Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market across the Atlantic, offering players everywhere the opportunity to feel like a rock star. Not literally, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that anyone who has nailed the epic lengthy guitar solo in front of a packed crowd of friends.
Developed by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes scrolling down the display synchronized to a song. Each riff mimicked particular chords, creating the sensation of a genuine performance.
The studio previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with the publisher, later acquired by the gaming giant in 2006. Together, they established the foundations for an unlikely massively profitable franchise that had a significant impact on numerous musicians included, introducing decades-old groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, remembers the initial budgetary hurdles of licensing the recordings – even though the first two games mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced every song because the cost was so high,” he says. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was fairly certain it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero became a hit, album purchases airtime were going up, all artists desired to participate.”
He adds: “One of the remarkable aspects was the number of mothers and fathers got in touch and thanked us for exposing their children to the songs they adored. It became an intergenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains Younger Fans
Irish group the Answer had Never Too Late in the 2008 release the popular installment. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls how the series revived classic rock back into vogue: “The game offered a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been considered outdated material, but then once it got included in the title young people were finding it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated the genre, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ label. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”
At that time, the band's debut album remained unreleased in the US, so the game was a key medium of discovery for the group as they went on a North American tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew had on Never Too Late during travel, and several recognized us from Guitar Hero,” Mahon says.
Rock’s Heavyweight Spin-offs Enduring Impact
Rock’s biggest acts soon took advantage of the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized game editions centered around their music collections and related stories, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly to have made the band greater revenue than any of their studio albums. It sold well over 500,000 units in its first week, while demand for their songs saw an increase of up to 40% during an era as the industry faced decline.
Guitar Hero still motivates quick-handed fanaticism among its fans. Recently, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt featuring Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult power-metal song made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with similar mechanics but an array of personalization features. This track is challenging even in the hardest setting, let alone played at double speed while hitting a single one of its near 4,000 notes. The streamer claimed it took months of practice to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should use actual weapons and go to war,” says musician Herman Li.
The band had already wrapped up a profitable run when their hit was featured in the third game, but Li says it made them widely recognized. “I recall our distributors informing us that our records were moving rapidly,” he shares. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we were playing right ahead of top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
Indeed, DragonForce’s exposure from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it threatened to overshadow all other the band has done. Recently, the track was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I thought otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” he admits. “Should you just hear a single track, that's fine – each person has their own path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for cars, clothes or video games, extends beyond mere transactions – it evokes a desire. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star on the stage. Since the beginning, the creators believed there’s an instinctive urge to make music, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games came out in just a five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including spin-offs like the DJ version, including a turntable controller, and the band-focused game. Subsequently, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.
Games such as the fan project and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community active, with expectations of something from the original publisher on the way. A new studio has begun work on their first rhythm-based title. The initial creators are participating as special advisers. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry following Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed such titles might become similar to sports games allowing annual releases,” he remarks. “There’s so much fresh tracks that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. There’s no reason why it can’t persist with new generations.”
