CSPC: Guns N’ Roses Popularity Analysis
Guns N’ Roses are possibly the only band that attracted, and infact still attracts to this day, both fans of classic rock music and fans of 80s arena rock. Such hits as, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Paradise City, Welcome to the Jungle, November Rain and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door are still immensely popular.
Considering the majority of their successful singles came out in a four year span from mid-1988 to mid-1992, the cumulative sales reached by the band are outstanding. In terms of strict album sales, their 1987 classic Appetite For Destruction is one of the 22 albums in the 27-33 million units range worldwide, good enough for a spot just outside the all-time Top 10 best selling albums. Their career total album sales challenge the biggest US groups ever like Aerosmith, the Beach Boys and Bon Jovi, just under the two highest rollers the Eagles and Metallica. An incredible feat given they released far fewer albums than most of the aforementioned.
Unsurprisingly the band’s success is visible in the digital world also, with massive download sales and streaming results. Thus, let’s sum up all their achievements in every format to determine a clear picture of their success with the various albums of new music they issued.
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Guns N’ Roses‘ albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
The youtube stats for November Rain are just insane. 2 billion views? There are popular acts now that would kill for those kind of views. I wonder how many of them will still be getting these kind of stats in 30 years? I have always been curious though on why November Rain does even better than Sweet Child O Mine on youtube. Sweet Child was much bigger in it’s initial release and does much better than November Rain on Spotify.
I remember there being a bit of a furore about the track back in 91/92. I recall it being referred to as their Stairway to Heaven, due to it’s length, epic nature and extended guitar solo. The video was quite talked about too, which I think they spent a preposterous amount on. As to it’s Youtube popularity, maybe the actual video has it’s own popularity. While not exactly the same or on the same scale, I’d imagine a lot views for The Prodigys Smack My Bitch Up is to see the video, not so much to hear the song. Maybe… Read more »
That’s true, it’s still referred to in those terms to this day. But it’s popularity endures (just like Stairway).
There’s plenty of similar cases, Aerosmith’s Crazy being their most viewed video while it’s only their 5th most streamed song…etc., music videos aren’t just about music.
True, take The Beatles. At face value it seems crazy that Don’t Let Me Down, their 29th most popular track on Spotify, is their most viewed video/track on Youtube. IMO it’s clearly the event and the live footage of it, the legendary and iconic Apple Records roof top concert, by the band, that’s actually getting the views.
The song was featured in the Thor film. That soundtrack boost from Marvel is huge nowadays.
While I agree with you, that a song in a Marvel film helps give it a boost, November Rain has been one of the most streamed videos on YouTube for years, way prior to its inclusion in Thor.
AfD reaches 50 million EAS! What a timeless classic!