It has been 20 years after Guitar Hero debuted across the Atlantic, giving everyday gamers the tools to become rock legends. Not literally, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who has mastered the epic four-minute instrumental break in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by Harmonix, the game gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues moving along the screen in time with the music. Each riff mimicked particular chords, producing the feel of a genuine live show.
The studio previously experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, which was purchased by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a remarkable influence on numerous of the artists included, showcasing decades-old groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, remembers the early budgetary hurdles of licensing the recordings – even though initial releases mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded every song since the dollar figure was so high,” he explains. “Even with the necessary permissions by themselves, it proved extremely difficult. We failed to secure bands like the Who – the publisher had virtually no money, and our team was pretty convinced the project would flop. However, when the game took off, album purchases and radio play were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He adds: “Among the remarkable aspects was the number of parents reached out and thanked us for introducing their kids to the songs they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds Younger Fans
Irish blues-rock band the Answer included their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Lead musician the artist remembers the way the game brought older hits back into vogue: “The game provided a bigger, younger audience. Generally this had been seen as music that was past it, but then once it got featured on the title young people discovered it, abruptly it was cool. That legitimised the genre, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ label. It provided all our music renewed popularity.”
At that time, the band's first record remained unreleased stateside, meaning the game served as a primary platform of discovery for the group as they went on a North American tour supporting the rock giants. “The roadies had on Never Too Late during travel, and several recognized us from Guitar Hero,” Mahon says.
Major Band Titles Enduring Influence
Music's heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the game's success, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in dedicated game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and related stories, imagery and legendary status. For example, the Aerosmith edition, it was said earned the band more money than any of their records. It sold well over half a million units in its first week, and demand for their songs rose significantly at a time when the music business was already collapsing.
The series continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved 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 gameplay and extensive customisation options. This track is challenging enough on expert mode, let alone performed at double speed while hitting every one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed requiring nine months of practice.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should pick up actual weapons and enlist,” says DragonForce guitarist the artist.
The band previously completed a successful tour when Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, but Li says it turned them into a household name. “I remember the record label informing us that our selling albums like crazy,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it risked eclipsing all other the band has done. Recently, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I thought otherwise, but now I accept it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got their own musical journey and I'm pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
Enduring Legacy of a Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for automobiles, apparel or video games, extends beyond than selling something – it inspires a longing. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “That thrill of performing as a music icon in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed there’s an instinctive human desire to make music, and they wanted to use technology to allow people to do it”.
The majority installments were released over a mere half-decade from 2005 to 2010, including derivative titles like DJ Hero, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest on peripherals waned, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles like Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have maintained the community alive, with expectations of a new product from the original publisher in development. A new studio has begun work on their first rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world ready to embrace another game in the spirit of the classic?
“Our team believed those games might become like Madden where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music that it could be perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue with new generations.”
