Harmonix had worked with Red Octane for the Guitar Hero series first released in 2005; when Red Octane was acquired by Activision to continue Guitar Hero in 2007, MTV Games, a division of Viacom at the time, acquired Harmonix to expand the concept to Rock Band, and served as the game's publisher and manufacturer for the instrument controllers, with distribution handled by Electronic Arts.

By 2013, Harmonix stopped producing downloadable content (DLC) for the current Rock Band 3, though stated that it would consider its options for the series upon the arrival of the next-generation of consoles.

Born out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the first product made by Harmonix was The Axe: Titans of Classic Rock for DOS-based computers, challenging the player to use four keys on the keyboard to match notes in several songs.

This led to the creation of Frequency and its sequel Amplitude for the PlayStation 2; both games featured the concept of matching notes for specific instrument tracks along lanes.

However, in retrospect, Harmonix found that players had difficulty initially understanding the game, as the presentation was an abstract concept that did not immediately connect the gameplay to the music.

Harmonix used their previous experience in note-matching techniques from Frequency and Amplitude, as well as the lessons learned in developed Karaoke Revolution to create the Guitar Hero software.

With MTV Games, a subsidiary of Viacom, Harmonix took their experience from developing Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution to create the Rock Band series.

The market had become saturated with titles, mostly from Activision's expansion of the Guitar Hero series, and consumers affected by the late-2000s recession were less likely to buy costly instrument controllers.

[27] In the same month, Activision announced that it abandoned ongoing development of planned Guitar Hero titles, which many journalists considered to signal the end of peripheral-based rhythm games.

[28] Though Harmonix considered the closure of Guitar Hero as "discouraging", they affirmed that they would continue to develop Rock Band and Dance Central and support their downloadable content for the immediate future.

[32] Rigopulos stated at his keynote at the 2014 Penny Arcade Expo East that the studio had plans to bring Rock Band to eighth-generation consoles "at some point" and with "guns blazing".

[34] Following two sets of unexpected DLC releases in early 2015 as a survey sent to Rock Band fans, the industry started to speculate that Harmonix was looking to revive the series.

[37] Harmonix switched to Performance Designed Products (PDP) to continue hardware manufacturing and co-publishing with the release of the "Rivals" expansion for Rock Band 4.

[53] Harmonix had also considered standalone band games for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but neither project proceeded past developing concept art and cinematics.

To use the guitar controller, players must hold the fret button that corresponds to the scrolling colored note on-screen while simultaneously pushing the strum bar.

The second version of the controller, distributed with Rock Band 2, introduced quieter fret buttons, a more reliable strum bar, and optical sensor and microphone to help the player calibrate the video and audio output from their television/stereo system's setup.

Drummers can improvise in special "freestyle drum fill" sections of songs, indicated by the on-screen columns for each note turning a solid color.

Overdrive for drummers can be deployed by hitting the crash cymbal (green note for right-handed configuration) that appears directly after a freestyle drum fill.

The second version of the controller, distributed with Rock Band 2, introduced quieter, "velocity sensitive" drum pads, a reinforced bass pedal, wireless capabilities, and compatibility with separately sold cymbals.

Players can create and customize their own in-game character, complete with adjustable hair, body physique, clothing, tattoos, onstage movements, and instruments.

The Customization features were overhauled for the release of Rock Band 3, adding additional details to facial customization as opposed to having access only to the game's previous small selection of preset head models, and changing the method of unlocking clothing, instruments, and other accessories to the completion of several Career Goals which are typically score-based and range across the variety of instruments (including Pro Mode), game play modes, and songs from the RB3 release, previous titles, and downloadable content.

[88] Furthermore, the Pro guitar portion of DLC costs extra, due to the complexity of charting, which Harmonix has said takes as long as authoring the rest of the song.

[91] Other popular fan-requested bands, including Guns N' Roses and Muse, were difficult to obtain the proper licensing for and could not get additional songs into downloadable content.

[47] Harmonix announced that the initial run of regular DLC releases would end on April 2, 2013, as the company began to transition to other projects for next-generation consoles.

Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, the founders of Harmonix, were together named in Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2008 for their creation of Rock Band.

[103] A reality television show, Rock Band 2: The Stars, was created by VH1, featuring several players performing and being eliminated by judges Alice Cooper and Sebastian Bach.

[105] Rock Band appeared briefly in the "Whale Whores" episode of the animated television series South Park, where Cartman, along with Kyle and Kenny, sang to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face";[106] about 5 months after the airing, Harmonix announced "Poker Face" with vocals by Cartman would be available as downloadable content for the game, along with other Lady Gaga songs featuring her vocals.

[107] An episode of the sitcom The Office, "The Chump", alluded to Rock Band: Billy Joel, to which Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich commented that "let’s hope never actually exists ever".

[117] Rock Band and Guitar Hero have been stated to provide significant benefits for music labels and artists through exposure of their songs to new, younger audiences.

[118] However, not all record labels believe there are benefits; Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and chief executive for Warner Music Group, stated that "The amount being paid to the industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content that we own and control, is far too small.