholic stronghold in the Protestant city until 1803.


title: St. Gallen

text: In 1798 Napoleon invaded the Old Swiss Confederation, destroying the Ancien Régime. Under the Helvetic Republic both the abbey and the city lost their power and were combined with Appenzell into the Canton of Säntis. The Helvetic Republic was widely unpopular in Switzerland and was overthrown in 1803. Following the Act of Mediation the city of St. Gallen became the capital of the Protestant Canton of St. Gallen.


title: St. Gallen

text: One of the first acts of the new canton was to suppress the abbey. The monks were driven from the abbey; the last abbot died in Muri in 1829. In 1846 a rearrangement in the local dioceses made St. Gall a separate diocese, with the abbey church as its cathedral and a portion of the monastic buildings designated the bishop's residence.


title: St. Gallen

text: Gustav Adolf IV, former king of Sweden, spent the last years of his life in St. Gallen, and died there in 1837.


title: St. Gallen

text: In the 15th century, St. Gallen became known for producing quality textiles. In 1714, the zenith was reached with a yearly production of 38,000 pieces of cloth. The first depression occurred in the middle of the 18th century, caused by strong foreign competition and reforms in methods of cotton production. But St. Gallen recovered and an even more prosperous era arrived.


title: St. Gallen

text: At the beginning of the 19th century, the first embroidery machines were developed in St. Gallen. In 1910 the embroidery production constituted the largest export branch (18% of the total export value) in Switzerland and more than half of the worldwide production of embroidery originated in St. Gallen. One fifth of the population of the eastern part of Switzerland was involved with the textile industry. However, World War I and the Great Depression caused another severe crisis for St. Gallen embroidery. Only in the 1950s did the textile industry recover somewhat. Nowadays, because of competition and the prevalence of computer-operated embroidery machines, only a reduced textile industry has survived in St. Gallen; but its embroidered textiles are still popular with Parisian haute couture designers.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen is situated in the northeastern part of Switzerland in a valley about above sea level. It is one of the highest cities in Switzerland and thus receives abundant winter snow. The city lies between Lake Constance and the mountains of the Appenzell Alps (with the Säntis as the highest peak at ). It therefore offers excellent recreation areas nearby.


title: St. Gallen

text: As the city center is built on an unstable turf ground (its founder Gallus was looking for a site for a hermitage, not for a city), all buildings on the valley floor must be built on piles. For example, the entire foundation of the train station and its plaza are based on hundreds of piles.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen has an area, , of . Of this area, 27.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 42.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.9%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with short, warm summers and long, moderately cold winters. Precipitation is very high year round. St. Gallen has a very cloudy climate.


title: St. Gallen

text: Between 1981 and 2010 St. Gallen had an average of 141 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was July during which time St. Gallen received an average of of rain. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 13.8 days. The month with the most days of precipitation were June and July May. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.1 days.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen is notable for reporting the highest maximum radioactivity measurements of any Swiss city, as published in the 2009 yearly report by the Federal Office of Public Health. While the daily average level of gamma-ray radioactivity in the city is unremarkable at 105 nSv/h, the maximum can reach 195 nSv/h, as high as the average for Jungfraujoch, the location with the highest reported level of radioactivity in Switzerland, due to its high elevation and therefore greater exposure to cosmic rays. The same report explains that the unusually high spikes of radioactivity measured in St. Gallen are due to radioactive products of radon gas being washed to the ground during heavy storms, but does not explain where the sufficient quantities of radon gas and its products to account for the anomaly would come from. The yearly report for 2009 on risks associated with radon published by the same governmental agency shows St. Gallen to lie in an area of the lowest level of radon exposure. In addition to the measured gamma-radiation, the city may be subject to radioactive tritium pollution in Teufen, a satellite town situated 4 km south of the city in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes (this pollution is also covered in the report).


title: St. Gallen

text: The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Argent a Bear rampant Sable langued and in his virility Gules and armed and gorged Or."


title: St. Gallen

text: The City Council (Stadtrat) constitutes the executive government of the City of St. Gallen and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (), each presiding over a directorate. The president of the presidential directorate acts as mayor ("Stadtpräsident"). In the mandate period 2017–2020 ("Legislatur") the City Council is presided by "Stadtpräsidentin" Maria Pappa. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the City Parliament are carried by the City Council. The regular election of the City Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of St. Gallen allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The current mandate period is from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024. The mayor is elected as such by public election by means of a system of Majorz, while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate. The delegates are elected by means of a system of Majorz.


title: St. Gallen

text: , St. Gallen's City Council is made up of two representatives of the SP (Social Democratic Party) of which one is the mayor, one member of the FDP (FDP.The Liberals), one of the GLP (Green Liberal Party), and one independent. The last regular election was held on 27 September 2020.


title: St. Gallen

text: The City Parliament (Stadtparlament) holds legislative power. It is made up of 63 members, with elections held every four years. The City Parliament decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation (Proporz).


title: St. Gallen

text: The sessions of the City Parliament are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the City Parliament are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of St. Gallen allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Parliament. The parliament holds its meetings in the "Waaghaus" once a week on Tuesdays.


title: St. Gallen

text: The last regular election of the City Parliament was held on 27 September 2020 for the mandate period () from January 2021 to December 2024. Currently the City Parliament consists of 17 members of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS) and one of its junior section, the "JUSO", 11 The Liberals (FDP/PLR), 8 Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL), 8 Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), 8 Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), 7 Green Party (GPS/PES) and 1 of its junior section, the "JungeGr", one representative of the Evangelical People's Party (EVP), and one member of the "Politische Frauengruppe (PFG)" (Political Women Group).


title: St. Gallen

text: In the 2019 federal election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the PS which received 24.4% (-3.8) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the Green Party (17.5%, +8.3), the SVP (16.5%, -4.6), FDP (14.4%, +0.1), the CVP (12.6%, +0.4), and the GLP (10.9%, +4.4). In the federal election a total of 18,821 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.9%.


title: St. Gallen

text: In the 2015 election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the SPS which received 28.1% of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP (21.1%), the FDP (14.3%), the CVP (12.2%), the GPS (9.2%), and the GLP (6.6%). In the federal election, a total of 20,768 voters were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.0%.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen has a population (as of ) of . , about 31.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. The population has grown at 4.4% per year. Most of the population () speaks German (83.0%), with Italian being second most common (3.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.7%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 60,297 speak German, 575 people speak French, 2,722 people speak Italian, and 147 people speak Romansh.


title: St. Gallen

text: The age distribution, , in St. Gallen is: 6,742 (9.3%) between 0 and 9 years old; 7,595 (10.5%) between 10 and 19; 12,574 (17.3%) between 20 and 29; 11,735 (16.2%) between 30 and 39; 9,535 (13.1%) between 40 and 49; 8,432 (11.6%) between 50 and 59; 6,461 (8.9%) between 60 and 69; 5,633 (7.8%) between 70 and 79; 3,255 (4.5%) between 80 and 89; 655 (0.9%) between 90 and 99; 9 people (0.0%) aged 100 or more.


title: St. Gallen

text: , St. Gallen had an unemployment rate of 2.69%. , there were 336 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 95 businesses involved in this sector. 11,227 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 707 businesses in this sector. 48,729 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 4,035 businesses in this sector. the average unemployment rate was 4.5%. There were 4857 businesses in the municipality of which 689 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 4102 were involved in the third. there were 28,399 residents who worked in the municipality, while 8,927 residents worked outside St. Gallen and 31,543 people commuted into the municipality for work.


title: St. Gallen

text: According to the , 31,978 or 44.0% are Roman Catholic, while 19,578 or 27.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there are 112 individuals (or about 0.15% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 3,253 individuals (or about 4.48% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 1,502 individuals (or about 2.07% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 133 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who are Jewish, and 4,856 (or about 6.69% of the population) who are Muslim. There are 837 individuals (or about 1.15% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 7,221 (or about 9.94% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3,156 individuals (or about 4.35% of the population) did not answer the question.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen is known for its business school, now named the University of St. Gallen (HSG). It was ranked as the top business school in Europe by Wirtschaftswoche, a weekly German business news magazine and is highly ranked by several other sources. Recently, HSG has been building a reputation for Executive Education, with its International MBA recognised as one of Europe's leading programmes, and runs a PhD programme. HSG is a focused university that offers degrees in business and management, economics, political science and international relations as well as business law. The Master in Management course was Ranked number 1 in 2014 by The Financial Times ahead of HEC Paris. It is comparatively small, with about 6,500 students enrolled at present, has both EQUIS and AACSB accreditations, and is a member of CEMS (Community of European Management Schools). The university maintains student and faculty exchange programs around the world. The University of St. Gallen is also famous for its high density of clubs. Particularly well known is the International Students’ Committee, which has organised the St. Gallen Symposium for over forty years. The St. Gallen Symposium is the leading student-run economic conference of its kind worldwide and aims to foster the dialogue between generations.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen's state school system contains 64 kindergartens, 21 primary schools and 7 secondary schools and about 6,800 students. In addition to the state system, St. Gallen is home to the Institut auf dem Rosenberg — an élite boarding school attracting students from all over the world. The Institut provides an education in English, German and Italian and prepares the students to enter: American, British, Swiss, Italian, German and other European university programmes.


title: St. Gallen

text: The canton's "Gewerbliches Berufs- und Weiterbildungszentrum" is the largest occupational school in Switzerland with over 10,000 students and various specialty institutes. One for example, the "GBS Schule für Gestaltung" teaches students design fundamentals in the practice of graphic design. The school is located in Riethüsli, a small section of the city of St. Gallen.


title: St. Gallen

text: In St. Gallen about 68.8% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Out of the total population in St. Gallen, , the highest education level completed by 15,035 people (20.7% of the population) was Primary, while 27,465 (37.8%) have completed their secondary education, 10,249 (14.1%) have attended a Tertiary school, and 2,910 (4.0%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.


title: St. Gallen

text: After the years of Gallus' death, the place became one of the centers of Germanic culture. This is because of the creative works of the monks who followed the footsteps of the city's founder Gallus. This resulted to numerous heritage sites of national significance of the country.


title: St. Gallen

text: In 1992, St. Gallen was awarded the Wakker Prize for the city's effort to create a unified structure and appearance in current and future construction.


title: St. Gallen

text: There are 28 sites in St. Gallen that are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance, including four religious buildings; the Abbey of St. Gallen, the former Dominican Abbey of St. Katharina, the Reformed Church of St. Laurenzenkirche and the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Maria Neudorf.


title: St. Gallen

text: There are six museums or archives in the inventory. This includes the "Textile museum", the "Historical and ethnographical museum", the Cantonal library and city archives, the "Art and Natural History museum", the Museum in Lagerhaus and the St. Gallen State Archive. The entire city of St. Gallen is the only archeological heritage site. Two bridges are listed, the Eisenbahnbrücke BT (railroad bridge) and the "Kräzern-Strassenbrücke" with a custom house.


title: St. Gallen

text: The twelve other sites include the main train station, main post office, University of St. Gallen, Cantonal School, City Theatre and two towers; the "Lokremise" with "Wasserturm" and the "Tröckneturm".


title: St. Gallen

text: The large urban area Zurich is 80 km south-west of St. Gallen, a 60-minute drive or train ride (ICN train).


title: St. Gallen

text: The A1 motorway links St. Gallen with St. Margrethen, Zurich, Bern and Geneva. In 1987 the city motorway was opened, which conveys the traffic through two tunnels (Rosenberg and Stefanshorn) almost directly below the city center.


title: St. Gallen

text: The Airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein, near Lake of Constance, provides scheduled airline flights to Vienna and other destinations.


title: St. Gallen

text: St. Gallen railway station is part of the national Swiss Federal Railways network and has InterCity connections to Zurich and the Zurich Airport every half-hour. St. Gallen is the hub for many private railways such as the Südostbahn (SOB), connecting St. Gallen with Lucerne, the Appenzeller Bahnen, which operates the Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen railway, connecting to Appenzell and Trogen, and also serves as a tram in downtown.


title: St. Gallen

text: The city has a dense local bus system, including the city's trolleybus network, which is operated by the VBSG and is well established on the valley floor, but less so on the hills. As St. Gallen is located near the Appenzell mountain area, it offers also many Postauto (post bus) connections. The agglomeration also has its own St. Gallen S-Bahn system (overground local trains).


title: St. Gallen

text: The "St. Gallen 2013" project aimed to improve local rail services, with infrastructure upgrades and new rolling stock. By December 2013, S-Bahn services would run on six lines, at intervals of 15 to 30 minutes.


title: George Genereux

text: George Patrick Genereux (March 1, 1935 – April 10, 1989) was a Canadian gold medal-winning trap shooter and physician.


title: George Genereux

text: Genereux was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the son of Catherine Mary (née Devine), a nurse who was originally from Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Arthur George Genereux. He is the maternal uncle of actor Brendan Fraser. While still a student at Nutana Collegiate, he won the gold medal in the Olympic Trap at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. He was, at the time, Canada's youngest Olympic champion, a record that stood until 2016.


title: George Genereux

text: In 1952, he was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame, and, the Trapshooting Hall of Fame.


title: George Genereux

text: He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan and studied medicine at McGill University. He died in Saskatoon on April 10, 1989.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: The Second Philippine Republic, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (; ; , "Firipin-kyōwakoku") and also known as the Japanese-sponsored Philippine Republic, was a Japanese puppet state established on October 14, 1943 during the Japanese occupation of the islands.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, President Manuel L. Quezon had declared the national capital Manila an "open city", and left it under the rule of Jorge B. Vargas, as mayor. The Japanese entered the city on January 2, 1942, and established it as the capital. Japan fully captured the Philippines on May 6, 1942, after the Battle of Corregidor.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: General Masaharu Homma decreed the dissolution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission (), a caretaker government, with Vargas as its first chairman in January 1942. KALIBAPI — (Tagalog for the "Association for Service to the New Philippines") — was formed by Proclamation No. 109 of the Philippine Executive Commission, a piece of legislation passed on December 8, 1942, banning all existing political parties and creating the new governing alliance. Its first director-general was Benigno Aquino, Sr. The pro-Japanese Ganap Party, which saw the Japanese as the saviors of the archipelago, was absorbed into the KALIBAPI.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: Before the formation of the Preparatory Commission, the Japanese gave an option to put the Philippines under the dictatorship of Artemio Ricarte, whom the Japanese returned from Yokohama to help bolster their propaganda movement. However, the Philippine Executive Commission refused this option and chose to make the Philippines a republic instead. During his first visit to the Philippines on May 6, 1943, Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō promised to return independence to the Philippines as part of its propaganda of Pan-Asianism ("Asia for the Asians").


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: This prompted the KALIBAPI to create the Preparatory Committee for Philippine Independence on June 19, 1943. A draft constitution was formed by the Preparatory Commission for Independence, consisting of 20 members from the KALIBAPI. The Preparatory Commission, led by José P. Laurel, presented its draft Constitution on September 4, 1943, and three days later, the KALIBAPI general assembly ratified the draft Constitution.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: By September 20, 1943, the KALIBAPI's representative groups in the country's provinces and cities elected from among themselves fifty-four members of the Philippine National Assembly, the legislature of the country, with fifty-four governors and city mayors as ex-officio members.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: Three days after establishing the National Assembly, its inaugural session was held at the pre-war Legislative Building and it elected by majority Benigno S. Aquino as its first Speaker and José P. Laurel as President of the Republic of the Philippines, who was inaugurated on October 14, 1943, at the foundation of the Republic, the Legislative Building. Former President Emilio Aguinaldo and General Artemio Ricarte raised the Philippine flag, the same one used during the Philippine–American War which featured an anthropomorphic sun, during the inauguration. This was the first time since the Japanese occupation that the flag was displayed and the anthem played.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: On the same day, a Pact of Alliance was signed between the new Republic and the Japanese government that was ratified two days later by the National Assembly.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: On December 13, 1943, a version of the Philippine flag with no markings on the sun was adopted as the Second Republic's flag through Executive Order 17. On September 23, 1944 at 10:00 in the morning, President Laurel proclaimed that a state of war existed between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. By virtue of this proclamation the Philippine flag was inverted to signify that the Philippines was officially in a state of war. The (war) flag remained as the official flag until the formal dissolution of the Second Philippines Republic.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: was an international summit held in Tokyo from November 5 to 6, 1943, in which Japan hosted the heads of state of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The event was also referred to as the "Tokyo Conference". The Conference addressed few issues of substance, but was intended from the start as a propaganda show piece, to illustrate the Empire of Japan's commitments to the Pan-Asianism ideal and to emphasize its role as the "liberator" of Asia from Western colonialism.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: The conference and the formal declaration adhered to on November 6 was little more than a propaganda gesture designed to rally regional support for the next stage of the war, outlining the ideals of which it was fought. However, the Conference marked a turning point in Japanese foreign policy and relations with other Asian nations. The defeat of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal (in present-day Solomon Islands) and an increasing awareness of the limitations to Japanese military strength led the Japanese civilian leadership to realize that a framework based on cooperation, rather than colonial domination, would enable a greater mobilization of manpower and resources against the resurgent Allied Forces. It was also the start of efforts to create a framework that would allow for some form of diplomatic compromise should the military solution fail altogether. However these moves came too late to save the Empire, which surrendered to the Allies less than two years after the conference.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: During his term in office, Laurel was faced with various problems that the country was experiencing, such as the following:


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: Laurel attempted to show that the independence of the republic was genuine by rectifying these problems.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: Prioritizing the shortages of food, he organized an agency to distribute rice, even though most of the rice was confiscated by Japanese soldiers. Manila was one of the many places in the country that suffered from severe shortages, due mainly to a typhoon that struck the country in November 1943. The people were forced to cultivate private plots which produced root crops like kangkong. The Japanese, in order to raise rice production in the country, brought a quick-maturing "horai" rice, which was first used in Taiwan. Horai rice was expected to make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice by 1943, but rains during 1942 prevented this from happening.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: In addition, carabaos provided the necessary labor that allowed Filipino farmers to grow rice and other staples. Japanese army patrols would slaughter the carabaos for meat, thereby preventing the farmers from growing enough rice to feed the large population. Before World War II, an estimated three million carabaos inhabited the Philippines. By the end of the war, an estimated nearly 70% of them had been lost.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: The first issue in 1942 consisted of denominations of 1, 5, 10 and 50 centavos and 1, 5, and 10 Pesos. The next year brought ""replacement notes"" of the 1, 5 and 10 Pesos while 1944 ushered in a 100 Peso note and soon after an inflationary 500 Pesos note. In 1945, the Japanese issued a 1,000 Pesos note. This set of new money, which was printed even before the war, became known in the Philippines as Mickey Mouse money due to its very low value caused by severe inflation. Anti-Japanese newspapers portrayed stories of going to the market laden with suitcases or ""bayong"" (native bags made of woven coconut or "buri" leaf strips) overflowing with the Japanese-issued bills. In 1944, a box of matches cost more than 100 "Mickey Mouse" pesos. In 1945, a kilogram of camote cost around 1000 "Mickey Mouse" pesos. Inflation plagued the country with the devaluation of the Japanese money, evidenced by a 60% inflation experienced in January 1944.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: The Japanese allowed Tagalog to be the national language of the Philippines. To this end, a pared-down, 1,000-word version of the language was promoted to be learned rapidly by those not yet versed in the language.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: Love for labor was encouraged, as seen by the massive labor recruitment programs by the KALIBAPI by mid-1943. Propagation of both Filipino and Japanese cultures were conducted. Schools were reopened, which had an overall number of 300,000 students at its peak.


title: Second Philippine Republic

text: On September 21, 1944, Laurel placed the Republic under martial law. On September 23, 1944, the Republic officially declared war against the United States and United Kingdom. Following the return of American-led Allied forces, the government of the Second Republic evacuated Manila to Baguio. The republic was formally dissolved by Laurel in Tokyo on August 17, 1945 - two days after the Surrender of Japan.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: Tatiana Aleksandra Westbrook (née Krievins, born February 14, 1982) is an American YouTuber and makeup artist.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: Westbrook, a former image consultant turned makeup artist, created her YouTube channel GlamLifeGuru, later renamed Tati, on November 7, 2010. When she started, she knew little about cameras and editing. "At first, when I sat down to edit, it would be a twelve-hour process," she recalled in 2015, "Beauty tutorials still take a long time, but I've been able to get this down to three hours."


title: Tati Westbrook

text: According to "Newsweek," she is "widely considered to be a progenitor of YouTube’s beauty scene" and "the mother of the YouTube beauty community." She reached the one-million subscriber milestone in early 2016.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: Westbrook primarily focuses on makeup and beauty reviews, tips, and tutorials. In October 2019, she launched a cosmetic line named Tati Beauty, with her first product being a textured neutrals eye shadow palette. In November 2021, Westbrook announced that Tati Beauty was closing in a video citing the COVID-19 pandemic and legal troubles.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: In February 2018, Westbrook founded and launched her own company, Halo Beauty Inc., which sells vitamin supplements. Westbrook makes an estimated $1.3 million a year from YouTube and her company.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: On April 22, 2019, Westbrook posted an Instagram story in which she discussed feeling betrayed by the beauty community. A few hours prior to her post, fellow beauty YouTuber James Charles posted an advertisement for SugarBearHair, a competitor to Westbrook's company Halo Beauty. On May 10, 2019, Westbrook posted a 43-minute YouTube video titled "BYE SISTER..." in which she claimed the feud between her and Charles was not only about advertising but also about her history with Charles and allegations that he preyed on heterosexual men. She gained more than four million subscribers in a week as a result of the video, and Charles lost more than three million subscribers in four days. She reached a peak following of over 10.6 million subscribers. Charles responded to the claims on May 18 with a video titled "No More Lies" in which he shared his side of the story. Westbrook subsequently lost over a million subscribers, as well as eligibility for YouTube's Diamond Creator Award.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: On June 30, 2020, Westbrook posted a video on her YouTube channel titled "Breaking My Silence...", detailing the events that led up to, and occurred after her "BYE SISTER..." video, in which she claimed Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star manipulated her into making the video against Charles. The video has been set to Private as of June 2021.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: Since October 20, 2020, Westbrook and her husband, James, have been sued by former business partner and co-founder of Halo Beauty, Clark Swanson, for breach of contract, gross negligence and fraudulent inducement as it relates to Tati's vitamin line, Halo Beauty.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: Tati is of Latvian ancestry. In 2017, she married James Westbrook, who regularly appears in her YouTube videos. Through this marriage, she has a stepson named Taylor who also occasionally appears in her videos.


title: Tati Westbrook

text: As of June 2021, Tati has returned to YouTube in a post titled "A Year Later…" where she announced that she will be returning to her roots doing makeup tutorials and reviews. This comes after nearly a year hiatus from YouTube with her last post being a now deleted apology to another YouTuber, James Charles (see controversy section). Additionally, the recent video reaffirms Tati is still actively involved with Halo Beauty as the CEO while litigation continues (see controversy section).


title: Rock Band

text: Rock Band is a series of rhythm games developed by Harmonix, principally for home video game consoles. Based on their previous development work from the "Guitar Hero" series, the main "Rock Band" games has players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments and microphones to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums and vocal parts of numerous licensed songs across a wide range of genres though mostly focusing on rock music by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Certain games support the use of "Pro" instruments that require special controllers that more closely mimic the playing of real instruments, providing a higher challenge to players. Players are scored for successfully-hit notes, while may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both local and online multiplayer modes where up to four players in most modes can perform together.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix had worked with Red Octane for the "Guitar Hero" series first released in 2005; when Red Octane was acquired by Activision to continue "Guitar Hero" in 2007, MTV Games, a division of Viacom at the time, acquired Harmonix to expand the concept to "Rock Band", and served as the game's publisher and manufacturer for the instrument controllers, with distribution handled by Electronic Arts. In 2009, due to saturation of the rhythm game market, sales of both "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" dropped; Harmonix's investors were able to buy the company from Viacom and making Harmonix an independent company, giving them more flexibility in options for the series. Harmonix transitioned to Mad Catz in 2010 for the publication and instrumentation controller manufacture. By 2013, Harmonix stopped producing downloadable content (DLC) for the current "Rock Band 3", though stated that it would consider its options for the series upon the arrival of the next-generation of consoles. Following the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Harmonix released "Rock Band 4" in 2015 for the new consoles. While Mad Catz initially manufactured the new instrument controllers. the game was not as financially successful, a partial cause for Mad Catz to declare bankruptcy and requiring Harmonix to switch production to Performance Designed Products (PDP) for ongoing instrument controller manufacture.


title: Rock Band

text: To date, there have been four main games in the series, two band-specific spin-offs including "", and several additional spin-off titles and Track Packs. Harmonix has continued to supported "Rock Band" through a persistent DLC model, with routine releases of new songs on a weekly basis as well as the ability for players to import songs from previous games into newer ones, and as of May 2020, the latest title "Rock Band 4" supports over 2700 songs from this approach. Harmonix had also offered the "Rock Band" Network to allow bands and labels to publish their songs as "Rock Band" tracks that can be purchased by players, though the service has since been discontinued; at the height of this service, over 4,000 tracks from 1,200 artists were available for "Rock Band" players.


title: Rock Band

text: By 2009, over 13 million copies of "Rock Band" titles have been sold netting more than $1 billion in total sales. Over 130 million downloadable song purchases have been made by 2009.


title: Rock Band

text: Prior to "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band", Harmonix had already established itself as a company that made game products that focused on music interactivity. Born out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the first product made by Harmonix was "The Axe: Titans of Classic Rock" for DOS-based computers, challenging the player to use four keys on the keyboard to match notes in several songs. Looking to find a place for this type of game, Harmonix' founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy looked to Japan where music games like "PaRappa the Rapper" were becoming popular. This led to the creation of "Frequency" and its sequel "Amplitude" for the PlayStation 2; both games featured the concept of matching notes for specific instrument tracks along lanes. However, in retrospect, Harmonix found that players had difficulty initially understanding the game, as the presentation was an abstract concept that did not immediately connect the gameplay to the music. The idea of making an easy connection between the game and the music was used as a basis for their "Karaoke Revolution" games, which including using avatars singing and dancing in time to the music to strengthen the connection; this series was financially successful and helped grow the company.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix was approached by RedOctane to help develop the software for the first "Guitar Hero" game, itself based on Japanese games like "Guitar Freaks". Harmonix used their previous experience in note-matching techniques from "Frequency" and "Amplitude", as well as the lessons learned in developed "Karaoke Revolution" to create the "Guitar Hero" software. Harmonix was less concerned on developing gameplay, and instead more on connecting the player to the music, working to track the notes of the songs appropriately on the five-button controller as to make the player feel like they are playing the real instrument. "Guitar Hero" would go on to be a major success and found the basis of the "Guitar Hero" series.


title: Rock Band

text: As the success of the "Guitar Hero" series grew, Harmonix and RedOctane were purchased by MTV Games and Activision respectively, in 2006; MTV paid $175 million to acquire Harmonix. RedOctane continued to publish the "Guitar Hero" series, bringing Neversoft on board for development duties. Harmonix was contractually committed to completing one final title, "", during and after the purchase negotiations.


title: Rock Band

text: With MTV Games, a subsidiary of Viacom, Harmonix took their experience from developing "Guitar Hero" and "Karaoke Revolution" to create the "Rock Band" series. According to Harmonix Vice President of Product Development, Greg LoPiccolo, the Harmonix team had already envisioned the possibility of different instruments before they were finished with the "Guitar Hero" series; Rigopulos noted that the "Guitar Hero" work was only a partial approach to this, limited to what they could do on a "shoe-string budget". Harmonix also embraced the idea of "Rock Band" as a platform rather than a software title, and took steps to incorporate downloadable content to extend players' music libraries without having them need to buy a new software disk. "Rock Band" was considered a success, leading to the development of sequels and spinoff titles. Viacom under the terms of the acquisition, paid out $150M in performance-based bonuses to Harmonix in early 2008 for their 2007 results, and were planning on a similar amount by the end of 2008. The "Rock Band" series scored what was considered a major coup by journalists when it successfully negotiated the rights to use the music of The Beatles in a video game, long considered a "holy grail" for music games.


title: Rock Band

text: By 2009, the market for rhythm games in general started to fall. The market had become saturated with titles, mostly from Activision's expansion of the "Guitar Hero" series, and consumers affected by the late-2000s recession were less likely to buy costly instrument controllers. Viacom had already reported significant losses on the "Rock Band" series, and sales of "The Beatles: Rock Band" did not meet their expectation. Viacom sought a refund on the $150 million already paid for the 2007 bonuses following its reassessment of the series' 2009 performance. Harmonix, anticipating the slowness of the market, developed "Rock Band 3" with the introduction of several new features, most notably including the capability to connect real MIDI keyboards, MIDI guitars, and MIDI electronic drum kits, to create a "disruptive" game in the ailing rhythm game market by expanding to include real instruments.


title: Rock Band

text: Though Viacom continued to support the series throughout 2010, it announced that it was seeking a buyer for Harmonix, citing the series' continued profit losses and Viacom's inexperience at being a video game publisher. Harmonix was eventually sold at the end of 2010 to Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC, an affiliate of investment firm Columbus Nova, LLC that included Harmonix shareholders. Though the net liability of the sale was valued at nearly $200 million, including existing unsold inventory and ongoing music license fees, analysts believe that Harmonix-SBE paid only $50 for the company, taking on the total financial liability that Viacom was able to write off in their books. The MTV Games division at Viacom was later closed.


title: Rock Band

text: As a shareholder-held company, Harmonix retained the rights to the "Rock Band" and "Dance Central" franchises, and continued to support and develop the games. The company still faced some fallout from the sale, laying off about 15% of its staff in February 2011. In the same month, Activision announced that it abandoned ongoing development of planned "Guitar Hero" titles, which many journalists considered to signal the end of peripheral-based rhythm games. Though Harmonix considered the closure of "Guitar Hero" as "discouraging", they affirmed that they would continue to develop "Rock Band" and "Dance Central" and support their downloadable content for the immediate future. Other journalists believed that without competition, Harmonix no longer needed to develop under the same pressure, allowing them to polish and innovate for future titles in the series, bringing a likely future resurgence of the market.


title: Rock Band

text: In March 2012, Harmonix affirmed that it had no plans for a fourth major release title within the year, but was still strongly supporting the game through downloadable content through the year. By early 2013, the company stated that while they may come back to "Rock Band" at a future time, they were shifting resources to develop new titles, and later announced that it would discontinue its regular downloadable content for the series after providing over 275 continuous weeks of such content.


title: Rock Band

text: Rigopulos stated at his keynote at the 2014 Penny Arcade Expo East that the studio had plans to bring "Rock Band" to eighth-generation consoles "at some point" and with "guns blazing". Rigopulos states that the studio was "waiting for just the right moment in the new generation of consoles to bring it back". Following two sets of unexpected DLC releases in early 2015 as a survey sent to "Rock Band" fans, the industry started to speculate that Harmonix was looking to revive the series. Bloomberg reported that Harmonix was currently working on a new version of "Rock Band" for the next-generation of consoles in late February.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band 4" was officially announced in March 2015, for release later in October 2015 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. "Rock Band 4" supported nearly all previous content released for the series, including imports from the "Rock Band 3" and all prior official DLC. Initially "Rock Band 4" was released in partnership with Mad Catz for production of the instrument peripherals, but the game did not sell as well as expected leading to a loss for Mad Katz, who subsequently terminated the agreement by June 2016 and temporarily had entered a period of bankruptcy. Harmonix switched to Performance Designed Products (PDP) to continue hardware manufacturing with the release of the "Rivals" expansion for "Rock Band 4". Harmonix attempted to crowdfund the development of "Rock Band 4" for personal computers through Fig (which Harmonix's Rigopulos had become a board member of), but this failed to meet the target goal, though Harmonix had not ruled out other means to bring the series to personal computers through other means. Harmonix continues to support "Rock Band 4" with weekly DLC and, with the introduction of its "Rivals" gameplay mode, eight-week seasonal challenges for players to earn new cosmetics, and , supports over 2,800 songs.


title: Rock Band

text: A separate "Rock Band VR" title was developed for the Oculus VR virtual reality system and released in March 2017.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix has released four mainline titles in the "Rock Band" series: "Rock Band" (2007), "Rock Band 2" (2008), "Rock Band 3" (2010), and "Rock Band 4" (2015). Each game provides from 57 to 84 songs on-disc with support for additional songs to be purchased as downloadable content. The games feature a variety of modes, including single player career modes, offline and online cooperative modes as part of a band, and competitive modes. Most songs from earlier iterations can be exported for play in future versions for a small licensing fee. However, premium or upgraded DLC content cannot be transferred to "Rock Band 4".


title: Rock Band

text: In October 2008, Harmonix, along with MTV Games, announced an exclusive agreement with Apple Corps, Ltd. to produce a standalone title, titled "", based on the "Rock Band" premise and featuring the music of The Beatles. The game was released on September 9, 2009, coinciding with the release of remastered collections of the Beatles' albums, and features a visual and musical history of the Beatles with United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums "Please Please Me" through "Abbey Road". The game also has been supported by downloadable content, with three full albums, "Abbey Road", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and "Rubber Soul", available to purchase. Though branded as a "Rock Band" game, the title remains as a standalone game in the series. It includes a function to add new songs to the game disc.


title: Rock Band

text: Following on the success of "The Beatles: Rock Band", "" was released in June 2010. It includes the band's songs, including full albums for "Dookie", "American Idiot", and "21st Century Breakdown", avatars of the band's members and venues after real-life performances of the group. The track list is fully exportable to other "Rock Band" games.


title: Rock Band

text: Several bands stated they were seeking to or working with Harmonix to develop band-specific content for the series. The band Pearl Jam worked with Harmonix and MTV Games along with Rhapsody on a "Rock Band"-related project that was to be released in 2010, allowing for users to vote for their favorite live versions of the band's music. In August 2011 it was rumoured that the Pearl Jam related project would be released as downloadable content, but Harmonix spokesman John Drake later clarified that while a Pearl Jam-based game was deep in development, it was ultimately cancelled.


title: Rock Band

text: The band U2, after declining an option to place themselves in a "Rock Band" game in 2008, were reconsidering their stance after seeing the success of "The Beatles: Rock Band", according to bassist Adam Clayton. Similarly, Queen were in behind-the-scenes talks about a possible title for their group within "Rock Band", according to Brian May. Even though no game based on the band was released, Lego avatars of the band members appeared in "Lego Rock Band". Roger Daltrey of The Who had stated that a "Rock Band"-title based on his group's music would be available in 2010; however, no such title was released in 2010, or after that year for that matter. Though Janie Hendrix had stated she allowed for Jimi Hendrix's works to be used for a "Rock Band" game to be released in 2010, this was later clarified as licensing several full albums from Hendrix to be made as downloadable content. Harmonix had also considered standalone band games for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but neither project proceeded past developing concept art and cinematics.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix and MTV Games have worked with TT Fusion and Traveller's Tales, developers of the various Lego-themed video game titles such as "", and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create "Lego Rock Band". The game includes songs that are "suitable for younger audiences." The game also includes the "fun, customization and humor of the Lego videogame franchise" by allowing players to create their own Lego-style avatars. The game added a new "super easy" gameplay mode in order to accommodate younger players. The game, which was released on November 3, 2009 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii consoles, supports all existing "Rock Band" instruments. The game is able to utilize selected existing downloadable content for the other "Rock Band" games that have been deemed acceptable for the game's audience, except on the Nintendo Wii.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix had planned to release a spin-off of "Rock Band" for Japanese audiences in co-development with Q Entertainment. The title, initially announced in 2008, would have featured J-pop music, and would have been "the first US-originated rock music game to be heavily localized for the Japanese market". Japanese artists had expressed interest in the venture, such as X Japan. Harmonix has since stated that this project has been discontinued, but have considered the inclusion of popular Japanese music within "Rock Band"s regular downloadable content. Alex Rigopulos later clarified that they found it difficult to license Japanese music for such a release, and had considered both the cost of manufacturing and shipping instrument controllers to Japan, and the limited space that many Japanese players would have in their homes.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band Blitz" is a downloadable title in the series released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in October 2012. It is similar to "Rock Band Unplugged", using gameplay similar to "Frequency" and "Amplitude". The game included 25 songs (23 new to the series, and two that were previously unavailable to export due to licensing issues), but can use any previously downloaded song in the player's library; the 25 songs were also available to be played within "Rock Band 3". Unlike the previous games in the series, "Blitz" is designed for use with a standard console controller, using buttons on the controller to switch tracks and match notes. The single-player game is designed with numerous "arcade" elements including a number of power-ups that make it more a score attack game than previous titles. Released alongside the game was a Facebook application, "Rock Band World", that connected to players' games, offering challenges and tracking players scores in both "Blitz" and "Rock Band 3".


title: Rock Band

text: Shortly after release of "Rock Band 3", Harmonix began work on "Rock Band Sessions". Instead of matching notes as in the main games, "Sessions" would have players making their own music in songs where several of the other instrument tracks were already completed; one example given by Daniel Sussman was to complete a bass line atop existing guitar, drums, and vocal tracks. If the player opted, they would have been able to allow the pre-existing track to be played instead and only provide their own music in certain sections of the song. "Sessions" was originally conceived as a multiplayer title but Harmonix found that having multiple players attempt to make their own music at the same time was too chaotic, and instead reworked it as a single-player game, with the player able to work each track separately and eventually bring them together in a final song. Though Harmonix had developed a working prototype for the game, they found that it would not adapt well to their existing licensed song library and would be difficult to use in future "Rock Band" games, and that they did not feel this was a type of game they could sell to their player base at full price. "Sessions" has been shelved, though some of the lessons they learned were used to help develop "Rock Band 4", and may come back to the title at a later date.


title: Rock Band

text: Harmonix also was involved with "", released in November 2013, which for a time was referred to as "Rock Band 3.1".


title: Rock Band

text: In 2015, Oculus VR announced at The Game Awards that they would be partnering with Harmonix to make a virtual reality Rock Band game for the Rift titled "Rock Band VR", to be released in 2016. Harmonix began work on the title in October 2015. The game, focused solely on guitar players, uses the Oculus Rift Touch controllers in addition to the headset, one which is attached to the guitar controller. These provide the player with a first-person view of their guitarist on stage which reacts to the player's movements. In a demonstration at the 2016 Game Developers Conference, the game was set up so that the player could see the note tracks located on the floor monitors on the virtual stage, requiring the player to look down to track them, but Harmonix stated they were exploring other means to provide this input. The player can engage other actions in the VR world by looking at certain stage elements, such as by keeping their focus on a foot pedal, they can activate pyrotechnics on the virtual stage. The game was released on March 23, 2017 and shipped with 60 songs on release and has 21 DLC songs. It was nominated for "Best Game Audio Article, Publication or Broadcast" ("Steve Pardo: Creating Rock Band VR") and "Best VR Audio" at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band Unplugged" was developed by Backbone Entertainment and was released for the PlayStation Portable in North America on June 9, 2009 and later that year in Europe. The game uses the PSP's Wi-Fi capabilities to provide an online store for additional downloadable content from music providers. The gameplay is similar to the previous Harmonix games "Frequency" and "Amplitude", with the player using the face buttons on the PSP to match notes; after completing a length of a phrase on a given instrument, that instrument will then play by itself for a while, allowing the player to switch to another instrument. The DS versions of "Lego Rock Band" and "Rock Band 3" use a similar gameplay system to "Rock Band Unplugged".


title: Rock Band

text: A mobile phone version of "Rock Band" was developed by EA Mobile to work with various phones; the game was released to Verizon users on September 16, 2009. The game features many of the same modes as the main "Rock Band" series, including the ability to play with other users through the software. The game offers the ability to play any of the four instruments on 25 songs selected from the existing "Rock Band" library. A version simply titled "Rock Band" for iOS was also released in October 2009, with gameplay described as similar to "Tap Tap Revenge" and allowing up to four people to play together with Bluetooth connections. "Rock Band Reloaded" was released on December 2, 2010.


title: Rock Band

text: The "Rock Band" games are score-based music video games that combine elements of two of Harmonix' previous efforts: "Guitar Hero" and "Karaoke Revolution", allowing up to four players to play on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. "Rock Band 3" expands this number to seven, including a keyboardist and two harmony vocalists. Players use these instruments to play scrolling musical "notes" on-screen in time with music.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band" titles' gameplay and on-screen interface use a combination of elements from "Guitar Hero" and "Karaoke Revolution". "Rock Band" has up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass. The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals. For lead and bass guitar, players play their notes by holding down colored fret buttons on the guitar peripheral and pushing the controller's strum bar; for drums, players must strike the matching colored drumhead, or step on the pedal to simulate playing bass drum notes. Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally, similar to "Karaoke Revolution". The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements. When singing vocals, the player must sing in relative pitch to the original vocals. A pitch indicator displays the singer's accuracy relative to the original pitch by moving up or down to indicate high or low pitches, respectively. "" introduces three-part harmonies using three separate microphones, a feature later carried over into "" and "Rock Band 3". If any part is not being played, its interface does not appear on-screen. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band's virtual characters as they perform in concert.


title: Rock Band

text: During cooperative play as a band, all players earn points towards a common score, though score multipliers and "Overdrive" (an accumulated bonus that is the equivalent of "Guitar Hero"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "Star Power") are tracked separately for each player. The bass guitar player's multiplier can reach as high as 6x (compared to a 4x multiplier for the other players) and achieve "Bass Groove". Overdrive is collected during select portions of a song by successfully playing all white notes within that section (guitar and bass players can also use the guitar controller's whammy bar to extract Overdrive from white sustained notes). Once the Energy Meter is filled halfway, players can deploy their Overdrive, resulting in the "Band Meter" (which tracks how well each player is doing) changing more dramatically. This allows players to strategically use Overdrive to raise the Band Meter and pass portions of a song they otherwise might have failed. Overdrive can be used to activate score multipliers, which vary based on a player's note streak. In solo play, deploying Overdrive doubles the player's score multiplier. However, in band play, activating Overdrive instead increases the score multiplier of the entire band by two. Additionally, players can deploy Overdrive independently of each other ("Guitar Hero" games prior to "World Tour" require players in Co-Operative mode to deploy Star Power simultaneously), as well as collect additional Overdrive while it is deployed and draining.


title: Rock Band

text: Each band member can choose the difficulty at which they play (spanning Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert; a "Super Easy" difficulty is also present in "Lego Rock Band" for younger players). Furthermore, with "Rock Band 3", players can select the Pro mode of their instrument if they have the appropriate controller for it; Pro mode challenges guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards to play their controllers closer to the real-life instrument, note-for-note. If a player does not play well enough and falls to the bottom of the Band Meter, they will fail out of the song and their instrument will be muted from the audio mix. However, any active player can activate their Overdrive to bring failed players back into the song, "saving" the band member. However, a band member can only be saved twice; after the third failure, they cannot be brought back for that song. Failed players continuously drag the band's Band Meter down until they are saved. If the player is not saved before the Band Meter reaches the bottom, the band fails the song. Special portions of songs are labeled as "Unison Phrases," which reward the band with a score and Overdrive bonus if each player can play their parts perfectly during the phrase. Select songs end with a special "Big Rock Ending," which gives the players a chance to improvise and earn extra points. If each player successfully plays the final notes of the song following the freestyle portion of the "Big Rock Ending," the band earns all of the "Big Rock Ending" points. Otherwise, the bonus is lost.


title: Rock Band

text: As the song progresses, the screen shows a meter with the current accumulated score for the game, as well as the number of "stars" earned so far based on their score and the progress towards the next star indicated by a partially filled ring. Players can earn up to five stars, with the chance of getting 5 "gold stars" by getting a very high score with all players on the Expert difficulty. The performance's star rating will influence the monetary reward and number of fans for the song within the various game modes, or in the case of "Rock Band 3", the number of fans earned and speed progress towards the virtual band's "Career Mode" goals.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band" features instrument controllers designed for the game. However, Harmonix and other companies have attempted to provide compatibility between competing instrument controllers and music games, allowing "Rock Band" to be playable without use of specific controllers, and to reuse "Rock Band" controllers in other music games. Prior to "Rock Band 3", most instrument controllers were made by MTV Games and Harmonix, with several third-party vendors supply alternate versions. On January 4, 2008, video game peripherals manufacturer Mad Catz announced it had reached an agreement with MTV and Harmonix to produce peripherals for "Rock Band". This agreement also gives MadCatz the ability to bundle and sell their products with "Rock Band" game titles. Mad Catz continued to support the series for the release of "Rock Band 4" in 2015, but in early 2016 announced financial difficulties due to weak sales of "Rock Band 4". Harmonix subsequently announced that starting in 2016, Precision Designed Products will be producing and supporting instrument hardware for "Rock Band 4".


title: Rock Band

text: The guitar controller for "Rock Band", modeled after a Fender Stratocaster, is used for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay. It has several features akin to "Guitar Hero"s controller, as it features five colored fret buttons on the neck of the guitar (which correspond to on-screen notes), a strum bar, and a whammy bar. To use the guitar controller, players must hold the fret button that corresponds to the scrolling colored note on-screen while simultaneously pushing the strum bar. In addition, five smaller fret buttons are located further down on the neck. These buttons can be used to play all notes in guitar solos (denoted by the note track turning blue) as hammer-ons and pull-offs, without the need to strum. The whammy bar can be used to distort the sound of held notes. A special effects switch can be used to toggle between five different guitar effects during solos and Overdrive periods (ranging from wah-wah, flange, chorus, echo, distortion, doubler, slap back echo, medium echo, and long echo), however, this switch was removed from the Rock Band 3 edition of the guitar. Overdrive for guitarists can be deployed by holding the controller in a vertical position or pressing the "Select/Back/-" button. The controller is offered in both wired and wireless versions. "Rock Band" games allow players to apply a "Lefty Flip" setting, supporting left-handed guitar players. The second version of the controller, distributed with "Rock Band 2", introduced quieter fret buttons, a more reliable strum bar, and optical sensor and microphone to help the player calibrate the video and audio output from their television/stereo system's setup.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band 3" introduces "Pro Mode" to the Rock Band franchise for both guitar and bass players, where players finger specific strings and frets instead of colored buttons in Easy to Medium mode, while on Expert mode players are required to play the actual guitar chords and solos, note for note. Two completely new guitar controllers were developed for use in this mode - both of them legitimate MIDI guitars. The first one MadCatz created was based on the bass version of the Fender Mustang, featuring 105 buttons each representing every spot possible on the neck up to 17 frets, and a "string box" where the player strums strings, it was made of plastic and can be a step up from the legacy five lane controllers. The second takes an authentic, actual Squier Stratocaster guitar by Fender, the complete guitar with strings and up to the standard 22 frets, added a "string box" near the strumming area for hit detection, and rebuilt the neck to have a fret-sensing feature in order to tell the game where the player's fingers are on the fret board. There is also a "mute bar" built into the guitar which can be raised or lowered; in the raised position the strings of the guitar are softly muted so as to not ring out. This mute bar is what allows the string box to detect and translate individual string hits for the game. In the lowered position, the guitar strings won't be muted and therefore lets the strings ring out for normal guitar playing outside of the Rock Band game. Tuning this specialized guitar is not necessary for playing Rock Band, as for the game the guitar functions in MIDI mode and the guitar's sound comes from sound files of the actual guitar playing in the songs painstakingly designed from audio master stems of each song for the game. Both of these officially made MIDI guitars utilize Pro Mode, allowing for accurate fingering while playing with the added effect of learning how to play the song for real on guitar, either alone or with friends playing the song with you on any other instrument or controller, even online. Of the two Pro guitars, only the MadCatz Mustang model - with 105 buttons - was capable of playing "legacy" (5-lane) guitar or bass charts. The Mustang was the first available unit, with the Squier becoming available in March 2011.


title: Rock Band

text: The drum set for "Rock Band" features four rubber drum pads and a bass pedal. The pads have colored rings around the edges that correspond to the colored notes on-screen. These pads generally represent a snare drum (red), hi-hat/tom tom (yellow), ride cymbal/tom (blue), and crash cymbals/floor tom (green), though some songs may use the pads for other percussion instruments. The pedal represents the bass drum (orange), with on-screen notes represented as orange horizontal lines across the on-screen drum track. To use the drum controller, players must strike the pads with drum sticks and press the bass pedal to match the scrolling notes on-screen. Drummers can improvise in special "freestyle drum fill" sections of songs, indicated by the on-screen columns for each note turning a solid color. The four pads will commonly change functionality to represent other drums, depending on the requirements of a song. The default pad order can be reversed using the "Lefty Mode" option in the game. The legs of the drum peripheral can adjust in height or be detached if the player wishes to place it on a table-top. The drum controller also features standard controller buttons in the middle of the peripheral for navigating in-game menus. Overdrive for drummers can be deployed by hitting the crash cymbal (green note for right-handed configuration) that appears directly after a freestyle drum fill. The second version of the controller, distributed with "Rock Band 2", introduced quieter, "velocity sensitive" drum pads, a reinforced bass pedal, wireless capabilities, and compatibility with separately sold cymbals. ION Audio has also produced a premium drum kit that includes cymbals and can be upgraded with a drum brain to be used as an electronic drum kit.


title: Rock Band

text: Pro mode for drums was introduced in "Rock Band 3", requiring players to equip the existing drum set with up to three cymbal units. The game marks cymbal notes as circles in contrast to the regular rectangular pad notes, and the drum player is required to hit the cymbals instead of the pads for these notes when they occur. Electronic drum kits could also be used through a MIDI connection.


title: Rock Band

text: The microphone is a standard USB microphone. Players can use most other USB microphones, while Xbox 360 users can substitute their console's headset if they wish, though the option to use a headset over a microphone is absent in "Rock Band 3" and "The Beatles: Rock Band". For the most part, singers are judged on how closely they match the relative pitch of the song's vocalist. During "talking parts" that do not judge pitch, a phoneme detector picks up individual vowels and consonants of the spoken lyrics, songs that contain unclean vocals (growled or screamed vocals) are also judged in this way. Some sections without vocals will display circle notes, allowing for the microphone to be used as a tambourine and cowbell by tapping it or making vocal cues. Overdrive for singers can be deployed by making a brief sound through the microphone during sections of songs, denoted by yellow artwork in the background of the vocals interface.


title: Rock Band

text: A keyboard instrument was introduced with "Rock Band 3". Using a special adapter, players can use any MIDI-compatible electronic keyboard to play such parts with the game. A special MIDI-compatible 25-key keyboard is manufactured by Mad Catz and is bundled with sales of the new game. This unit is shaped like a keytar and is possible to play both sitting down or standing up. The unit's neck contains the Overdrive activation button, and a touchstrip that acts as an effects bar to alter the tone of the instrument. The keyboard unit is not necessary to play non-Pro keyboard parts in "Rock Band 3" as any compatible guitar controller can also be used; similarly, the keyboard can be used to play any non-Pro guitar or bass parts. However, a keyboard unit is required for the Pro versions of keyboard parts, and can only be played by a keyboard.


title: Rock Band

text: The primary mode of play in both games is a "Band World Tour" mode (renamed "Tour" for "Rock Band 2"); in the first "Rock Band", this was limited to a band of two or more players playing locally, but "Rock Band 2" expanded this to any number of players, locally or online. After choosing a band name and hometown city, the band members can create their own rock characters, as well as a band logo. Once setup is complete, the band can begin playing concerts in small venues in their hometown until they unlock vans, tour buses and private jets, which unlock more cities and different continents. Unlocking and completing new gigs unlocks additional songs for play across all game modes. Successful performances also earn the band fans (used as a metric of measuring the band's popularity), stars (which accumulate based on the success of each individual song performed), and in-game cash (which each player can spend at the "Rock Shop"). Most cities and larger venues require the band to achieve a certain number of fans and stars before they are unlocked. In the process, bands can loop through cities multiple times, eventually playing larger venues in cities they have already visited. In-game venues are inspired by real-life venues and often display local art styles from each of the represented cities.


title: Rock Band

text: Players complete unique sets of activities at each venue. Performances consist of single songs, multiple song sets, "make your own" setlists, and mystery setlists. Players are also faced with decisions that Harmonix refers to as "risk-versus-reward." Bands need to choose which sized venue they perform at carefully, as a poor performance at a larger venue poses a greater threat of the band losing fans. For certain performances, bands are faced with an optional challenge that requires the band to average a certain number of stars for their gig in order to reap the rewards. Bands can also choose to perform a benefit concert (earning no in-game money but gaining more fans) or "sell-out" (earning more in-game money but losing fans). Additionally, for certain gigs, bands can compete for band managers, roadies, security personnel, and sound guys, as well as a recording deal with a record label. The "Endless Setlist" allows players to experience an all-day concert atmosphere, as the setlist requires playing the entire game disc's setlist from beginning to end.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band 2" introduced two new modes. "Challenges" allow a band to play through pre-determined setlists, arranged via difficulty, to earn in-game money. These "Challenges" include those based on songs on-disc, as well as through additional songs from the first "Rock Band" or from downloadable content. A "Battle of the Bands" mode consists of limited-time online tournaments updated on a daily basis. Each specific "Battle of the Band" challenge will have a number of songs and may have specific requirements or limitations; for example, a challenge may require a vocalist, or that the band cannot use Overdrive for the challenge. The goal in these challenges is to achieve the best "score", which may be the numerical score, the number of stars earned, or the longest streak of consecutive notes played correctly. This score is tracked on global leaderboards, and allow the players to compare their performance to their friends and others. "Battle of the Bands" challenges utilize both on-disc content and other songs the players may have available.


title: Rock Band

text: The first "Rock Band" features a more traditional "Career" mode for a single player on either lead guitar, drums, or vocals, dividing the on-disk songs into nine tiers arranged by difficulty of the song for that instrument. Each subsequent tier would only be unlocked after completing the songs in the previous tier. The player would earn in-game money based on their performance. This was removed in "Rock Band 2" for the improved "Tour" mode.


title: Rock Band

text: "Quickplay" mode allows up to four players to play any song that has been unlocked. Single players may play head-to-head with another player on the same instrument either through "Score Battles" (both playing at the same time to earn the highest score) or "Tug of War" (each trading off sections of a song, trying to outplay the other). Also included are "Tutorial Mode", which allows players to learn how to play each instrument, and "Practice Mode" which allows players to practice songs for each instrument. A more complete "Drum Trainer" mode was added to "Rock Band 2" to help players learn basic drum patterns and drum fills at various speeds.


title: Rock Band

text: Players can create and customize their own in-game character, complete with adjustable hair, body physique, clothing, tattoos, onstage movements, and instruments. (The PlayStation 2 versions and the Wii version of the original "Rock Band" do not have this feature.) Using cash earned within the game, the player may purchase items at the in-game "Rock Shop," with which they can customize their rock star. The game features an art maker where players can combine different clip art elements to create custom face paint, tattoos, clothing designs, instrument artwork, and band logos. Bands themselves can create their own logo, and in "Rock Band 2", players can assign any generated character to "stand in" for parts that are not presently being played.


title: Rock Band

text: With the release of "Rock Band 2", players are able to use the official "Rock Band" website to create physical merchandise of their characters and band, including posters, T-shirts, as well as six-inch tall figurines. The official website was well-received, receiving 2 Webby Award nominations for Best Games-Related website, and winning the 2010 Webby in this category for TheBeatlesRockBand.com. The custom merchandise service ended on March 31, 2010.


title: Rock Band

text: The Customization features were overhauled for the release of "Rock Band 3", adding additional details to facial customization as opposed to having access only to the game's previous small selection of preset head models, and changing the method of unlocking clothing, instruments, and other accessories to the completion of several "Career Goals" which are typically score-based and range across the variety of instruments (including "Pro Mode"), game play modes, and songs from the "RB3" release, previous titles, and downloadable content. There is no monetary system in "RB3", however the players still earn fans as in the previous installments.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band", "Rock Band 2", "Rock Band 3", and "Rock Band 4" featured soundtracks containing 58, 84, 83, and 65 songs, respectively, spanning many genres of rock music from the 1960s to 2010s, and including licensed music from both well-known artists, as well as independent groups. The majority of songs for "Rock Band" are master recordings, with a handful of cover versions (mainly used in Rock Band's early stages), while all the music from "Rock Band 2" onwards are master recordings.


title: Rock Band

text: "Rock Band" also supports migration of content across games. This enables players to access music that was featured in other "Rock Band" titles within a single game. "Rock Band 2" currently supports content imported from the original "Rock Band", "Lego Rock Band", and "Green Day: Rock Band". "Rock Band 3" allows players to not only access these songs but content exported from "Rock Band 2" as well. While "Lego Rock Band" and "Green Day: Rock Band" allow players to export the full soundtrack from each game, "Rock Band" loses three songs from its soundtrack (four in the European version) during the export process due to licensing restrictions. "Rock Band 2", likewise, will not allow players to export fourteen of the eighty-four songs offered on the disc (however nine of these missing songs were offered as a free download following the release of "Rock Band 3"). Two additional songs from the original "Rock Band" export were previously unavailable within "Rock Band 3", however they have since been returned to availability through a patch. Two further songs which were released on-disc in the European version are unavailable in "Rock Band 3", regardless of whether the songs were obtained through a disc export or through purchase as DLC (for the North American region). Due to the licensing agreement with Apple Corps, "The Beatles: Rock Band" does not allow any exporting of its content whatsoever. "Rock Band Blitz" shipped with twenty-five songs on its soundtrack (twenty-three of which are new, two of which were offered in "Rock Band 2" but not exportable to "3") and all twenty-five songs are cross-compatible with "Rock Band 3". "Blitz" itself is also able to use the full range of content offered on the "Rock Band" downloadable content catalog (including future content, previous imports, and RBN songs), integrating the existing charts into its own gameplay system. Harmonix is working to assure that as much as a player's existing song library will be playable within "Rock Band 4" within the same console family.