DRAGONFORCE Guitarist HERMAN LI Discusses "Guitar Hero Effect" With USA Today
February 14, 2008, 16 years ago
Mike Snider at USA Today recently caught up with DRAGONFORCE guitarist Herman Li to dicuss the "Guitar Hero Effect", referring to the jump in sales of their albums following the success of the Guitar Hero III videogame which features the band's song 'Through The Fire And Flames#:
DragonForce guitarist Herman Li and his speed metal bandmates used to play the video game Guitar Hero. Now, fans are flocking to the band after finding their song Through the Fire and Flames in the latest installment of the game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
"Our CD sales have gone up, and we are high up the charts on digital downloads," Li says. "It's great. We don't play commercial music. It took everyone by surprise."More fans were converted last month when Ellen DeGeneres invited a young Guitar Hero expert onto her talk show to play DragonForce's song, considered to be the toughest of all songs to play (see below). Go to YouTube and search for "Ellen" and "guitar hero"; you can also find her playing the game herself.
"Somehow it seems our music really connects with the younger generation, gamers and non-gamers," says Li, 29. "This is a game that is driving music sales when everybody is complaining about the video game industry taking money from movies and music."The Guitar Hero effect is real. DragonForce saw digital sales of Through the Fire rise from fewer than 2,000 weekly to a high of 37,825 the week ending Dec. 30, a week when many who got the game as a holiday gift were playing it. (Only one GH III song sold more, Guns N' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle at 38,330.)
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