The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom

Since the dawn of pop, there’s always been the bedroom popstar. The wannabe singer miming into the back of a hairbrush. The pots-and-pans drum soloist. The air guitarist. Yet all yearned for more. They wanted to be in the band.

During the reign of the PS2, around the end of 2005, two small players in the gaming industry were scratching that itch as they finessed what would become a gaming phenomenon for the next decade. Guitar Hero bundled a little plastic Gibson SG peripheral with 47 electrifying backing tracks as developers Harmonix unleashed a whole new button-mashing genre.

Guitar Hero never taught anyone to play the guitar… but it sure felt like it. Game nights became head-banging parties that all your friends were invited to. As the fanbase grew, so did the setlist, with A-listers Aerosmith, Van Halen and Metallica all lending their unforgettable back catalogues. As the craze spread, so too did the play-along opportunities, with 2007’s Rock Band adding plastic drums, bass and vocals to the mix. It seemed like the party would never end… until it suddenly did.

The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom is the definitive story of a game that, entirely fittingly, lived fast and died young. Building upon Blake Hester’s celebrated 2021 history of Guitar Hero for Vice, it widens its gaze to cover the evolution of the Rock Band series, from its first tentative press of the red fret button to its insane overblown crescendo of songs, hype and impossible-to-pack-into-the-loft plastic peripherals. 

The book – a stunning package featuring die-cut tabbed pages and an amplifier-esque textured slipcase – draws on hours of first-hand interviews collected over years of research to tell the full inside story. Designers and developers including Ryan Lesser, Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo and Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos recall the rollercoaster ride of the music games boom in this must-have book for everyone who remembers the buzz of nailing that first perfect five-button guitar solo. It’s videogame history turned up to 11.