Hmmmm... I dunno Kev, the "Women" part might be accurate. The issue I have with the rest of your statement is that at the time, when G&R's came out, they were different than the hair and metal bands. I'd say a completely different sub-genre. Yeah, sure they now get lumped into the rest of the "80's Rock bands". Back then though, they broke away from the "Metal" pack. Just good hard driving rock and roll. You Had Glam/Hair metal bands, you had thrash or speed metal, then you had G&R and similar groups like LA Guns. At the time, it was a welcome break for me from "Typical Metal"
A lot of it was the look. When Welcome to the Jungle came out, they had the big hair and the look of most of the other hair metal bands, and having cheeseball monster ballads like Sweet Child O' Mine just added to it. Right or wrong, they are in that hair metal crowd.
Paradise City would be 50 times better if the vocals in that song were even just good (as opposed to terrible).
I will never understand why so many people think Paradise City has terrible vocals.
Axl Rose being the singer has everything to do with it.
I remember when MTV debuted the video for it. It was a big thing, and I remember the long intro absolutely slaying me at the age of 14. And then the vocals started, and the song took a quick nosedive. Biggest tease ever!!!!!! Rose can do certain types of singing okay, but not the kind he did in that song.