Antagonize Me, Motherfucker

First week of sales for the long-in-development "Chinese Democracy" were subdued... with a #3 debut:

Best Buy Senior Entertainment Officer Gary Arnold had predicted "Chinese Democracy" would be the week's top seller, but it ended up being bested by Kanye West's new release "808s & Heartbreak" with 450,000 copies and country star Taylor Swift's former champ "Fearless" with 267,000.

What happened? Wasn't "Chinese Democracy" one of the most-anticipated and talked-about albums of all time? Wasn't it so steeped in myth and lore that a massive debut week was all but assured? Maybe not.

The October release of AC/DC's "Black Ice," while not a perfect comparison, comes to mind. Like Guns N' Roses, AC/DC was a band that had been off the radar for a while and opted to partner with one retailer -- Wal-Mart -- for the release of its own long-awaited new album. "Ice" ultimately chilled with 784,000 copies in its debut week -- the veteran group's best sales frame since tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan started in 1991.

And now we have GNR's album, in an exclusive deal with Best Buy (and iTunes). And it starts with much less.

So, why didn't GNR's number even get close to AC/DC's?

Wal-Mart gave AC/DC the red-carpet treatment. The retail giant made sure the album had the appearance of an event record -- something every Wal-Mart shopper needed to own. If that didn't convince consumers, maybe their famed store-within-a-store display did.

But at Best Buy, based on reports from Billboard staffers on the ground during release week, the promotion was on a smaller scale...

No shit. I couldn't even get a copy of the album on the first day. And the store I went to didn't even have any kind of display for the fucking thing. It was fucking appalling.

Despite some mixed to positive reviews, it's also disheartening that the album's essentially relegated to "lighter side of the news" fare. Did the Rachel Maddow show *really* need to take a potshot at this album?

GnR was the first band I cared about.

Axl Rose is a misanthropic recluse—prone to sporadic ranting—who takes wayyy too long to get his work done. I can understand that. If you gave me a boatload of money, I'd hole up in a big mansion and disappear for a decade or so, too.