November seems like a good time to curl up with some hot tea, some petites madeleines, and a copy of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, with Vinteuil’s Sonata playing softly on the hi-fi. Wait -- is that even possible? Does such music exist? Blair Sanderson investigates this tantalizing classical conundrum.

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To put Chinese Democracy in some perspective: it arrives 17 years after the twin Use Your Illusions, the last set of original music by Guns N' Roses. Seventeen years prior to the Illusions, it was 1974, back before the Ramones and Sex Pistols, back before Aerosmith had Rocks and Toys in the Attic, back before Queen had A Night at the Opera -- back before almost anything that Axl Rose worships even existed. Generations have passed in these 17 years but not for Axl. He cut himself off from the world following the trouble-ridden Illusion tour, retreating to the Hollywood Hills, swapping every original GNR member in favor for contract players culled from his mid-'90s musical obsessions -- Tommy Stinson from the Replacements, Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails, Buckethead from guitar magazines -- as he turned into rock's Charles Foster Kane, a genius in self-imposed exile spending millions to make his own Xanadu, Chinese Democracy.

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If 1991 was the year that punk broke, 1993 was the year that Alternative took hold. Nirvana and Pearl Jam delivered follow-ups to their blockbusters, rock radio was ruled by their imitators Stone Temple Pilots, pop radio saw more guitars than it did in years thanks to R.E.M. and their followers like the Gin Blossoms. Thanks to PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Belly, Luscious Jackson, Juliana Hatfield, and the Breeders, it was the year of Women in Rock -- so coined by papers looking hard for a trend -- but Guyville didn't cower either, thanks to major-label debuts by Urge Overkill and the Afghan Whigs. And that was just in the U.S.!

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