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Marking 20 years since the legendary game debuted in North America, offering everyday gamers the means to feel like a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing someone who has mastered the epic lengthy guitar solo before an enthusiastic crowd of friends.

Developed by Harmonix, the game gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to match on-screen cues scrolling down the display in time with the music. Each riff mimicked specific notes, producing the feel of an authentic live show.

Harmonix had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, later purchased by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they laid the foundations for a surprising billion-dollar series which made a remarkable influence for many of the artists included, showcasing classic bands to a new generation of younger players.

A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the early financial challenges in securing the recordings – even though initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.

“We rerecorded every song since the cost prohibitive,” he says. “Even with the necessary permissions alone, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as legendary groups – RedOctane had virtually no money, and we were fairly certain it would fail. However, when the game took off, album purchases airtime were going up, 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 loved. It became an intergenerational phenomenon.”

Classic Rock Finds a New Audience

Irish blues-rock band one featured act included their track on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls the way the game revived classic rock to the forefront: “Guitar Hero offered a larger, younger audience. Typically such music was seen as music that was past it, however when it was included in the title young people were finding it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated the genre, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It gave all our music renewed popularity.”

At that time, the Answer’s debut album remained unreleased stateside, so the game served as a primary platform of discovery for the band during their a North American tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and several knew us thanks to the game,” he notes.

Major Band Titles Enduring Influence

Rock’s biggest acts soon capitalised on the game's success, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly earned the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved more than half a million units upon release, while sales of Aerosmith’s music rose of up to 40% at a time as the industry faced decline.

The series continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality completed an impressive attempt featuring the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar gameplay but an array of personalization features. This track is challenging even in expert mode, let alone played at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. The streamer stated requiring nine months to accomplish.

“Guitar Hero offers a, imaginary experience. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you should pick up a real gun and enlist,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.

The band had already wrapped up a profitable run when their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it made them a household name. “I recall the record label calling to tell me that our records were moving like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged on the subsequent tour, and we performed right ahead of top acts at the event.”

In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game proved so vast that it threatened to eclipsing everything else the band has done. Recently, the song featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” he admits. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – each person has a unique musical journey and I’m glad we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.

Enduring Legacy of a Plastic Guitar

Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for automobiles, apparel or games, extends beyond than selling something – it inspires a longing. Was the game able to harness this? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “The excitement of being a music icon on the stage. From day one, the creators believed humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to allow people to do it”.

Most of Guitar Hero games were released over a mere five-year period between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles like the DJ version, including a turntable controller, and Band Hero. Subsequently, corporate focus on peripherals waned, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.

Titles such as Clone Hero and Fortnite Festival have kept the scene alive, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders in development. A new studio has begun production on its debut rhythm-based title. The initial creators are both involved in advisory roles. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry following the classic?

“Our team believed those games could be similar to sports games allowing annual update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. It's entirely possible for it to persist with new generations.”