by antiGUY

Somehow the Darwin theory has missed the music industry. Survival of the fittest just doesn't seem to apply to the record industry; because talent does not always equal success. What the Hell is here to explore some questionable "Artists" and why they have become popular, let alone got a record deal in the first place. Don't worry if you disagree you will have the opportunity to plead your case for these "Artists". What the Hell is also a place where antiGUY sounds off on entertainment topics that are pissing him off at the moment.

I'm gonna shock a lot of people here and stick up for Axl Rose.

Axl Rose faces a big challenge. He is basically screwed because short of reuniting with the original Guns N' Roses line-up, anything he does at this point won't be good enough for some people.  

In 1988 Axl sang about "Patience" and that's what diehard fans have relied on for the past decade as he has worked to complete "Chinese Democracy".  With the build up to this release, Axl is caught between a rock and hard place. It could end up being the best album since "Sgt. Pepper's" and it still won't measure up in some people's eyes.  

I ran into an old friend the other night that happens to also be a diehard GNR fan and we had an interesting discussion.  Keep in mind that this guy is about as big a fan as you are going to find and his take on the current state of GNR is that it isn't GNR without at least Slash's involvement.  I've heard this sentiment from a lot of people over the years. 

So Axl has that hurdle to overcome. 

Another big sticking point is something that I actually really respect about Axl but some people see as a liability, and that is the fact that Axl appears to want to really evolve from one album to the next. He doesn't want to do the same thing twice and this coupled with wanting to top yourself has to be a real burden.  When you come out of the gate with an album like "Appetite For Destruction" how in the hell are you going to top that?  Add to that the additional pressure of having to put out an album that some people are automatically going to want to hate because the band is missing some original members and you have a big challenge to overcome.  

This is a real dilemma for artists that seek to change up their sound from one album to the next. It's hard to pull off because people became fans based on one sound and not everybody will be receptive to a different direction (see Metallica as a big example of this).  Add to that the excruciating wait for the new material and you have a recipe for automatic discontent.  

Expectations are a very real part of the music business. A band can have a really successful album but if it doesn't do as well as expected or doesn't sell as much as the previous monster hit, then people consider it a failure.  "Chinese Democracy" will probably suffer that fate. The delay coupled with having to measure up to or beat GNR's past performance has put this album at a real disadvantage even before the public has heard a note. 

In a lot of ways, Axl and Guns N' Rose mirror the story of Boston. Axl is playing the part of Tom Scholz, a studio wizard who was known to be rabid perfectionist.  One example of this is the story that Scholz recorded literally hundreds of hours of drums to get one track right. Sound familiar?  

Scholz was known for his studio wizardry but also as a gifted songwriter. Boston released their self-titled debut album in 1976 and it became a monster hit, the biggest selling debut album of all time. (Guess who broke that record?). The album sold 8 million copies in the US. So the pressure was really on to produce a spectacular follow-up. Scholz being a perfectionist, didn't want to rush things. The record company finally pressured him to produce a second album and it was released two years after the group's record breaking debut and sold half as many copies. Scholz reportedly attributed this lack of sales to having only really produced "half an album".  But 4 million copies is a huge success by any measure, however it still didn't live up to the predecessor, so some considered it a failure.  

Scholz wasn't going to let that happen to him again, so for the third album he was going to do it on his own terms and not give in to label pressure.  As it a result it took 8 years for Boston to release their third album.  It too became a big hit, with sales comparable to the second album, but fell short of topping the success of the debut.  Scholz was still vindicated in a way and when it took almost eight years for the next Boston album, people were not very surprised.  

Unfortunately, that fourth album was a big flop. Scholz was the only remaining original member of the group and by the time the album surfaced the industry as a whole had pretty much forgotten about Boston and moved on to other things. 

Axl is at the point where "Chinese Democracy" will most likely follow Boston's third album experience. With the buildup and expectations from the past decade it will most likely have immediate success. Partly from curiosity and wanting to hear what took so long and also from the segment of diehard fans that would buy a CD if it just contained Axl singing nursery rhymes.  

But will it measure up to GNR's past?  That is the big question. You have some people that want it to fail and still others that expect it to blow people away.  We will have to wait and see which side will prevail when the album is finally released.  But as much as I, as a GNR fan, want to hear the damn thing already, I really can't fault Axl for wanting to make sure everything is perfect. A lot of things are riding on this album and he will have a huge hill to climb to meet (or beat) expectations. I know I wouldn't want to be under that kind of pressure. So, I say we need just a little more patience... but that patience is running short.  

[Postscript.  I actually have a bit more to say about Axl, especially public perceptions of the man and how different that is from what some people that know him have to say. So, I might return to this subject again. Especially if the damn album doesn't come out soon. Real ranting will return next time.]