'It's My Life', the first track on Bon Jovi's Grammy-nominated 2000 album "CRUSH"

He definitely mentioned it at the webcast. That might have been the first time they mentioned it being the first single. I wish I could remember the wording or find it on youtube.

He probably did actually, that was likely where we first heard of it. Watching it live on a cruddy dial-up connection in an internet cafe at 4am to see that live. Those were the days! I have the CD of it knocking around somewhere, shame it's not on YT anywhere.

I'm speaking more generally, of their whole body of work.

The way I see it Desmond’s songs are more linear, more focused on the build-up to the pre chorus and then they explode in the chorus*. Unless you follow the band he’s writing for, you’ll probably won’t remember much of the verses and the chorus will be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of that particular song. The songs are created to make you want to sing along but also to shout the chorus at the top of your lungs.
Max Martin’s songs have more twists and turns to keep the tension throughout the song without having a huge chorus, that’s what I called “effects” (bad choice of words btw), those things that keep the song interesting instead of bland with a more “naked pop” approach. Think the song that “inspired” Roar: while both songs have a similar melody, the original one is more predictable and linear, it doesn’t grab your attention. Roar is catchy since the beginning and you don’t remember only the chorus, there are mini songs inside the song if you want. Same with Taylor Swift, she used to do nice pop songs with a country accent, but they were extremely bland and repetitive and absolutely indistinguishable from other similar artists. Now fast-forward to her hits with Martin and notice how every song emphasizes different things, how annoyingly catchy they are from beginning to end because they keep throwing twists at you. There are many more examples if you compare the before and after of the artists he’s worked with. Now back to Desmond, he has collaborated with different artists and it’s obvious that the final product won’t sound too similar, but there’s that sense of a song that builds and builds until the grand finale in most of his songs.

Than being said, it’s not true for all their songs and comparing rock to pop it’s tricky because rock songs are most of the time created for an arena, they are loud and have memorable chorus, and pop songs tend to be easily forgettable therefore they need to have elements of surprise and tension to be able to distinguish them from the other 2,398 similar songs on the radio.

Both are genius in their own way, no doubt about it.

*Now, this is a personal opinion more than a general observation, but IML sounds also like BJ because I don't believe for a second that somebody like Katy Perry would have a huge influence in Max Martin so the final product is more aligned to his other songs, whereas I doubt Jon and Richie would have been happy with Martin dictating the whole song so it has elements of Martin's work but it still fits BJ

Do you remember when this happened?

I have a vague recollection of a (printed) magazine talking about OWN being the name of the album and Say It Isn't So being the first single but I don't have any of those old magazines anymore so I could be remembering it wrong. I think it was around the time Real Life came out or shortly after.

I remember the title being mentioned as OWN at one point.

OWN was going to be the name of the record AND the first single (changed previously)
at the end, JBJ: "The last song becomes tha best song and the first single." (It’s my life)

Thank God IML was written. I absolutely love Say It Isn't So, it's a terrific song, but it would have been a very lame song to be the bands comeback single. How different everything could have been if it wasn't for It's My Life.

Another thing Max Martin does that Desmond doesn't is utilize pauses as hooks. You know, when the music stops and then there's usually either a ringing instrumental hook or the vocal line starts. It's My Life's intro is an obvious one. Like you said, he likes to shake things up.

And the one thing Desmond LOVES to do Max barely ever does is modulate. Poison by Alice Cooper changes the key every four bars at one point; it's crazy.

I perceive Desmond as the more musically intricate one, but Max uses every cheap trick in the book (stuttering? repeating words?) and is more playful. They're both great at what they do, but Desmond suits dramatic and theatralic stuff better since he's more about the melody than about the catchy arrangement. Well, both are obviously good at both things, but you get what I mean. Max is more about pop, because quite literally, he's good at making things pop.