‘Guitar Hero’: How Aerosmith made more money off one venture than any of their albums
Any rock band on the level of Aerosmith would seem to be larger than life on principle.
Their music has been seared into the minds of kids all around the world, and even people that don’t know the first thing about rock and roll will normally be able to appreciate the first lick of ‘Walk This Way’ or even sing along to their later stuff like ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’. But even if the band had countless rock and roll tracks under their belt, their record sales told a far different story behind the scenes.
Because as much as Aerosmith put on an amazing show, not all of their records managed to have the same impact. They earned respectable numbers, no doubt, but they did a lot of their damage on their road half the time, usually crisscrossing the US and earning their fanbase the old-fashioned way by performing at every single city that would have them. And it’s not like they didn’t realise that, either.
There would be the occasional overdubbed pieces of their catalogue, but even when their first few records started to flop, the band hunkered down and started becoming more known for their grinding work ethic. They partied a lot harder than anyone else, but the fact that Steven Tler could find a way to get up on that stage, swing his microphone stand, dance his ass off, and still manage to sing perfectly in tune was almost superhuman.
When looking at the Aerosmith timeline, though, the 2000s tends to feel like the dark ages for most of their longtime fans. They had a legacy to focus on at that point, and while the Aerosmith brand was still hot off the success of their ballads like ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’, fans weren’t exactly asking for the glossy production that went into their more mainstream material like ‘Jaded’.
That’s not to say that all of their releases from that era were outright terrible, either. They were a long way from the days of writing ‘Sweet Emotion’ or even ‘Mama Kin’, but with a new generation seeing them play the Super Bowl Halftime Show with the likes of NSYNC and Britney Spears, the next best thing they could do to get the younger demographic was make their own game.
And while Guitar Hero was already a larger-than-life franchise, having Aerosmith as its first artist-specific group wasn’t a bad idea. Joe Perry’s lead licks might not be the hardest tunes for people to master in the same way that ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ was, but it’s a lot easier to feel like the coolest guitarist in the world playing along to tracks like ‘Movin’ Out’ and ‘Livin’ On the Edge’.
Fans could have looked at the whole like a huge gimmick, but Aerosmith did manage to have a lot more staying power in the virtual world than they did on their records. As Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said at the time, “[Their] version of Guitar Hero generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has. Merchandising, concert sales, their ability to sign a new contract [have] all been unbelievably influenced by their participation in Guitar Hero.”
It was clear whether this was anything more than a gimmick at the time, but when other artists started throwing their hats into the ring, their own respective video games were able to build on what Aerosmith did first. Metallica’s own Guitar Hero franchise is among one of the finest of the series, and when looking at all the rock and roll-based rhythm games, The Beatles Rock Band is still one of the finest love letters to the Fab Four to come from video games.
While the massive surge in sales for Guitar Hero Aerosmith would have felt a little disconcerting for a band that worked their whole lives on their records, this was only a plus for their public image. Millions of kids had fallen in love with Guitar Hero, and while Aerosmith were far from the most popular band on the radio at the time, it’s never a bad thing for kids to learn about new music.
