GNR and the Business of Nostalgia
Do you know where you are, baby? Neither do we! (Getting older is no fun.)
Let’s be honest here. Reunions are a money grab. They rarely offer anything new. Famous bands, now a bit older, playing their greatest hits all around the world for a good amount of cash sounds cynical to many.
But you know what? I’m okay with it… as long as it’s good.
I’ve seen a few reunion shows in my day, including Cream, The Police, and Pulp. Each one of those gigs were phenomenal. That’s because if they were charging an arm and a leg, they were going to give you a show you were going to remember. If there was to be a ride on the nostalgia train, it wasn’t going to be first class on a bullet train.
Other reunion tours have felt like, well, a rickety Amtrak. On these “greedy bastard tours,” as I like to call them, the artists are there for the money and make no bones about it. While one can respect that in a perverse way, they don’t make much of an effort, have little artistic value (if any at all), and charge so much that fans practically have to take out a second mortgage to afford them… yet we still go because of the nostalgia factor that comes in to seeing your favorite bands of yore playing once again in front of you. (Or, for fans who were too young to experience them the first time around, finally seeing your heroes play live.)
Nostalgia is big business. Elvis has been dead for nearly forty years, and he rakes in an estimated $55 million in earnings per year. Bob Marley’s been dead for 34 years and earns roughly $20 million a year. Nostalgia sells. Just plaster a classic artist’s name on some merch and sell it like crazy.
That’s why I’m on the fence when it comes to Guns N’ Roses’ imminent reunion. The thought of even seeing Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Steven (or Matt) on the same stage as Axl is one no one in their right mind would ever think to see happen. How can you not get excited by it?
On the other hand, the tension, bitterness, drug fueled ego clashes, and enmity was so public that it could have been its own reality show; to see such a sudden change is what makes me think this is all about the Benjamins. (And at a reported $3 million per show, there are going to be a lot of Bens.)
The exorbitant amount of money aside, the classic GNR lineup is one of the most desired reunions ever. The only other possible reunion I could think of that come this close is a full-fledged Led Zeppelin tour. That’s how high the hype is for this reunion, and it hasn’t even been officially announced yet!
That’s why they need to bring down the house. Mainly Axl. He needs to bring the goods, and then some… AND ON TIME! The fans don’t want to pay in excess of $250 a pop to see a cornrowed, out-of-tune mess like the VMAs in 2002. He needs to sing far better than he has in recent years. We know from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony that the rest of the original band can do the songs justice—Myles Kennedy adeptly stepped in for Axl, who was a no-show that night.
I wish them the best of luck; they have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to make this a success.
We’ll be waiting.
