Marking 20 years after the legendary game hit the market in North America, giving everyday gamers the tools to become rock legends. Not literally, but try convincing someone who's mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo before a packed living-room audience.
Created by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes moving along the screen in time with a song. Each riff corresponded to specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic performance.
The studio previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with the publisher, later purchased by the gaming giant in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the foundations for a surprising massively profitable series that had a significant influence on numerous musicians featured, introducing decades-old bands to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
Michael Dornbrook, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, recalls the initial budgetary hurdles of licensing the songs – despite the fact initial releases mostly used cover versions.
“We reproduced all the music because the cost prohibitive,” he says. “Despite having the necessary permissions by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like legendary groups – the publisher had virtually no money, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime were going up, all artists desired to participate.”
He continues: “One of the remarkable aspects was how many parents got in touch expressing gratitude for exposing their children to the songs they adored. It evolved into an intergenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Northern Irish blues-rock band the Answer included Never Too Late on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist remembers how the series brought older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero offered a larger, younger audience. Typically this had been seen as outdated material, but then once it got included in the title and teenagers were finding it, abruptly it became trendy. This validated the genre, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided all our music a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s debut album remained not available in the US, so the game served as a primary platform of discovery for the band during their US tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew were playing the song during travel, and several knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Impact
Music's biggest acts quickly took advantage of the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in dedicated game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and related stories, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the band greater revenue than any of their studio albums. It moved well over half a million units upon release, and demand for their songs saw an increase of up to 40% at a time as the industry was already collapsing.
The series continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song popularized through Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with almost identical gameplay but an array of customisation options. The song is challenging even in the hardest setting, not to mention played at double speed and without missing a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed requiring nine months to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, imaginary experience. Just as with Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you ought to pick up actual weapons and go to war,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
DragonForce had already wrapped up a successful tour before their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall our distributors calling to tell me that our selling albums like crazy,” he shares. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of the headliners at the event.”
In fact, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero was so immense that it has risked overshadow all other accomplishments. Recently, the song was used in a trailer for a major film. “In the past I thought differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” he admits. “If you only listen to a single track, that's fine – each person has their own musical journey and I'm pleased we played a role of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Impact of a Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, be it for automobiles, clothes or video games, extends beyond mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star on the stage. From day one, the creators believed humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released in just a five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including derivative titles like DJ Hero, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments waned, aside from a brief comeback several years later.
Titles such as Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have kept the scene active, and there’s set to be something from the original publisher in development. Recently formed developers has entered production on their first rhythm-based title. The initial creators are both involved as special advisers. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry in the spirit of Guitar Hero?
“We thought such titles might become like Madden allowing annual releases,” he remarks. “With abundant fresh tracks that it could be perennially popular, so I’ve always been optimistic. There’s no reason why it can’t persist for future fans.”
