Guns N’ Roses’ Slash: “Rock Isn’t Mainstream Anymore”

Authored by metalheadzone.com and submitted by CrusherMA

In a recent interview with USA Today, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash spoke about current state of music industry. He said that rock isn’t mainstream anymore.

“Rock isn’t mainstream anymore, and in some ways, I like that. It harks back to when rock ‘n’ roll was more of an underground concept – when people were speaking about things that they weren’t necessarily comfortable saying in the mainstream arena.

As far as hip-hop is concerned, it’s become so generic at this point. It’s definitely taken on a very Top-40 thing.”

He also revealed his favorite rock band:

“I love the Foo Fighters. My favorite band consistently has been Queens of the Stone Age because they always put out cool, interesting records. But I still listen to a lot of old stuff because the rock ‘n’ roll that turned me on as a kid, not too much of it exists.”

Interviewer asked “Revisiting GNR’s catalog on tour, is there one fan favorite that you get sick of playing live?”, Slash responded:

“No. Our approach to our material has a very devil-may-care thing to it, where you can make up shit in the middle of songs. You just keep it interesting.

It sounds the same to [audiences], but the way I’m playing it is different and that keeps me occupied. ‘Paradise City’ is a song that you can play in a lot of different ways. So I’ve never fallen into that rut of resenting having to play a song every single night.”

As you know, Slash has released his new solo album “Living The Dream” on September 21. You can listen the whole album from below.

SinisterMinisterX on September 24th, 2018 at 03:18 UTC »

Genres rise to prominence and fall to semi-obscurity. This is constant process in musical history. It happened to symphonies, it happened to opera, it happened to jazz -- and now it's happening to rock. Someday, hip-hop will also fall out of prominence and be replaced by something new we can't even imagine now - just like Elvis likely couldn't have imagined hip-hop.

That's the true wonder of music. Based on the typical lifespan of genres, the successor to hip-hop will likely emerge in the next two decades. I'm old enough to have seen about two-thirds of the rock age (70s onward). I'm fascinated by the evolution of hip-hop over that same time. I can't wait to see what's next.

fuzi0ndet on September 24th, 2018 at 00:19 UTC »

I love it for a selfish reason, I get to see my favorite bands in small venues very often. The kind you'd have to kill to get into to see a T40 artist like Taylor Swift. And these are the best shows, no matter what you like.

I just know how hard life is on the road for these folks. I think the myth of living like a rock star probably only applies to the top 1% in the game. I want more success for them.

I also love that there's not as much pressure on these artists like there is on a big budget T40 artist. We get more of what that band wants to put out, depending on the label. I know that's not the rule of thumb but I bet the odds are better than other main stream music.

CrusherMA on September 23rd, 2018 at 23:00 UTC »

His full comment:

“Rock isn’t mainstream anymore, and in some ways, I like that. It harks back to when rock ‘n’ roll was more of an underground concept – when people were speaking about things that they weren’t necessarily comfortable saying in the mainstream arena.”