"Chinese Democracy" marked Guns N' Roses' expansion into industrial rock, electronic rock and nu metal, while retaining the hard rock style of previous albums. Critics noted stylistic similarities on the album to the work of Queen, Paul McCartney and Wings, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Rose cited the influence of Dave Grohl's drumming on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the title track. The song was inspired by the movie "Kundun" about the Dalai Lama, as well as three months Rose spent living in China, stating "When you stay in hotels there, you don't realize that the stuff you're seeing on TV, the average person isn't seeing. Everywhere I went, people are scared, they're frightened for their lives to have an opinion that deviates from the government about the simplest things, things that we take for granted." The lyrics "Blame it on the Falun Gong / They've seen the end and you cannot hold on now" from the song caused the album to be banned in China. The song starts with a delayed intro of ambient noise and guitar lines. "Spin" likened the guitars to the work of Tom Morello. Drummer Josh Freese wrote the main guitar riff, describing it as "really dumb, simple, dirty guitar riff."