I knew the storm was gettin' closer but all my friends said I was hiiiiiiiigh

Certainly deserved of a far longer, more in depth post, but Guns 'n' Roses are the reason I really started listening to music.
Hated by as many as loved them, for me, they were everything I wanted in music as a greasy-haired teenager and as they developed into a pompous, drug-addled behemoth, I loved them more and more.
I'm glad I have not grown up in a microwaveable music world where bands can come and go as quickly as Firefox shuts down unexpectedly.
When G 'n'R were all that mattered to me, I had all their albums on cassette, three t-shirts on rotation and a slew of blank videos bursting with MTV clips, videos and interviews for years.
They started out raw as botulism and spiralled into an obnoxious, cocaine-and-heroin-addled blur of overblown shit and musical genius.
Listening back to Use Your Illusion I & II, they were so clearly deep in the throes of egomaniacal snort-fuckery....it was gripping.
There was no better place to begin a musical discovery as they straddled punk, hair-metal, cock-rock, acoustic balladry, encroachment - via MTV awards shows - on the grunge scene and then they sent me off in the direction of hip-hop and hardcore punk at the exact same time...in a way.
I began listening to the Dead Kennedys and the Wu Tang Clan around the same time thanks to Guns 'n' Roses conversations with friends - and older brothers of friends - who then turned me onto the Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Butthole Surfers and the like.
But G 'n' R were the beginning of it all for me.
A more considered post is probably required but for the moment I'll leave you with a classic G'n'R song that represents what they were, far better than any track from Appetite For Destruction could. Youtube was made for these moments...