Best Album of the 1980s -- Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses

Associated Content ^ | March 13, 2009 | Loran Montgomery

[terabyte]

Nirvana didn't kill hair metal - Guns n' Roses did. With their explosive 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, Guns n' Roses burst out of the Los Angeles glam rock scene and permanently carved a spot in rock history.

This music review places Appetite for Destruction as arguably the best album of the 1980s. From the opening delayed guitar riff of "Welcome to the Jungle" to the incendiary "Paradise City" the the almost 50s flavored ending of "Rocket Queen," the album captures the reality of life on the streets better than any before or since.

Lyrically, the band completely avoided all the traditional trappings of heavy metal. The eccentric but brilliant Axl Rose ensured that there are no Zeppelin-esque Lord of the Rings references, no pseudo-Satanist posturing, not even any of the party-all-the-time silliness of their contemporaries. Instead, there is nothing but a raw dose of five young men living a virtually homeless, penniless existence on the mean streets of LA in the mid-to-late 1980s.

[mysterio]

If GNR AFD is not the best, it’s close.

[mysterio]

For me, it was halfway through seventh grade. I noticed this one kid had a Guns N Roses cutout on the inside of his locker. It was the band standing in front of this graffiti that read “Glam Sucks.” Got the album right after seventh grade and couldn’t believe it. Listening to it now, it’s still amazing.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was a Morton Downey, Jr. fan, too. He was the sole voice of reason for me at the time when I was getting deprogrammed from the leftist public school indoctrination. We need more of his confrontational style, too. Republicans act WAY too nice.

[misterrob]

Nope.....

[bk1937]

Actually, I think that GNR were different than glam rock at the time, but they were influenced more by 70’s rock than anything else. Bands like Warrant, Winger, Poison and others continued on after Appetite for Destruction was released. I remember hearing a story of an executive that had the Cherrie Pie poster on his wall (Warrant) when one of the band members walked in. When Nirvana released their 2nd album (Nevermind) the wall poster changed to the cover of Nevermind very quickly. So, I could be wrong, but it seems that the whole ‘glam’ rock thing ended in the early 90s even after GNR released “Use Your Illusion....” in ‘91.

[Darren McCarty]

I'm gonna get flamed for this, but Cherry Pie was a MUCH better song than Nirvana'a overrated stuff.

I still get a laugh out of this one line. "In walks her daddy standing 6 foot four, said 'you ain't gonna swing with my daughter no more!"

But 70's rock is still the high point. I like the occasional Warrant song, but they are no Van Halen, Aerosmith, or Motorhead.

[Mr_Moonlight]

I think it’s funny that all these hippies’ gods did recognize how evil communism is.

Right On!

As far as the 80's music scene goes, I gotta run with Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" album .. in one fell swoop the Straits mocked the cultural degeneration within popular entertainment of the (then) fledging MTV, while laying low one *very* powerful anti-war song illustrating the horrors of war against tyranny, along with a very powerful pen-n-ink stark black-n-white video to go along with it ....

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

THIS is my quintessential 80's album --- Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms"