The extent of the Rock Band / Guitar Hero connection is that they were made by a company (Harmonix Music Systems) founded by two people who had been grad studen

The extent of the Rock Band / Guitar Hero connection is that they were made by a company (Harmonix Music Systems) founded by two people who had been grad students at the Media Lab. They did indeed work on music tech while at the Media Lab, and the first Harmonix product, The Axe, was an outgrowth of that tech, although it only sold a few hundred copies. Guitar Hero came eight years later. (I worked on all three projects.)