Marking 20 years after Guitar Hero hit the market across the Atlantic, offering everyday gamers the opportunity to become a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing someone who has mastered Free Bird’s lengthy guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Developed by Harmonix, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes scrolling down the display in time with the music. Each riff mimicked particular chords, creating the feel of a genuine performance.
Harmonix had already tried its hand in the music genre prior to teaming up with the publisher, later acquired by Activision in 2006. Together, they laid the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar series that had a significant impact on numerous musicians featured, showcasing classic bands to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, remembers the early budgetary hurdles in securing the songs – despite the fact initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded all the music because the dollar figure prohibitive,” he says. “Despite having the necessary permissions alone, it was nearly impossible. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – RedOctane had virtually no money, and our team was fairly certain it would fail. But once the game became a hit, album purchases and radio play were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He adds: “One of the amazing things was the number of mothers and fathers got in touch expressing gratitude for introducing their children to the music they adored. It evolved into an intergenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Northern Irish group the Answer included their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Lead musician the artist remembers the way the game brought classic rock to the forefront: “Guitar Hero offered a bigger, younger audience. Typically such music was considered outdated material, but then once it got included in the game and teenagers discovered it, abruptly it was cool. This validated the genre, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ label. It gave our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the band's debut album was still not available in the US, meaning Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the band as they went on a North American tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late during travel, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles Enduring Impact
Rock’s heavyweight names soon capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized spin-off titles that focused on their music collections and associated lore, imagery and legendary status. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the band more money compared to their studio albums. It moved more than 500,000 copies in its first week, while sales of Aerosmith’s music rose significantly at a time as the industry faced decline.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, a streamer achieved an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by the game – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics but an array of personalization features. This track is challenging enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at double speed while hitting every one of the thousands of cues. They claimed requiring months of practice of practice.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should use a real gun and go to war,” says musician the artist.
DragonForce had already wrapped up a profitable run when Through the Fire and Flames appeared in the third game, but Li says it turned them into a household name. “I recall the record label calling to tell me that our selling albums rapidly,” he shares. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we were playing right ahead of the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure from Guitar Hero was so immense that it threatened to overshadow everything else accomplishments. Recently, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only hear a single track, that's fine – everyone’s got their own musical journey and I’m glad we played a role in fans' experiences”.
The Lasting Impact of a Iconic Controller
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, clothes or video games, extends beyond than selling something – it evokes a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “Precisely what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “The excitement of being a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to allow people to participate”.
Most installments were released in just a half-decade between 2005 and 2010, including spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and Band Hero. After that, corporate focus on peripherals waned, aside from a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles like Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have kept the community alive, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders on the way. A new studio has begun production on their first music game. The initial creators are participating as special advisers. Is the world prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“We thought 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 evergreen, thus I remain hopeful. It's entirely possible for it to persist for future fans.”
