Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market in North America, giving players everywhere the opportunity to feel like rock legends. Not literally, but try convincing anyone who has mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Created by Harmonix, Guitar Hero gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to match on-screen cues moving along the screen in time with a song. Every sequence corresponded to specific notes, producing the sensation of a genuine performance.
Harmonix had already tried its hand in the music genre prior to teaming up with RedOctane, which was acquired by Activision during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar series that had a significant influence on numerous of the artists included, introducing classic bands to millions of younger players.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the initial budgetary hurdles in securing the songs – even though initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced every song because the dollar figure was so high,” he explains. “Even with the necessary permissions alone, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure acts such as legendary groups – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was pretty convinced it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero took off, album purchases and radio play increased, all artists desired to be in.”
He continues: “Among the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers reached out expressing gratitude for exposing their kids to the songs they adored. It became a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Finds Younger Fans
Irish blues-rock band one featured act had Never Too Late on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers the way the game revived classic rock to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a larger, new demographic. Typically such music was seen as outdated material, however once it got included in the title young people were finding it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated the genre, and got rid of the outdated label. It gave all our music a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s debut album was still not available stateside, so the game served as a primary platform for exposure for the group during their US tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” Mahon says.
Major Band Titles Enduring Impact
Music's biggest acts quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated spin-off titles centered around each band’s catalogue and associated stories, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the band more money than any of their records. It sold more than half a million copies upon release, while sales of their songs saw an increase significantly at a time as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered fanaticism among its fans. Earlier this year, a streamer completed an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult power-metal song popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics but an array of personalization features. The song is difficult enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at increased tempo and without missing a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They stated requiring nine months to accomplish.
“The game offers a, imaginary experience. If you play Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you should pick up a real gun and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band had already wrapped up a successful tour before Through the Fire and Flames appeared on Guitar Hero III, yet he explains it turned them into widely recognized. “I remember the record label calling to tell me that our records were moving rapidly,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
Indeed, DragonForce’s exposure from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it has risked eclipsing all other accomplishments. Last year, the track was used in a trailer for a major film. “Previously I thought otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique musical journey and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, be it for automobiles, apparel or games, extends beyond mere transactions – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “Precisely what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “The excitement of performing as a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural urge to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to allow people to do it”.
Most of Guitar Hero games came out in just a half-decade from 2005 to 2010, featuring derivative titles such as DJ Hero, complete with a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, corporate focus in plastic instruments died down, aside from a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have kept the community active, and there’s set to be a new product from the original publisher in development. Recently formed developers has entered production on their first music game. Original co-founders are participating in advisory roles. Is the world ready to embrace another game following the classic?
“Our team believed those games could be similar to sports games where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music it could remain perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible for it to continue for future fans.”
