Marking two decades after the legendary game first launched in North America, providing everyday gamers the tools to feel like rock legends. Not in reality, but try telling that someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed living-room audience.
Created by Harmonix, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to follow coloured notes scrolling down the display in time with a song. Every sequence mimicked specific notes, producing the feel of an authentic performance.
Harmonix previously tried its hand in the music genre prior to teaming up with the publisher, which was acquired by Activision in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise which made a significant influence on numerous of the artists featured, introducing decades-old bands to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, remembers the early budgetary hurdles in securing the recordings – even though the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music since the cost was so high,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights alone, it was nearly impossible. We couldn’t get acts such as the Who – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were fairly certain it would fail. But once Guitar Hero became a hit, and record sales and radio play were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “One of the remarkable aspects was the number of parents got in touch and thanked us for exposing their kids to the songs they adored. It evolved into an intergenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Gains Younger Fans
Northern Irish group the Answer included their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers the way the game revived older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero offered a bigger, new demographic. Generally this had been considered outdated material, but then when it was included in the title and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it became trendy. That legitimised it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the band's first record was still not available stateside, so Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the band as they went on US tour supporting the rock giants. “Their crew had on the song during travel, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles Enduring Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in specialized spin-off titles that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and legendary status. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly earned the band more money than any of their studio albums. It sold more than 500,000 units in its first week, and demand for Aerosmith’s music saw an increase of up to 40% during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire quick-handed fanaticism among its fans. Earlier this year, a streamer completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with almost identical mechanics and extensive personalization features. This track is challenging enough on 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 offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, that doesn’t mean you ought to pick up actual weapons and go to war,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
DragonForce had already completed a successful tour before Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, yet he explains it made them widely recognized. “I remember our distributors calling to tell me that our records were moving rapidly,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we were playing right ahead of top acts at the event.”
Indeed, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it threatened to eclipsing everything else accomplishments. Last year, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt differently, but now I accept it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to a single track, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got a unique path in music and I'm pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
The Lasting Legacy of a Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for cars, clothes or games, goes further than selling something – it inspires a longing. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “The excitement of performing as a music icon on the stage. From day one, the creators believed humans have a natural human desire to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released over a mere half-decade from 2005 to 2010, featuring derivative titles like the DJ version, complete with a spinning deck, and Band Hero. Subsequently, corporate focus on peripherals died down, except for a brief comeback in 2015.
Games like the fan project and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community active, and there’s set to be something from the founders in development. Recently formed developers has begun work on its debut music game. The initial creators are participating in advisory roles. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry in the spirit of the classic?
“Our team believed such titles could be similar to sports games allowing annual update every year,” he remarks. “With abundant new music it could remain evergreen, so I’ve always been optimistic. There’s no reason why it can’t continue with new generations.”
