Def Leppard vs Bon Jovi

http://rockhole.bravepages.com/defjovi.html

Discuss.

I don't particularly agree with the author of this article, I think whilst there are similarities between Def Leppard & Bon Jovi's sound (probably why many fans of one are fans of the other, myself included) i don't think it's enough to warrant the stigma of "copying". Interesting how many Jovi decisions that are derided on this board as 'selling out' are praised in this article.

A good and interesting read! And they are spot on about Jovi's promotion and marketing in recent years, and while we can love it or hate it, it has worked in some way.

But, Hysteria >> Slippery When wet, there I said it. Its a better complete album in my opinion. But Leppard have never come close to that again, whereas Jovi followed up Slippery to complete the holy trinity with NJ and KTF, a real home run! And then of course These Days..

But I don't agree that much with Bon Jovi intentionally 'copying' def leppards early sound..

andi

I have to say that I completely agree with you. I think as a whole album Hysteria is better, it really was their version of Thriller - 7 hit singles on one album is an incredible feat.

But in general Bon Jovi have proved to be much more consistent than Def Leppard, all Bon Jovi's following albums were better than DL's. I also think that Bon Jovi are better live.

With regard to the copying sound issue - i don't think they copied it at all - it's similar but distinct enough not to be copied.

Yeah, and Def Leppards early stuff before Hysteria, albeit still a commercial sound, was still closer to hard rock/ metal as part of the NWOBHM than Jovi who were alot more pop sounding.

But it would be hard not to be bitter if you were a band and another new band on the scene starts to steal your audience.
The truth be told, Jon and Richie are just better songwriters than anyone in Lep, Jon is ALOT more charismatic than Joe, and along with all the fluff Bon Jovi can and have written serious and mature songs throughout their whole career (Dry Country on a Leppard album? wouldn't work) As good as 'Slang' was, it was a one off and they went back to their one trick sound, whereas Jovi at least have a bit more of variety going on in their song writing (well, most of the time..haha)

andi

That's a very old article and discussed on here before. My opinion hasn't changed - Bon Jovi has crushed Def Leppard successfully because their music is better. Period. They can complain about marketing all they want. I'm a DL fan, but they haven't released a solid album since Euphoria. X was good, and Songs From....was pretty horrible. Plus, they don't mix their live sets up at all.

All of these bands can bitch and moan all they want - Poison, Crue, Leppard, etc. I love them all, but they simply don't write as good a song as Jon and Richie and the music overall isn't as good.

I know we compare Hysteria to Slippery for sales purposes, but I would use New Jersey as Bon Jovi's masterpiece, and it shits all over Hysteria in my opinion. As to which record has held up better over time, there's no question, Slippery has. It still sells to this day, and has sold 8 million more copies than Hysteria worldwide.

The article is a good summary. As a big fan of both bands, I have been disappointed by both bands' outputs since mid 90's (These Days & Slang) and never thought they matched their earlier outputs, but I agree that Bon Jovi made the right business and marketing decisions to maintain their success level, and Def Leppard did not (some are due to reasons beyond their control).

When I buy a Bon Jovi/Def Leppard album these days, I expect some good songs and some god awful fillers. But Def Leppard pisses me off when it comes to the setlist. After X tour, they just gave up and played short greatest hits set. They can still do it (see Japan's recent setlists) but the fact that they don't want to do the same in other parts of the world

Meh, you don't see Fran Healy or Travis fans whinging about Coldplay do you?

Im gonna say something that maybe harsh. Def Leppard should have ditched the drummer when he lost his arm. There - its out there. The drumming sound ruins every Def Leppard album. Its sounds fake.

Def Leppard are ok but none of their albums come close to Jovi.

Not a fan of DL tiny sound (sounds like their songs come off a PC), vocals (elliot cant sing), guitar (no solos in a lot of songs) and drums.

I know Joe Elliott has a lot of respect for Bon Jovi musically (him and jbj are good mates) and always mentions them in interview. I have the new Classic Rock mag where Joe and Nikki Sixx are being interviewed about their tour toghether and both say that Jovi blew everyone out of the water from 87-90.

But for me - and im not even wearing my Jovi glasses - Jovi are by far and away the better band.

Jovi not only survived grunge but they were succesful through it. Leppard wasnt and havent really recovered since. They cant tour like Jovi can.

Some fair points and some I think you're way off about. The ratio of solos in Lep songs to Jovi songs is pretty steep. There are far more Leppard solos. I agree with the production, it's too plastic sounding. Sometimes I wonder if Rick is on them as much as we're lead to believe. Has anyone heard otherwise? I know there were a handful of the Yeah! tracks that aren't him.

The drumming on Songs From The Sparkle Lounge was good and didn't sound fake... I'm now hoping that it was actually him