{"product_id":"guns-n-roses-use-your-illusion-i-and-ii-9780826419248","title":"Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I and II","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt was the season of the blockbuster. Between August 12 and November 26 1991, a whole slew of acts released albums that were supposed to sell millions of copies in the run-up to Christmas. Metallica, Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Garth Brooks, MC Hammer, and U2 - all were competing for the attention of the record-buying public at the same time. But perhaps the most attention-seeking act of all was Guns N Roses. Their albums \u003ci\u003eUse Your Illusion 1 and 2\u003c\/i\u003e, released on the same day, were both 75-minute sprawlers with practically the same cover design - an act of colossal arrogance. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn one level, it worked. The albums claimed the top two chart positions, and ultimately sold 7 million copies each in the US alone. On another level, it was a disaster. This was an album that Axl Rose has been unable to follow up in fifteen years. It signaled the end of Guns N Roses, of heavy metal on the Sunset Strip, and the entire 1980s model of blockbuster pop\/rock promotion. \u003ci\u003eUse Your Illusion\u003c\/i\u003e marked the end of rock as mass culture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this book, Eric Weisbard shows how the album has matured into a work whose baroque excesses now have something to teach us about pop and the platforms it raises and lowers, about a man who suddenly found himself praised to the firmament for every character trait that had hitherto marked him as an irredeemable loser.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eEric Weisbard has been writing about music since 1989. He edited the \u003ci\u003eSpin Alternative Record Guide \u003c\/i\u003eand was a senior writer there for ten years. At Experience Music Project, the Seattle music museum, he put together the travelling exhibit \"Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights\" and he organized the annual pop music conference.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Continuum","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50544116859154,"sku":"9780826419248","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_33358f1a-6ea0-4b1c-a7e7-99385af0e870.jpg?v=1731521102","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/guns-n-roses-use-your-illusion-i-and-ii-9780826419248","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}