It has been two decades since the legendary game debuted in North America, giving everyday gamers the opportunity to become a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who has nailed the epic four-minute guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Developed by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues moving along the display in time with the music. Every sequence mimicked specific notes, producing the feel of a genuine performance.
The studio previously experimented in the music genre prior to teaming up with the publisher, which was acquired by Activision during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they laid the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar series which made a significant impact for many of the artists included, introducing decades-old groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, remembers the early financial challenges of licensing the recordings – even though the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded every song because the dollar figure prohibitive,” he says. “Even with the necessary permissions by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – the publisher had virtually no money, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was the number of parents got in touch and thanked us for exposing their kids to the songs they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds Younger Fans
Irish blues-rock band the Answer included Never Too Late on the 2008 game the popular installment. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls the way the game revived classic rock back into vogue: “Guitar Hero offered a larger, younger audience. Generally this had been considered outdated material, however once it got featured on the title young people were finding it, abruptly it was cool. This validated it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided all our music a new life.”
In 2008, the band's debut album remained unreleased stateside, meaning Guitar Hero served as a primary platform for exposure for the group as they went on a North American tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew were playing the song during travel, and some of them recognized us from Guitar Hero,” Mahon says.
Major Band Spin-offs Enduring Influence
Music's heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in specialized game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and related lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said to have made the group more money than any of their studio albums. It moved well over 500,000 copies upon release, and demand for their songs rose significantly during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered fanaticism within the community. Earlier this year, a streamer achieved a remarkable feat featuring the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with similar gameplay but an array of personalization features. The song is difficult even in the hardest setting, let alone played at double speed while hitting a single one of the thousands of cues. They claimed it took nine months to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero offers a, fantasy thing. If you play Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you should use a real gun and enlist,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band previously wrapped up a profitable run when their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall the record label informing us that our selling albums like crazy,” he shares. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we were playing just before the headliners at the event.”
Indeed, DragonForce’s exposure from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it has risked eclipsing all other the band has done. Last year, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I thought differently, but now I accept it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got their own musical journey and I'm pleased we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact of a Plastic Guitar
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, clothes or video games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Was the game able to harness this? “Precisely what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a music icon in the spotlight. From day one, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural human desire to make music, and they wanted to use technology to allow people to do it”.
The majority installments were released over a mere five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including derivative titles such as DJ Hero, including a turntable controller, and the band-focused game. Subsequently, corporate focus on peripherals waned, except for a short-lived revival several years later.
Titles such as Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have kept the scene active, with set to be a new product from the original publisher on the way. Recently formed developers has entered production on its debut music game. Original co-founders are participating as special advisers. Is the world prepared to welcome a new entry following Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed such titles might become similar to sports games allowing annual releases,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant fresh tracks that it could be perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. There’s no reason why it can’t persist for future fans.”
