Is Bon Jovi already a "nostalgia act" ?

The answer is "no". Bon Jovi isn't a nostalgia act, you might like what they're doing, you might not, but they're still relevant.

IMO, Poison is a nostalgia act, Def Leppard is a nostalgia act, even Europe (though they're doing nice new material) is a nostalgia act.

People keep on saying "Casuals want to go to hear Prayer and Wanted" and they couldn't be more wrong, all people my age 18-20 years old think of It's My Life and Have A Nice Day when you say Bon Jovi, they don't think about Livin' On A Prayer, and they don't think about Wanted Dead or Alive. A nostalgia act couldn't do that.

The other day I was talking to a friend's sister, she said she wanted to see Bon Jovi this year and asked me about what they were playing: "I'd love to hear some of the new Greatest Hits songs, specially What Do You Goy" and I have to say "Yeah... they're not playing that anymore, they're only doing the hits lately" "Like This Ain't A Love Song?" "No, they're not playing that either" "Oh... and what about the new album? They're promoting it on this tour right?" "Yes, but they're not playing more than 3 songs of the album" she was like "What" after all the downers I told her in less than two minutes, and she isn't a hardcore fan.

The thing is, if Bon Jovi turns into a nostalgia act is because of them. They have a new album and they're not playing it, they're doing the same setlist over and over again, there's a lot of post-2000 stuff that the fans and some casuals want to hear (like Thank You For Loving Me) but yet they don't play it.

And I'm not a fan of the lastest band efforts, but they're far from being a nostalgia act, the media talks about them, Have A Nice Day was a huge hit here, Who Says You Can't Go Home was in the US as I could read, Memory and Because We Can had a lot of radio airings here. You have to be autistic to say they're not relevant anymore, that's the true.

Aloha !

Remarkably, autistic people need numbers to validate their opinion on things, which is exactly what you're doing. But moving on, and ignoring your irrelevant autistic comment...

You're bringing up Have A Nice Day, which is nearly a decade old now, it's the last worldwide hit they've had. You're just like Jon, measuring chart succes by claiming you're relevant. Bon Jovi aren't relevant, they thrive on what's behind them as opposed to what's currently being offered. If chart succes would indicate relevance, many one hit wonders ought to be considered relevant as well, which just isn't true.

Just because you seem to know someone who goes to a show to hear What Do You Got? doesn't mean others do as well. The album launches to number 1 everywhere because of fans buying the record. Once fans have the album, the album catapults out of the chart, thus indicating that apart from their own fanbase, no one cares for new Bon Jovi albums anymore. Relevant doesn't mean being popular, relevance means being connected to everything else that's currently out there.

Most people seem to mix up popular with relevant, and while the two are connected, they're not the same thing. Are Bon Jovi a popular touring act? Sure. Are they a relevant act that you can't miss? No, not really.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

That's not entirely accurate. Worldwide, 2 months after it's release, it's #38. That's not "catapulting" off the charts.

Are sales down? Sure. And I'm not going to pretend it has nothing to do with this album not being as great as New Jersey or even Have A Nice Day, or because of the Richie issue. However, pain me as it might to admit, you know a good deal about music and you know that very few artists are selling as many records as they did 10 or even 5 years ago. You're always going to have the "in" thing, but besides that, Bon Jovi is far from the only artist not selling the way they used to.

So then enlighten me and tell me what is a nostalgia act, because it seems that I don't get it: They do massive tours headlining festivals, the media still talks about them and cover them every time they release something new, they play on important television shows, they still do number one records, their new songs still get played a lot on the radio but... they're a nostalgia act?

To me, What About Now is a load of crap, but also is all Justin Bieber discography. I might like what they do, I might not, but they're still relevant in my opinion.

The problem with WAN is not the number of units sold, it's the awful stability on the charts. Eight weeks and already out of the top 100 of the Billbaord 200.

The Circle spent 24 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Like it or not, the casual fans (and a lot of the hardcore fans) don't give a fcuk about the new Jovi album.

Read back through the thread... or several others where this has been discussed over and over and over...

Or just read Sexx's comment...

How is that even possible? A return to form from what? You said the previous two albums were also good and award winning. So what form did A Bigger Bang bring back?

Aloha !

Both Voodoo Lounge and Bridges To Babylon were The Stones with an updated sound, the latter containing drumloops and the likes in the same veign of Destination Anywhere. A Bigger Bang was just a straightforward rock record like the Stones used to make in the sixties and seventies, hence return to form from what they used to do before they started updating their sound.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

They are obviously somewhere in between aren't they.

Anyone who think they are like their peers from the 80's pulling on the same outfits and doing the same sets from 30 years ago are wrong. Bon Jovi has evolved and does add new material to the conscience of the fan base and to sets and so on. If it is relevant beyond a fan base is another matter, but then again Rhianna is relevant some would argue, I am not a fan and could probably name two or three of her songs, at best. Appealing and drawing new fans does not define being nostalgic or indeed not.

Also I think we are ignoring media here. Bon Jovi is frequently featured on and in mainstream media, especially in the U.S. Ask Joe Elliot for example if he could do Larry King, or whatever other rubbish Jon has done. Yeah, I get it, it has as much to do with the persona Jon has built than anything else, but nevertheless Bon Jovi is a regular on mainstream media.

But, I said they are in-between. The latest record is simply a dead end, the Circle was widely derided and the output has been decreasing in quality. There is only one result that can come from that continuing, and that is the fan base diminishing so you are left with a small core who only want the good old hits. The choice will then be carry on doing it all on a smaller scale to appease those fans (albums harking back to "the sound", set lists made up of "the hits" and so on) or to jack it in.

That is something all the bands from the 80s faced, do what we always did to please the fans we have or give up. Bon Jovi is not quite there, but the band is plummeting fast towards that.

Actually, it's the opposite. Worldwide, it's #38 after 2 months. That's pretty impressive. It certainly hasn't sold as many units as The Circle, but I think it's held up better on the worldwide charts. I could be wrong though.

But it does make me believe that if they released a worthwhile single (which I do believe there is on this record), this album could sell just as much as The Circle.