Do you ever watch the official music videos?

[niceguy]

Music videos from the heyday of MTV are a fascinating study in culture.

They're cheesy, hammy, and totally disconnected to the spirit of music. But, it became a part of being a rock star: you also get to become a video star. You get to act (or try to act), you get to stare dreamily into the camera. It's like you get to be a mini movie star while you're being a rock star.

The videos were a huge part of GNR's legacy, and at the time, they were huge. They even won the video vanguard award from MTV at the absolute peak of the medium's popularity. No one forced Axl to do these videos. In fact, the videos were HIS baby.

And now, a mere 20 years later, the medium is dead, and those videos are cringe worthy to an audience who didn't grow up with them. But as cheesy as GNR's videos are, go watch the videos from nirvana or pearl jam or sound garden or smashing pumpkins. Those videos also feature plenty of hamming and corniness, where clearly the musicians were thrilled at the idea of getting to play movie star.

I'm glad the for,at of music video isn't so important anymore, but it was a fun time, back when YouTube and Internet didn't exist. It was how many if us experienced music.

[sweetness]

I usually agree with you Amir, but you've got to be kidding me on this one. While I find the video for Garden of Eden pretty unbearable, most of the videos are fucking perfect. November Rain, Estranged and Don't Cry are so unnecessarily excessive - I love it. They're completely in sync with Axl's UYI mentality. Very few videos capture the narrative of the song like Jungle or Patience. Again, they give an insight into the spirit of a hungry band.

The video history is a very important part of why I love GNR.

This, I couldn't imagine them being any other way.

Garden of Eden rules, how can you not love Dizzy and Teddy going apeshit in the background?

The Beavis and Butthead bit that video spawned was great too, Axl licking the mic is about as gay as it gets though

Edited March 14, 2014 by sweetness

[Amir]

I'm trying to think of a contemporary artist who takes the videos as seriously as Axl did at the time, and the only one that comes to mind is Kanye with that 35 minute Runaway video.

God knows what Bound 2 was supposed to be about, other than showing off Kim's titties.

I wouldn't say the medium is dead, though; bands like OK Go became famous more because of their videos than their music, and people remember the videos for songs like Someone I Used To Know. It does seem that the audience doesn't appreciate them in a sincere way any more, though, it's all this hipster aloof "ironic" thing, like making fun of the Rebecca Black "Friday" video or whatever, I don't know if GNR or anyone else could get away with a serious attempt at a video these days.

[maynard]

my most viewed gnr video is probably maddy at rock in rio 2001, that always brings me back good memories. and that buckethead solo....

as for official videos, cheesy as it may be, i'll always like estranged.

[wasted]

YCBM is everything you want in a video.

I dunno, maybe this is petty but I think it's pretty annoying when it's obvious the live footage was shot at 2 or more shows and the band members are wearing different clothes between cuts. I'm a fan of continuity.

I just like to see the live footage and the movie tie in. I think it works pretty well. It's weird I never really listen to NR or DC but I like the vids and watch them on YouTube.

[jman2000]

I watch them all, but but that often. Most of the lesser known songs like Garden of Eden, 14 Years, and Yesterdays are really cool in my opinion!

[Amir]

I watch them all, but but that often. Most of the lesser known songs like Garden of Eden, 14 Years, and Yesterdays are really cool in my opinion!

14 Years doesn't have a video, does it?

I thought the unreleased It's So Easy vid was pretty cool.

[Guest Len B'stard]

go watch the videos from nirvana or pearl jam or sound garden or smashing pumpkins. Those videos also feature plenty of hamming and corniness, where clearly the musicians were thrilled at the idea of getting to play movie star.

Fuck offffffffffff, Nirvana vids were works of art. Heart Shaped Box is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Aside from Teen Spirit Nirvana don't have a bad video.

[The_Universal_Sigh]

I think they had a chance to slowly come back into people's acceptance with the yesterday's video, the garden of Eden video and the spaghetti incident. Not that any of those were super popular but after them being the last taste of GNR until like 96-97 when the theoretical next album would have come out I think people would have been ready for GNR to be at the top again, which would include new (but ideally way less bombastic) videos.

Unfortunately, they released estranged and since I don't have you next lol

[GivenToFly]

I used to watch a lot of VH1 and VH1 Classic as a kid and I saw them many times.

These days I don't watch music videos at all, because whenever I listen to music it's while doing something else at the same time. Even new releases from my favorite artists, I'll just watch them once out of curiosity and that's it.

[DieselDaisy]

I like the Appetite videos but hate Axl's trilogy, Estranged, DC and NR. Fuckin horrible rock star ego bollocks.

[jekylhyde]

November Rain and Estranged are one of my favorite music videos ever.

A bit off topic, but I don't get it when people say videos don't matter anymore. And nobody watches them. In the 90's there was MTV and VH1, but now we have 24/7 (YouTube etc.) access to videos and they're still a great and important (now more than ever) marketing tool for music.

[Val22]

I loved all the GNR videos except Garden of Eden made me dizzy. lol

Otherwise, I thought their videos rocked. I have the dvd of all the videos too. I really loved "You could be mine". I thought Arnold in the video was cool and I loved the ending when GNR comes out and the Terminator figures out none of them are worth killing.

Very cool video. It should GNR's sense of humor.

[Shooting Star]

The first GNR video that I've ever watched was SCOM. I saw it in some music channel and thought it was really good.
Then I stumbled with Welcome To The Videos DVD back in 2003. That was when I bought it and watched the remaining videos. I thought they were pretty bad overall and Axl didn't make a convincing actor

PC and Yesterdays are somewhat decent. Garden of Eden is still one of my all time favorite videos.

I've watched YCBM some time later in a music channel and It's so Easy in youtube.

[jbhutto]

I only liked watching music videos when they came on TV, when there was a bit of randomness to it and you just sorta had to take what was given. I prefer watching live stuff over music videos, once you've seen the music vid a few times the novelty usually wears off.

[Gibbo]

I remade the Welcome To The Videos and add all the videos they missed out and add uncompressed audio and added all the effects back in

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?id=12105

Edited March 15, 2014 by Gibbo 27

[Raz0r]

Yeah, they're a product of their time and if Axl said that he thinks they're stupid or corny, I think that he's being stupid. I thought the videos were very important to Axl at the time and then to say almost 20 years later: Meh, they were corny...

Because of this thread I just watched some videos again from that time: George Michael's supermodel videos, Aerosmith's Alicia Silverstone's videos, the Beastie Boys' Fight for your Right... What a trip down memory lane...

I'm with you. MTV was on lock at my house '91-'95 and these video's ruled back then. Still love them.

Of the GNR video's may favorites are WTTJ and Don't Cry. I thought the hospital scene on Don't Cry, with the different versions of Axl popping out was the coolest thing ever back then. While, the rest of the video's do seem dated and corny for the most part nowadays, that scene still gets me. Love it.

[axlrod]

I've checked all official videos on youtube and I believe that they're all good if not excellent compared to Poisons, MotleyCrue and any other band during those years with an exemption of Metallica I guess.

Here's my feedback:

Slash owned November Rain, Estranged, Don't Cry, Patience and SCOM.

Axl owned WTJ, PC, LALD, YCBM and Yesterdays and Garden of Eden

It's Slash's videos in general. Is it the reason why Axl says it's corny and doesn't want to do music videos any more because guitarists will stand out?

[supercool]

GNR videos ranked worst to best by rolling stone : http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/guns-n-roses-videos-ranked-worst-to-best-20160104

There will never be another collection of music videos like the ones made by Guns N' Roses, soon to reunite in some form of their classic incarnation. Their height of fame was in the late Eighties and early Nineties, when MTV still played music and making a video for every single was pretty much mandatory for rock bands. They had access to absurd budgets and they had a lead singer, W. Axl Rose, who didn't just want to make a big splash on the Dial MTV countdown: He was committed to working out his manifold psychological issues with a multimillion dollar canvas.

"It was like Spinal Tap with money," director Andy Morahan said of the Guns N' Roses video trilogy he directed ("Don't Cry," "November Rain" and "Estranged"). "I've been asked by students about the metaphorical imagery in those videos, and I'm like, 'Fuck if I know.'"

Setting aside full-length concert films (and random excerpts from those shows), Guns N' Roses made 17 official clips. We've ranked them all, worst to best, as videos. This means that while the music is an important component of their appeal, the visual entertainment matters just as much, whether that comes from the sweaty energy of a great performance or from special-effects insanity like dolphins swimming down Sunset Boulevard.

[11dayempire]

I don't watch them regularly. Like a lot of things they were a product of their time so in retrospect they seem corny. Around the same time I was obsessed with a comedy duo called The Mary Whitehouse Experience (I bet Lenny will recognise this). I had their video at time and played it to death, I re watched a loton YouTube recently and a lot of the humour hasn't stood the test of time. Or maybe I got old!

Hah! I remember that! The MTV Unplugged videos for electronic acts, and the Milky Milky bloke. And Jarvis: "I cruise around Soho in my Bentley. Unfortunately the passenger door is permanently ajar and it insists on veering towards the curb. Oh God. What must people think?"

[6lake sa66ath]

17 OFFICIAL videos they claim?!

[supercool]

17 OFFICIAL videos they claim?!

that's wrong, some of the videos listed by rolling stone aren't official

Edited January 4, 2016 by supercool

[6lake sa66ath]

Exactly what I figured. Even their descriptions of some of them is enough for you to think they're describing a clearly fan made production.

[Archtop]

I used to have a home made VCR tape with videos and clips on it that I would watch over and over until it wore out.

One thing I have always wondered, in the video for Yesterday's is it Gilby playing, If so why do the stills show Izzy who had left by the time this was released.

[Deniz]

In that Eddie Trunk interview, Axl used the word "corny" only about the original it's so easy video. He describes it as the one he spanks sweet child (Erin)

He also mentions his scom video idea that got turned down by the record company. It's a woman carrying her baby throughout the video and in the end the baby is dead and it cracks open and we see that it's filled with heroine. Yeah i can see why it got turned down.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Deniz