Bob Lefsetz: John Mayer vs Bon Jovi

http://www.lefsetz.com/

I'm not a fan of John Mayer. But I have to admit that there are some valid points in this article.

Aloha !

As soon as Jon/Bon Jovi doesn't see any direct money in something they don't want to put any effort an it. They don't see the point in communicating with your fans etcetera because it doesn't offer them any direct cash. The thought that they get more respect and therefore more people who think "the guy is actually pretty nice" holds no value to them or is something they just can't get through their thick heads.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Yeah....and?

Bon Jovi can sell out Wembley Stadium. I'm pretty sure John Mayer can't. So really, the article doesn't tell us all that much. Other than that Jon and Richie don't Tweet, which we already knew.

But trying to say that has a lot to do with an artist's success is nonsense - Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows tweets regularly, and their last album didn't sell that much either.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.p...n-jovi-circle/

Bon Jovi “Circle”

How do we want to spin this? That few want Bon Jovi’s new music or NBC is in the crapper?

Yes, follow the stories. NBC/Universal may end up being controlled by Comcast. This has got more to do with Vivendi exercising an exit clause than NBC sucking, but the network does. Blame it on Jay Leno at 10 or a general lack of creativity, but the ratings are terrible, the network is far-removed from the leaders of the pack, just like Bon Jovi is far-removed from the audience.

Jon Bon Jovi even did the Actors Studio. I guess it speaks more to the lost credibility of James Lipton than the becoiffed one’s lack of a distinguished film career, but still…what’s next? Bon Jovi suiting up for the Jets? Or the New England Patriots?

You’ve got to give us a reason to care. And most people don’t anyway. So, you’re speaking to your core audience at most, and it turns out these people don’t want new Bon Jovi music, they just want to hear that Tommy used to work on the docks.

In case you missed the memo, "Circle", with all its shenanigans, the incredible hype, the $3.99 offer, sold 163,000 copies last week. Which might sound somewhat impressive, since the album debuted at number one, but their 2007 country effort, "Lost Highway", also entered at the top of the chart, yet it sold 292,000 copies! Meaning that even though they were selling out, being crass commercial marketers, going country was a better idea than playing the mainstream game. Sure, sales have dropped in the past two years, but not THIS much!

Bon Jovi got it all wrong. They should have put out ONE song. Woodshed until they got one right. Then licensed this one cut to the NFL or ESPN and had it banged ad infinitum. Most of the NBC hype fell on deaf ears. Today’s story is we avoid anything we’re not interested in. We had to sit through Bon Jovi on MTV in the eighties, today we flip the channel or surf to another site.

Speaking of sites, Bon Jovi even advertised on CNN.com!

Who took the band’s money? Who is so out of touch with today’s market conditions? In a time of upheaval you don’t play by the old rules, you revolt and do something completely new. And believe me, lining up with a major TV network is positively last century. That shotgun approach, hit everybody and hope they’re interested, leaves you with a ton of wasted impressions, people who don’t give a shit.

It’s all about the tour. That’s where the money is. So, I’d juice up the tour. Whether it be by playing "Slippery When Wet" from start to finish, the only album people truly care about, or creating a live extravaganza like Kenny Chesney’s multi-bill stadium shows. Every hair band come back to life! You know the female Bon Jovi audience, the act’s main driver, loved Slaughter and Cinderella and Winger and White Lion too…

And where’s the online contest? Find the right clues, and you get a song written just for you, the winner!

Where’s the promotional tour where you show up at diehard winners’ houses? Yup, you compete online and then Jon and Richie show up unannounced, like the Publishers Clearing House, and perform "Wanted Dead Or Alive" in your living room.

And speaking of "Wanted Dead Or Alive"… Where’s the live rendition from Phil, from "Deadliest Catch"? With a video to match? This barely alive skipper with a Marlboro habit should be featured, just like the song that leads off this series so well.

In other words, where’s the creativity? Shit, Josh Freese got more ink and had more penetration of the public consciousness with one good idea than Bon Jovi achieved playing by the old rules.

Because creativity rules. And when you get to superstar level, the acts are creatively bankrupt. Just playing by the old rules, looking for a paycheck. Even though so many broke the rules in order to achieve their success.

You’ve got to risk. You’ve got to take chances. You’ve got to realize we live in 2009, not 1989.

Used to be music was the cutting edge artistic medium. Then, you had a better chance of seeing present-day reality in "Law & Order" than hearing it on a record album. Shit, "South Park" still takes chances. Why can’t Bon Jovi?

The best Bon Jovi bit of the last ten years, eclipsing all of their music, was their interview with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Why didn’t they have Triumph do their new interview? Make a deal with YouTube to get it on the home page?

As for the album itself… It may trigger a revenue-producing event, but it’s a circle jerk between the act and the label. It’s about music. Create some music that we truly want to hear, that we can sink our teeth into. Otherwise, it’s all just marketing. And you can’t sell what the public doesn’t want.

Aloha !

It's not that. It's the fact that John Mayer is actually in touch with the people that sell the music and actually knows how to promote an album, while Bon Jovi doesn't. They do a week of promo in the UK and fail to get the album to the number 1 slot, which pretty much says it all really.

I've never read reviews as harsh as these yet I've never agreed with more with what they say. While critics usually had a go at the hair band thing they now jump in on the facts which actually makes their reviews a lot more valid.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

To be fair, in the UK, going on the X Factor is their best chance at promotion. That show is HUGE. I think the reason for the bad album sales is an easy one and has nothing at all to do with anything these people are saying.

They picked the worst possible lead single from the album!

I know nobody buys singles anymore, but hearing Born To Follow, anyone will just think it sounds like the same tripe Bon Jovi songs they've been producing since Crush.

Had they released Superman Tonight first, or Love's The Only Rule, I think more people might have bought it.

Also, comparing it to Lost Highway's sales is a bit different because it was the "country" record, and we all know that some country fans must have bought it just because of that, possibly quite a large proportion.

I'm not saying the review isn't right by the way - I think Jovi could do a lot more hard work in the internet age - but I don't think it would make the slightest bit of difference to the album sales, which is what the original article seems to be inferring.

I only know of John Mayer because he dated Jennifer Aniston.

The next time I heard of him it was because he covered a Bruce Springsteen song.

So um...all the tweets in the world can't make me know of you because of your actual music John Mayer.

John Mayor is a pretty big name in music. People shouldn't become bitter against him because he understands how to use a lap top.

As I said, I only knew of him for two reasons. One was for dating an actress and the other was for covering a song, and I didn't hear the song on the radio or something, I read about it on a Springsteen forum and then looked for it myself.

And as I don't use Twitter, his tweets don't get to me.