Aloha !

Just imagine Paul McCartney going live on instagram to promote Strawberry Fields Rosé and you'll realize why Jon Bon Jovi is nowhere near the same league of the artists he constantly seems to think he's like.

Jon Bon Jovi wants to the same acclaim and general adoration McCartney, Dylan and Springsteen have and yet really the only thing comparable is the amount of records he's sold. He's essentially become the Bruce Willis of pop music. Everyone who still buys tickets for movies starring Bruce Willis hopes for something like Die Hard yet winds up with Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Jon Bon Jovi wants to brag about selling 100.000.000 albums but refuses to play songs from at least 40.000.000 of the albums he's sold. Jon Bon Jovi wants to sell out a desert but refuses to put in the work to actually sell out that desert and instead overcharges everyone who's willing to buy that ticket. All big acts have press releases mentioning the achievements said artists have made (amount of records sold, amount of people played for) but Jon Bon Jovi is the only one to constantly repeat these things in person.

Jon Bon Jovi wants the adoration but just doesn't want to do the work. Ever since he's realized money needs to come from touring he's changed perspective as to what to do with the money he made. He's always, always taken the route that'll make him the most money. The last time Jon Bon Jovi released an album with that artistic integrity other artists have he compares himself with was over 20 years ago.

Business-wise, I don't think Jon Bon Jovi is a very smart man. He's constantly tried selling a product to a group of people who wanted something else. He's misunderstood his target audience, taken most fans for granted while trying to bring in new fans that do buy his new record because it's got whatever hit on it but also abandon ship once his next album sounds like nowadays pop/rock music. All that hard work he's put in selling albums he'd abandon a year later has let to nothing. He goes on tour and travels the world to sell songs like Knockout. Songs written for a group of people who haven't listened to Bon Jovi in over a decade. Ever since the hits stopped coming so did new fans. And with every new album being nothing like that of the days the older generation became fans, older fans stopped coming as well. There's only so many Lost Highway clones you can take.

Every act Jon Bon Jovi has compared himself with has been about music. Has had a drive to play new songs, new songs fans wanted to hear as well. Or released music because they just enjoyed writing and recording that new music. Jon Bon Jovi hasn't been about music for a long, long time and frankly, I don't think Jon Bon Jovi knows what he's about nowadays as well as he generally looks miserable. He's selling fanboxes with garbage to middle aged female fans who adore him because... he's grown his hair? He knows he can get away with bum notes as long as he flashes a smile to the front row. But to realize that really the only direction your career is capable of going is catering towards a group of people who still follow him around because of cheap tricks such as those surely must be unsettling.

So the target audience that's left is that of those who do care for Bon Jovi sauce and gladly spend loads of dollars on cheap wine and spice racks. Those who seriously cared for the music are just no longer there. The audience Bon Jovi have left is an audience that's only invested in Bon Jovi and hasn't got a clue what those other acts do offer. That group of people is as creative as Jon on Jovi himself and it's why he'll just never even be considered in the same league. He's had every chance to get there but chose money over artistic integrity.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan