1992: GN'R's peak of popularity?

[Dr. Who]

Does anyone else agree that 1992 represents the year GN'R's popularity peaked?

Here's my reasons why:

-They were invited to, and stole the show at, the Freddie Mercury Tribute (April '92)
-Axl was invited to sing with U2 in June '92, who were a huge band themselves
-They were so big that they could host, on their own, a PPV special with Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and Jeff Beck (planned) as guests, June '92
-They were the main event at the 1992 VMAs in September '92
-November Rain, nearly 10 minutes long, hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1992, and broke into the Top 40
-November Rain's video was the most requested video for the entire year of 1992.

Anyone else think '92 was GN'R's year - the apex of their fame/popularity?

Also wanted to add that, they were so big that the main music concert event of '92 was their summer tour with Metallica co-headlining and Soundgarden supporting.

[ludurigan]

Does anyone else agree that 1992 represents the year GN'R's popularity peaked?

Here's my reasons why:

-They were invited to, and stole the show at, the Freddie Mercury Tribute (April '92)

-Axl was invited to sing with U2 in June '92, who were a huge band themselves

-They were so big that they could host, on their own, a PPV special with Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and Jeff Beck (planned) as guests, June '92

-They were the main event at the 1992 VMAs in September '92

-November Rain, nearly 10 minutes long, hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1992, and broke into the Top 40

-November Rain's video was the most requested video for the entire year of 1992.

Anyone else think '92 was GN'R's year - the apex of their fame/popularity?

Also wanted to add that, they were so big that the main music concert event of '92 was their summer tour with Metallica co-headlining and Soundgarden supporting.

Were you alive back then?

Sorry for asking, but the fact that you mentioned that Axl was invited to sing with U2 in June '92, who were a huge band themselves just makes me think that you were not alive then, because, to the best of my knowledge, this guest appearance was completely uneventful and went pretty much unnoticed at the time.

I was alive in 1989/1990 when Sweet Child o Mine (and also Paradise City, and also Welcome to The Jungle, and also Patience but mostly Sweet Child o Mine) arrived (pretty much all at the same time) here in my country (i dont live in the US).

They were all over the radio and then a bit later the videos were in heavy rotation on MTV (it didnt exist in1989-1990 here).

What was amazing about Guns n Roses (and specially Sweet Child o Mine) is how it pleased "EVERYONE", people of all ages, metalheads, young ladies, moms, guys, rockers, you name it, it seemed like everyone was in love with Sweet Child and GNR, it was nearly impossible to find someone that didnt like the song and it seemed like everyone was IN LOVE with Guns n Roses.

The song really exploded on the radio and it was actually on the soundtrack of a hugely successful TV soap opera here in my country. This soap opera reached probably 80% of the country population and the song (and GNR) just exploded.

That happened in 1989/1990 in my country if my memory serves me right.

Please notice that everyone carry on with their lives, the world kept spinning, life went on as usual, but what i am saying is that whenever that song popped up everyone would enjoy it and talk about how cool it was and talk a bit about "what band is that", "did you listen to their album", "there are lot of cool songs" etc, that sort of talk

As we all know, those (1989-1990) were the years when GNR was nowhere to be found (they did the 4 shows with the Stones in 1989 and did Farm Aid in 1990 and that was pretty much all they did considering live shows).

I believe that was somehow the peak of their popularity, or at least the time when everyone thought that GNR was cool. At least here in my country. See, I am not talking about popularity by sheer numbers, but popularity in the sense that EVERYONE LOVED THIS NEW BAND, everyone wanted to listen to their songs, to talk about them, to find more about them etc etc etc.

In 1992, of course, everybody knew a lot about them, they sold bazilions of tickets for the UYI Tour and gazillions of records.

BUT once songs like November Rain and Dont Cry arrived in mid-1991, once GNR started doing mini-movies instead of shooting rocking promo videos, something changed.

Those definitely gave GNR a lot of NEW fans (specially young girls and specially women), but those songs and those videos also caused the band to lose the street cred, so to speak.

That didnt happen with Patience, because Patience was like -- hey, see, those rockers, they have a ballad, ONE ballad, it a cool song, they play acoustic guitars, its ok, its a bit sappy but i like it -- these were the comments you would get from people

But November Rain had a fucking orchestra and it was all bloated and stuff and that alienated A LOT of the rockers fans.

Suddenly GNR was not a cool band anymore. Suddenly a lot of people started talking that GNR was a bunch of pussies, that they were sell-outs, that they become a stupid commercial pop band etc etc etc

Of course these people never took the time to listen to LOCOMOTIVE and COMA and PRETTY TIED UP and etc

But one can argue that these people never took the time to listen to those songs because GNR didnt choose to do videos for those songs.

What I am trying to say is that with all the ballads and expensive videos GNR lost a lot of "friends" in the rock circles.

When Izzy left and they added tracy, roberta, zigg zag and the whole damn circus, then a lot of hard core fans also got really pissed-off.

In 1992, GNR was selling bazzilion of records and tickets, but they were also somewhat of a joke for a lot of people, they were no longer the band that "everyone" loved.

[Apollo]

Who cares.

Yes. 25 years ago a band was very popular one specific year.