10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs Of The 1980s

Towards the end of the decade, it felt like the '80s were going on for like 2 years too long. As much as the hair metal scene was still in full swing, the sound of songs like Cherry Pie were getting too ridiculous for people to take all that seriously anymore. Though we were a few years away from thrash becoming the next big thing, Guns N Roses helped us find our heaviness again on Welcome to the Jungle.

From the first time this song hit MTV, it felt like these guys were pulled out of a completely different decade, with Slash and Axl Rose playing off each other in the exact same way you'd see people like Joe Perry and Steven Tyler messing around a decade earlier. They weren't shy about their influences either, taking different traces of punk and old school rock and roll and making one of the most dangerous sounding records of the time.

Because a lot of bands at the time claimed to be rock and roll, but none of them really had the swagger to pull it off effectively. Guns N Roses had swagger to spare though, and they had enough momentum to propel them into the next decade as well. For all of the hair metal hopefuls, this song alone was the warning sign that your days were numbered.