Guitar Hero Turns 20 – The Plastic Guitar That United the Gap Among Music Generations
It has been 20 years after the legendary game hit the market in North America, giving everyday gamers the opportunity to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, but try telling that anyone who has mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo before an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues scrolling down the display in time with a song. Every sequence corresponded to specific notes, creating the feel of a genuine performance.
The studio previously experimented with rhythm games before partnering with RedOctane, later acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a remarkable impact on numerous of the artists featured, introducing classic groups to millions of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, remembers the early financial challenges in securing the recordings – even though initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded every song since the cost was so high,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as legendary groups – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was fairly certain it would fail. But once the game took off, and record sales and radio play increased, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was how many parents reached out and thanked us for introducing their children to the music they adored. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Finds a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band one featured act included their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls how the series revived older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been seen as outdated material, but then when it was featured on the game and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it was cool.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 Answer’s first record was still not available in the US, so the game was a key medium of discovery for the band as they went on a North American tour opening for the rock giants. “The roadies were playing the song on the tour bus, and several recognized us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles Enduring Influence
Music's biggest acts soon capitalised on the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in specialized spin-off titles that focused on their music collections and related lore, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said to have made the band greater revenue than any of their records. It sold well over 500,000 copies upon release, and sales of Aerosmith’s music rose significantly during an era as the industry faced decline.
The series continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Recently, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics and extensive customisation options. The song is challenging even in expert mode, not to mention played at double speed while hitting every one of the thousands of cues. They claimed it took nine months of practice.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should use actual weapons and enlist,” says musician the artist.
DragonForce previously wrapped up a successful tour when Through the Fire and Flames appeared in the third game, yet he explains it made them a household name. “I remember our distributors informing us that our records were moving rapidly,” 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 risked overshadow everything else accomplishments. Last year, the track featured in a trailer for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I thought differently, but now I accept it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got their own path in music and I'm pleased we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact of a Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, be it for cars, apparel or games, extends beyond than selling something – it inspires a desire. 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 rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the creators believed there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority installments were released over a mere half-decade between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles like DJ Hero, including a turntable controller, and Band Hero. After that, corporate focus in plastic instruments died down, except for a short-lived revival several years later.
Games such as the fan project and newer releases have maintained the community alive, and there’s expectations of something from the original publisher on the way. Recently formed developers has entered production on their first music game. The initial creators are both involved as special advisers. Are gamers prepared to welcome another game following the classic?
“We thought those games could be similar to sports games allowing annual releases,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music it could remain evergreen, thus I remain optimistic. There’s no reason why it can’t persist for future fans.”
