metalife
Senior Member
I wrote this analysis as part of my Diploma of Music - tuition course I took last year. I thought I'd share it with this site and see what people think. If there are any music theory geeks here like me, you might enjoy this.
(I have to half this as I can only post a 10,000 word thread. I'll post the second half as a reply.
THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF TWO CLASSIC ROCK SONGS.
By Dave Smiles
Welcome To The Jungle and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Guns N Roses and Nirvana, two bands that dominated the rock scenes of two different decades. Two songs that changed not just the face of rock n roll, but also the world… well, at least the world of popular culture. By the mid-1980s rock n roll had become ‘safe’ and easily marketable to a mainstream market. Dance music had also become prominent and the rock n roll bands that were around were cheap imitations of Motley Crue and Van Halen. While Guns N Roses have been included in the ‘hair metal’ genre and originating from the ‘hairspray’ capital of the time - Los Angeles, they were actually kicking against the style. A collective feeling amongst the original members of the band was that rock and roll had gotten too safe and commercial and there was a real need for some stripped back dirty street level rock n roll. Taking influences from The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and supercharging them with the punk attitudes of The Sex Pistols and Haoni Rock, the ‘Gunners’ would become the biggest band on the planet by the end of the 1980s. By 1991, with many of the hard rock bands of the eighties burning out, breaking up, or just getting too ridiculous for fans to be able to relate to anymore, Nirvana would change the landscape once more, stripping rock music down to an even more bare bones structure, taking out the technical solos and flash stage shows, the grunge era took the attitude of the disenfranchised American youth to the world.
Both bands brought rock n roll back down to earth, and then let success turn them into what they had sort to avoid.
While it is true many rock fans like both bands, there are as many, if not more, who will prefer one over the other. Regardless of your opinions of either band, or your preference, there’s no denying the impact both bands had on popular music and on the world. Welcome To The Jungle and Smells Like Teen Spirit remain two rock classics, often appearing in ‘best of’ lists and influencing future musicians for years to come.
Both songs came into existence in similar ways, both met initial resistance from the media and both were made successful by the voice of the fans, for their respective generations, who found something within the songs they could relate to.
Hard Rock originated in the late 1960s with bands such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and The Rolling Stones. 1970s rock bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Ac/Dc brought a harder edge to the music but, like the 60s bands, still maintained their influences in the blues. When the 1980s arrived rock n roll lost some of the danger. Guns N Roses adopted more of a classic rock style and injected elements of Punk rock into the mix. Along with peers like Skid Row, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and Motley Crue, Guns N Roses brought back gritty street level, honest Hard Rock. With the success of Welcome To The Jungle and Sweet Child o’Mine, Guns N Roses connected with millions and brought hard rock / heavy metal into the mainstream.
Taking its influences from the blues, and even swing music, Hard rock can be described as loud and aggressive but just as often has its softer moments. Guitars heroes, the masters of dexterous and challenging solos, are often seen as the stars of the show. They often share, or fight for, the spot light with a charismatic singer. Singer’s voices need to be loud and vary from banshee like wails and screaming falsettos to deep monotone mumbles and guttural cries. They also need to be able to show a sensitive side. Songs vary from complex arrangement to simple two chord works of fun. The drums maintain heavy use of the kick drum, tom and snare double time beats and cymbal crashes left to ring for emphasis. The bass strengthens the rhythms guitar work, but often has a chance to shine with its own riffs and solos.
Grunge, one of the many sub genres of hard rock, developed from alternative rock which emerged in the mid-1980s in Seattle. American media had been focused on Los Angeles and New York in the 1980s, ignoring Seattle until the success of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in the early nineties. Grunge bands are inspired by hard-core punk, seventies hard rock, and indie rock. As in hard rock, guitars are heavily distorted, but include fuzz and feedback. Songs consisted of contrasting sections of soft and loud, and angst-filled lyrics about social alienation, confinement, feeling misunderstood and a need for individuality. It targeted a culture of teen depression and often mocked the glam rock popularity of the 1980s. Many grunge musicians had an unkempt appearance, with clothing consisting of op shop items and flannel shirts. Grunge concerts were straightforward with bands rejecting big budgets, avoiding complex lighting, pyrotechnics, and visual effects.
Seventies hard rock bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin also influenced many Grunge bands, although many fans of the genre considered these bands ‘old’ and irrelevant. There seemed to be an overall rebellious nature from the grunge generation that extended to everything including music itself. While Guns N Roses fans respected bands that had come before them, Nirvana fans appeared to dismiss anything more than a decade old.
When the popularity of Grunge shifted the world’s focus to Seattle, clothing companies started marketing "grunge fashion" and charged high prices for items best described as op shop fodder. Many grunge artists were uncomfortable with their success. Some even stating that the ‘wrong type of fans were buying their albums’, criticizing the music industry, businesses, ticketek radio stations, fans etc. One of the problems was the music was initially an underground culture intended for underprivileged teens who had similar issues that the musicians were writing about. When Grunge became mainstream, teens from middle class families latched onto it and started to create their own manufactured issues to become part of the style. Being depressed had become cool. (Opening the door for the mainstream success of hip hop in the mid to late nineties. At least the hip hop guys were interested in chicks, partying, cars and money. Everything mainstream hard rock was about in the eighties.)
By the latter half of the 1990s grunge merged into ‘post-grunge’, a watered down version of the genre consisting of radio-friendly productions. Brit-pop emerged around this time as a reaction against grunge. Bands such as Blur and Oasis were against the pessimistic attitudes and sick of how miserable rock n roll had become.
While the most of the grunge bands that dominated the 1990s have slipped into oblivion; There seems to be a bit of a resurgence emerging – Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam recently resurrecting and releasing albums. The 80s metal bands such as Guns N Roses (and solo outings from each of the original members), Motley Crue, Poison; and 70s bands such as Aerosmith and Alice Cooper et al have constantly continued to tour and record albums.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
The Guns N Roses song was released in 1987 as the second single from their debut album Appetite For Destruction and helped to make it the biggest selling debut album of all time; a record still held to this day.
The lyrics were written by singer Axl Rose while in Kingston Washington, (ironically, just outside of Seattle). Original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin sums the song up as being ‘about Hollywood streets; true to life.’ The music originated from a riff that lead guitarist Slash wrote which interested Axl.
After playing it to the band they worked up the basis of the song in about three hours. Slash credits bass player Duff McKagan for coming up with the main riff, which Duff says came from a song called The Fake, written in 1978 for his punk rock band Vains. The lyric ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ comes from a 1984 song Underwater World by Finnish glam punk band Hanoi Rocks. A band cited by Axl as the biggest influence on Guns N Roses.
Geffen Records had trouble selling the video to MTV, until a deal was made between David Geffen and the network. The video was aired once at about 5:00AM on a Sunday morning. After its debut the network received numerous calls from people wanting to see it again. It soon became one of MTV's most requested videos.
The song has been a standard in the bands live set since its creation. Tours with the original line up(s) included the song in any part of the set, but rarely as a show closer (set lists were changed nightly). Since touring resumed with the ‘new’ Guns N Roses the song was a standard show opener until 2009 when it was moved to the second slot and replaced with the song Chinese Democracy.
It has been used as a show introduction during Shakira’s world tour ‘The Tour Of The Mongoose’ and Pink covered the song live in 2003 during her Try This Tour.
Welcome to the Jungle was selected by Clint Eastwood to be used in the final Dirty Harry movie The Dead Pool, which featured an unknown Jim Carey playing a rock star lip synching to the song. Guns N Roses have a brief cameo in the film.
(I have to half this as I can only post a 10,000 word thread. I'll post the second half as a reply.
THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF TWO CLASSIC ROCK SONGS.
By Dave Smiles
Welcome To The Jungle and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Guns N Roses and Nirvana, two bands that dominated the rock scenes of two different decades. Two songs that changed not just the face of rock n roll, but also the world… well, at least the world of popular culture. By the mid-1980s rock n roll had become ‘safe’ and easily marketable to a mainstream market. Dance music had also become prominent and the rock n roll bands that were around were cheap imitations of Motley Crue and Van Halen. While Guns N Roses have been included in the ‘hair metal’ genre and originating from the ‘hairspray’ capital of the time - Los Angeles, they were actually kicking against the style. A collective feeling amongst the original members of the band was that rock and roll had gotten too safe and commercial and there was a real need for some stripped back dirty street level rock n roll. Taking influences from The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and supercharging them with the punk attitudes of The Sex Pistols and Haoni Rock, the ‘Gunners’ would become the biggest band on the planet by the end of the 1980s. By 1991, with many of the hard rock bands of the eighties burning out, breaking up, or just getting too ridiculous for fans to be able to relate to anymore, Nirvana would change the landscape once more, stripping rock music down to an even more bare bones structure, taking out the technical solos and flash stage shows, the grunge era took the attitude of the disenfranchised American youth to the world.
Both bands brought rock n roll back down to earth, and then let success turn them into what they had sort to avoid.
While it is true many rock fans like both bands, there are as many, if not more, who will prefer one over the other. Regardless of your opinions of either band, or your preference, there’s no denying the impact both bands had on popular music and on the world. Welcome To The Jungle and Smells Like Teen Spirit remain two rock classics, often appearing in ‘best of’ lists and influencing future musicians for years to come.
Both songs came into existence in similar ways, both met initial resistance from the media and both were made successful by the voice of the fans, for their respective generations, who found something within the songs they could relate to.
Hard Rock originated in the late 1960s with bands such as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and The Rolling Stones. 1970s rock bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Ac/Dc brought a harder edge to the music but, like the 60s bands, still maintained their influences in the blues. When the 1980s arrived rock n roll lost some of the danger. Guns N Roses adopted more of a classic rock style and injected elements of Punk rock into the mix. Along with peers like Skid Row, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and Motley Crue, Guns N Roses brought back gritty street level, honest Hard Rock. With the success of Welcome To The Jungle and Sweet Child o’Mine, Guns N Roses connected with millions and brought hard rock / heavy metal into the mainstream.
Taking its influences from the blues, and even swing music, Hard rock can be described as loud and aggressive but just as often has its softer moments. Guitars heroes, the masters of dexterous and challenging solos, are often seen as the stars of the show. They often share, or fight for, the spot light with a charismatic singer. Singer’s voices need to be loud and vary from banshee like wails and screaming falsettos to deep monotone mumbles and guttural cries. They also need to be able to show a sensitive side. Songs vary from complex arrangement to simple two chord works of fun. The drums maintain heavy use of the kick drum, tom and snare double time beats and cymbal crashes left to ring for emphasis. The bass strengthens the rhythms guitar work, but often has a chance to shine with its own riffs and solos.
Grunge, one of the many sub genres of hard rock, developed from alternative rock which emerged in the mid-1980s in Seattle. American media had been focused on Los Angeles and New York in the 1980s, ignoring Seattle until the success of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in the early nineties. Grunge bands are inspired by hard-core punk, seventies hard rock, and indie rock. As in hard rock, guitars are heavily distorted, but include fuzz and feedback. Songs consisted of contrasting sections of soft and loud, and angst-filled lyrics about social alienation, confinement, feeling misunderstood and a need for individuality. It targeted a culture of teen depression and often mocked the glam rock popularity of the 1980s. Many grunge musicians had an unkempt appearance, with clothing consisting of op shop items and flannel shirts. Grunge concerts were straightforward with bands rejecting big budgets, avoiding complex lighting, pyrotechnics, and visual effects.
Seventies hard rock bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin also influenced many Grunge bands, although many fans of the genre considered these bands ‘old’ and irrelevant. There seemed to be an overall rebellious nature from the grunge generation that extended to everything including music itself. While Guns N Roses fans respected bands that had come before them, Nirvana fans appeared to dismiss anything more than a decade old.
When the popularity of Grunge shifted the world’s focus to Seattle, clothing companies started marketing "grunge fashion" and charged high prices for items best described as op shop fodder. Many grunge artists were uncomfortable with their success. Some even stating that the ‘wrong type of fans were buying their albums’, criticizing the music industry, businesses, ticketek radio stations, fans etc. One of the problems was the music was initially an underground culture intended for underprivileged teens who had similar issues that the musicians were writing about. When Grunge became mainstream, teens from middle class families latched onto it and started to create their own manufactured issues to become part of the style. Being depressed had become cool. (Opening the door for the mainstream success of hip hop in the mid to late nineties. At least the hip hop guys were interested in chicks, partying, cars and money. Everything mainstream hard rock was about in the eighties.)
By the latter half of the 1990s grunge merged into ‘post-grunge’, a watered down version of the genre consisting of radio-friendly productions. Brit-pop emerged around this time as a reaction against grunge. Bands such as Blur and Oasis were against the pessimistic attitudes and sick of how miserable rock n roll had become.
While the most of the grunge bands that dominated the 1990s have slipped into oblivion; There seems to be a bit of a resurgence emerging – Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam recently resurrecting and releasing albums. The 80s metal bands such as Guns N Roses (and solo outings from each of the original members), Motley Crue, Poison; and 70s bands such as Aerosmith and Alice Cooper et al have constantly continued to tour and record albums.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
The Guns N Roses song was released in 1987 as the second single from their debut album Appetite For Destruction and helped to make it the biggest selling debut album of all time; a record still held to this day.
The lyrics were written by singer Axl Rose while in Kingston Washington, (ironically, just outside of Seattle). Original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin sums the song up as being ‘about Hollywood streets; true to life.’ The music originated from a riff that lead guitarist Slash wrote which interested Axl.
After playing it to the band they worked up the basis of the song in about three hours. Slash credits bass player Duff McKagan for coming up with the main riff, which Duff says came from a song called The Fake, written in 1978 for his punk rock band Vains. The lyric ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ comes from a 1984 song Underwater World by Finnish glam punk band Hanoi Rocks. A band cited by Axl as the biggest influence on Guns N Roses.
Geffen Records had trouble selling the video to MTV, until a deal was made between David Geffen and the network. The video was aired once at about 5:00AM on a Sunday morning. After its debut the network received numerous calls from people wanting to see it again. It soon became one of MTV's most requested videos.
The song has been a standard in the bands live set since its creation. Tours with the original line up(s) included the song in any part of the set, but rarely as a show closer (set lists were changed nightly). Since touring resumed with the ‘new’ Guns N Roses the song was a standard show opener until 2009 when it was moved to the second slot and replaced with the song Chinese Democracy.
It has been used as a show introduction during Shakira’s world tour ‘The Tour Of The Mongoose’ and Pink covered the song live in 2003 during her Try This Tour.
Welcome to the Jungle was selected by Clint Eastwood to be used in the final Dirty Harry movie The Dead Pool, which featured an unknown Jim Carey playing a rock star lip synching to the song. Guns N Roses have a brief cameo in the film.
