10 80s Albums That Changed Rock Music
7. Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Guns N' Roses helped save hard rock at a time when it was becoming a joke. During the '80s, the reining kings of the Sunset Strip were Mötley Crüe. They led a charge of hair metal acts, tarnishing the name of rock with chauvinistic themes and vapid guitar riff. Guns represented something different. They still looked the part, but rather than spandex they wore leather. They still sung about being bad boys, but their themes extended beyond chasing babes.
Hair metal sounded the same; generic metal riffs played in a rigid staccato fashion followed by wailing guitar solos, that begged for attention rather than earned it. Rock had become a caricature of itself. Guns changed things up. The duelling guitars of Slash and Izzy Stradlin were firmly rooted in the blues rock of the '60s and '70s. You could hear the influence of Hendrix and the Stones, injected with a contemporary energy. Axl Rose's vocals were wildly superior to the likes of Vince Neil. The former had a range that both able to soar and croon into cavernous depths, the latter just sounded like a rodent's death cries.
Although grunge all but killed off the hair metal thing, Guns weathered the storm. The only thing able to destroy their legacy was their own lead singer's ego...