Guns N' Roses

Preceding the 80s was a period of meaningful lyrics and music, but that soon gave way todance-to-the-beat kind of music. The 1980’s had its surplus of pop and dance music, including Michael Jackson and all the other happy-go-lucky 80’s songs.  What else was unique about the 80’s was the development of hard rock, which was epitomized in the band, Guns N’ Roses. Along with this new hard edge, came influences on authority. In the past, the authorities had always been the “fun suckers” or the ones trying to end all the excitement, but with the emergence of this new sound authority became actively destructive (Leland). In their song lyrics, along with Metallica and other fellow hard rockers, adults doing violent and criminal acts became the norm. Rebellion against such acts became the cause, changing the whole perspective on how authority had been viewed before that time. In the following video is Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”, where they display recognized authority like police officers being violent, and as a result, are welcoming us to the jungle that is our country we have grown up in.

 

Also, these band members do not think too highly of themselves as before(Leland). Whereas most famous people think of themselves probably a little too highly, these rockers now saw themselves as heirs to the damage (Leland). They were not role models, not people to be looked up to, but were merely survivors. And as survivors sometimes they had to allow violent acts, which they sang about in their songs. Although, they did have an occasional ballad about trying to take a jab at love, much like “Sweet Child O’ Mine”.

 

            The band started in Los Angeles with “Appetite for Destruction” as their first album, and the album has gone platinum 18 times (Grierson). There was nothing safe about Guns N’ Roses first album, unlike the other rock bands, which at least had a ‘good-time’ feeling to their music. Their next album, “Lies”, had one song in particular that caused people to think that perhaps Guns N’ Roses enjoyed the terrible things in the world a little too much, and were singing about that fact that they liked it, instead of just witnessing it (Grierson). The following song, “One in a Million” caused people to say such things.

 

 

In the end, Guns N’ Roses brought about a new dimension to music, but not necessarily a bright one. Singing about the negative and derogatory things of the country may have brought them many hits, but some people also thought they might have enjoyed the terrible things a little too much, and also influenced many young people to change their perspectives on how they saw things in the world as well.

Works Cited

Grierson, Tim. "Guns N'Â Roses." About.com Rock Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://rock.about.com/od/gunsnroses/p/gunsnroses.htm>.

Leland, J. "Welcome To The Jungle." Newsweek 118.13 (1991): 52. Military & Government Collection. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.