🔗 Share this article

It has been two decades since the legendary game first launched in North America, giving everyday gamers the opportunity to become a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who's mastered Free Bird’s lengthy guitar solo before a packed living-room audience.

Developed by Harmonix, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes moving along the display in time with a song. Every sequence corresponded to specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic live show.

Harmonix previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with the publisher, later acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar franchise that had a remarkable impact on numerous of the artists included, introducing decades-old groups to millions of younger players.

A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the initial budgetary hurdles in securing the songs – despite the fact initial releases mostly used rerecorded tracks.

“We rerecorded all the music because the dollar figure prohibitive,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it proved extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as the Who – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once the game became a hit, and record sales airtime increased, everyone wanted to participate.”

He continues: “One of the remarkable aspects was the number of parents reached out expressing gratitude for introducing their kids to the music they loved. It became an intergenerational thing.”

Classic Rock Finds Younger Fans

Northern Irish blues-rock band the Answer included their track in the 2008 release the popular installment. Guitarist Paul Mahon recalls how the series revived classic rock back into vogue: “Guitar Hero provided a bigger, new demographic. Generally this had been seen as music that was past it, however once it got included in the title and teenagers were finding it, abruptly it was cool. This validated it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ label. It provided all our music a new life.”

At that time, the band's debut album was still unreleased stateside, so the game was a key medium of discovery for the group during their a North American tour supporting AC/DC. “The roadies were playing the song during travel, and several knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.

Major Band Spin-offs and Lasting Influence

Rock’s heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the game's success, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and related lore, visuals and legendary status. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the group more money compared to their studio albums. It sold more than 500,000 copies upon release, and sales of Aerosmith’s music saw an increase significantly at a time as the industry was already collapsing.

Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication within the community. Recently, an online personality completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – an infamously tough anthem made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar gameplay but an array of personalization features. This track is challenging enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. The streamer claimed it took months of practice of practice.

“Guitar Hero offers a, imaginary experience. Just as with Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you should use a real gun and enlist,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.

The band had already wrapped up a profitable run before their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into a household name. “I recall the record label informing us that our selling albums like crazy,” he shares. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed just before top acts at the event.”

Indeed, the band's visibility via the game was so immense that it threatened to eclipsing all other accomplishments. Recently, the song featured in a trailer for a major film. “In the past I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique path in music and I'm pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.

The Lasting Impact from the Iconic Controller

Top-tier promotion, be it for cars, clothes or games, extends beyond mere transactions – it evokes a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “That thrill of being a rock star in the spotlight. From day one, the creators felt that humans have a natural urge to make music, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.

The majority of Guitar Hero games came out in just a half-decade from 2005 to 2010, including spin-offs such as the DJ version, complete with a turntable controller, and Band Hero. After that, corporate focus in plastic instruments waned, aside from a short-lived revival in 2015.

Games such as the fan project and newer releases have kept the community alive, with expectations of a new product from the original publisher in development. Recently formed developers has begun production on their first music game. The initial creators are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world ready to embrace another game following the classic?

“Our team believed such titles could be like Madden allowing annual update every year,” he remarks. “With abundant fresh tracks that it could be perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue for future fans.”