Why is Guns N Roses so great?

Answer 1

They combined everything great from metal and rock (it started with Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper in the 70s)..when they were rocking the world, this kind of music was on its final top and guns n roses were truly last big and famous hard bad boy band.. they took everything great from this kind of music and with their talent and ideas made it even better..

There was no man who didn't hear for them and their songs..

Answer 2

There were initially great because they added a level of realism and grittiness to rock music that was lacking at the time.

When they emerged in 1987 with their debut "Appetite For Destruction", they were surrounded by pretty lightweight metal bands like Cinderella, Poison, Ratt and others. Guns and Roses emerged and made rock music dangerous again, like the Sex Pistols did 10 years earlier (The pistols were a big influence on G'n'R). They added a street-wise grit to their music and their lyrics were tainted by their surroundings in the slums of L.A. - hookers, drug users and dealers, L.A. cops and others.

Musically, they were different from the other bands mentioned. They had a twin -rhythm guitar attack that was both forceful, direct and sloppy all at once. The two rhythm guitars (mixed one in the left channel and one in the right channel in the stereo spectrum) snarl and growl and bounce off each other in complex and exciting ways. They sounded like a garage band with punk attitude and a sound that could fill a stadium.

They played intensely and loudly - moreso than other "hair metal" bands of the time (except the thrashers like Metallica and Megadeth et al), but they also could be soulful and melodic, as on the classic "Sweet Child O'Mine" where their lead guitarist Slash shows his true colours. He plays melodically and tastefully when required, and then, when the music requires it (as in the last half of the solo) he can let fly with a barrage of notes while keeping it tasteful.

Where other bands of the day were doing massive drum solos on revolving drum risers and wanky noodly guitar solos, The Gunners refused to do this, maintaining their streetwise, punk attitude to the last.

Axl and the other band members had a vast variety of influences, from LA punks Fear right through the Elton John and Queen. These influences were taken to their extreme on their sprawling opus "Use Your Illusion" where they ran away with their ambitions. They created Stonesy-groove rock ("14 Years", "Dust and Bones"), long winded prog rock epics ("Estranged", "Civil War", "Coma"), heart breaking ballads ("November Rain") and bone crunching rock ("Shotgun Blues", "Double Talking Jive"). Mostly these experiments were successful but there were a few flops amongst them (such as "Breakdown" and "My World"), but they were saved by the bands top notch musicianship and always with a great melody to sing along to.

Now that we are about 15 years removed from their most notorious period, where there were in almost every tabloid magazine if they farted in public, the music still stands up. It was "in" it's time, but never "of" its time - it sounded like nothing else around back then.

Don't get mixed up with the media reports of band politics and all that. Let the music do the talking for you.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

They aren't. Refuse to buy their records, the lead singer is a wife beater who refuses to get treatment. He even made a video where he's pushing a woman at a bar. What a low self-esteem loser.

Answer 4

They made one really good album and then went to hell....check out Velvet Revolver, basically G-n-R with STP's vocalist!

Hoping for a good return album, but I am not gonna hold my breath!

Answer 5

guns n roses? great? if you like wife beaters i prefur sepultra

Answer 6

They were in the right place at the right time....

Answer 7

Listening to their music might actually help you answer your own question, you know...

Answer 8

the band WAS good, but the singer had mental issues... too bad...

Answer 9

They rock!