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It has been 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market across the Atlantic, giving everyday gamers the tools to feel like rock legends. Not in reality, but try telling that someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed living-room audience.

Developed by the developers, Guitar Hero gave players a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues scrolling down the display in time with a song. Each riff corresponded to specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic performance.

Harmonix previously experimented in the music genre prior to teaming up with RedOctane, later acquired by Activision in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the groundwork for an unlikely massively profitable franchise which made a remarkable influence for many musicians featured, introducing decades-old groups to millions of gaming enthusiasts.

Michael Dornbrook, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, remembers the early financial challenges of licensing the songs – even though initial releases mostly used rerecorded tracks.

“We reproduced all the music since the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights by themselves, it proved extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was pretty convinced it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero took off, album purchases airtime increased, all artists desired to be in.”

He continues: “Among the remarkable aspects was the number of parents reached out and thanked us for introducing their children to the music they adored. It evolved into a multigenerational phenomenon.”

Timeless Music Gains Younger Fans

Irish group one featured act had their track in the 2008 release the popular installment. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls how the series brought classic rock back into vogue: “The game offered a bigger, new demographic. Generally this had been considered music that was past it, but then when it was included in the game and teenagers discovered it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated the genre, eliminating the outdated tag. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”

In 2008, the band's first record remained unreleased stateside, meaning Guitar Hero was a key medium of discovery for the group as they went on US tour opening for the rock giants. “Their crew had on Never Too Late during travel, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.

Major Band Spin-offs Enduring Influence

Music's biggest acts soon capitalised on the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized spin-off titles centered around their music collections and related stories, visuals and legendary status. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the group greater revenue than any of their records. It sold more than 500,000 units upon release, while demand for Aerosmith’s music saw an increase significantly at a time as the industry faced decline.

Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered fanaticism within the community. Earlier this year, a streamer completed a remarkable feat featuring the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song popularized through the game – using a fan-made version, a no-cost alternative with almost identical gameplay but an array of personalization features. The song is difficult enough on the hardest setting, let alone played at double speed and without missing every one of the thousands of cues. The streamer stated it took months of practice to accomplish.

“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should pick up actual weapons and go to war,” notes musician Herman Li.

The band had already wrapped up a profitable run when Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall our distributors calling to tell me that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “It exploded when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”

In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it threatened to overshadow everything else the band has done. Last year, the track was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “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 a unique musical journey and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.

Enduring Legacy from the Iconic Controller

Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for cars, clothes or video games, goes further than selling something – it inspires a desire. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed humans have a natural human desire to make music, and they wanted to leverage innovation to allow people to do it”.

The majority of Guitar Hero games were released in just a five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a turntable controller, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, aside from a short-lived revival several years later.

Titles like the fan project and newer releases have maintained the community alive, with set to be something from the founders on the way. Recently formed developers 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 following the classic?

“We thought those games might become similar to sports games where you can update every year,” he remarks. “With abundant new music that it could be perennially popular, so I’ve always been optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t continue with new generations.”