Guitar Hero Essentials on iTunes

To help music novices get up to speed with the ever-shifting cultural zeitgeist, Apple's iTunes Store offers iTunes Essentials. Supposedly compiled by in-house music experts, the premade playlists--which offer songs for sale solo or as a set--are centered around an artist or theme. They start with a set collection of songs, then expand to advanced collections, and then rare "Deep Cuts" by the artists--which range from Bob Marley to the Afghan Whigs--or focused on themes such as "'90s One Hit Wonders" to "Jock Rock Anthems."

Not one to miss a synergistic opportunity, Activision and Apple decided to cross-pollinate the iTunes Essentials trend with the Guitar Hero phenomenon. Today, the companies launched an entire Guitar Hero Essentials page on iTunes (installation required) that offers premade playlists of songs from all four games in the series. The main difference is the GH Essentials playlists feature almost entirely original recordings, versus the covers that dominate Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s. Guitar Hero III will sport many original recordings when it arrives on the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 next week. PC and Macintosh versions of the game are due out in mid-November.

The Guitar Hero Essentials page on iTunes also sports personal playlists from Guns 'N' Roses' Slash, one of the real-life axemen who serve as a Guitar Hero III boss, as well as Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. Jones' punk rock quartet's latest concert is being sponsored by Activision.