It has been 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market in North America, providing everyday gamers the means to feel like a rock star. Not literally, but try convincing anyone who has nailed the epic four-minute instrumental break before a packed living-room audience.
Developed by Harmonix, the game provided users with a guitar-shaped controller to match on-screen cues moving along the display synchronized to the music. Each riff mimicked specific notes, creating the feel of a genuine performance.
The studio previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with RedOctane, later purchased by Activision during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the foundations for an unlikely massively profitable series which made a remarkable influence for many musicians featured, showcasing classic groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
Michael Dornbrook, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the initial financial challenges in securing the recordings – despite the fact the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music since the dollar figure was so high,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure acts such as legendary groups – the publisher had virtually no money, and our team was pretty convinced the project would flop. But once the game became a hit, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers reached out and thanked us for introducing their kids to the songs they adored. It evolved into a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band one featured act had their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers how the series brought older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a bigger, younger audience. Generally such music was seen as outdated material, however once it got included in the game young people were finding it, suddenly it was cool. This validated the genre, and got rid of the outdated tag. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”
At that time, the band's debut album was still unreleased stateside, so the game served as a primary platform for exposure for the band during their US tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late during travel, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Influence
Music's heavyweight names soon capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said to have made the band more money compared to their studio albums. It moved more than 500,000 units in its first week, while demand for their songs saw an increase significantly during an era as the industry faced decline.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire quick-handed fanaticism within the community. Earlier this year, a streamer completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics and extensive personalization features. The song is difficult even in the hardest setting, let alone performed at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. The streamer stated it took months of practice to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play other games, that doesn’t mean you should pick up a real gun and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band previously completed a profitable run before their hit was featured on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it made them widely recognized. “I recall the record label informing us that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “It exploded when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of the headliners at the event.”
Indeed, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it threatened to eclipsing all other the band has done. Recently, the song was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – each person has a unique path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, be it for cars, clothes or video games, extends beyond mere transactions – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “That thrill of being a music icon on the stage. Since the beginning, the creators believed there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released in just a half-decade between 2005 and 2010, including derivative titles such as DJ Hero, complete with a turntable controller, and Band Hero. After that, corporate focus in plastic instruments died down, except for a short-lived revival several years later.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have kept the scene active, and there’s set to be something from the founders on the way. A new studio has begun production on its debut music game. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Are gamers prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“We thought such titles could be like Madden allowing annual update every year,” he remarks. “With abundant new music it could remain evergreen, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible for it to continue with new generations.”
