Next Guns n' Roses video would you rather have

[D]

I want a video that makes NR look like a infomercial

I love big elaborate awesome videos.

concert only videos are lazy and could be made by any geek on YouTube.

[Thorned Rose]

I think the first video needs to be hip, direct and simple.

Kinda like "Slither" that was a cool video.

Nothing elaborate. Maybe down the line

[D]

Lots of people (including myself) have ipods and such like that play videos. So videos still are important.

If a band is big enough (and GNR most certainly are) people will want to see a video. No video = no mainstream audience. And lots of us want GNR to be the biggest band in the world again so sadly videos are a necessary evil.   

unfortunately videos are indeed defunct... along with albums for that matter.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline

To be quite honest, I have a difficult time believing that ANY new music can really reach the population in the same way that music did before the downloading age.

Downloading has quite simply reduced the importance of music in society.  Because you can now download music right off the internet for free as opposed to being forced to walk to your nearest record store to purchase it, the marginal value of the material itself has decreased in the consumer's mindset.  Not that I'm saying this is the case for us true fans, but it is however true for the general population.

Album sales (incl. those downloaded versions purchased off iTunes and whatnot) will continue to fall.  Record stores have already begun dying out and the major record labels are next (the recent merger trend in the record industry is no coincidence - they're really making an effort to unite together against this evil [downloading]).

The problem is that the negative effect that downloading has had on music is multi-dimensional:

on one hand, the downloading of singles as opposed to the purchasing of albums has obviously had an effect.  This has made the "album" essentially defunct because if consumers are only interested in downloading your one or two popular hits off of the "album" and that in itself will earn you the audiences during tours - then what driving force do you have as the artist to write 10-12 great songs.  Again, not saying GNR is like this, thank god- but artists are nowadays more and more so.

secondly, the centrality of music to the common audience has declined gradually ever since the inception of popular music.  Back in the 60's, music was a family affair- you listened to music over a record player or over the radio and it was a community listening together as opposed to an individual.  Everyone in the world shared music together and as a result, popular music flourished- it was a major topic of conversation and a trendsetter in culture.

Over time, this centrality of popular music has decayed to the point nowadays where there really is no centrality (with youtube and other internet sites damaging this further through creating a greater diversity of music that people have to chose from).  People download & listen to music on their ipods. Design track lists all of their own.  MTV is a reality tv station now as opposed to a music station.  And you may no longer share that community feeling in buying that big album that you waited months for at your favorite record store. 

So, some ask - "where are the rock stars nowadays?"  Well, I would argue that the formation of a true NEW "rock star" is now getting more and more difficult (which is why the old guys are still the ones filling stadiums).  Record industries make the rock star.  They are the ones promoting the hell out of their big artists, creating their iconic figurehead through mass campaigns in album advertising & scheduling the subsequent tours to support the album (yea- btw, tours are no longer used to support albums... touring is now the main source of revenue for artists... sad... another reason why artists don't care about writing a great record... why write a new record when you only make $ off of performing your old shit anyway?).  So if record labels go under and the great revolution in the free spread of music diversity reigns over the world wide web, will the rock star even exist in 50 years?

Does GNR stand a chance of being as iconic as they were back in 1992?  Not a chance.

In fact not even close.  Not even a reunion.

Do they have a chance of becoming the biggest "rock stars" in the world again?

I would say yes.  Although that doesn't really mean much anymore.

Agree with everything exept that. GNR can still be amazingly huge as bands that were famous are still famous now: Metallica,U2,Bon Jovi, Chili Peppers........Hell even Poison sell the fuck out of places.

Once Axl has this new album and promotes it properly, tours will sell out fast and who knows what a new generation of kids may think of him?

I remember discovering axl when I was 8 or 9.  So what are the next wave of 9-18 year olds gonna think?

GNR could get back close.

Shitty music is killing the industry, I still don't think downloading kills it as bad. Itunes kills the music industry worse than illegal downloading.

Most illegal downloaders dont buy music anyway, so if they didn't DL it, they wouldn't have it or they'd copy it from a friend who did buy it

Im sure it affects it some but not as much as they'd like u to believe.

CD singles were huge when I was a teenager. All of a sudden, they disappeared.

Why? cause casual fans aren't going to spend 15 dollars for a CD when they only like 1 song. so giving them the ablity to buy that one song for .99 cents not only gives them what they want, but it also FUCKS u out of big time money.

now essentially a single will sell 1 million copies whereas before the entire album sold 1 million cause it was the only way to get the song.

so 1 million at .99 cents? or 750,000 at 15 bucks?

Kid Rock has been the only one smart enough to figure this shit out.

[Reinaldo]

Something like Yesterdays.

Just the band rocking.. lots of close shots.. Imagine Better or Shackler's on that style.  

Would be a good way to introduce the new band to the GNR-unaware/forgotten contemporary audience, as the real/loyal fans already know this line up for some years.

 

[shadyklyde]

i dont watch TV for videos anymore but i watch a ton of them on youtube still. i think a lot of people do. but yeah, just a video of them rockin out would be great.

[gilee7]

I love the grandiose videos like November Rain and Estranged, although the videos of GNR just rocking out, like in Sweet Child O'Mine and Yesterdays, are really cool as well. No matter what their approach is, GNR know how to make an awesome music video.

As far as a new video goes, I think it'd be cool to see something in the style of WTTJ, where you see the band playing live, but you also have kind of a story going on as well. Kind of a two-for-one deal. That's the kind of video I see a song like "Better" being.

Some songs deserve a story-like video, though, to be fully appreciated. A song like "TWAT" would make an epic video.

[Dead N' Bloated]

I wonder how they are going to handle Buckets parts in the videos?

The same way they did Izzy's.


 

[Drope]

First of all, to say it we should know the song. But what I'd say is that this possible video should be kind of a presentation of the new band to the people in general.

[gunns1]

this will sound stupid,
but I would like to see buckethead back just for a few seconds in a twat video for instance,
just to pay homeage? to him, out of respect,

I know all that about why should he be because he isn't in the band anymore/it will only confuse the general public

but the guy deserves to be seen playing the best guitar solo we have heard so far from the new band..
anyone else agree?

[axl4ever]

I think it should be the band playing like in Sweet Child Of Mine.  Pretty much just the band playing together.  It would show that this is GNR now.  With maybe some concert footage.  I think what's hard for alot of people is they have one idea of what GNR is and it's needs to be shown what GNR now is.  Show them interacting with Axl and each other.  Show them in concert connecting.  Show them as a band. 

[wadey]

i think the first music vid should be fairly simple, maybe live footage or the guys in the studio......but this depends on the first single of course

[Butch Français]

a mix of both would be my favourite. I definately wanna see the guys rocking out in a video, also so they can present themselves to the world, but I would love some story video in there as well.

[Annie]

I love the grandiose videos like November Rain and Estranged, although the videos of GNR just rocking out, like in Sweet Child O'Mine and Yesterdays, are really cool as well. No matter what their approach is, GNR know how to make an awesome music video.

As far as a new video goes, I think it'd be cool to see something in the style of WTTJ, where you see the band playing live, but you also have kind of a story going on as well. Kind of a two-for-one deal. That's the kind of video I see a song like "Better" being.

Some songs deserve a story-like video, though, to be fully appreciated. A song like "TWAT" would make an epic video.

I totally agree. I wa thinking it would be really cool to do a video of TWAT out on the Moors in England with a kind of HEATHCLIFF/CATHY theme from WUTHERING HEIGHTS intermixed with modern shots of the band playing live. The Moors scenes could be a sort of dream sequence like in DON'T CRY. Just a thought.

[estebanf]

this will sound stupid,
but I would like to see buckethead back just for a few seconds in a twat video for instance,
just to pay homeage? to him, out of respect,

I know all that about why should he be because he isn't in the band anymore/it will only confuse the general public

but the guy deserves to be seen playing the best guitar solo we have heard so far from the new band..
anyone else agree?

I do think Buckethead made the best guitar solo we have heard from the new band. In fact, I think that Bucket solo in TWAT is the GREATEST solo ever made by any GNR guitarist, and even though this can sound a little 'too much', I honestly think that that is one of the best guitar solos EVER in rock history.

But I do not want to see Buckethead in an hypothetical new GNR video.

[CaughtMeInaComa]

"Better" should be the next Video.

[whiny]

"Better" should be the next Video.

better or scraped would be good. with a video that has more to it than live footage...

[greekmule]

keep it simple. a video like yesterdays would be the perfect choice.

just show the band rock the fuck out of a song like chinese democracy or scraped. 

[reed2009]

epic video for "this i love" "madagascar" of "prostitute" axl can work wonders with these

[duga]

TWAT or Prostitute.