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What exactly did GN'R bring to the table that was new?


Vincent Vega

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Disclaimer: I wasn't around in the '80s. I was born in '90.

As someone who was not fortunate enough to have been alive/old enough to experience GN'R's golden days in the 80s and early 90s, I have to ask:

What exactly did GN'R bring to the table in 1987 that made them so fresh and exciting? I mean I love GN'R but musically they seem to be sort of just a throwback to early '70s Hard Rock like the Stones, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Foghat, etc except a little louder and with a punk edge mixed in. Not a rehash, but a retro band. People say that their music was raw in comparison to say, Ratt or Poison, or more 'real' and I'll agree with that but wasn't Motley Crue raw? Wasn't Metallica both raw in sound, loud, "anti-establishment" and real in their lyrics? Didn't GN'R dress pretty much like the rest of the 80s LA Sleaze bands at the time--The leather pants, denim, bandana, the big hair, leather jackets, chains etc etc?

I mean AFD's lyrics explore the same themes as most other 80s rock/metal bands: Drugs, drinking, being a badass, pretty girls, sex, fighting the law...It's not like Metallica, for example, where even in the 80s, the lyrics had a deeper side...AFD is sort of one dimensional on the lyric front. And musically as I said it's a throwback with punk or post punk elements mixed in. Vocally, we'd already had singers like Axl in Plant, in the singer of Nazareth, etc. His bad boy antics were nothing new and guys like Vince Neil already had the bandana look down. We'd already had guitarists like Slash both image wise (Big wild curly hair) and musically in Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Brian May and others. Izzy was both musically and image wise trying to copy Keith Richards and he'd readily admit it. Duff was just a true Punk rocker who tailored his image a little to fit a rock band. Steven looked like he could've fit in any glam band of the 80s.

So what made GN'R such a phenomenon in the late 80s? What set them apart from all the other bands to come out of the 80s? I've seen people act like they were the "Nirvana' of the 80s--the anti-establishment, totally inventive, influential and era defining band...I don't see how.

Also, how did your parents/aunts/uncles (IE, people over 30 in 1987) react to GN'R? Did you have any older members of your family who became fans then?

Edited by Indigo Miser
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Here's something: My dad, who was 33 in 1987, dug Guns as early as 1988 and bought a copy of AFD around that time. Now, I'm sure he wasn't the only 30+ person to like GN'R in the 80s, but I don't associate like "wild, raw, totally rebellious bands" with people over 30 liking them...I mean I can't see 30 something year olds being into Elvis in 1956, or into the Stones in 1965, Led Zeppelin in the late 60s or early 70s, I can't see someone in their 30s being into The Sex Pistols in 1977/1978. I just question how "raw" and "dangerous" a band is when near middle aged people are fans of it early on...If they become fans later in said band's career when they're not as new or controversial that's different...

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Compared to many of their peers at the time: genuinity.

But what were they being genuine about? Doing drugs, having a good time, going down to the paradise city, having sex? Weren't a lot of their peers talking about many of the same things at that time?

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They did not really do anything new but brought something that was forgotten to the table n Axl is one special kind of singer. Slash n izzy sounded like a meaner ACDC mix with the stones n just sounded sloppy in a good way especially in an era where every guitarist copied or just wanted to sound like VanHalen. Also Guns is not a hair band like the other bands which most people credit Nirvana as the band to kill those 80s hair bands when really guns had a huge impact towards that probably bigger impact than nirvana.

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They weren't viewed as a retro or throwback band in the 80s and 90s. I think they are viewed like that today because it's 25 years later, but back in the day it was a modern hard sound.

I remember when my friends and I first heard AFD around 1988 or 1989, it blew our minds. The songs were way more "real" than most everything else in the cheesy hard rock scene of the late 1980s. There was a TON of swearing, which was also totally uncommon at the time. The only other band that was as cool in the late 80s was Metallica.

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They weren't viewed as a retro or throwback band in the 80s and 90s. I think they are viewed like that today because it's 25 years later, but back in the day it was a modern hard sound.

I remember when my friends and I first heard AFD around 1988 or 1989, it blew our minds. The songs were way more "real" than most everything else in the cheesy hard rock scene of the late 1980s. There was a TON of swearing, which was also totally uncommon at the time. The only other band that was as cool in the late 80s was Metallica.

I agree completely. The music was cutting-edge. I had never heard anything like it. It just took things to a different level. Gone were the glam bands, the cheesy fake bands, the synth music. Raw, dirty rock played by a band who meant every word and every chord. More dangerous than anything else.

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I also didn't get the opportunity to see Guns rise to fame. I've always wondered what member drew the most fans in the early AFD days. I always get the impression that Slash didn't become the iconic guitarist he is today until the UYI albums. So was Axl's voice the main draw? Or Slash's guitar? Or just the whole band together?

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I also didn't get the opportunity to see Guns rise to fame. I've always wondered what member drew the most fans in the early AFD days. I always get the impression that Slash didn't become the iconic guitarist he is today until the UYI albums. So was Axl's voice the main draw? Or Slash's guitar? Or just the whole band together?

Among my friends most people seemed interested in Axl. Slash was more anonymous in the start but started to "rival" Axl in popularity during the UYI tour. No, that is not correct, Axl was still largest but the two of them became a recognized duo that stood out.

For me personally it was both the raw guitars and the piercingly direct lyrics/vocals that got me. It was something almost shocking in how brutally honest the music was. The music accompanied Axl's lyrics perfectly, transporting me into the very foreign alley life the bands lived in Los Angeles.

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As I see looking back at Ritz or Tokyo or Argentina, they were genuine. They were the real deal. It doesn't seem they were trying to be anything else than they were.

Then there was the energy. Axl running around like a crazy guy, jumping in the crowd, Slash's loud guitar and Popcorn's pure joy to play.

Also the songs are as good as a band would get from rock anthems to soft ballads to epic orchestrations and to rage shouts at media, politics and society.

For me, it's not like they brought anything new, but more like having it all, at the right time when there was a clear lack of market coverage from the old and a bit tired rock icons.

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