Despite nothing new to the genre, the series has been updated tremendously.
I am also annoyed to hear everyone say this is a copy of RB2. I realize many of the songs are the same, and the instruments and all that. We get it. It's really a matter of preference in which series you like best. If you like Rock Band better, then play it and don't whine. Both games easily have their merits. This game has many improvements that were much needed for the Guitar Hero series, and I think has finally found the right difficulty level. Slightly harder than Aerosmith but no where near the insane difficulty of GH3. The crazy number of songs keeps you busy for a while and the ability to rock out with people online gives this game "replayability", which is huge when you are talking about the value of the game.