i agree, superman tonite is another song which had hit potential imo but went nowhere...its my life was the perfect song for them with very good timing as well. lets see if jon has some hits left in him

Like Jon said one time in an interview, sometimes u put out a song and its homerun hit, but sometimes u put out another song, and its a swing and a miss.

Oh yes, I agree with Superman Tonight. I honestly, thought it would be more of a hit than Make A Memory.

Another reason the band aren't really having hits is because they just let the music do the talking and every promo revolves around the song. These days 4 times out of 5 a song becomes a hit because it went viral for some other reason, like a controversial video or something. It's really a no win time to be in a classic rock band, but they will still make millions touring, they don't give a shit....

Well stated...

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I think its all in the timing when a song becomes a hit. Perfect example, WSYCGH, a lot of fans thought HAND was going to be a hit because it was a harder rock song, but I think WSYCGH was the big hit of HAND because it was liked by just fans, but also non fans and even the country community when he sang it with Sugarland. So I think its all timing, I will say it would be harder to have a hit now because radio stations just play music that they are made to play, which is all pop music and pop artists, but Bon Jovi should what these artists are doing now, go to internet, especially youtube and release the first single, without giving an advanced word, Adele didn't last fall and it was huge, this could work for Bon Jovi, if the song is good.

To an extent I agree. A big issue is it's been SO long since they've been in a good spot for new singles. They're doing pretty dang well in a tour/nostalgia crowd but anything NEW, you're looking at Lost Highway. Adele had such a smash album that she could have released anything that sounded like her and it would sound good. Adele has such a specific sound and Bon Jovi have so many different eras that it's divided it's fan into camps.

Some love the 80's sound and hate the 90's, some are Crush era and weren't there for the 80's. Some love the singer songwriter stuff and some think he's putting on a front. Do they want to win the 80's fans back? Get new one with a younger fresher sound? I don't know who they're trying to attract anymore. I want to see them in a real artistic place, but I'm in the minority.

When I mentioned Adele, I meant it for Bon Jovi to do what she did as a strategic way to get his new music out, and see what happens. It never hurts to try something different, I am sure right now they are planning how to promote the new album, and getting different advice and ideas. BTW, Jon is actually an Adele fan, he and Dorothea went to see her play in NYC when she had her album release party last fall.

It's easy to do that when you're Adele and anything you release will sell by the bucketload. And she is heavily rotated on all radio stations and promoted on streaming sites and whatnot. It's not a valid comparison as Jovi don't have the contemporary audience. They could do exactly the same as Adele and wouldn't get anywhere near the same results.

The last time they were on pop radio here in the UK was with the Crush singles. Radio 1 won't play them as they're too old, Capital won't play them (outside of Prayer), you'll just get a week or so of play on Absolute and Radio 2 before it slides away. Regardless of track quality. You can get a radio hit like the Muse singles off the last album, but you need radio stations to really get behind it.

That and they need to do a bit of promo- performing the song everywhere. Not just having lame interviews with Jon like the last few album cycles have. If you've got a good song, you need to get out there and get everyone to hear it.

The single buying public outside of the fanbase are not interested in Bon Jovi. Plus you need millions and millions of streams too. But it doesn't matter anymore, because the album buying public and ticket purchasing public are (at least up until the last tour), although this is the first proper tour and album cycle sans Sambora so it remains to be seen how well it would go.

bon jovi could make their best album since New Jersey but it wont sell. They are one of the worst bands for social media usage.

Jon never tweets - its all done by the marketing team.
You hear things from Matt and Jon Shanks but never the band.

They need to blitz facebook, twitter etc with 10 second teasers and make people interested. But they wont.

Does the band's audience even use social media all that much? The majority of the fans that are left are probably 40+ years old. Sure, we've got a couple of people from that category on here too. But these people all could sing along to unreleased tracks, too. They're hardly the majority and/or target demography.

Like Captain_jovi already said, Bon Jovi aren't cool anymore. And that makes it hard to get a hit song. You need massive airplay and lots of people who like it.
And here comes the vicious circle: Enough people won't like anything from the Jovi camp just because it's Bon Jovi. And the radio stations won't play songs up and down which people don't wanna hear.

That's right. Coldplay (who is considered extra cool and amazing and awesome thesey days, and personally I think they are pretty good) could release a "meh" song with a videoclip and get millions views and listens in radios.

Not in the US

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Uhm. Yeah, no.

Ok, in Greece they are thought to be :-P

and you cannot avoid them in radio.

There's a difference between being popular on the radio and being a band that's considered cool. There was a time when Black Eyed Peas got a ton of airplay, too, but they were NOT considered cool by that time. (Hell, BJ are another good example.)

That's a damn god way of putting it. We're at a point where Bon Jovi is neither.

I wouldn't go that far... what differs Bon Jovi from other acts is their dedicated strong fan base and closet fans... In the states, Bon Jovi were considered cool from 1986 to around 1988 and still managed to sell a shit load of albums and have huge tours...

The problem right now isn't with Bon Jovi. It's the same struggle all rock acts and veteran bands are having... Radio monopolies the industry and we live in a singles market...

We can copy and past this discussion into a Pearl Jam thread and it would be equally fitting... or do the same to a Madonna thread and again, the same...

If Jon can find a niche, he could still get some airplay somewhere.

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The constant crying about old bands struggling to find a niché is ridiculous. How much did '50s bands sell when BJ were big in the 80s?

There's no great conspiracy.

During the 80's, the 50's bands didn't have The Internet, Satellite Radio, DVRs, and the know how like the 80's bands do today... Also, Bon Jovi crossed generation and don't fall into that '80s' bands category. Ratt is an 80's band...

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But we're talking about NEW material. It's cool to sing Living on a Prayer at karaoke or reference Bad Medicine at a bar, but when a new song comes on that's where the support ends. Pearl Jam is just underground enough to be hip without a ton of videos, hits and singles, I don't know if it's an apt comparison.

At this point, Bon Jovi should bet on the Rock n Roll, recover his audience, that would be a great start. But if he keeps playing to be the most successful band, things will not be different than the last years.

By the way, this album is not going to get to number 1 billboard.... and not going to get to number 1 top tours.

Bon Jovi had something special through the chemistry of the whole band. Jon's specific voice and Richie's guitar magic were what made them stand out.

We have neither left now. When I look at my playlist there's rarely anything post 2000 from Bon Jovi. It doesn't do anything for me. Yeah, I know the 2000+ songs by heart but it's the classics that give me goose bumps. The rest is just meh. I can listen to the old stuf 10 times in a row while the new songs start to bore me after the first listen.

Back in their prime they could have sung the phone book and made it cool. Listen to the Love Hurts demo intro and the lyrics for example. "I go to work, the beds aren't made..." The lyrics can't be more ordinary yet it's one of my fav intros because the voice is so raw and I love the guitar work. Pure rock. Combine that with great songwriting and magic happens.

The passion (and ability?) has been gone for a long time and no amount of social media exposure or anything else can replace that. Not even good songwriting.

WAN could probably have been a (bigger) hit, if it had been recorded by the 80s/90s Bon Jovi and the same can probably be said for many other post 2000 songs. Sure WAN is catchy but it's missing that something special. The guitar work is laughable, the pace is too slow, there's no passion in the voice. I can't listen to it more than once.

It's been a nice ride but I'm just here for the next box set and live gems from the good days.

What does this have to do with the shelf-life of musical trends? Of course Bon Jovi are an 80s act, they started in the 80s, and their biggest hit was made in the 80s (and sure sounds like it). Are the Beatles not a 60s group because they were popular in the decades afterwards, too?

It's really nothing new. And the internet is just another media, another tool to get the message to the people. If they have no desire to hear it, guess what? It won't change all that much. Bon Jovi have had great access to the officiall channels (they were a big band on a big label), still their popularity dwindled over the past 10 years. It's really not an exception.

In Europe, Iron Maiden are still as popular are ever. That's about the only band I can think of that wasn't affected by this trend. And they have an entirely different crowd than BJ.

- The Beatles are a 60s group because they stooped making music in the 60s but I wouldn't call Paul McCartney a 60s icon like I would coin David Cassidy for example...

In a general sense, popularly will always continue to dwindle as it passes through each generation. Elvis is not known by today's generation because they sit around and listen to his music. They know him as a historical figure... Today's generation know Bon Jovi in a similar light... They know Living On A Prayer and few others but that's it... Tell an 18 year old that you like Bon Jovi and they'll say 'that's cool' not because they think it's cool but because they are so far removed from that music, they don't know what else to say...

In America, Europe was a one hit wonder and besides their newest gieco commercial, no one knows who they are... Maiden always had an underground following here as well...

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Dude, Europe is a continent. I'm not talking about the band.

Lol. Sorry dude... read it fast...

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Couldn't agree more, just shows the depth of hatred on the board here from some so called fans when they now start slagging songs off before they have even heard the song!

Will this be the first album in a while without having listening to any song prior to the single on August?
WAN, we heard WAN months before in a youtube video
TC, we heard WWWB on May (album release on Oct/Nov) aside other songs after august´s listening of WWBTF (with and without guitar solo)
LH, we heard LH and YWTMAM on March (album release in June)
HAND, we heard HAND in december and album was released the following september (also there were leaks in July of many songs)

Maybe.

John Shanks ‏@johnshanks1 3 h
#newyork #bonjovi bonjovi https://www.instagram.com/p/BFtxXzlhSOb/

Then are Bon Jovi à 90s band since their best selling single is Always?

Is that a new/recent photo?

Jon has blond hair so most likely not

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Yeah that's what made me wonder.....I thought he might have gone back to blond.

There were some pics of Jon from last night and he was a grey as could be...



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OK cheers :) What was he doing last night?

https://m.facebook.com/BonJoviStalke...pe=3&source=48

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http://www.theheartfoundation.org/ou.../award-dinner/

Is there a connection to the honoree that I'm not aware of or is it just a philanthropic event for him. It was in Beverly Hills and he's admitted not being a fan of the LA area, goes if has to kind of impression.

Jon has said that he is not a fan of LA or the Hollywood lifestyle. He will only go if its business, music work, or sometimes these kinds of events if its someone he personally knows.