Week 7 - Technological Innovations in 20th Century Popular Music

Considering the evolution of The Beatles' sound, I'd like to use my favourite band in a similar comparison.

Guns N' Roses hit it big in 1987 with their debut record Appetite For Destruction (which is to date, the best-selling debut album of all time worldwide with over 28 million albums sold). The album featured many hits including "Welcome To The Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City". The album is non-stop face-pace rock n' roll.

Here is the video for "Welcome To The Jungle".

In 1991, GN'R released a two albums simultaneously on the same day, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (which to date, is only time an artist has had two albums peak at #1 and #2 on the Billboard charts at the same time). These albums featured hits like "November Rain", "Don't Cry", "You Could Be Mine" and a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". These albums are somewhat different compared to their debut album. Although they did not abandon the hard-rock tendencies of Appetite, some songs contained different elements such as blues, country, and classical music. Piano became a very popular element in many GN'R songs, as many songs slowed down, with some songs reaching 10 minutes long, and one exceeding 10 minutes.

Here is the video for "Estranged".

A big difference from "Welcome To The Jungle".

2008 marked the revival of Guns N' Roses with their most recent album Chinese Democracy, 17 years since they had released a studio album of new material. The album is relatively different from Appetite For Destruction, with many uses of technology being used in all the songs. Many songs are layers upon layers of music and vocals.

Here is one song from the album called "Scraped":

This is a dramatic change compared to their old material.

The band did not release music for 17 years, all through the technological revolution with computers and the music industry becoming digital. To me, it seems to be a logical progression in musical direction, and the album seems to be what would be next after the Use Your Illusion albums. Another reason was that it was not the same members writing the music. One of the guitarists for the current GN'R lineup has called Chinese Democracy the band's White Album, and has compared this evolution to The Beatles discography.