Thanks to Pearl Jam, Shawn James and a-ha, The Last Of Us season 2 made a big impact on budding guitarists, new data suggests, but here's why fans of the game may have learned the songs already
Ultimate Guitar reports huge rises in views of Last Of Us-related tab

In the week that The Last Of Us season 2 drew to a close, Ultimate Guitar has revealed that the HBO show had a significant impact on the songs in its tab library that guitarists wanted to play.
While there has been some criticism of the high number of ‘guitar singalongs’ that featured in the 7-episode run, large numbers of players seemingly embraced their usage. Views of Shawn James’ Through The Valley, for example, rose 894% after its emotional appearance in episode 2, and a-ha’s Take On Me got a whopping 1,144% boost in the week after it was heard in episode 4.
Views of Pearl Jam’s Future Days, meanwhile, rose by 453% in the days following the premiere of episode 6.
Episode 2’s impact also helped views of Gustavo Santaolalla’s main theme rise by 218% after it aired.
It had long been anticipated that the guitar would play a leading role in The Last Of Us’s second season. A 314ce Taylor model featured in the video game that inspired the show, and made an appearance in the trailer for season 2.
It’s also worth remembering that The Last Of Us 2 video game featured a mini game that showed you the chords to a number of famous songs, including those aforementioned ones from Pearl Jam and Shawn James. So if you’ve played that, maybe you didn’t need that guitar tab after all....
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.