It has been two decades since the legendary game first launched across the Atlantic, giving players everywhere the means to become rock legends. Not literally, but try convincing someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, the game gave players a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues scrolling down the display in time with the music. Each riff corresponded to particular chords, producing the feel of an authentic performance.
The studio had already experimented in the music genre before partnering with RedOctane, which was acquired by Activision in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise which made a significant impact on numerous musicians featured, showcasing decades-old groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, remembers the early financial challenges of licensing the songs – even though the first two games mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded every song since the cost was so high,” he says. “Even with the necessary permissions alone, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once Guitar Hero became a hit, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He adds: “One of the amazing things was the number of mothers and fathers reached out expressing gratitude for exposing their children to the songs they loved. It evolved into an intergenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Northern Irish blues-rock band the Answer included their track on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist remembers the way the game brought classic rock back into vogue: “The game offered a bigger, new demographic. Generally such music was considered outdated material, however when it was included in the title and teenagers discovered it, abruptly it was cool. That legitimised it, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ label. It gave all our music renewed popularity.”
In 2008, the Answer’s debut album remained unreleased stateside, meaning Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the group during their a North American tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew had on Never Too Late during travel, and several recognized us thanks to the game,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles Enduring Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names soon capitalised on the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated game editions centered around their music collections and associated lore, imagery and legendary status. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the group more money compared to their studio albums. It sold well over 500,000 units in its first week, while sales of their songs saw an increase of up to 40% during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
The series still motivates nimble-fingered dedication within the community. Earlier this year, a streamer completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics and extensive personalization features. This track is challenging enough on the hardest setting, let alone performed at increased tempo while hitting every one of the thousands of cues. They claimed requiring nine months to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, imaginary experience. If you play Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you ought to use actual weapons and go to war,” notes musician Herman Li.
The band had already completed a profitable run before their hit was featured on Guitar Hero III, yet he explains it turned them into a household name. “I remember the record label informing us that our records were moving rapidly,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
Indeed, the band's visibility via the game was so immense that it risked eclipsing all other accomplishments. Recently, the song was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I thought differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique musical journey and I’m glad we’ve been part of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, apparel or games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “That’s exactly what we were aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a music icon in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the creators felt that there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to allow people to participate”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games came out in just a half-decade from 2005 to 2010, including derivative titles like DJ Hero, complete with a turntable controller, and the band-focused game. Subsequently, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, except for a brief comeback in 2015.
Games like Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community alive, with set to be a new product from the original publisher on the way. Recently formed developers has begun work on their first rhythm-based title. The initial creators are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome another game following the classic?
“We thought those games could be similar to sports games where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much fresh tracks that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue with new generations.”
