At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They were edgy, angry and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child O' Mine," showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful. Their music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest -- everything that good hard rock and heavy metal should be. There was something refreshing about a band who could provoke everything from devotion to hatred, especially since both sides were equally right. There hadn't been a hard rock band this raw or talented in years, and they were given added weight by Axl Rose's primal rage, the sound of confused, frustrated white trash vying for his piece of the pie. As the '80s became the '90s, there simply wasn't a more interesting band around.      GNR released their first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen; the following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. They started to build a following with their numerous live shows, but the album didn't start selling until almost a year later, when MTV started playing "Sweet Child o' Mine." Soon, both the album and single shot to number one, and GNR became one of the biggest bands in the world. Their debut single, "Welcome to the Jungle," was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and "Paradise City" followed in its footsteps. Appetite For Destruction went on to sell more than 28 million copies worldwide (18 times platinum in the U.S.) and is among the biggest-selling albums in history. By the end of 1988, they released the five times platinum G N' R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit "Patience").GBR began work on their lfollow-up album at the end of 1990. By the time the sessions were finished, the new album had become two new albums. After being delayed for nearly a year, the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were issued simultaneously, a first for any contemporary artist.  Debuting #2 and #1, respectively, they featured three gold hits with "November Rain" (#3), "Don't Cry" (#10) and the previously released Top 30 "You Could Be Mine" from the film Terminator II: Judgement Day, plus another Top 40 with "Live And Let Die."  Each album went seven times platinum. After the Use Your Illusion duo, 1994's "The Spaghetti Incident?" cover album reached #4 and platinum. In 1999, a live album earned gold and in 2004 the band's only Greatest Hits collection peaked at #3 and earned quadruple platinum.  Overall, GNR has sold more than 90 million records worldwide. The band has now released the much-anticipated album, CHINESE DEMOCRACY.