Album Sales: U2 vs. Bon Jovi

Like I said before



Remember, in 1993 on much music in canada during an interview (egos @icons) jon said "we sold 45 million records......that's a whole lot more than motley crue, guns and roses, aersosmith, def leppard, u2, metallica......I can name ten more"

Bon-jovi for life 8

But I doubt when Bon Jovi have released 14 albums they'll have sold as much as U2 have now. Again, U2 are more consistent.

Not anti-Bon Jovi or anything, but U2 have a more consistent fan base.

Nah...that's not true.

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND didn't even sell as much as Crush as far as I know.
then again,Bounce, which was a poor album sold more than 6.000.000.
So your "analysis" isn't right.O mean even TLFR sold around 1.000.000 worldwide with almost no publicity.

[quoteNah...that's not true.

ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND didn't even sell as much as Crush as far as I know.
then again,Bounce, which was a poor album sold more than 6.000.000.
So your "analysis" isn't right.O mean even TLFR sold around 1.000.000 worldwide with almost no publicity.[/quote]

I'm With You ...
And all that you can leave behind, if I'm not mistaken got 4 singles ...
Bounce and Crush have 3, but hey could have realeased Next 100, Older, Wild Night (Oginal version), Undivided, Bounce ... Would help them with selling ...

I would tend to disagree about the inconsistency on the bon jovi fan base. Bon-jovi had 3 sold-out world tours in 4 years. In 1997 during the "pop" tour by u2, they couldn't even sell out a single stadium in north america and pop was a commercial flop selling 3 million worldwide. U2 lost millions of $$$$$ and sponsorships from that tour. In the 90's keep the faith sold 10 million, theses days sold 11 million, while cross-roads became the biggest selling album by bon jovi of all time (even more than sww) at 23+million copies. Selling approximately 43 to 45 million copies in the 90's alone hardly illustrates the ''inconsistency" of the bon jovi fan base. Simply look at the four year waiting period between nj and ktf + these days and crush. Keep the faith and Crush became landmark albums that brought in new generations of fans to the bon jovi legacy.

Grant it, i have a lot of respect for u2 and consider them as peers with bon jovi, but to say the following:

is untrue and unjust. Bon jovi have and will continue to outsell u2 in the future. If you compare the consisitencies between the two bands bon jovi WINS hands down. In the 90's U2 had major success with ACTHUNG BABY and ZOO tv tour +1998's greatest hits 1980-1990, but with the commercial flops of ZOOROOPA and POP (along with the failed tour) does not illustrate superior consistency to me compared to bon jovi with their success in the 1990's.

2000 brought huge success to both bands with ATYCLB and CRUSH. Even though BOUNCE only sold 6 million worlwide (which is consider a failure by some die-hard bon jovi fans) is still superior to POP at 3 million. It's not just because of the albums sales that seperates these two flopped albums, it is because of the world tours the illustrated the difference between the two bands. As proven by POP, U2 can not sell out stadiums or have a succesful world tour without a successful album. As for Bon jovi , the BOUNCE 2003 WORLDWIDE TOUR WAS SOLD OUT!!!!!!!!!!!. This along with the highly successful KTF and CRUSH albums, and the ROARING 90'S of bon jovi album sales, the bon jovi fan base is more consistent, reliable, loyal, and above all more superior to the U2 fan base.

Here's the concise response I got from a U2 expert:

When did U2 debut?
They formed in 1976 at a progressive school in
Ireland. They played and played until they forged
their own sound and then started playing all over
Ireland. They finally started to break in 1979. They
were eventually signed to Island and released their
debut album in 1980. It came out in the US in early
'81 (I think).

How many CDs have they released?
Trick question...but you will see why:
Boy (1980)
October (1981)
War (1983)
Under A Blood Red Sky (1983)
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)
Wide Awake In America (1985) EP
The Joshua Tree (1987)
Rattle And Hum (198
Achtung Baby (1991)
Zooropa (1993)

Passengers (1995)-(Music made for non-existent movies,
experimental album w/ Brian Eno...equivalent to JBJ
producing Falcon and Aldo Nova, etc...

POP - 1997
Best of Vol #1 (199
All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)
Best of Vol #2 (2002)


How many CDs have they sold?
If you added in their singles sales around the world,
they did it in the late 90's but I believe they
officially did the 100 million mark in 2000.

Here is what I know:


WORLD-WIDE sales information for U2 albums.
These figures were reported by the New Zealand
Polygram office on March 8, 1997 when
?POP? was released.
********************************


?Boy? - 2,490,467
?October? - 2,360,717
?War? - 6,551,395
?Under A Blood Red Sky? - 7,556,582
?The Unforgettable Fire? - 6,255,826
?Wide Awake In America? - 1,743,610
?The Joshua Tree - 14,805,257
?Rattle And Hum? - 9,274,502
?Achtung Baby? - 9,763,275
?Zooropa? - 6,079,158

Total - 66,880,789


Now, remember, this was in 1997, a solid 3 years
before cd burning and downloading took off. From what
I have been told, U2's albums continue to sell very
well, only Metallica, The Beatles and Stones catalogs
sell better. On every album after WAR I would round up
the totals since it is 7 years later. Plus, I read not
too long ago that the Joshua Tree has sold close to 17
million records worldwide and Achtung Baby is around
13 million. So take the 67 million above and add that
to what we have below:

Added sales from above: 2 million
Passengers: 1 million
?POP? 8 million copies;
?The Best Of? 10 million copies;
?The Joshua Tree? add 3 million copies;
?Achtung Baby? add 3 million copies.
ATYCLB from 2000 has sold 10 million copies worldwide
with 4.5 in the US.
Then add about 5 million of the Best of Vol #2.

I would say U2's catalog total is around 110 million
copies worldwide and there is good proof for it. Bon
Jovi's saving grace is the Crossroad and SWW albums
which combined have sold close to 40 million. That is
almost half of their total.

----end U2 expert's comments---

Becky

Thank you. That was my point, if you take away their two big albums Bon Jovi's sales aren't as great as they sound.

ACtually Croosroad and SLippery sold almost 50 million together.

However, let's take this 2 albums out and OWN and TLFR.That means
BJ,7800,Jersey,FAITH,THESE DAYS, BOUNCE.
They have sold with this 6 albums around 50 million.

Take the most succesfull 2 U2 albums and the 2 least succesfull albums:
That would mean around 75 million.This with 10 albums.

The averrage in BJ's case is around 8.3 million/album.
The averrage in U2's case is about:7.5 miillion/album

So:Bon Jovi still sell better than U2.

oops,I forgot CRUSH.

Than it's a draw.My bad!

First of all, thank you Becky and your friend for the information regarding U2's catalogue.

The only thing I disagree on is the number of copies "POP'' actually sold. POP was released the same year as Jon Bon Jovi's Destination Anywhere 1997. POP sold 3 million to JBJ 4 million. I know for a fact that POP didn't sell 8 million copies because on vh1's behind the music when they cover the pop era, the narrator mentioned the dissapointing tour #'s and album sales of only 3 million worldwide.

Also it does not matter if SWW, NJ, and CROSS-ROADS sold mega-block buster albums. If you take the total of both greatest hits vloume by U2, they still fail to match the worldwide sales of crossroads.

If you look at bon jovi's other albums:
Keep the Faith 10 million
These days 11 million
Crush 10 million
Bounce 6 millon

They match up the same (or better for the most part) against any single u2 album.

In 1995 when bon jovi released these days, USA TODAY did an interview with jon about parenting advice and how to raise a family. In the bio section it states albums sold: 65 million since 1984 .65 million with only 6 releases up to that point compared to 67 million copies by u2 in 1997 with 10 releases (this is without the sale fore these days at 11 million. So at the end of 1995/start of 1996, bon jovi sold 76 million with 7 albums)

And to top it off, Bon jovi never included single sales or side projects as part of their total as u2 did.[/u]