WHAT KILLED GUITAR HERO? The rise and a fall…

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Come hang out on Twitch! www.twitch.tv/finnmckenty

[@Narcolepsykid]

A late nineties early 2 thousands enhanced CD video would be awesome. I remember back in the day buying singles with with enhanced content all the time

[@varkolak7779]

Probably Microsoft wants to bring Guitar Hero back since they acquired Activision according to a rumor.

[@AustinPowerz-bn5ry]

Dude this was a great video thank you so much.

[@varkolak7779]

@@AustinPowerz-bn5ry kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqqcXoNmZZeBabs

[@drummerTBM]

I wish he would have elaborated more on guitar hero live. It was such a different game in every way. And a nice detail would have been to mention the arcade game you can still find everywhere today (just played one last week) at arcades everywhere.

[@l3rendd]

The impact that Guitar Hero 3 had on my music taste is actually nuts and im sure im not the only one

[@sunny1992s]

I know for a fact that I wouldn't be listening to the Dead Kennedys and Sonic Youth in my teen years if I never played Guitar Hero.

[@notavailable8955]

i woul'nt have discovred weezer or pearl jam without it

[@QuincyKane]

You're not! I discovered a lot of good metalcore bands through those games!

[@ConquerTheOcean]

If it wasn’t for guitar hero I wouldn’t know about senses fail and the devil wears Prada

[@alonedownthere47]

was just telling someone this tonight before i even saw this video existed lmao

[@zeroshift11]

"They did what AAA game studios almost always do, and just kept running this thing into the ground." Never have truer words been spoken.

[@NexusKin]

Exactly. Look at how many entries and spinoffs were released just in 2009 alone. Oversaturation definitely was one of the main reasons.

[@darthbanana7]

bro read the Gospel of John 🤣

[@Burn3r10]

Not surprised with Activision.

[@mariogallego5513]

@@Burn3r10 as a WoW player, I completely agree

[@gurnblanston5000]

@@NexusKin Competition or lack of album choices perhaps? I am not a gamer or young, but thought it's a great teaching tool.

[@guilhermeptp3954]

So sad this game fall off. It’s like a “era” of kids learning about rock and metal and about playing and creating bands. Today, looks like there’s almost nothing without a huge impact on rock mainstream

[@Malum09]

But what about Machine Gun Kelly?

[@TheDuelist]

There are so many bands I would've never learned about without Guitar Hero. Pantera, Slipknot, and Disturbed are just a couple.

[@BlueBeetle1939]

@@Malum09 the rapper?

[@greenkorn69]

So true, it exposed my friends and I to a ton of music and pretty much influenced all of our music tastes. Those games almost single handedly turned a bunch of emo, top 40, classic rock, pop punk listening kids into metal heads lmao

[@fireblast133]

@@greenkorn69 there is a project that is essentially modding World Tour on pc to allow much more customization and adds pretty much every song from every guitar hero game. And an old 360 guitar controller or something that can work like it will work with this. You wanna run a nostalgia trip i'd look it up.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

I remember my guitar students at the time were coming in asking to learn songs like "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Slow Ride" so I'll always be grateful to Guitar Hero for introducing them to great guitar tunes. It also got me a lot of new students but many realized REAL guitar was way harder and quit shortly after starting. ;/

[@flatline42]

The silliest thing that came out of the Rock Band/Guitar Hero era was people who would hear someone playing that for real and roll their eyes and say that they could play it better on Guitar Hero. Actually that's the second silliest thing of that era. The "real" Rock Band guitar that had a fret button on every fret and string, gamifying a real guitar, was the silliest thing ever. Ubisoft had the right idea with Rocksmith at that point. Just plug a real guitar in damn it.

[@ParallaxDG]

@@flatline42 I'm calling BS on that. It was the other way around. I don't even remember the amount of times I got told to "go play real guitar" just because I was good and enjoyed playing a video game. I don't remember anyone saying they could play something "better" on a video game.

[@smoke4824]

@@ParallaxDG yea your right noone ever said that nonsense I think the guy above has downs syndrome

[@TheCompyshop]

Yup it’s true. I fell in love with the game and bought a guitar to learn the real deal. But I lacked direction and put it down for 10 years. I’m just now starting to get back into it and really commit to learning guitar. But I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I would have never picked up the guitar if it wasn’t for guitar hero 2/3/World Tour. I will always carry the good times I had playing those games with me as I continue with my guitar journey

[@Tegridy_Gaming]

@@ParallaxDG I remember it being everyone saying go learn real guitar not the other way yeah

[@gmitchell5000]

There’s a 0% chance I’d be subscribed to a channel about punk rock if it wasn’t for playing Guitar Hero III in middle school with my friends

[@Vetionarian]

SAME!

[@chilarome23]

!!!!! same !!!!

[@gwkonyoutube]

I second this

[@MrTerrorFace]

Honestly, a lot of the issues with Guitar Hero can all trace back to the way Activision treated the franchise, similar to how they treated CoD and Tony Hawk.

[@ogvelociraptor205]

Releasing a "New" Game each Year while the quality went down with each release and becoming copy and paste aka Yearly releases with little to no changes to the game.

[@m0istur]

And skylanders. That one had the same fate as mentioned by @@ogvelociraptor205. I realized after the third game how the quality and gameplay kinda started going down as well as how much they were trying to put focus onto making money off toys and figures by including things like needing a specific trap from an element to capture a villain or needing to buy specific skylanders to be able to get through a gate

[@KaiDecadence]

Right, it's one of the things that showed how horrid Activision could be with a lot of the game franchises they had.

[@Princeofwinners]

@@KaiDecadence Thats how big corporations go when they find their golden goose. Get it to lay as many eggs as quickly as possible until its dead.

[@RedJLP]

@@Princeofwinners Isn’t that the story Marty O’Donnell told? Marty: You treat your goose well, you get the best eggs Studio executive: Still, nothing wrong with a little fois gras

[@IOxyrinchus]

This is really nostalgic for me, I discovered so many awesome bands as a kid through GH3 alone: Metallica, Weezer, Rage Against The Machine, Senses Fail, Mountain, The Killers & even Iron Maiden. Such a great gateway franchise into Rock & Metal

[@notavailable8955]

same, its where I discovered my favorite song, One, and my favorite band, Pearl Jam.

[@l-psmash98]

Guitar hero 2 and 3 was the best game ever

[@IOxyrinchus]

@@notavailable8955 pretty sure I discovered Pearl Jam through it too, Even Flow is still one of my favourite songs

[@rosea3497]

@@notavailable8955 My parents named me “Lukin” after the Pearl Jam song 😎

[@jessejive117]

GH III is the best GH objectively.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

Strange how the more realistic the games became the less people wanted to play them. As a guitar teacher I thought my job was history when Rocksmith and Rock Band started using real guitars as controllers but I was way off on that prediction.

[@jabohonu]

Why you think your prediction was wrong ?

[@therareMcCoy]

Gotta say though… Rocksmith was a great springboard for me learning guitar.

[@jayyoutube8790]

How many “new students” did you have from that game?

[@theharvardyard2356]

I don't think it was because of that necessarily. It was basically just a fad that got milked too hard, and people had enough after a few years. The games mostly got better but people lost interest regardless.

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

Yeah my thoughts exactly.

[@rjheeb]

If it weren't for GH2, I wouldn't have discovered All That Remains. "Six" and later the whole record "The Fall of Ideals" were vital in growing my taste in music. TFOI is still my favorite metal album of all time. The fact that ATR is performing the entirety of TFOI on tour right now brings this all full circle for me, and I'm going to have a great time at the Seattle show. If it weren't for GH2 I wouldn't be going to this show 10+ year later, and I think that's crazy.

[@rjvanetten3123]

Same. And if it weren’t for GH2 and “six” i wouldn’t have looked for heavier and heavier songs and I wouldn’t have found this channel and thus never discovered gonorrhea nodule mastication. What a terrifying thought.

[@fail_master_z]

Same! Six and The Light that Blinds opened the door for sooooo much more music

[@QuincyKane]

That's awesome, man! And same here; never would've discovered that album if it wasn't for that game!

[@rikum6298]

Same. Have enjoyed a massive amounts of all kinds of core and fell in love with the various genres of growl

[@thebusinessgoose3350]

Saved me a lot of typing. Thank you!🤘

[@GunDrummer]

I remember when guitar hero came out and it was the most ADDICTING AND FUN thing ever

[@johncarver9997]

I remember when people started leaving their actual bands because getting a high score on guitar hero made them feel better about their pathetic lives sitting at home doing nothing but playing fake guitar more than actually creating art. Which was good, good riddance to fake artists.

[@KaiDecadence]

LOL So remember the feeling. You're playing the game before you have to go to school or before you have to go to bed as a teenager (or middle schooler) and you're like "Okay, just one more song and I'm good" and one song turns into like 3+ more lol.

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

Ong lol

[@HimothyBurton]

Just saw all that remains on the 15 years of fall of ideals anniversary tour. Phil said "yall remember guitar hero?" then they tore into six, very cool that they still recognized that.

[@chilarome23]

holy shit I would've lost my mind

[@xmypantsx]

Hell yeah! RIP Oli Herbert!

[@QuincyKane]

I actually used the Guitar Hero "Practice Mode" to learn songs on the real guitar; I played them at Youth Camp that Summer and I was the coolest kid there, haha! This game was definitely hugely influential to me as a musician and for my taste in music.

[@nickparadies350]

When I was in 7th grade my friend was staying with us over spring break and my dad bought us Guitar Hero III so we would have something to do. Within six months I was playing the real guitar I found in our attic and writing songs. Within a year we started our own band. Awesome memories.

[@TheTriangleOffense47]

I have always been a hip-hop head due to the music Ive grew up with and was surrounded by but I’m grateful for Guitar Hero 3 and just video game soundtracks in general for opening me up to other genre’s and styles. Now the music taste is eclectic af

[@triplesixmafia]

GH was *literally* the reason how i got into metal - before then i was almost solely into hip hop. me turning 14 years old and playing the games obsessively got me into the genre because it made me fully understand the energy and appeal of it. i know GH isn't only metal songs but i magnetized the most to the heavier songs in the series (notably bands like In Flames, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, All That Remains, Mastodon) the channel i leave this comment with is filled with covers of brutal bands i liked through the years... so strange to think all that is seeded cuz of guitar hero

[@HolyGoddessMotherAnne]

Guitar Hero also got me into certain artists.

[@harry9828]

Funny how hip hop/rap overlaps with metal/punk in tone and rebelliousness

[@rageinternet9391]

@@harry9828 Nu-Metal?

[@ComaAlpha]

Growing up my dad was in a cover band so I already had exposure to bands like The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Joe Walsh and The James Gang, Stones, Aerosmith, Floyd, Bowie, Reggie D himself Elton John, to even more "modern" (at the time at least) stuff like Black Crowes, STP, and Pearl Jam. Growing up I listened to what my surroundings listened to which was the bands mentioned above, the stuff my mom liked (Smoky Robinson, Diana Ross, Tom Petty) and the stuff my sister liked (New Kids, Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Britney and Christina). I remember late night MTV and TNN (slowly transitioning to Spike) were advertising Iowa. I already discovered and loved Holy Wood so when I found Iowa it was unlike anything else I ever heard and fell in love instantly. I started ranting and forgot my point. Oh, guitar hero didn't introduce me to anything I haven't really heard before except for that Take Me Out song.

[@KreepKarnage]

@@harry9828 but hate each other with a passion

[@mackenziehunter1755]

It’s a shame this series burnt out so quickly. 5-6 years isn’t a very long time at all especially these days. Getting GH2 for Christmas literally formed who I am today, for better or worse haha. I found my love for metal, rock, punk and of course the guitar. Even little things, like if I never picked up guitar hero and ultimately the guitar, I probably wouldn’t be watching this channel!

[@GatorEnforcer]

Clone Hero has taken over where Guitar Hero/Rock Band left off and they have made the game relevent still and is on PC now they update it regularly and can download well over 100k songs

[@aaronbale9074]

I wish i had a pc for this. Instead ill stick to rb4 on ps4. :/ dlc is expensive.

[@GatorEnforcer]

@@aaronbale9074 there is a google doc you would have all shit load of tunes all the rock band and guitar hero’s plus all dlc and still not have enough to play and it has online play it’s worth the time for those on PC

[@AlbinoJedi]

GH3 in particular introduced me to so many bands I fell in love with and really turned the tide from me listening to my parents' music to harder rock. As a drummer, World Tour even opened my eyes and skills to new drumming styles.

[@drummerdude0515]

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate how well done the music covers were on the first 2 games. I have nostalgia just hearing those versions vs the real version.

[@dansmoothback9644]

Except the vocals on Laid to Rest. It ruined the song for me

[@drummerdude0515]

@@dansmoothback9644 yeah agreed, but all and all they still did a great job on alot of those songs

[@aaronbale9074]

Dragdor on gh2 was the original too! Idk if that counts since it was a bonus song.

[@drummerdude0515]

@@aaronbale9074 yeah all the bonus songs were originals because they were smaller bands that didn't need all the licensing

[@SoloSaga]

@@drummerdude0515 yeah I believe reverend Horton heats psychobilly Freakout was the og

[@crazydud3380]

Possibly your best video yet! Not many music channels have covered this series, if any. (Plenty of gaming channels have, but those don't emphasize the importance to music, like this one does. You are correct about the exposure it created. It certainly moved in a more metallic direction.

[@erix5184]

Guitar Hero got me into metalcore. As soon as i heard "Six" i had to check out the rest of the album, which led to "This Calling" which is about the best introduction to the genre you can possibly have.

[@lanegunnell1218]

YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@loganclemons4961]

No discussion of “Rocksmith”? I was so excited when this came out as I was already an intermediate-advanced guitar player when this came out. Unfortunately no matter what I did I could not fix the terrible delay between what I was playing and what happened on the screen so I was playing songs perfectly but losing the levels! Such a disappointment it could have been awesome!

[@drew3030]

Did you research into it? I was always able to adjust any delay - it's in the options.

[@adamgronvold8608]

I bought the game and an actual guitar only to decide I was shit. maybe that's the reason. maybe I actually am shit. probably actually shit

[@drew3030]

@@adamgronvold8608 You don't need to be good to have a bit of fun. The more you try the easier it gets. I was starting to get ok, but then stopped for years and now I'm shit. I want to play sometimes though, I don't care :-)

[@bakstabbath]

Yeah there's delay issues on Rocksmith console versions if you use HDMI for video and audio. An optic or component cable had to be used for audio. I have it on PC and all the parameters can be changed to remove any latency issues.

[@danteshollowedgrounds]

I guess it was okay and not bad at all but I never got into it.

[@MechBird]

OMG as an alternative controller game developer following this channel for a while now, I was SO excited to see this video pop-up in my feed! This made my day. Thanks so much for sharing the history of those games with such a wide audience

[@LezbeOswald]

my mom actually got GH3 for my dad's birthday because he grew up as a metalhead in the 80s but that didn't stop me from making the game my own. i got hooked real quick, and both my dad and the game created the perfect storm to spiral me into an even deeper metal rabbit hole. i remember my dad actually made me a playlist of all my favorite songs from GH3 so i could actually listen to them on my iPod Nano. just wish i could've had the metal cover of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" whenever i'd wanted.

[@dustinbrowne5118]

The set list for warriors of rock was by far my favorite and definitely had a lot of hidden gems in it!

[@LucaChuck25]

Was pretty awesome to have 2112 in there

[@doncanlebron6162]

That and III are my fav tracklists.

[@theharvardyard2356]

Best game in the series, hugely underrated because everyone was just over it at the time

[@lavenderllamamusic]

@@theharvardyard2356 i was one of those people tbh. I had clocked out of GH after World Tour. Moved onto Rockband full time lmao i think i just liked Rockband's simulator aspect more than Guitar Hero's arcade style. It wasn't until years later, i saw how stacked the WoR tracklist was. MCR stood out to me

[@SugarpillProd]

I don't know if you were aware, but Ryan Greene (the producer behind most of Fat Wreck's 90's catalogue) was one of the guys who recorded all of the covers for the early games. There's a podcast somewhere on KZbin where he talks about how they made them, and how difficult some of the songs were to recreate. Great video Finn!

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Yep I met ryan a month or so ago at Fat Mike’s house! Very nice guy

[@TheMetaldudeX]

These toy instruments were so faulty come later games. A big guess to the decline was definitely them breaking and getting thrown away, and GameStop not taking trade in these because they were too big for the store and not selling (specifically the drums). Then when the new games (some not having the option to buy new instruments with) came out, people didn’t have their guitars and drums and couldn’t buy them used. Also retailers supposedly hated these games because of their size they would eat up shelves.

[@brandontadday6288]

Yep. I bought a WoR controller last year and just like my GH5 controller, the strum bar gave up the ghost within 6 months. I love the games, I just wish their controllers from the later generation were more reliable.

[@aramondehasashi3324]

I still have the GH3 controller and still bring it out sometimes to play both GH/RB. Rock Bands guitar sucked, the strum bar was garbage.

[@cameronknight1654]

The decline in quality is so obvious after GH3 like the hardware and the gameplay were just took a hit World Tour on

[@charlottestreet3301]

@@aramondehasashi3324 can't you use a guitar from guitar hero for rockband because I remember getting a guitar hero. Guitar and it worked for rockband

[@graymind]

great analysis of this era. i was certainly a child of it. played piano growing up then picked up a real guitar after playing hours of guitar hero 2. i definitely owe a large amount of my interest in rock & metal to this game.

[@azza8792]

Oh man I remember coming home from school and putting on guitar hero 3 legends of rock 🤘 I absolutely loved that game and world tour and then warriors of rock 😊 great memories

[@zacqry87]

Oof... I also whacked when I got home from school...

[@Eminenceofeternity]

@@zacqry87what is bro talking about

[@TheNoSuchThingPodcast]

Man, really enjoying your channel. Been binging on it all day

[@ShoelessJP]

In my adolescence, I played Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and owe a lot to the exposure to good music I got. It really helped me learn about historic artists, as well as new ones.

[@罪のアリス]

Two of my favorite additions to the Guitar Hero playlist were in the second installment, with Trogdor and Thunderhorse. Also, DJ Hero is a damn joke. Even the few of us that could figure out how the controller worked, it was just painful to play. Not sure what my issue was, but I did know how to DJ on real turntables back then and im a professional DJ as of now.

[@MrLukieJL]

Glad that you pointed out that Activision did screw themselves when they bought it. I could tell the difference in Guitar Hero 3 as soon as I started the first song. It just didn't look or feel like the first two. Harmonix with Rock Band had much better gameplay and even though there's multiple games, they had the better consumer friendly business plan with their DLC store. Only postive of Guitar Hero World tour was somehow they were able to get Tool on it.

[@jessejive117]

III was the best by far. Everything after sucked.

[@jessejive117]

Rock band sucked. Their button lay out sucked too. There layouts had as much thought as fan made song layouts..

[@aaronbale9074]

@@jessejive117 which is why rockband 4 is STILL getting dlc. Lmao. Get a clue friend.

[@pewterschmidt23lord99]

I dont think i liked world yout on there because it didnt have many metals bands on there

[@SoilentGr33n]

@@jessejive117 Rock Band was so good I didn't even bother with GH3 and still haven't. Metallica was great tho. Played it with RB gear of course.

[@lambofsean66]

I think it's super wholesome how many reaction videos Herman Li does to through the fire and flames covers, or just how that band in general doesn't seem to take the hype for that song for granted for over 13 years

[@holidayonion]

Warriors of Rock is one of the best games in the series, hands down. World Tour and GH5 had pretty bad setlists in comparison to 1, 2, and 3, but Warriors of Rock was a return to that genuine rock/metal fan vibe. Plus, they really leaned on each character's genre archetype with each one having their own setlist that is all about that genre.

[@NexusKin]

Not only that, but Warriors Of Rock had what was probably the largest amount of content, mechanics & features, and replayability compared to the other entries. The Campaign let you unlock and level up different power-up abilities unique to each character. QuickPlay+ built upon that by boasting an amazing Star system that rewarded you for fully FCing songs, completing numerous challenges for both each individual instrument and as a Band, and trying to rack up as many keys as you could by mix-and-matching any two of the Rockstar Powers you previously unlocked and upgraded throughout the Campaign.

[@theharvardyard2356]

Yep, WOR is underrated, even the graphics and animations were improved, all the characters look like they're actually playing instead of looking like robots like sometimes in earlier games. It's surprising how much effort went in actually, despite the series dying.

[@RedTV8888]

Fun fact: In the music video for Read My Mind by The Killers, Dave (guitar) and Mark (bass) are seen mimicking their parts on a Guitar Freaks machine and Ronnie (drums) is seen doing the same on a drum mania machine. Specifically at the 0:33 mark of the video. And then funny enough, The Killers went on to have When You Were Young, a single from the same album as Read My Mind, featured on GH3.

[@bruceartur]

Guitar Hero actually played a big role in my life. Back in 2009 when I was a teenager and everyone of my friends got this game, my mom was too poor to get me a console. Instead she offered my a real guitar. Since then I was playing I never was even thinking about giving up the instrument. Now I'm a musician and writing my own songs. Thanks for buying me a real guitar instead of a plastic crap, mom!

[@atlusfanboy666]

i mean. i just did both man. just cause you put yourself to something else doesnt mean you have to talk poorly about something that might mean the world to some other kid.

[@calmdownbeavis7039]

@@atlusfanboy666 I'm still looking for where he spoke poorly of something? And who exactly is he offending? 20 something year Olds who don't play the game anymore? We'll be fine. 🤘

[@lavenderllamamusic]

@@calmdownbeavis7039 i think he's referring to the last line. "instead of a plastic crap"

[@JessicaGarcia-xf9wr]

@@atlusfanboy666 that’s what it always and still is. Always gotta throw in the “I play real guitar and not some game controller” it’s so childish. Like we’re all grown up! Relax OP

[@natalie9527]

The GH franchise was my first big exposure to rock music back when I was a sheltered girl in elementary school, and I loved it. Too bad it's gone by the wayside, but it was a great way to start becoming a rock fan back when nobody else in my family was.

[@LukeJeansonne]

17:36 I actually thought Warriors of Rock was one of the better games in the series. The setlist of songs was absolutely incredible and they were very creative with the way they had the career mode work imo. I think the reason it didn’t do so well is because at this point people were just fed up with the amount of games that kept coming out and they saw no interest in keeping up with the series anymore. Sucks to see that the game went down this path, I’ll always have this game to thank for helping me discover so much great music and for helping me want to pick up real guitar, and I’ll forever have so many great memories with guitar hero 3 and even some of the other games as well.

[@c_ross2279]

Man, these were the days. The memories I have of my cousins and friends and I getting together, going through the songs, curating a Setlist and putting on a “concert” are the type of Memories Money just can’t buy.

[@randyladyman]

I was that exact 10-12 year old kid that they wanted discovering all these bands growing up. Guitar Hero turned me into the music geek I am today and I’m so grateful for that been watching your videos for a while now and this was really cool to see. great video as always!

[@MattSitton]

Fancy meeting you here 😅

[@sirmoony5633]

OMG Me too!

[@jbear83]

I played the crap outta Guitar Hero 1, 2, and the 80’s, but Rock Band will always be my main love. I’ll never forget shredding Dani California on expert at a Bust Buy demo display and having a group of people form behind me and started holding lighters up and cheering. It was pure magic. Now my kids are 7 and 9 and I’ve introduced them to Rock Band and we jam out together.

[@jordanbogdan2329]

I fell in love with GH 3 when I was 8 and then I wanted to get Rock Band 2 with the full set up with drums and a mic. My dad said he’d get it for me if I tried guitar lessons learned his favorite pink floyd riff on real guitar. 14 years later and here I am with a 7 string and too many plug ins 🤦‍♂️

[@Highrollinhunter]

I'm here with a Explorer with way my mids in my amp scooped beyond oblivion because Thrash Metal.

[@forrest_ation]

I‘m so grateful to Guitar Hero for putting me onto absolute gass as a teen. As a lover of metal this game was my lifeblood for a long time

[@B1055BH]

I was taking guitar lessons when Guitar Hero first hit the scene. I came home one day and told my mom that we spent the first 10 minutes of the lesson playing guitar hero to warm up. She was not happy, said she isn’t paying for me to go play video games. Looking back, she was probably right. I had a really awesome teacher though, and he would help us book shows as we got older and our band grew.

[@Drazer012]

If it was fun and made you want to practice guitar, it was in no way a waste of time!

[@QuincyKane]

I actually used the Guitar Hero "Practice Mode" to learn songs on the real guitar!

[@TheOddJuan]

Playing guitar hero II as kid was amazing! Getting my friends hooked and playing world tour after school with them are memories I will never forget.

[@DoNotLookDown]

I wouldn't be into half the music I'm into now if it wasn't for Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I probably wouldn't be into metal if it wasn't for Guitar Hero. I have so many good memories playing Guitar Hero with my brother and trying to beat each others high score. Damn. Those are some times I want to relive. What a good game. Shout out to all the drum 100% FC videos that I watched.

[@MikeAshkewe]

I was in radio during the height of the Guitar Hero / Rock band craze and it was pretty clear that our playlists were influenced by the games. It was a weird time but great to get people into new music.

[@spicydragon9151]

This game was probably my FAVORITE as a kid! I especially loved playing the harder songs on Expert, as much as they did piss me off lol, it was fun and I'd be strumming that guitar for HOURS! I would even go as far as to say it saved rock music from totally falling off the radar. Seriously one of the best games of all time

[@theharvardyard2356]

Warriors of Rock is massively underrated, in my opinion it's the best guitar hero game. The reason it got mid reviews is because players were burned out. But in retrospect, the devs still put a lot of effort in and it's a fantastic game. You owe it to yourself to play it if you love guitar hero

[@SkarrKrow]

I was 18 when the first one came out and was already playing guitar after my 16th birthday. I tried playing Thunderkiss '65 on the demo version and then swore off it. However, Rocksmith is great since you get to use the real thing to actually learn how to play the songs.

[@GM_Sanjit_Ramesh]

Rocksmith is so awesome, especially custom dlc

[@H-Real_8]

I bought guitar hero world tour in 2011 and it pretty much shaped my taste in music throughout middle school and led to my development through highschool into other stuff I miss the game and its a shame it never lived up to what it could have truly been

[@LeDardeursPalace]

Fun Story : I was a tester at Activision's QA, for Guitar Hero Live. It had a new guitar, and it was bomb as fuck, the tv channels concept was a bit weird but still fun. The real problem was the songs, I have no problem with pop music like Hillary Duff and such but if said Hillary Duff song doesn't have a sick guitar track with solos and all it shouldn't be in the game. And sadly it was almost half of the songs, which turned off the hardcore players. I may be wrong but I almost thought that guitar hero is so niche that the only reason it really took off is because of everybody who was so hyped about and would not stop talking about it. About how fun it was, and all of the great songs. GH Live was targeting the casual gamer kind of, but it backfired because the people who would have been their best pitch salesmen had no interest in the tracklist. P.S. By casual gamer I meant people who would not normally play Guitar Hero, not litteral casual gamers.

[@thesecondround0]

The set list wasn’t great but neither was the new guitar and gameplay. Players were already used to the single row five fret guitar so the learning curve for GHL was rough for casual players. Not to mention that the GHTV concept was poorly executed. It all felt very restrictive.

[@blakchristianbale]

Hillary Duff’s a weird choice, I don’t even hear popheads talk about her very often, let alone metalheads

[@LeDardeursPalace]

@@thesecondround0 It had a lot of good songs, but by the end there was like 250 songs in there and only about 60 of those were good rock songs. Of these 60 maybe half were legit Guitar Hero material. The guitar part is open to interpretation, I don't think it's as black and white as you paint it. A lot of the testers had never really played GH, it was split in the middle on the question of the guitar being easier to use than the old one. And yes, GHTV was botched. It was interesting, I love it more than I should surely because it made the testing so fucking easy, no need to navigate the menu all the time to play songs. Not giving the option to buy songs was really stupid as well, it was a microtransactions mess.

[@RanterInShades]

How awesome is this that this video comes out while I'm working on a video about a band I got into through Guitar Hero. I wrote a whole paper in college about the licensing aspect of Guitar Hero and spoke a good bit about the oversaturation that went on in its later years, as well as the impact it had on exposing people to lots of music- including bands local from Boston having bonus songs in the first 2 games. The series absolutely changed my life and I wouldn't be the music fan that I am without it.

[@zyuranger21]

the Tony Hawk, and all the other extreme sports games had the same influence on music as guitar hero. Those games all had giant sound tracks filled with punk, metal, rap, classic rock. There are lots of bands I discovered from these games, like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, NOFX, Rage Against The Machine, In Flames, Run DMC, Public Enemy, etc

[@alonedownthere47]

facts, also eyedea and high on fire

[@princegoatcheese9379]

I discovered a lot of bands through GH and my older brother (he played guitar growing up and still plays today). GH and my brother showed me a lot of bands and artists that I wouldn't have known about back then that I do know now (Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Nirvana, Slayer, Children of Bodom, Green Day, Living Color, KISS, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Weird Al Yankovich, Guns N' Roses, Ramones and so much more).

[@Pewpewpew182]

Was just thinking about this franchise days ago. I used to work for EBgames/GameStop when the game came out and remember how big it was during the 1st 3 releases. During the holidays these games sold like nuts. Hope it comes back one day. Great choice of a segment

[@matthewlister3755]

These were the good old days for me as a guitar teacher. This game boosted my business. My schedule was full to the gills. A lot of kids dropped out when they found out guitar was hard but a lot didn't, and those kids went on to be some serious players.

[@UntitledNameGangIsTouringAmmos]

One thing about Neversoft is that Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero both have the most memorable soundtracks in any video game franchise

[@QuincyKane]

That's the truth!

[@Shroomlife513]

Facts bro those franchises alone shaped my musical choice

[@dalekay9ine]

Excellent video Finn! It really can't be stated just how important this game was for people discovering new bands and getting even more into rock and metal. Keep up the good work man!!!

[@TikkiNikki]

Guitar Hero was amazing! But the last time I ever played it was the year Rock Band came out. Side note: check out guitar hero speed runs. They recently had a cheating scandal. Yeah, weird right? You're the best, Finn 👊

[@haymaker710]

I used to love playing guitar hero and rock band. I would have all my friends over and jam out. It was fun while it lasted.

[@christianlgrey_]

Ill never forget the feeling of doing 100% on sweet child o' mine on expert for the first time haha. First three games were a good time. Enjoyed the video!

[@QuincyKane]

I remember borrowing "Guitar Hero 2" from my friend and my parents noticed I was actually getting better on the "real" guitar because of it, so they bought me my own set of the game and controller!

[@Mr.Goldbar]

As a professional guitar player, I'd say another huge thing that killed Guitar Hero was Rocksmith. With Guitar Hero you play a small plastic guitar with buttons, with Rocksmith you plug your actual guitar to the console. You're playing a video game but at the same time you learn how to play guitar, actually though. It even has technique exercises which are actually pretty good and well taught. And also the fact that Rocksmith only has 2 games in the franchise (the original from 2012 and the 2014 version) and they add content by releasing DLC songs that you can buy individually according to taste, you didn't have to buy an entirely new game to play a few new songs

[@MichaelJoshuaWilliams]

Rocksmith was a massive failure

[@lifexinxrewind]

Look, Rocksmith is a cool thing. But it had zero impact on the popularity of Guitar Hero.

[@lifexinxrewind]

In fact, Rock Smith came out a year after Guitar Hero was shut down.

[@Mr.Goldbar]

@@lifexinxrewind I know, I brought it up as an evolution of the entire rhythm game genre that leaves Guitar Hero in the dust on a technical standpoint, not necessarily on a cultural standpoint I mean... Why would there ever be a chance of a Guitar Hero comeback when Rocksmith will actually teach you guitar. I'm sure even if Activision had done everything right like hadn't gotten rid of Harmonix and hadn't released a million spinoffs a month Rocksmith would've still been the thing that could've killed it anyways

[@TheLuiscelaya]

Guitar Hero and Rock Band’s over saturation killed it’s own popularity and hype. Rocksmith came out after those games were on its last legs. That said, I love Rocksmith but the games weren’t very popular but it definitely scratches that rhythm game itch for me as a guitarist now even though I barely consider it a game

[@Callieforniiaa]

I still Play Guitar hero and Rock Band on the 360. I wish the Guitar Hero DLCs were still up but they aren’t. But almost all RockBand DLC is still up and even bought a few last night and it’s 2022 lol wouldn’t have thought that they would still be up and working.

[@Kee-Von]

I started with Rock Band, but GH Metallica is the closest I'll ever be to being a rock star. That game was awesome! Made my eyes bug out though.

[@QuincyKane]

I actually wasn't much of a fan of Metallica until I played that game!

[@darwin227]

@@QuincyKane I wasn't a fan of Aerosmith until I played their GH game!

[@loompy1440]

This was a super fun video! you really did your research! I didn’t realize that the phase out of popularity had coincided with the over-saturation. I appreciate guitar hero because it got my nephew into guitar music/ metal and then he asked for guitar lessons from me and we really bonded from that. You should do a metalocalypse video if you think that show had an impact on turning more people on to metal :)

[@alonedownthere47]

a Metalocalypse video is a good idea, dethklok has so many legitimate great songs

[@dave011679]

I was just having a discussion the other day about how the whole interactive video game rage just kind of came and went in such a short period of time. Not just Guitar Hero and Rock Band but the Wii was so popular that Sony and Microsoft developed their own hardware to compete. And then, just like that, it was gone. It's a shame because we had so much fun at house parties breaking out the rock band gear or the Wii remotes. It tapped into a whole different market of people who maybe weren't into video games but they had Guitar Hero or Rock Band to play when guests came over.

[@that_pi_guy]

I was in my mid 20s when the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games came out....so many late nights were spent jamming with friends blasting in full surround sound. Surprised there was never a noise complaint, its a good thing we were in a house of our own at that point!

[@aaronkennedy3848]

Glad to see some ads in your video!! I know it’s been happening for a while but I just wanna say great job!!

[@AmyraCarter]

Frets on Fire, Performous, Phase Shift, Clone Hero, GH Deluxe, World Tour AIO and Definitive Edition... 'Officially' dead? Who cares!? Fact remains that the love for the game is exceptionally strong, and that's not going to wane anytime soon, if ever. I myself believe that it will take a mega-cataclysm to completely kill off Guitar Hero.

[@frederickdelius1106]

Glad you did a video on this . Haven't watched it yet but I'm genuinely excited to hear g our take on it. Really enjoyed your videos over the years dude.

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

Thank you!

[@cyber-thundr_]

the only reason why Guitar Hero & even Rock Band ended is because of Just Dance. It's that simple. Most of the public audiences nowadays love pop more than rock music (and that's not a bad thing, everybody's different) & instead of love playing metallic instruments, they love to dance. Everybody loves dancing, even though personally I'm not a great dancer, the only dances I love doing are bouncing around like a true punk & hilariously like the Numa Numa guy on the internet.

[@Shannonsense]

Guitar Hero 3 released fall 2007 when I was in the 7th grade & I feel that was it’s peak at least for my age group. That is a core memory of my middle school years. Every sleepover, every free day at school someone would bring it in, and everyone played it even the preppy kids. I beat hard & had a really cool red guitar lol! Even if I knew songs before I still will be like “this was on guitar hero”

[@ponderosabones7803]

I remember a lot of my music snob friends snubbing people who learned about bands from GH and RB, but I always thought it was really cool. Like people who never would have given bands like Lamb of God or Coheed a chance becoming genuine metal heads after playing these games warmed my heart

[@gx1tar1er]

The end of Guitar Hero was at the same time that rock stopped being mainstream (2010-2011). The kid moved on to EDM.

[@Purplepentapus_]

The first Rock Band game had SUCH a strong influence on how my taste in music developed. I used to play it in my cousins' basement with them and my brother for HOURS after school every day in elementary school. I didn't really start listening to music on my own until high school, but the foundation left by that game and the music my brother would play for us at the time both definitely set me on the path I would take from my brief beginnings in normie music taste. Once I remembered the type of music we used to play in rock band, there was no shot I was ever turning back. When we played that game back in the day, I didn't know the first thing about any of the music we were playing, and nowadays music is all I think about

[@Parker--]

Finn: "Bring from Japan doesn't change the music." Agreed. Also Finn: "If it's from Japan you only like it because it's from Japan. It's Japanese so therefore it's not great music." Idiotic. This might be the dumbest take: "This Hard rock band playing a more pop rock song isn't screaming metalcore. They are the worst." Finn outdoing himself

[@ThePunkRockMBA]

You doing ok my friend? Hope whatever is bothering you gets better soon!

[@2317lakers23]

Guitar Hero pushed me to buy a guitar. Picking up a guitar changed my life, of course, but that also led me down some musical discovery paths that I never would have gotten explored. Playing GH was probably one of the biggest turning points of my life!

[@andrewgrignon826]

Love this video. Guitar Hero was a great way for my oldest son and I to bond together when he was little. I played drums and he played guitar a sang. We had 1,2 and 3, Metallica, and World Tour. It was a great way to introduce him to songs and bands that were before his time. Now that he's 18 and I'm 41, ill always remember the fun times we had playing all of the Guitar Hero games together! My son actually dressed up as Johnny Napalm for Halloween one year!! 😁

[@Supakoopatroopa]

I still remember the first time I played guitar hero. It was in Walmart when they still had the demos you could try out in the game section. Literally changed my life.

[@Matthew-wg1cf]

As a kid who grew up on metal and rock, this game was probably the best thing that happened to my adolescence. Suddenly being able to talk about bands and heavier music with friends who would've never otherwise even entertained a conversation like that was beyond a blessing. Also DJ Hero was actually pretty great. Found a nearly brand new boxed copy in a thrift store not long after its release and made some fond memories with that game.

[@alteredbeast304]

My brother had gotten GH2 when I was like 11 or so and I fell in love. I had no idea what music was out there and it opened my eyes to my love for metal. I wouldn't have ever picked up a real guitar with such passion if it weren't for Guitar Hero

[@XavieRibeiro25]

Guitar Hero is the reason I'm watching you. I already loved rock and metal when I first played it, but the game made me fall in love with the genre in a way I was not expecting. This game showed me how unbelievably skillful those guys were and I was just blown away. It also hit me when I was only 13/14, which was the perfect age to shape my musical taste. I can for sure say this game changed my life. I also remember the first time I listened to Tool (my fav band now) in guitar hero 4... Again, blown away. Best game ever. I wish they would bring it back. I would buy a modern console just to play it.

[@sp00kz39]

I still have my 360 and play Guitar Hero and Rock Band frequently. I've been playing these games off and on since I was 4-5 (currently 16) and it got me into the music I love to this day, changing me forever. Such an amazing franchise with loads of fun.

[@sp00kz39]

Also visually, I think that GH2 was my favorite.

[@monkeyclub2100]

Would you ever consider hosting a meetup? I think it would sweet to come chat with you and maybe some other people about how you grew yourself as a brand and made the connections that you have. It's mind blowing to me how many people you're acquainted with.

[@ch26-z9w]

Guitar hero 3 is easily the reason that i turned "scene" back then, it introduced me to Slipknot and AFI which just opened the door to those whole genres for me, still impacting what im listening to 15 years later. crazy influence

[@ganjjabarsmedium2347]

I don't think I ever would have learned how to play guitar, and formed a band if it hadn't of been for Guitar Hero. I owe these games to so many good memories and learning about so many great songs! I also remember going to gamestop before midnight for the guitar hero 3 release. They had a guitar hero competition with prizes and posters, I got a Slash release party poster , it was so much fun!

[@Shafferhead]

My friend bought Guitar Hero 1, few months later he bought a SX Starter pack guitar kit, which in turn made me pick up the bass and later the guitar. We both still play. Forever grateful.

[@Awardance]

The GH 2 got me into this game and I was twenty something and felt like a kid playing, good memories. I joined the military in 2008 and I have also good memories playing with my buddies. Now I'm on my 40's and In retrospective, this was the coolest game of all time.

[@johnmarques1611]

I started playing the guitar mostly because of GH. It was mostly written on the starts because my grandma had given me an acoustic a year before GH3 dropped, but I only started playing it as form of miming the amazing rockstar feel of the game, and gotta say it changed my life because Ive been playing the guitar passionately ever since. It was really remarkable for me and my friends back then, Guitar Hero games were one of the most important things for Rock and Metal in the 21st century, great choice of topic, Finn

[@joecoffee93]

Before GH3 release I'd been exposed to rock and metal, but wasn't super into it. Once I picked up the game though I fell in love with so many bands that I can't even count. It was my first time hearing more than just the stuff you'd get on butt rock stations. In Flames, Lacuna Coil, Killswitch Engage, Bloc Party, Dead Kennedys, even going back to GH2 which I played after 3 I found bands like Lamb of God, All That Remains, and Every Time I Die. All of which I still listen to today and probably wouldn't have even thought to look for before those games. Its sad that they crashed and burned the way they did, but it definitely had a major effect on my taste in music.

[@TheLuiscelaya]

As someone who loved these games growing up, they really do hold up today especially after learning guitar and bass years later after hearing these songs and loving the songs and guitars shown in game and the games hold such as significant importance to my career as a musician. I tried playing Guitar Hero 2 again on Expert again last year for the first time in a decade and while I can play the songs, I don’t know how my arms didn’t hurt when I was younger. Just an aside, I preferred the Rock Band games more when they came out over the later Guitar Hero games mainly because of the setlists and weekly DLC one last thing, I think DJ Hero 1 & 2 are super underrated games and probably my personal favorite rhythm games of all time and also convinced me to buy a real mixer and turntable set

[@edwardv4546]

Literally from the hood of Chicago. Guitar Hero changed my life and introduced me to rock music. It made me fall in love with the guitar and granted me A LOT of amazing music experiences (opened up for DaBaby and everything). Forever grateful

[@WeAllFloatHere]

Literally had every game up until on tour. I was 8 when it came out. I learned so much music through that game (senses fail, soul work, and rise against immediately come to mind). I remember sitting at my grandparents after putting the controller down going to their computer and spending hours looking at guitars online, which i didn’t even play yet. Now i have played for many years and it’s my main passion in life. Guitar hero was arguably one of the most influential games/pop culture products of my life.

[@brettash7640]

Guitar Hero really was such an iconic game growing up. Some of my best memories from my childhood involves both guitar hero and later on more so rock band because of the ability to play with your friends in a whole band setting.

[@ldcWhereJustFar]

The developers message at 6:10 was spot on because I was that 12 year old kid who learned about a good portion of rock thru guitar hero 👍🏼

[@TheWoundedGalaxies]

Guitar Hero is what got me into music, which I had negative interest in beforehand having been raised on Jimmy Buffett and Handel. I still remember the day I delved into Iron Maiden's catalog after hearing Number of the Beast in GHIII and loving every single song, knowing I had found something special. I quickly made the transition to guitar, and then drums, and now play in multiple bands, have played and attended countless shows and even done small tours, recorded lots of music, made many friends from all over the world, learned a second language, and so on, all traceable to Guitar Hero. A truly lifechanging game.

[@isaiahkaulaity9467]

This past weekend I played guitar hero for the first time in like 10 years while at my friends house. Funny you make a video about it at the same time. Guitar Hero was super fun to play while growing up. We would have friends and neighbors over all the time to have jam sessions on guitar hero. Nostalgia.