Videogames like Rock Band and Guitar Hero may be one of the few bright lights in the flailing music industry, but real-life guitar heroes like Jimmy Page and Jack White are unimpressed.

“If you start with the first track on the first (self-titled Led Zeppelin) album, “Good Times Bad Times,” and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that? Let alone Dad on a Christmas morning? There might be a lot of alcohol to be consumed over Christmas, he still ain’t gonna get it,” Led Zeppelin founder Page told journalists at a Beverly Hills news conference on Friday.

Added White, the frontman for the White Stripes: “I do know it’s depressing to have a label come and tell you that this is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music. That’s like the only outlet now, that you have to put it in a videogame to get it in front of them. That’s a little sad. But I don’t like to tell people what format that they get things in … But I do think there’s a loss of romance.”

The duo, along with U2 axeman the Edge, co-star in the feature documentary “It Might Get Loud,” which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 14. The film, from Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim (”An Inconvenient Truth”), depicts each rocker’s romance with his guitar, and climaxes on a Hollywood soundstage where they jam and swap war stories.

“There are a lot of great guitar players who are virtuosos who can be note-perfect and can play extraordinary ways, but only a few I think that are searchers,” Guggenheim said of his casting choices. “We were just trying to find three really fascinating people who are still searching, and still trying to tell their story.”

The Edge is rehearsing for U2’s upcoming world tour, so he was unable to attend the press event. Asked whether the film might inspire more-formal collaborations between Page and White, both were cagey.

“I think Jimmy needs to practice a little more,” White joked.

As the BRITs music awards got underway at Earls Court in London, one name stood out as a major absentee from the nominations announced last month — Robert Plant.

The ex-Led Zeppelin frontman was the big winner at the Grammys 10 days ago, scooping five prizes for his collaboration with bluegrass queen Alison Krauss. And yet the Englishman notched precisely zero nominations at the BRITs, the showcase for British music.

Surely some mistake? Could this be the British music establishment’s way of punishing the 60-year-old for scuppering a Led Zeppelin reunion tour? Any other conspiracy theories out there?

Music royalty will gather in Los Angeles on Sunday for the 51st annual Grammys but despite a dazzling star line-up, few big labels are throwing the glitzy after-parties of yesteryear given the recession and industry’s years-long malaise.

Some industry watchers even think the Grammys, which have seen viewership slide, need a facelift to revamp several award categories and change the show’s format to stay current with a generation of fans who have long bypassed mainstream music events.

“The Grammys are looking pretty long in the tooth when you consider the fragmentation of the music culture” said Robert Thompson, professor of culture at Syracuse University.

As usual, the broadcast will be performance-heavy, featuring best album nominees; best new artist nominees Adele and the Jonas Brothers; and veterans such as Paul McCartney and U2.
The night’s top contenders are rapper Lil Wayne with eight nominations and British rock band Coldplay with seven.

The economic crisis is just the latest insult to the music business which has lost its groove and 33 percent in U.S. album sales since 2000 amid a faster-than-predicted shift to digital distribution. But despite all the gloom and doom, the beat goes on. “A lot of people have in the industry have been beaten up in the past few years although the art form is vibrant,” said Mike McGuire, analyst with Gartner.

“We have to find a solution to the economic woes, but this is still a celebration of the artistic product, whether people are buying it or not,” said entertainment attorney Jay Cooper.

 Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” is vying in the best album category against “In Rainbows” by fellow British rockers, Radiohead, which bypassed major labels to distribute the album on its own Web site at a price to be determined by consumers. It later released the album through a small label owned by rocker Dave Matthews.

Another indie release is considered the favorite: “Raising Sand,” an acclaimed collaboration between former Led Zeppelin rocker Robert Plant and American bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, while two rappers are also vying for the prize: Lil Wayne with “Tha Carter III” and Ne-Yo with “Year of the Gentleman.”

The album of the year is just one of 110 categories, with prizes to be given out in such genres as country, pop, reggae, bluegrass, polka, blues and spoken word. All but a dozen awards are hurriedly handed out before the main event kicks off at 8 p.m. EST (1 a.m. GMT Monday)

Led Zeppelin fans praying for good news on a rumored reunion tour would not have been encouraged by guitarist Jimmy Page at a Toronto film festival press conference where he was promoting the documentary film “It Might Get Loud”.

The film, a love letter to the electric guitar, features Page, U2 guitarist The Edge, and White Stripes frontman Jack White discussing their musical backgrounds and jamming with each other on a soundstage.

But with all three rockers assembled in Toronto, the “elephant in the room”, as one reporter put it, was whether recent jam sessions with Page, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer Jason Bonham would lead to a tour.

Page and Jones are founding band members, while Bonham is the son of original drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980.

“We’re not actually really recording. We played at the O2 (concert in London last year). That was our reunion,” Page said, adding “It’s nothing as monumental as what people are speculating and projecting.”

Moderator George Stroumboulopoulos was clearly trying to shield Page from having to answer questions about a reunion, redirecting questions from two reporters on the subject.

Finally, on the third try, Page answered.

“If you’re going to do a reunion, you need four members,” he said, referring to lead singer Robert Plant’s commitment to touring with U.S. country singer Alison Krauss.

Plant is nearing the end of a six-month world tour with bluegrass queen Krauss to promote their acclaimed 2007 album “Raising Sand.”

So fans looking for a “Whole Lotta Love,” are getting none of it from the rock icons, at least for now.