How Guns N’ Roses killed the golden age of hair metal
It would be easy to say that all hair metal died when grunge started sweeping the airwaves. From the moment that Kurt Cobain started a party in the middle of a school gymnasium in the video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, every single flashy rock star wearing mile-high hairdos was deemed irrelevant and quickly forgotten about. Although history might look like everything happened quickly, Guns N’ Roses is probably more responsible for making the hair metal scene die.
Then again, it’s essential to look at where the Sunset Strip was when Guns N’ Roses started to make it big. After acts like Poison and Def Leppard had become the biggest names in music, second-string bands were starting to lay claim to the throne, with everyone from Warrant to Winger beginning to make waves in the scene as well. At the same time, there was another alternative coming from underground.
Outside of the hard rock scene, acts like Jane’s Addiction also brought a particular flash to their playing, which would set the world on fire in 1989 with their debut Nothing’s Shocking. While the alt-rock titans were still making their way into the cultural conversation, Guns N’ Roses came on the scene looking like no other hair metal band.
While they were packing the same venues that acts like Ratt and Poison were playing a few years earlier, the aesthetic of GNR was completely different from their peers. As opposed to the mile-high hair and the sequined outfits, the band took the same mentality to their music as The Rolling Stones had, creating a fantastic mix of hard rock and bluesy flair whenever they took to the stage.
The X-factor came with a healthy dose of punk rock. Coming from the Seattle music scene years before grunge, Duff McKagan was responsible for bringing a punk sensibility to the band, being as into acts like the Dead Boys as he was with Led Zeppelin. With the addition of Axl Rose behind the microphone, they had a signature wild persona that made them look like a street gang instead of hairspray models.
While the band had to fend off comparisons to glam act during their early shows, their debut, Appetite for Destruction, was when everyone got a taste of what they could do. Even though there were more than a few similarities between the guitar tones, hearing songs like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’ gave listeners a look at the darker side of Hollywood, accompanied by videos that were the epitome of rock and roll excess.
Even though they shared screen time with acts like Def Leppard at the time, the rest of the hair metal scene knew that their days were numbered. Instead of songs about partying all night, Guns had put a firm stake through the heart of the glam-metal aesthetic, exposing all of the fairweather glam bands as nothing but flashy songs without substance.
While they didn’t mean to stomp out any competition in their path, their need to double down on their double album experience, Use Your Illusion, made them one of the few glam artists that could go toe-to-toe with grunge acts. Even though Kurt Cobain may not have liked being in a heated feud with Rose, there aren’t many other glam bands that could hold onto relevance enough to pick a fight with the likes of Soundgarden or Pearl Jam.
It’s not like the shine has worn off from the band’s time in the spotlight, either. To this day, Appetite for Destruction still feels like the sound of modern rock, with Slash holding up as the definition of what a guitar hero should look like, even in the era of hairspray and glitter. Even if Rose has squandered their potential time after time on albums like Chinese Democracy, nothing can dull the sheen coming off their golden era.
The Sunset Strip in the 1980s may have been a wild ride, but Guns N’ Roses was when hard rock realised it could take things seriously again. Many fans may like to go back to their favourite records from the early days, but once you heard a song like ‘It’s So Easy’ or ‘Mr Brownstone’, why would anyone want to listen to the likes of Faster Pussycat ever again?
