Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero first launched across the Atlantic, offering everyday gamers the opportunity to become a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who has mastered the epic four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed living-room audience.
Created by Harmonix, Guitar Hero gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to follow coloured notes moving along the screen in time with a song. Each riff mimicked specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic live show.
Harmonix had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, which was purchased by Activision during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a significant impact on numerous musicians included, showcasing classic bands to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
Michael Dornbrook, former COO from the developer, recalls the initial financial challenges of licensing the recordings – even though initial releases primarily featured cover versions.
“We rerecorded every song since the dollar figure was so high,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure acts such as the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was pretty convinced it would fail. But once Guitar Hero took off, and record sales and radio play were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He continues: “Among the amazing things was the number of parents got in touch and thanked us for exposing their children to the songs they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Timeless Music Finds Younger Fans
Northern Irish group the Answer included their track in the 2008 release the popular installment. Lead musician Paul Mahon remembers the way the game brought older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a larger, younger audience. Generally such music was considered music that was past it, but then once it got included in the title and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it was cool. That legitimised the genre, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s first record was still not available in the US, meaning Guitar Hero was a key medium for exposure for the group as they went on a North American tour supporting the rock giants. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late on the tour bus, and several recognized us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Spin-offs and Lasting Influence
Music's biggest acts quickly took advantage of the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and related stories, imagery and legendary status. In the case of, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the band more money compared to their studio albums. It moved well over 500,000 copies in its first week, and sales of their songs rose significantly during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, a streamer completed an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with almost identical mechanics but an array of personalization features. The song is challenging enough on expert mode, let alone played at increased tempo while hitting every one of its near 4,000 notes. They stated it took nine months of practice.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you should pick up a real gun and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist the artist.
The band previously completed a successful tour when their hit appeared in the third game, yet he explains it turned them into a household name. “I remember our distributors calling to tell me that our records were moving rapidly,” he shares. “Popularity surged on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, 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 promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I thought differently, but now I accept it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to a single track, that's fine – each person has their own musical journey and I’m glad we’ve been part of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Legacy from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, apparel or video games, goes further than selling something – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “That thrill of being a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the creators felt that there’s an instinctive human desire to create songs, and they wanted to use technology to allow people to do it”.
The majority installments were released in just a half-decade between 2005 and 2010, featuring spin-offs like the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and Band Hero. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, except for a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles like Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have kept the community alive, with set to be a new product from the original publisher on the way. Recently formed developers has entered work on their first rhythm-based title. The initial creators are participating as special advisers. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry following the classic?
“We thought those games might become similar to sports games where you can releases,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant new music that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. It's entirely possible for it to continue for future fans.”
