Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero first launched in North America, providing everyday gamers the means to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who's mastered Free Bird’s lengthy instrumental break in front of a packed living-room audience.
Created by Harmonix, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues moving along the display in time with a song. Every sequence mimicked specific notes, producing the feel of an authentic live show.
Harmonix had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, later purchased by Activision during the mid-2000s. Together, they laid the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar series that had a remarkable influence for many of the artists included, showcasing decades-old groups to millions of gaming enthusiasts.
Michael Dornbrook, former COO of Harmonix, remembers the initial financial challenges of licensing the recordings – despite the fact the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music because the cost was so high,” he says. “Even with the publishing rights by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure acts such as the Who – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was fairly certain it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero took off, album purchases and radio play were going up, all artists desired to participate.”
He adds: “Among the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers reached out and thanked us for introducing their kids to the music they adored. It evolved into an intergenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Gains a New Audience
Irish group one featured act had Never Too Late on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist the artist remembers how the series brought older hits back into vogue: “Guitar Hero offered a larger, younger audience. Generally this had been considered outdated material, but then once it got featured on the game young people were finding it, abruptly it was cool. This validated it, eliminating the outdated tag. It provided our catalog renewed popularity.”
In 2008, the band's first record remained unreleased stateside, so Guitar Hero was a key medium of discovery for the group as they went on US tour supporting AC/DC. “The roadies had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” he notes.
Major Band Titles and Lasting Influence
Rock’s biggest acts quickly took advantage of the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and related lore, visuals and legendary status. In the case of, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly earned the band greater revenue than any of their records. It sold well over 500,000 copies in its first week, and sales of their songs saw an increase significantly at a time when the music business was already collapsing.
The series continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt featuring the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by Guitar Hero – using a fan-made version, a freeware game with similar mechanics and extensive customisation options. The song is challenging even in expert mode, let alone performed at double speed while hitting a single one of the thousands of cues. They claimed requiring months of practice to accomplish.
“The game is a fun, imaginary experience. Just as with Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you ought to use actual weapons and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band had already completed a profitable run when their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall our distributors informing us that our records were moving like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we were playing right ahead of top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it threatened to overshadow everything else accomplishments. Last year, the song featured in a trailer for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I thought otherwise, 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 pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
Enduring Impact from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for cars, apparel or games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were aiming to achieve,” he confirms. “The excitement of being a music icon on the stage. From day one, the creators believed there’s an instinctive urge to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to allow people to participate”.
The majority installments were released over a mere five-year period between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles like the DJ version, complete with a spinning deck, and Band Hero. Subsequently, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.
Games such as Clone Hero and newer releases have maintained the community alive, and there’s expectations of something from the founders in development. A new studio has entered work on its debut rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry following the classic?
“Our team believed those games could be like Madden allowing annual releases,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant new music that it could be perennially popular, so I’ve always been optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t persist with new generations.”
