It has been two decades since Guitar Hero debuted across the Atlantic, offering players everywhere the means to become rock legends. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that anyone who has mastered Free Bird’s lengthy instrumental break in front of an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Created by Harmonix, Guitar Hero provided users with a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues moving along the display in time with a song. Every sequence corresponded to specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic performance.
Harmonix had already experimented in the music genre before partnering with the publisher, later purchased by Activision in 2006. Collaboratively, they established the groundwork for a surprising billion-dollar series that had a significant influence for many musicians featured, introducing decades-old bands to millions of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, remembers the early financial challenges of licensing the recordings – even though initial releases mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music since the cost was so high,” he says. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it was nearly impossible. We couldn’t get acts such as the Who – RedOctane had virtually no money, and we were pretty convinced the project would flop. However, when the game became a hit, and record sales and radio play increased, everyone wanted to participate.”
He adds: “One of the remarkable aspects was how many mothers and fathers got in touch expressing gratitude for exposing their children to the music they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Finds a New Audience
Northern Irish blues-rock band one featured act had Never Too Late in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist recalls the way the game revived classic rock back into vogue: “The game offered a larger, younger audience. Typically such music was considered music that was past it, however once it got featured on the title young people discovered it, suddenly it became trendy. That legitimised the genre, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”
At that time, the Answer’s debut album was still not available in the US, so Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the group during their US tour supporting the rock giants. “The roadies were playing the song on the tour bus, and several recognized us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Major Band Titles Enduring Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated spin-off titles centered around each band’s catalogue and associated lore, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the group more money compared to their records. It sold well over 500,000 units in its first week, and demand for their songs rose of up to 40% during an era as the industry faced decline.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Recently, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat featuring Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult power-metal song popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with almost identical gameplay but an array of personalization features. The song is challenging enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at double speed and without missing every one of its near 4,000 notes. The streamer claimed requiring nine months to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play other games, it doesn't imply you ought to pick up actual weapons and enlist,” says musician Herman Li.
The band had already wrapped up a successful tour before Through the Fire and Flames appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it made them widely recognized. “I recall the record label informing us that our selling albums like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
Indeed, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it has risked eclipsing everything else the band has done. Recently, the song featured in a trailer for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I felt differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only hear one DragonForce song, that's fine – each person has their own path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Legacy from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for cars, apparel or video games, extends beyond than selling something – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “Precisely what we were trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a rock star on the stage. Since the beginning, the co-founders felt that there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
Most installments were released over a mere 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 on peripherals died down, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles such as the fan project and Fortnite Festival have kept the scene active, and there’s expectations of something from the original publisher on the way. A new studio has begun work on its debut rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome a new entry in the spirit of Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games could be similar to sports games where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much fresh tracks it could remain perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue for future fans.”
