Why doesn't Jon change his singing style?
 

Hey guys ! I keep wondering why doesn't Jon change his singing style? I'm sure everyone is sick with Jon's recent vocals, he keeps butchering every single old tune and always whines or is constatly out of breath and barely whispers the words (ex: Sleep When I'm Dead).

I was listening to recent performances of some old tracks like Wanted, Bad Name, Sleep When I'm Dead and lowered the pitch of Jon's voice and it sounded far better to my ears than hearing his "real" vocals. Since his range is gone couldn't he sing in a deeper and a bit stronger voice? even add a little bit of rasp here and there. I know this couldn't be done on all of their tracks since most of them just don't sound right when they aren't performed in a high key, but I would love to see Jon trying a different way of singing some of their tunes, it's not like he can get back his signature voice so I find no need to keep whining while singing just to try to sing in a higher key.

This is just a thought, I have no ideea whatsoever about singing so feel free to call me an idiot or a genius. Looking forward for your feedback.

I wonder the same thing and my only conclusion is, longevity. In order for Jon to get through a 2 plus hour night tour, this is how he needs to sing to protect his voice... or what's left of it...

The more I study and learn about the voice, Jon's 80s and early 90s singing style was a path to vocal destruction. His whale screaming sounded so good but it was so equally damaging. Jon did nothing to protect his voice back in the day except shoot it with steroids to mask the damage.

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What, you mean dropping his vocal lines one whole octave? Or detuning even further?

I mean try to find a different style of singing, instead of always singing every song through the nose.


By this I don't mean that they should turn Wanted into a country song, i'm just thinking of a similar tone, something that still sounds good and doesn't come through the nose


Instead of this : "I'm cow...(barely whispers the rest of the word) on a stiiiiil horse iiiii riiiiidee, wanted dead or halaaaiiiiiiivvvv.
I tried singing it like Jon did in this performance and I find it very hard to reproduce his whiny tone.
Anyway I'm guessing that Rdkopper is right, he does this for longevity, maybe otherwise he can't freaking sing anything.

If Jon starts lowering the keys, they won't sound right... or they'll sound like TLFR versions... How awful would that be... Like I've stated a million times prior, Jon's got a system that masks a lot of his issues when you see him live in person... The crowd, the overpowering music, the backing vocals, etc... Jon sounds fine in his range and then he uses what I just mentioned to mask the high notes the best he can...

I would like to hear Jon bring some rasp back into it but that comes from the throat which again, could screw up longevity

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I don't think they would sound awful one or two tones lower than they're played now... with the correct instrumental arrangement. Other bands as Scorpions and Europe have done this, and far from sounding bad, they sound even rockier (even tunes as cheesy as The Final Countdown).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HyWajWueH2w

The songs that can be done to are high pitched basically all the way through. The difference with Bon Jovi is that the songs vary a lot from chorus to verse in the octave Jon sings in. Lower that half a step, the lower notes start to sound off and barely singable. Prayer would just loose its power....

Europe nowadays perform in original key only the newer songs (usually, but everything off War of Kings has been downtuned but not Last Look at Eden). U2's Songs of Innocence has everything played in their original keys except The Miracle and Raised By Wolves, and later in the tour Every Breaking Wave.

Lowering the keys further can work in Jon's favor for the earlier tracks (anything with heavy guitars will benefit from this), and if the newer ones don't hurt his voice as much, then they can proceed with the usual half-step down renditions. Further downtuning Prayer and IML, however, will sound weird because they're meant to be sung (from a casual's perspective) at the top of the lungs.

I thought the steroids were only used on the Slippery Tour?

I was under the impression that he improved his technique and got a coach after the Slippery Tour to protect his voice or something. I guess I need to read the forum discussions better or something.

For all we know he only used them there. Maybe on the New Jersey tour. In an interview a few years ago he stated that he carries the steroids with him, but wouldn't touch them because then he'd feel like having betrayed himself.

He got a coach during the SWW tour to help him make it somehow through that period of time and after that he has probably worked frequently with one - at least until the mid 90's and then again aronud 2008. For all we know he used to visit Katie Agresta for that.