It has been two decades since the legendary game debuted in North America, offering players everywhere the opportunity to feel like a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who's nailed the epic four-minute instrumental break before an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Developed by the developers, the game gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to follow coloured notes moving along the display synchronized to a song. Every sequence mimicked specific notes, creating the sensation of a genuine performance.
The studio previously experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, which was acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they laid the foundations for an unlikely massively profitable franchise that had a significant influence for many musicians included, showcasing classic bands to millions of younger players.
Michael Dornbrook, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the initial budgetary hurdles of licensing the songs – even though the first two games primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music since the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it proved nearly impossible. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – RedOctane had virtually no money, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime increased, all artists desired to be in.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was the number of mothers and fathers reached out and thanked us for exposing their children to the music they loved. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Irish group one featured act included their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist recalls how the series revived older hits back into vogue: “Guitar Hero offered a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been seen as outdated material, however when it was included in the game young people discovered it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated it, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ label. It provided our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s debut album was still not available stateside, so the game was a key medium of discovery for the group as they went on a North American tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late during travel, and several recognized us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Major Band Titles Enduring Influence
Music's heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in specialized game editions centered around each band’s catalogue and related lore, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly earned the band greater revenue compared to their studio albums. It sold well over half a million copies in its first week, and demand for Aerosmith’s music saw an increase significantly at a time as the industry faced decline.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered fanaticism among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with similar mechanics and extensive personalization features. The song is challenging enough on expert mode, let alone performed at increased tempo while hitting every one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed it took months of practice of practice.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. If you play Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you should use a real gun and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist the artist.
The band previously wrapped up a successful tour before Through the Fire and Flames appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it made them a household name. “I recall our distributors calling to tell me that our selling albums like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged on the subsequent tour, and we were playing just before the headliners at the event.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game proved so vast that it has threatened to eclipsing all other the band has done. Last year, the song featured in promotional material for a major film. “Previously I felt differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” he admits. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – each person has a unique musical journey and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for cars, apparel or games, extends beyond mere transactions – it evokes a desire. Was the game able to harness this? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a music icon on the stage. From day one, the co-founders felt that there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority installments were released in just a five-year period between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles such as the DJ version, including a turntable controller, and Band Hero. After that, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, aside from a short-lived revival several years later.
Games like the fan project and Fortnite Festival have maintained the scene alive, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders on the way. A new studio has begun work on its debut music game. The initial creators are participating as special advisers. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry following the classic?
“Our team believed those games could be like Madden where you can releases,” he remarks. “There’s so much new music it could remain evergreen, thus I remain hopeful. There’s no reason why it can’t persist for future fans.”
