Biggest Rock Band Of The '80s And '90s? YouTube Says It's Guns 'N' Roses By A Mile!

[Original]

Interesting- https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2018/07/14/biggest-rock-band-of-the-80s-and-90s-youtube-says-its-guns-n-roses-by-a-mile/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Nice Boy]

I remember the first time I used YouTube around 2006, found it through the Greek GnR site. It had like just 5 pages of GnR videos, on the whole of YouTube!

[rocknroll41]

As the guy in the article says, it’s the “mythology” that makes GnR as big as it is. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing. It just is what it is.

[mystery]

1 hour ago, rocknroll41 said:

As the guy in the article says, it’s the “mythology” that makes GnR as big as it is. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing. It just is what it is.

That's probably part of it. Axl preserved that image of them for a long time. We never got to see a middle period for the band when most bands see their interest fade and decline artistically. Instead for most people it seemed like Axl was warped ahead 10 years with a new band and not a whole lot of context.

Point being, people never really lost interest in the band when Slash was a member. I kind of only include him because Duff was never the pop culture figure that Slash was/is. The band faded away for 8 years; when they returned Slash was gone.

There was a real longing for the 87-93 era of the band that wasn't truly satisfied until the "reunion" in 2016. That and some of the old Guns videos are pretty iconic. Especially in the UYI era; I'm sure plenty of people made fun of them for how grand the videos got but in the long run they're great pieces of entertainment set to great music.

[rocknroll41]

53 minutes ago, mystery said:

That's probably part of it. Axl preserved that image of them for a long time. We never got to see a middle period for the band when most bands see their interest fade and decline artistically. Instead for most people it seemed like Axl was warped ahead 10 years with a new band and not a whole lot of context.

Point being, people never really lost interest in the band when Slash was a member. I kind of only include him because Duff was never the pop culture figure that Slash was/is. The band faded away for 8 years; when they returned Slash was gone.

There was a real longing for the 87-93 era of the band that wasn't truly satisfied until the "reunion" in 2016. That and some of the old Guns videos are pretty iconic. Especially in the UYI era; I'm sure plenty of people made fun of them for how grand the videos got but in the long run they're great pieces of entertainment set to great music.

Yeah all of that is true, including the part about the videos. Actually someone pointed out to me just the other day that the November Rain video basically gave their career a second wind. The UYI records sold a TON the first few weeks they were out but then apparently interest in them started to fade pretty quickly and then the November Rain video came out and suddenly GNR was back to being seen as a “larger than life” type of band, right when people were seemingly just about to lose interest.

Honestly, I think the cheesy “grandiose” thing was the only route they could go in once they became millionaires. If they had pretended to still be “street” during the grunge movement they woulda gotten boring. It’s probably good that they did the exact opposite, especially since the whole grunge thing hasn’t really aged well now.

And yeah in hindsight it was probably smart of Axl to put GNR in limbo from 1994-1999 (whether he intended to or not). I can’t see a band like GNR co-existing with whatever was going on in the mid-to-late 90s.

Edited June 7, 2021 by rocknroll41

[mystery]

3 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Yeah all of that is true, including the part about the videos. Actually someone pointed out to me just the other day that the November Rain video basically gave their career a second wind. The UYI records sold a TON the first few weeks they were out but then apparently interest in them started to fade pretty quickly and then the November Rain video came out and suddenly GNR was back to being seen as a “larger than life” type of band, right when people were seemingly just about to lose interest.

Honestly, I think the cheesy “grandiose” thing was the only route they could go in once they became millionaires. If they had pretended to still be “street” during the grunge movement they woulda gotten boring.

And yeah in hindsight it was probably smart of Axl to put GNR in limbo from 1994-1999 (whether he intended to or not). I can’t see a band like GNR co-existing with whatever was going on in the mid-to-late 90s.

That's real interesting about the UYI albums and something that's probably lost if you weren't around at the time. Back in those days videos were arguably the most important thing for record promotion. I feel this is a big reason why Chinese Democracy performed how it did. Just one video (maybe for Better), and some in person promotion/ tv performances could've gone a loong way. 

I don't think they could be "street" or "gritty" at that point when someone like Axl was dating supermodels and living in a mansion in Malibu and Slash was performing with Michael Jackson.

I think GNR really could've been prominent in that era. It would've been smart of them to take a hiatus for a few years and maybe come back in 97/98 with a slightly more updated sound. The struggle to move forward and whatever Axl was going through at the time sank the band prematurely. They were trying to force an album that clearly wasn't going to happen.

 I think Axl knew the music they'd done wouldn't work going forward in that time period. That's why he rejected a lot of the music the old band had recorded during 94-96. It also didn't help that it from what I've read, Axl didn't really contribute much back or articulate what exactly he wanted.

Axl at that point was fixated on the idea of incorporating more electronic and industrial sounds into the music. He didn't go all in, but you can hear the influence on songs like Chi Dem, Riad, Prostitute, Madagascar and later songs like Shackler's Revenge and Scraped.

[MaskingApathy]

8 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

Yeah all of that is true, including the part about the videos. Actually someone pointed out to me just the other day that the November Rain video basically gave their career a second wind. The UYI records sold a TON the first few weeks they were out but then apparently interest in them started to fade pretty quickly and then the November Rain video came out and suddenly GNR was back to being seen as a “larger than life” type of band, right when people were seemingly just about to lose interest.

Honestly, I think the cheesy “grandiose” thing was the only route they could go in once they became millionaires. If they had pretended to still be “street” during the grunge movement they woulda gotten boring. It’s probably good that they did the exact opposite, especially since the whole grunge thing hasn’t really aged well now.

And yeah in hindsight it was probably smart of Axl to put GNR in limbo from 1994-1999 (whether he intended to or not). I can’t see a band like GNR co-existing with whatever was going on in the mid-to-late 90s.

I think GnR aged better than some of the grunge stuff.

[jamillos]

Of course it's GN'R, they ruled the world. They should have used a photo from the 90s for the article, though. 

[rocknroll41]

3 hours ago, MaskingApathy said:

I think GnR aged better than some of the grunge stuff.

I like a lot of grunge music, but I have to agree here. A lot of the early 80s hair metal was too silly and a lot of the 90s grunge was too self-loathing. Gnr (especially in the late 80s) was like a nice balance between the two. Hell, it’s even in the name (“Guns” and “Roses”).