I V vi IV / vi IV I V

Am I the only one who's getting annoyed by this in the band's music? It just seems lazy and makes me feel like they don't put as much thought in the music of the song.

Just since 2000, here's the songs that Bon Jovi have used this same progression in. And this is just songs that directly use this progression; the list would get longer if songs that have a slight variation were added in.

It's My Life
Say It Isn't So
Two Story Town
Mystery Train
Save the World
Undivided
Misunderstood
Have a Nice Day
Welcome to Wherever You Are
Bells of Freedom
Complicated
(You Want to) Make a Memory
Summertime
Work for the Working Man
Thorn in My Side
What Do You Got?
No Apologies
This is Love, This is Life
I'm With You
Amen
What's Left of Me
Beautiful World

I'm certain I've missed a few, namely some of Bounce, Lost Highway, and What About Now.

Yeah, I know that Bon Jovi are far from being the only artist who uses and abuses this. And yeah, I also know there's a handful of examples of them using it before 2000, too. But I don't think it's a coincidence that they're trying to make that big hit since 2000, and they're using this pop cliche.

Aloha !

Considering how the average intelligence on Jovitalk has dropped considerably the past few years I expect aboot 4 people to understand your post.

But yeah, I'm getting tired of it as well, it's one of the many reasons I no longer bother playing new material. If you've played one song you've played them all.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

The progression isn't what actually kills me... it's the formula.

IML, Bounce (sligtly different progression/exact same formula), HAND, IWTBL, Complicated, WFTWM, TILTIL all have the same formula. And songs like Undivided and No Apologies are very, very similar.

You can write thousands and thousands of songs with that progression (there have been), but using the same formula, generic 8th note guitar riffs, similar tempos, and key in several cases is what drives me crazy. The fact that Mystery Train and Make a Memory have the same progression doesn't bother me, because they sound so different... and BOF is the same but it is 6/8 if I remember correctly. Again it sounds different.

Say what you want about Save the World, but the key changes and arrangements and soaring melodies (and some crappy ones... hence the hatred) was the last time they did anything so interesting, musically.

I thought I was the only one who would understand this but clearly there must be 4 as Seb said LOL

Understanding chord progressions isn't exactly an intelligence thing.

I wasn't aware that the major progression had also been overused lately. The IML-one is a given, but I guess the one in major didn't spawn any mega hits and thus stood out less.

Thanks for that, comments like Supersonic's one are the things that keep people from coming to this lovely forum. What can you expect from him though?

It took me 2 takes to work out the title of Twinfan's post, but as a musician you are expected to understand what it means. However you haven't got to be a musician to be a Bon Jovi fan. It's not a pre requisit. And I'm disappointed with a few of the old timers on here (the 1000+ posters) of not pulling Seb up on such a farcical comment - but you probably don't want to be thrown out of the clique....

It's a formula that has worked for Bon Jovi for many a years and we love it. Bon Jovi aren't exactly the most imaginative band in the world but what they lack in musical diversity certainly makes up in lyrical content and more importantly relates to every Bon Jovi fan lyrically in one way or another. It isn't a ground breaking topic by all means, perhaps can be compared with a title post "Every Bon Jovi song has a bridge and a solo"...

Nice to see even posts about the music turn into a pissing match.

Where was it ever implied that you had to be a musician to be a Bon Jovi fan? Yes, it was a discussion more for people who understand this type of talk and music theory, but by no means was it aimed to belittle those who aren't musicians

Like Captain Jovi said, even a discussion on the music has turned into a ****fest. Come on, people.

I think it was Seb's comment about intelligence that wound them up.

I understand what chord progression is, but have absolutely no clue what the little symbol means and no need to know - and honestly really don't notice the similarities when I'm listening to it. And considering some of the best songs ever written have a fairly basic structure, I don't see it as a big problem. It's more the formula that bothers me too - yet probably the most formulaic song in the catalogue, Have A Nice Day, people seem to love on here so go figure.