It has been 20 years after the legendary game first launched in North America, giving players everywhere the tools to become rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who has mastered the epic four-minute instrumental break in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by the developers, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes moving along the screen synchronized to the music. Every sequence corresponded to particular chords, producing the sensation of an authentic performance.
Harmonix had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, later acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they laid the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise that had a significant influence on numerous musicians included, showcasing decades-old groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, recalls the early budgetary hurdles of licensing the songs – despite the fact the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded every song since the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights alone, it proved nearly impossible. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – the publisher had virtually no money, and our team was fairly certain the project would flop. But once Guitar Hero became a hit, and record sales and radio play increased, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “Among the remarkable aspects was how many parents reached out expressing gratitude for introducing their kids to the songs they loved. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Gains a New Audience
Northern Irish blues-rock band one featured act included their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers how the series brought classic rock to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided 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 Generally this had been considered outdated material, but then when it was included in the title and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it was cool. This validated the genre, eliminating the outdated label. It provided all our music a new life.”
At that time, the band's first record remained not available stateside, meaning Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the band as they went on a North American tour supporting the rock giants. “The roadies were playing Never Too Late during travel, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names soon capitalised on the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said earned the group greater revenue than any of their studio albums. It sold well over half a million copies in its first week, and sales of their songs saw an increase significantly at a time when the music business was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered fanaticism among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by the game – using a fan-made version, a no-cost alternative with almost identical gameplay and extensive personalization features. This track is difficult enough on expert mode, not to mention played at increased tempo while hitting a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They stated it took nine months to accomplish.
“The game is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you should pick up a real gun and go to war,” says musician the artist.
DragonForce previously wrapped up a profitable run when their hit was featured on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall our distributors informing us that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we were playing right ahead of the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game proved so vast that it risked overshadow everything else the band has done. Recently, the song was used in a trailer for a major film. “Previously I thought otherwise, but now I accept it,” he admits. “If you only listen to a single track, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got their own musical journey and I’m glad we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
Enduring Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, clothes or video games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “Precisely what we were aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural urge to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to allow people to participate”.
The majority installments were released over a mere half-decade between 2005 and 2010, including derivative titles such as DJ Hero, complete with a spinning deck, and Band Hero. Subsequently, corporate focus on peripherals died down, aside from a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles such as the fan project and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community alive, with set to be something from the original publisher in development. A new studio has entered production on its debut music game. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world ready to embrace a new entry in the spirit of the classic?
“We thought those games might become like Madden allowing annual releases,” he remarks. “With abundant new music it could remain evergreen, thus I remain hopeful. There’s no reason for it to continue for future fans.”
