Well....I have no idea about production. So that's why I'm asking: Is it really the production that makes the songs sound like artist xyz or is it much more the way the songwriter writes it?
To me a producer has a hand in which instrument you can hear (or not), how prominent a mix is and how clear the sound comes out. But I can't imagine that a producer makes Livin' On A Prayer sound like AC/DC while the other one makes it sound like Soul Asylum and a third one makes it sound like the Backstreets Boys. To me that depends on the song, the hooks, the melody, the harmonics the songwriter writes. But please, correct me if I'm wrong.
About the change of Bon Jovi music from the 80s through the 90s up to the 2000s I already wrote a posting in a German forum about a year ago.
I'm lazy so I just send my German text through the Google translater. If something isn't clear, please feel free to ask:
The impression I got from putting all the tours together for my website is the change Jon has in terms of performance and music.
Sure, from 1984 to 1987 it was the struggle for a breakthrough. The shows were very very energetic and you could see the unconditional will to succeed.
From 1988 - 2001, New Jersey to One Wild Night, they wanted to prove to the world that none of this was a coincidence, but that they are rightly on a par with the Stones and U2.
Still energetic shows, but above all the feeling that the music meant everything and that at the moment when song xy is played, there is nothing more important than this song.
At about Bounce it started that the band (Jon) were sure about their status. The comeback with Crush was more than successful, the audience in the USA came back and a mass of new fans was won.
From then on I slowly got the feeling that music is no longer everything for Jon, but a means to an end: To earn money, for the applause (ego) and on good days for your own leisure time.
If the mood wasn't right, you could feel it very clearly in the shows.
There were still very good performances - but this absolute feeling that it's all about the song was something that many of the performances no longer brought with them.
Which supports the impression: up to and including Bounce, every album was promoted with acoustic performances without end. In the mid-90s in the UK the band simply sat in public parks or the windows of record stores and played acoustic 5-10 songs, during Jon's Destination Anywhere times he played an incredible number of acoustic shows for radio stations and universities and at a similar level (albeit not quite as numerous) it was made for Crush and Bounce. After Bounce, I can't remember a decent acoustic promo show (the unspeakable 2007 unplugged performance doesn't count).
I had also written elsewhere that Jon performed as a young man up to and including the Have A Nice Day Tour. After that we only got to see the elder statesman.
From Lost Highway it was, to put it bluntly, then completely over. The teleprompter was finally introduced (after a failed first attempt in 1996) and has remained to this day.
With that it was over that texts could be learned and therefore also with rarities could be performed "hands-free" for the song. Technology was relied on, and more rarities than ever before were played for the heart of the fan. But the heart and soul of the songs have been lost more and more because the lyrics were presented standing at the microphone stand and read off the screen.
More and more shows were played on autopilot. Yes, Jon has always had the same slogans - Dominik has just uploaded a Slippery show on his YT channel that announces Social Disease with "is there a doctor in the house".
But from 2008 and even more extreme in 2011, almost every gesture, every speech (see The More Things Change) was almost exactly identical.
I also find the scene from the When We Were Beautiful Documentary, where Jon backstage in Central Park (I think) Mike Rew asks whether the audience is more fans or casuals, revealing. Mike replied "casuals" and Jon's reaction was that he couldn't pull off his "cheap tricks". I find the scene incredibly revealing. It is no longer the spontaneity of rock & roll, performing from the gut, the affair of the heart that determines the action, but calculation to evoke certain reactions.
With What About Now 2013 at the latest, the topic of money came to the fore more than ever.
And with This House, the motivation has changed a little again, but only in the beginning for the better.
Because I really think House was very, very subordinate to money. The focus was again on proving - that he can have a number 1 album and a new successful tour even without Richie. So the drive was to prove it again - similar to 1988-2001, but from a different motivation - and applause for his ego. Every time the sound goes wrong, he smiles in embarrassment. He knows best himself that he shouldn't be on stage with his voice anymore, but doesn't want to miss out on applause. Similar to a politician who cannot live without power.
So in a nutshell, the change in motivation from breakthrough -> prove yourself -> money + ego + pastime -> prove Richie + ego
Some things are of course a bit exaggerated and a lot reads much more negative than the respective era actually was.
But if I took one from the compilation and analysis of all the tours and their shows, then it is this!
So to break it down once again: Up until DA, Jon wrote a song for the sake of the song. With the beginning of Crush he mostly wrote a song for the hope of having a hit.
Last edited by Faceman; 04-27-2021 at 09:32 PM..
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