# What set Guns N' Roses apart? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2017, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671 "2017-06-23T07:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/21 "2017-06-24T03:31:02Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I don’t think you can do that. You had to be there for that first, glorious album. It hit the scene and set the world on fire. Nothing else quite like it at the time. This. \*Appetite For Destruction \* was my generation’s _Van Halen_. > [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > No, I think in our hearts we all know that the real answer is Axl. Nope, it’s Izzy. The band is nothing without Izzy. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/22 "2017-06-24T03:38:41Z")
> [@Cell\_Guy](#): > > This. \*Appetite For Destruction \* was my generation’s _Van Halen_. > > Nope, it’s Izzy. The band is nothing without Izzy. Dude it’s all about Duff. Duff rules! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/23 "2017-06-24T04:08:22Z")
> **[Pleased to Meet Me](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleased_to_Meet_Me)** > > Pleased to Meet Me is the fifth studio album by the American rock band The Replacements, released in 1987 by Sire Records. The album was acclaimed by music critics. > Pleased to Meet Me is the only album recorded by the band as a trio. After their previous album Tim, guitarist Bob Stinson was no longer with the band. Stinson was still a member when the album's demos were recorded in August 1986; however, he only showed up for one recording session. > The main recording sessions for the album took p... This LP was released the month before Appetite for Destruction. I’m not going to say GNR were humping a dead chicken from the start, but… “You should be mine”? Dolphins? You could almost hear the whooshing sound of selling out from the east coast. I think it was mostly the kiddies who were impressed. Buckethead was cool though. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/24 "2017-06-24T05:35:20Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I never really got it back then - as a thrash metal band fan, GnR seemed only a hair less girly than the Poisons, Motley Crues, and Wingers of the world. This is my memory as well - I remember GnR being considered very uncool by ‘real’ metalheads\*, with Sweet Child of Mine considered a straight up (and dreaded by fans of heavy music) love song/ballad. By the time of Use Your Illusion, they’d gone fully mainstream, and no metal fans really liked them anymore. Also, I never met a single punk fan who liked anything on their ‘punk’ covers album. In retrospect, having caught up with a lot of the bands who influenced them and generally broadened, I really enjoy Appetite for Destruction, but it’s very much of its time. (\* I’m using this term slightly sarcastically, to refer to those people, including myself, who called ourselves that unironically.) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/25 "2017-06-24T05:57:33Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > Who, tell me, who, sings over a Guitar God like Slash and is still heard? [Geoff Tate](https://youtu.be/DRlSpz2LVT8) ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/26 "2017-06-24T06:14:37Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Yeah, he went all the way from shrill to shriek. > **[Axl Rose has a larger vocal range than Mariah Carey](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10848713/Axl-Rose-has-a-larger-vocal-range-than-Mariah-Carey.html)** > > And John Lennon could reach more notes than Elton John, Barry White or Bruce Spingsteen ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/27 "2017-06-24T09:09:01Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > This is my memory as well - I remember GnR being considered very uncool by ‘real’ metalheads\* Yes, it was similar around here. There was some crossover with the more casual metal fans, but the hard core dudes didn’t quite accept them. That first GnR album truly is one of the best pure rock albums of the 80s, and one of the best debut albums ever. I listen to it every once in awhile and it holds up. It’s an album I came into over time, becoming more of a fan as the years wore on then when it originally came out. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/28 "2017-06-24T09:17:01Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > +1. Also, Appetite for Destruction was a fucking classic. IMO, one of the best debut albums in all of rock. > [@pulykamell](#): > > That first GnR album truly is one of the best pure rock albums of the 80s, and one of the best debut albums ever. We think alike here. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/29 "2017-06-24T09:28:54Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > This sums it up quite nicely. (Great post **Wordman** ) > I would also add their songs were easy/fun to sing along to. (Which never hurts) > > They also had a fairly diverse fan base. Bikers loved them, meth heads loved them, along with white collar workers. > > Axil was also popular with the ladies. Which also helped. I’m not a huge fan of the band, but when I read the thread title I thought, “Duh, Axel is prettier than any other rocker out there at the time.” This is saying a lot, because I’m almost never attracted to long hair on men. I wouldn’t underestimate the draw of his looks. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/30 "2017-06-24T10:50:16Z")
> [@Cell\_Guy](#): > > This. \*Appetite For Destruction \* was my generation’s _Van Halen_. Really true. Slash’s use of a Les Paul - actually a replica of a '59 burst by Chris Derrig - in GnR led to their reemergence as a vital guitar, and saved Gibson. Very similar to Fender being on the verge of discontinuing the Stratocaster right when Hendrix took off. And Slash’s practice-scale hook for Sweet Child became part of the Canon of Riffs for beginning players, and everyone knows a song or three of theirs. The D C G easiness of Sweet Child makes it so easy to slip into. That album is part of the fabric of the late 80’s/early 90’s like few others. If only Axl could’ve kept his shit. But I couldn’t imagine living inside a hard rock MTV media firestorm every day. **Mahaloth** , Stone Temple Pilots were craftsmen. Weird due to Weiland in their way, but the DeLeo brothers are songwriting musician professionals who also happened to have the secret sauce to get to the next level. They put out a string of consistently excellent albums because that’s what pros do. But the not-from-Seattle-yet-boxed-into-Grunge vibe kept them from being seen as their own thing. Frustrating. And as for Metal guys not liking GnR, yep, whatever. The emergence of on beat, military precise double kick drumming in Thrash is a bright line of difference that any chucklehead can identify and think small about. Anyone who likes aggressive music with half an ear can listen across bright lines and hear that Appetite fucking rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/31 "2017-06-24T15:14:35Z")
Another thing that sticks out to me is Axl’s voice seems to have an extra snarl to it. Hard to describe, but just a little more “growly” than the others of the time. Brett Michaels, Vince Neil, even Sebastian Bach almost sound like cutesy pop singers compared to the dangerous snarl that Axl could evoke, with out going full scream like Phil Anselmo or the cookie monster vocals that really got popularized later. Don’t get me wrong, i love punk shouting and full growl cookie monster plenty too, but Axl really straddled the line between great singer and dangerous snarl in a way it seems few others have ever been able to match. Put that on top rhythm guitar parts that groove HARD, and Slash’s brilliance… and you’ve really got something. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/32 "2017-06-26T16:14:38Z")
Appetite was HUGE!. It came out mid 87 but it wasn’t till around mid 88 that it exploded. I was a freshman in college and every party you went to was going to play that entire album at least once. It was that was for a couple years too. And I went to plenty of parties with punk rockers, grunger’s, metal people, etc. The college I went to was very into music at that time. It was hard to be friends with someone that wasn’t in a local band. 😃 And I agree that the album still holds up fairly well. Much better than the Wingers/Teslas/etc. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/33 "2017-06-26T16:40:24Z")
It’s the guns. And the roses. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/34 "2017-06-26T17:09:27Z")
_Appetite_ also is one of those rare-ish albums where you don’t skip any songs, you just let it play. For me, being 18 in 1988, stationed in Germany as a buck private in the Army, with no drinking age, this was the soundtrack of our lives for the white soldiers. I distinctly recall being in the field in Grafenwoehr, which has an Abrams tank range, hauling a huge boombox on top of a ridge overlooking the range along with a case of beer and a couple buddies and cranking that recording at maximum volume while the tanks sped downrange conducting night-firing exercises (with phosphorus rounds and tracers!). Talk about a light show (and LOUD-we HAD to crank the music up all the way just to even hear it over the tank’s main gun). But that album was getting heavy rotation _everywhere_ in 1988. You couldn’t escape it, and in my case, didn’t want to. As far as what sets them apart, as others have noted, the atmosphere around that time was starting to ditch hair metal, and GnR arrived as if on cue to kick their asses with blues-heavy, Marshall-stack driven, honest heavy rock and roll. Thematically of course it’s mostly the usual subjects, but it was presented in a way that people had seemed to have forgotten. **Wordman’s** Aerosmith comparison is apt, I think. The bands are very similar in many respects. Slash’s playing was pretty fucking epic, Izzy’s songwriting was good, and Axl could screech like a banshee, but also sing. Whatever it all was, it combined to be the perfect rock and roll chicken soup for the soul at that precise moment in time when they broke onto the scene. How huge of a debut that was! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/35 "2017-06-26T17:16:35Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Dude it’s all about Duff. Duff rules! 😛 I am related to him. Cool guy. They are still around is the critical thing. Yes, great music, but longevity without becoming a parody of themselves has worked. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/36 "2017-06-26T18:21:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I am related to him. Cool guy. > > They are still around is the critical thing. Yes, great music, but longevity without becoming a parody of themselves has worked. You are talking about GnR? Didn’t they fall apart before longevity might have become a thing? Didn’t they sink a lot of cash into those “videos”? Didn’t they split in pieces before the internet happened and then had a rocky splintered road since then? Chinese Democracy? You are talking about GnR? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/37 "2017-06-26T18:48:42Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > [Pleased to Meet Me - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleased_to_Meet_Me) > > This LP was released the month before Appetite for Destruction. I’m not going to say GNR were humping a dead chicken from the start, but… “You should be mine”? Dolphins? You could almost hear the whooshing sound of selling out from the east coast. > > I think it was mostly the kiddies who were impressed. Buckethead was cool though. > [@drad\_dog](#): > > You are talking about GnR? Didn’t they fall apart before longevity might have become a thing? Didn’t they sink a lot of cash into those “videos”? Didn’t they split in pieces before the internet happened and then had a rocky splintered road since then? Chinese Democracy? You are talking about GnR? You’ve posted twice now things that I can’t figure out what have to do with G N’ R in their prime. Perhaps you can explain? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/38 "2017-06-26T19:18:55Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > And as for Metal guys not liking GnR, yep, whatever. The emergence of on beat, military precise double kick drumming in Thrash is a bright line of difference that any chucklehead can identify and think small about. Anyone who likes aggressive music with half an ear can listen across bright lines and hear that Appetite fucking rocks. I said I didn’t get it back then… I was 14 when Appetite came out. I get it now. They were neither fish nor fowl in terms of the prevailing metal fan bases - probably no more popular with the hair band crowd than the thrash crowd.l, but immensely popular with the mainstream for the same reasons. Not so girly as the hair bands, and not as angry as the thrash bands. That’s what set them apart IMO. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/39 "2017-06-26T19:58:22Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I said I didn’t get it back then… I was 14 when Appetite came out. I get it now. Oh yeah, I wasn’t looking to slam you or other folks posting now. Heck, I always have to cop to listening to Ted Nugent back in the day. But teenagers care about what boxes they like and what boxes their music goes in way more than they need to, and GnR was an example where people needed to get outside their favorite boxes and hear the music. **FoisGras** , yeah, GnR idolizing Aerosmith is a thing, esp Slash loving Joe Perry. You know the story about Slash buying Joe’s legendary 50’s Les Paul darkburst don’t you? > **[Guitar Player - Gear](https://www.guitarplayer.com/gear)** > > All of the latest from GuitarPlayer ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671/40 "2017-06-26T20:49:59Z")
Here’s my theory. Appetite For Destruction came out in 1987 and along with Def Leppard’s Hysteria, Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation and Pump and Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood marked the last great traditional / hair metal albums of the 80s. By the early 90s, the hair metal aesthetic was decidedly “lame”, having been replaced by “grunge” or “alt rock”. Bands like Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica stayed relevant because they also appealed to fans of bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden (also because they rock). Aerosmith too, but with a bit more of a pop sensibility (such as all those Alicia Silverstone / Liv Tyler videos and Michael Bay soundtracks) > [@puddleglum](#): > > Their song writing was more ambitious than most bands of the time. There was just more going one in each song. They had songs wihtcow bell and songs with whistling. They had two guitarists and thei rsinger had the the greatest range in rock history. Sometimes I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-set-guns-n-roses-apart/789671.md?page=3)