History Trivia / GuitarHero

* FanNickname: The unnamed bassist in ''III'' seen during single player mode. He wears a Zildjian shirt (which had no logo in his previous appearances in the two first games), jeans, and has a face completely covered by long, shaggy hair, a [[BadassMustache thick mustache]] and [[BadassBeard massive beard]]. And thus, "Hairpile" was born!

* DisownedAdaptation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” that appeared in ''Legends of Rock'', mainly because the devil could ([[NintendoHard and often would]]) win. He said that losing to devil undermined the whole meaning of the song, and only reason why it appeared in the game was because he lost the rights to the song. Had he still owned them, he would have never approved of its inclusion.

* DisownedAdaptation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” that appeared in ''Legends of Rock'', mainly because the devil could ([[NintendoHard and often would]]) win. He said that losing to devil undermined the whole meaning of the song, and only reason why it appeared in that game was because he lost the rights to the song and would have never approved of its inclusion had he still owned them.

* DisownedAdaptation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” that appeared in ''Legends of Rock'', mainly because the devil could win. He said the only reason why it appeared in that game was because he lost the rights to the song, and would have never approved of its inclusion had he still owned them.

** In the Wii version of Guitar Hero 5, there were going to be 5 extra songs. These songs were "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynrd[[note]]It would later get official chart exclusively for that systems[[/note]], a live version of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog", "March of the Pigs" by Nine Inch Nails, "Bug Eyes" by dredg, and a medley consisting of "Beautiful Disaster" by 311, "Freak on a Leash" by Korn, "About a Girl (Unplugged)" by Nirvana, "What I've Done" by Linkin Park, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravits, "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr., "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End, and "Dammit" by blink-182.

** In the Wii version of Guitar Hero 5, there were going to be 5 extra songs. These songs were "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynrd, a live version of Led Zeppelin's Black Dog, "March of the Pigs" by Nine Inch Nails, "Bug Eyes" by dredg, and a medley consisting of "Beautiful Disaster" by 311, "Freak on a Leash" by Korn, "About a Girl (Unplugged)" by Nirvana, "What I've Done" by Linkin Park, "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravits, "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr., "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End, and "Dammit" by blink-182.

* DisownedAdaptation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down Georgia” that appeared in ''Legends of Rock'', mainly because the devil could win. He said the only reason why it appeared in that game was because he lost the rights to the song, and would have never approved of its inclusion had he still owned them.

** Music/LivingColour also re-recorded a new version of “Cult of Personality” for ''Legends of Rock'', which would later be used for ''Smash Hits''. Strangely, the original 1988 recording would be used in ''Rock Band''.

* DisownedAdaptation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down Georgia” that appeared in Legends of Rock, mainly because the devil could win. He said the only reason why it appeared in that game was because he lost the rights to the song, and would have never approved of its inclusion had he still owned the rights.

** Music/LivingColour also re-recorded a new version of “Cult of Personality” for Legends of Rock, which would later be used for Smash Hits. Strangely, the original 1988 recording would be used in Rock Band.

* DisownedAdpation: Charlie Daniels hated the version of “The Devil Went Down Georgia” that appeared in Legends of Rock, mainly because the devil could win. He said the only reason why it appeared in that game was because he lost the rights to the song, and would have never approved of its inclusion had he still owned the rights.

** Though you can find the main console versions in just about any used game store, the same can not be said for the PC version of ''World Tour'', which all cost way more in comparison (assuming you can actually find a copy).

* DummiedOut: "Trippolette" and "Graveyard Shift" in the original game, which are both accessible through the use of a cheat device. "Trippolette" was planned to be part of the main game, but was cut last second due to someone in QA sneaking it in last second before anyone on the dev team was able to find out.

** Activision then attempted to revive the franchise with ''VideoGame/GuitarHeroLive''. However, its own poor sales, alomgside divided reactions among fans of the series, only managed to kill it even more conclusively.

** The first three games mostly used covers as opposed to the original songs. Awesome, sometimes hard to distinguish from the original, but covers nonetheless. Outside bonus songs, every song in the original game is a cover. Outside "[[Music/JanesAddiction Stop]]" and "[[Music/{{Primus}} John the Fisherman]]" (plus "[[Music/MyChemicalRomance Dead!]]" and "[[Music/{{Toadies}} Possum Kingdom,]]" plus some DLC in the 360 version), every song but bonus songs in Guitar Hero II is a cover. Same for ''Rocks the '80s'', where the originals were "[[Music/AFlockOfSeagulls I Ran (So Far Away),]]" "[[Music/JudasPriest The Hellion/Electric Eye]]" (okay, they credit only "Electric Eye" in the game, but...), "[[Music/TwistedSister I Wanna Rock]] and "[[Music/{{Scandal}} The Warrior]]" (and that's without mentioning "[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Because It's Midnite]]" which, for what it's worth, was as close to a bonus song as this game got). The widespread use of masters didn't start until [=GH=]3 and the first ''Rock Band.''
** Ironically, the cover of ''What I Like About You'' was apparently so good, TheRomantics tried to ''sue'' Harmonix over it. Which is doubly ironic when you consider it's not even one of the games' best covers.

* FranchiseKiller: Though its not one specific game responsible, the absolutely ridiculous number of released titles since Activision took over on the franchise in 2006 (and especially so since they booted Harmonix, who created the series in the first place, out of it in the next year - 13 new titles in the years between 2007 and 2010) have been pretty much confirmed to be the cause of the killing of at least the franchise, if the not the [[GenreKiller the whole band game genre.]]

* CrossDressingVoices: It doesn't matter if your singer is male or female, it'll sing whatever song is selected regardless. {{Justified|Trope}} because they could just be lip syncing... {{Handwave}}d in ''World Tour'', where a microphone was added as an instrument.
* DevelopmentHell: Creator/{{Activision}} claimed that a new game in this series would be released in 2012. Assuming they were telling the truth, and the fact that no ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' game was released in 2012, it probably fell into this, and ended up being cancelled anyhow.
* DuelingGames: with ''VideoGame/RockBand''. With the death of the GH series, Rock Band appears to be the victor.

* ''Guitar Hero Smash Hits'' (Beenox) and ''Guitar Hero Van Halen'' (Underground Development) were handled by third parties, which would explain some of the chart discrepancies between those games and earlier appearances. In the case of Smash Hits, it's mostly because masters were used instead of covers, but for Guitar Hero Van Halen (which has [[ThatOneBoss Hot For Teacher]], which appeared on World Tour but didn't export), there really isn't much of a reason to change the chart itself if you're using the same masters.
** ...and on the other hand, some of the charts were changed just to make the tracks more [[FakeDifficulty assholish]]. The five-note chord at the end of "Raining Blood", anyone?
** For Smash Hits, it's worth bearing in mind that some note types were added in World Tour which weren't in previous games (tapped notes, extended sustains, open notes on bass). This meant that in songs which weren't covers in their initial appearance (such as Miss Murder), various parts could be represented more accurately. This also applies to One in ''Guitar Hero Metallica''.
* You know that tiny print on the Guitar Hero II newspaper screen? [[http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16460&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=12 Someone found exactly what it says.]]

* CashCowFranchise: The series broke the $1 billion milestone in 2007 and there was much rejoicing on Activision's part. However; an oversaturation of products released in 2009[[note]]GH 5, GH Metallica, GH Van Halen, GH Smash Hits, Band Hero, and DJ Hero were all released that year across ''over 25 [=SKUs=] (standalone software discs and hardware bundles)''[[/note]] hurt sales severely, ultimately causing the franchise to collapse. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Good going, Activision]].

* ExecutiveMeddling: Minor example: While ''Guitar Hero: Metallica'' was in production, [[Music/{{Metallica}} Lars Ulrich]] originally wanted Music/{{Slayer}}'s "Angel of Death" in the game, but the development team, deeming the lyrics too offensive, forced Lars to change his choice to "War Ensemble" instead. Justified, as the song ''is'' about the experiments of Josef Mengele. It's not that the development team didn't like Slayer's song or anything, it's that they would have had to censor it so heavily they might as well have had an instrumental. Which is funny, considering that the song was in ''Tony Hawk's Project 8'' without any problem...

* ExecutiveMeddling: Minor example: While ''Guitar Hero: Metallica'' was in production, [[Music/{{Metallica}} Lars Ulrich]] originally wanted Music/{{Slayer}}'s "Angel of Death" in the game, but the development team, deeming the lyrics too offensive, forced Lars to change his choice to "War Ensemble" instead. Justified, as the song ''is'' about the experiments of Josef Mengele. It's not that the development team didn't like Slayer's song or anything, it's that they would have had to censor it so heavily they might as well have had an instrumental.

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