Marking two decades since the legendary game debuted in North America, offering everyday gamers the opportunity to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who's mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by the developers, Guitar Hero gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues moving along the display synchronized to a song. Each riff corresponded to specific notes, producing the feel of an authentic live show.
Harmonix previously experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, later purchased by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar franchise that had a significant influence for many of the artists included, showcasing classic bands to a new generation 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 primarily featured cover versions.
“We reproduced every song because the cost was so high,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as legendary groups – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. However, when the game became a hit, album purchases and radio play were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He adds: “Among the amazing things was how many parents got in touch and thanked us for introducing their children to the music they adored. It became an intergenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Gains a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band the Answer included Never Too Late on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers the way the game brought older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a bigger, younger audience. Generally this had been seen as outdated material, however when it was featured on the game and teenagers were finding it, abruptly it was cool. That legitimised it, eliminating the outdated tag. It gave our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the band's first record was still not available in the US, so Guitar Hero served as a primary platform for exposure for the group as they went on a North American tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles and Lasting Impact
Music's heavyweight names soon took advantage of the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others starring in specialized game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and associated stories, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the group more money than any of their studio albums. It sold well over 500,000 copies in its first week, while sales of their songs saw an increase significantly at a time as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire quick-handed dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, a streamer completed 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 performed at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. The streamer stated requiring months of practice to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play other games, that doesn’t mean you ought to pick up actual weapons and go to war,” notes musician Herman Li.
DragonForce previously wrapped up a successful tour when Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, but Li says it made them widely recognized. “I recall our distributors informing us that our selling albums rapidly,” he shares. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we were playing just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it has threatened to eclipsing all other accomplishments. Last year, the song was used in a trailer for a major film. “Previously I felt differently, but now I accept it,” Li says. “Should you just hear one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got a unique path in music and I'm pleased we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Legacy of a Plastic Guitar
The best promotion, be it for cars, apparel or video games, goes further than selling something – it evokes a desire. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “That’s exactly what we were aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a music icon in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed there’s an instinctive urge to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority installments were released over a mere five-year period between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles such as DJ Hero, complete with a spinning deck, and Band Hero. Subsequently, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, aside from a short-lived revival several years later.
Games such as the fan project and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community alive, and there’s set to be something from the original publisher in development. Recently formed developers has begun work on their first music game. The initial creators are participating as special advisers. Is the world ready to embrace another game in the spirit of the classic?
“Our team believed such titles might become like Madden where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant new music it could remain perennially popular, so I’ve always been optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue for future fans.”