Why Bon Jovi doesn't rock anymore.
Aloha !
This is not meant as a rant, or simply a bash Bon Jovi topic, but meant as a serious explanation why I think that many people feel that Bon Jovi is no longer a rock band. Note that this has been written before any of the LMS snippet was leaked, and Have A Nice Day was performed at Live 8.
Bon Jovi is no longer a rock band. No matter how much you want them to be, no matter how much Bon Jovi claims they are a man-band or a rock band, Bon Jovi isn’t.
A Bon Jovi show isn’t a rock show anymore. I’ve been at a rock festival, 2 years ago I think it was, together with Tom and Laura. Before going, we were discussing how cool it would be if Bon Jovi would play there, playing in front of a true rock audience. They’d probably leave Crash, Misunderstood and all that pop oriented crap out of the setlist so there’d be a full rock show. However, when we had spend there one day listening to rock acts (Alice Cooper, Scorpions, Motörhead) it made us realise that the Bon Jovi nowadays is just a shitty clone of what they used to be, and would be blown away by the smaller bands like Scorpions when it comes to overall performance.
Bon Jovi is all about automatic pilot. Yes, Jon runs around, but do you ever feel like he’s into it? I don’t. It’s all automatic pilot. The speeches have been the same for more then 20 years by now. I’ve seen 4 shows last tour, and only one of them was truely great. There were days, a long time ago (more then 10 years by now) that Bon Jovi was rock full on. Even the ballads rocked. The days when even Bed Of Roses still rocked due to the performance of the entire band. When was the last time you heard them play a ballad and felt like it rocked?
Nowadays Bon Jovi has an audience of teeny boppers or people who like that pop aspect. Velvet Revolver for example is band they couldn’t like, because the music is too hard for them and their shows would be too heavy. The people who think It’s My Life is a great rock song – which it isn’t. Who think Bounce is a great rock album – which it isn’t, it isn’t even rock at most times. And no, before you start a debate about this being a matter of taste – it isn’t. Rock music is something you feel or you don’t. And all those teeny boppers or people who think that Bounce is hard rock at times, have never felt it. Have you ever listened to a great rock album? Appetite For Destruction, Contraband, and yes, New Jersey or Slippery When Wet? Albums that rock non stop? Or are those albums to heavy for you to play without skipping a few tracks because they’re too hard for you?
All those people should realize that a Bon Jovi show once was like that. I’m not comparing the actual music Bon Jovi makes, but the pace of the entire show, the atmosphere and overall feeling. When was the last time you were touched by the band? For me it was a song of the boxset (Radio) because it felt like Jon meant it However, when the song is performed live, there’s no meaning, feeling or anything into it. All the energy the album track has is lost when it’s played live. This is why a lot of people that listen to rock music over here, the true rock fans that dislike everything that’s in the charts nowadays, complain about Bon Jovi.
And it’s got nothing to do with moving on from the eighties. It’s got nothing to do with maturing. I don’t need someone preaching that the Slippery days are over. I don’t expect Jon to fly around over the crowd either and I don’t want another Slippery When Wet, but I’d really love an album that has the same, well call it atmosphere, that’s on it. Crush a party album? My ass. Put it up during a party and everybody falls asleep.
The last times Bon Jovi truely rocked were the Keep The Faith days. After that, the ballads kicked in, and gained the easy-listening audience Bon Jovi nowadays have. Always was a big hit and a good song in my opinion, but it also gained them the fans that are in it for the ballads, and dislike the rock Bon Jovi once made. The fans that only know the hitsingles. Sure, this happens with every band, but nowadays Bon Jovi tries too much to make hitsingles instead of making the music they like. Thank You For Loving Me bombed because it just isn’t a true rock ballad. The same story as for All About Lovin’ You (which even has a drum computer in it for god’s sake!). They’re just songs that could’ve been sung by any pop singer. There’s no element of rock in it. The guitar solo is there because “a rock ballad needs a guitar solo”. It’s not there because the song deserves a guitar solo – because it doesn’t. That’s probably why All About Lovin’ You doesn’t have one anyway.
The These Days tour (which wasn’t as big as everyone thinks it was, it only had 27 dates as the American leg was cancelled before it was anounced) didn’t rock as hard as well. However, because the setlists were great, the shows were very long (most of them easily reached 2,5 hours) and the band were really into what they were doing, all this didn’t matter, as the shows were very great.
Nowadays this board is filled with people from the Crush generation, the new audience Bon Jovi is so proud of. People who think Crush and Bounce are good rock albums (some of them call Bounce a hard rock album) and are among the best albums they’ve ever made, while the songs are just weak, there’s almost nothing of the old Bon Jovi feeling in there. Bon Jovi can keep spreading how much their audience has stayed with them, but exactly how many fans from the nineties and eighties still follow this band? There are a lot, and I mean really a lot, that have lost interest since Crush. Richie Sambora is one of the best rock guitar players. When listening to Crush and Bounce, do you ever think “Oh yeah, and he truely is!” I don’t.
The times I feel like seeing the Bon Jovi most of us started to love are getting more rare every new project they start. Each time the same stuff, and each time it feels more like the automatic pilot. “This is one of the best nights of our lives”...“I’d like to thank you all for staying with us for the last 20 years”...And how many times have you heard Jon say “When I was making records in the eighties there’s no way I’d thought that I’d sell 100.000.000 records” ? I never feel like Jon means it, that it’s really Jon Bon Jovi the person who admits that he’s truely inspired. When I see Jon Bon Jovi, I see the spoiled rock star who’s got it all. Who claims to do everything for the fans, but the moments when it comes to giving something to the fans (changing setlists, making a real rock album) can be counted on one hand. And when I think of Bon Jovi, I think of a band that's in it for the money, no matter how many times Jon says he of they aren't. If they aren't, then why is he so bothered about the sales of an album? They even tried to sell an album by QVC. Simply pathetic.
For all the people saying that I shouldn’t be saying this and move on to another band/artist: Exactly how many other bands do you follow? How many other bands have you visited of which you can say are rock bands? Isn’t it possible to like 2 or more bands just as much? Why do you think I am able to compare them to other bands? Sure, other bands have their minority’s as well, but the Bon Jovi path is getting near a dead end. Take a look at the future. We’re getting a new “rock” album that seems to be midtempo and “world (?)” tour (Europe has more then 40 countries and there are 13 dates) with in total 73 dates. Australia, big parts of Asia, South Africa and South America all have been left out of world tours for the last 10 years. How’s that for “being good for the fans”.
Will it ever change? Will this be a midlife crisis? The good thing is that Bounce didn’t sell the amount of copies they thought it would, the live album sucked, TLFR bombed and Jon noticed thank god, and I really hope the upcoming album will bomb heavily. Not because I hope they’re unhappy or something, but because something like that just might make them realise that fans have started to dislike this band. Sure, there will always be the blind followers from Backstage that love everything he...I mean Bon Jovi does, but thank god they don’t fill a stadium.
Bon Jovi is being used by Jon as a money machine. Something to cash in quickly. And the band just follows as puppets. They’re not complaining either as it sure doesn’t make them poor either. But I’ve started to lose interest, among with many others. Maybe the new album will bring back my interest, the first signs look a bit promising since out of the 3 songs that a lot of us have heard, 2 actually have a decent/good guitar solo, and Have A Nice Day sounds strong. Maybe it will change, but me, and I think many, many others, have lost their faith in this band. I'm sure someone will roll his/her eyes because of this, maybe a backstager will pop in saying I should be happy that they're still making music and all that shite, I don't care. This is why Bon Jovi isn't rock anymore, and are becoming some greatest hits money making orientated pop band.
Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan
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07-14-2005, 12:47 PM
