Introduction
It is hard to disagree that the lives of people become much more comfortable, joyful, and happier when they have something that warms their souls, helps them cope in difficult life situations, cheers them up, or just allows them to while away the evenings. For many individuals, music, films, books, sports, and other arts and hobbies are much more important and needed than money. That is why music has always played and still plays such an essential role in the culture and history of countries, as well as in the lives of both ordinary people and the musicians themselves.
Rock music is defined by rhythm instead of melody and is associated with revolution, protests, and desired and powerful changes in various social attitudes or political rules. A vast number of significant musicians, namely Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Curtis Mayfield, and Tom Petty, as well as music bands like The Beatles, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and many others are still widely known and listened to. Many of them are included in rock music history since they have greatly influenced this genre and the culture itself. Jon Bon Jovi is among such influencers and redefiners of the rock anthem, and the purpose of this paper is to study his career and find out why it is crucial to include Jovi in the history of rock music class.
Brief Biography
Before claiming that Bon Jovi’s talent and works make him worthy of being remembered and discussed by the following generations, it is necessary to provide a summary of the main parts of the artist’s life. Bon Jovi was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1962, and since then, he has had many amazing events that have led him to world fame. [1] The best singer and songwriter of modern times, Bon Jovi once was just a rebellious and hopeful teenager who wanted to follow his remarkable dream.
School Years and the Beginning of Jovi’s Passion for Music
It is essential to admit that Jon was lucky to have such supportive and helpful parents. They have always believed in him, which is partly why he achieved tremendous success and did not give up on his dreams.[2] When his parents came to their son’s first talent competition, despite his complete failure, they were able to see Jovi’s sincere passion for music and commitment to it.[3] That is when Jon’s musical development took its origin, and at the age of seventeen, he was allowed to play in bars until closing time. His parents believed in his extraordinary abilities and let him return home at two in the morning and then be at school by eight. Bon Jovi’s father and mother told him to follow his dream, and he decided to become independent at all costs and make his parents proud of him.[4] This is indeed a reason to study Jon Bon Jovi in the history of rock music class because this musician proves that support and faith together with determination can work miracles and help one reach great heights.
Music in Bon Jovi’s Blood
It is possible to suggest that Jon was born with music running through his veins. Otherwise, how one may explain Jovi’s unbelievable abilities to feel rock music and create songs that do not leave the listeners’ hearts and minds. During his concerts, the musician entirely devotes himself to the process and, according to the fans, seems to dissolve in the music and merge with his songs’ lyrics.[5] It is this quality that makes it possible to judge the innate talent of the artist and his sincere feelings for music and also proves the need to study Jovi’s work. What is more, according to some sources, Jovi is a blood relative to Frank Sinatra, a great American singer, which also proves that true talent and thirst for music are in Jon’s blood.[6]
The Beginning of Jovi’s Musical Career: Struggles and Successes
Certainly, Jon’s path to fame and success was not easy, and decades ago, not all people recognized his talent and sought to help. Thus, after being turned down by various famous record labels, in 1982, he managed to get his song included on a local talent compilation by the market rock station WAPP. This was when his career started to prosper, and he finally signed with Mercury Records and formed a band that later became widely known as Bon Jovi. This is a great example for young people who are trying to succeed in either sphere. If nothing happens right away, it does not mean one should stop trying because it is precisely perseverance that helps natural talent achieve important results and well-deserved recognition. After the band gained popularity, their third studio album, “Slippery When Wet,” became the best-selling one. However, even then, during the worldwide success, Bon Jovi was not appreciated by critics, which he perceived as another struggle.
Affecting the Culture of Bon Jovi’s Time: Country Music
In 1986, Bon Jovi released his new song that was destined to significantly impact the future state of rock and country music. “Wanted Dead or Alive,” in which he sang about outlaw experiences, steel horses, and cowboys was like “a road anthem that blended the glamour and gloss of Eighties hair metal with the dust of the reimagined Wild West.”[7] Western themes were also covered by the singer three years later in his solo hit “Blaze of Glory.” By using one of the oldest motifs of country music for rock and roll, Bon Jovi managed to start an entirely new epoch that many famous rock musicians later entered.[8]
Several years have passed, and leading musicians such as Jani Lane from Warrant and Bret Michaels from Poison addressed Western themes by wearing cowboy hats and singing about that alluring era in their videos “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” Though at the beginning of rock and roll, this genre was mainly represented by and associated with glammed-up artists in stilettos and eyeliner, the late eighties were the golden turning point for this genre.[9] Probably if not for the talent and passion of Bon Jovi, rock music would not have turned this way and would have continued to evolve completely differently.
Many gifted artists trusted Jovi’s innovations and followed him while also adding their perspectives to the development of music. According to Leahey, “Bon Jovi ruled this particular roost of hair-sprayed singing cowboys for the better part of a decade, cultivating an image that owed as much to John Wayne and Roy Rogers as David Lee Roth.”[10] What is more, “Bon Jovi’s influence can also be heard in the super-sized choruses of Kip Moore, the country machismo of Brantley Gilbert, the gang-like packaging of A Thousand Horses and the tough-guy twang of Trace Adkins.”[11] Therefore, it is difficult to underestimate Jon Bon Jovi’s contribution to the development of rock and roll and country mixture, as well as the musical culture itself.
Prioritizing Accessibility over Art
Another reason for the unlimited and timeless love of people for the work of Bon Jovi lies in his ability to feel with his heart what songs should be written about so that they resonate in the souls of people. However, this is not about commerce and his desire to earn more but about the singer’s extraordinary sensitivity and subtlety of his spirit. In those years, many music bands celebrated the lives of ordinary persons in their songs.[12] Nevertheless, precisely Bon Jovi’s uncomplicated and easily understandable lyrics about Wild West outlaw life, devoted women, and hardworking men expanded the borders and purposes of country rock and roll music while prioritizing accessibility over art.[13] People felt his lyrics and the power of their truthfulness and simplicity. Meanwhile, Jovi’s songs passed themselves to the future generation’s country artists and inspired them to write beautiful texts about their daily lives.
Commercial, Not Critical, Success
Even though Jon Bon Jovi’s band was already extremely popular in 1989, the singer was frustrated with not being the choice of critics. In their opinion, Jovi’s and his band’s songs just slightly differed from the work of every other neo-glam metal band of those years.[14] Nevertheless, Bon Jovi as a music group was a resounding success among rebellious teenagers, which, at the same time, demonstrated its future prosperity as a band with distinct and unique songs. Jovi managed to sell eighteen million albums, achieve sold outs for every concert, and create a flashy and bland show and sound to satisfy every listener with adventurous impulse. Even though critics underestimated Bon Jovi the band and their lead singer, Jon had no reasons to complain as his devoted fans knew and felt better than journalists.[15] Therefore, Bon Jovi indeed “redefined the rock supergroup cliche while delivering an entertaining but predictable show” and becoming “the harmless edge of rock n roll.”[16]
Bon Jovi’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction
In 2018, Jon Bon Jovi became an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – a famous and prestigious annual ceremony that aims at engaging and inspiring people through the exclusive power of rock.[17] Being inducted at this ceremony means that one’s contribution to the music’s dissemination and creation is highly evaluated and honored. Since Bon Jovi is the one who played a major role in redefining the rock anthem by captivating audiences, evolving the genre, and dominating arenas with techniques that are still determining the decade, he is worthy of such an honor.[18] What is more, this also proves that people should study his life and career, and this brilliant musician accepted worldwide should be included in the rock history class.
Charity
It is usually possible to ensure that a famous person, be it an actor, musician, or writer, is a good and honest individual if they take care of other members of society and share their fortune and luck. Bon Jovi is well-known not only for his brilliant talent and songs that resonate in the hearts of millions of people but also for his ability and readiness to help those in a difficult situations. To be more precise, since 2006, Jon’s foundation works to reduce poverty, homelessness, and hunger by providing grant funding and developing special programs to support innovative community benefit organizations.[19] Even though Jovi’s charitable activities are not connected with his musical talent or worthiness, his good and unselfish intentions are another reason for Bon Jovi’s inclusion in the history of rock class.
Conclusion
To conclude, one may say that all reasons mentioned above are more than enough to state that Jon Bon Jovi is worthy of being included in the history of rock music class and remembered by the following generations. Indeed, precisely this singer proves that a musician’s role is not limited to creating songs and arrangement of concerts to make a profit. A successful, talented, recognized, and respected artist should be not only a lyrics writer. It is the mixture of honesty, unselfishness, kindness, open-mindedness, honor, truthfulness, and even self-sacrifice that makes a great musician also a good person.
Jon Bon Jovi has an exceptional talent and also combines all of the qualities mentioned above. He appreciates music and rock in particular as the sincerest means of expressing feelings and uses them to help people in various ways. Instead of simply synthesizing and copying existing bands, Jovi develops rock with love and dedication, giving it different shades and new meanings. With music in his blood, Bon Jovi should be included in the history of rock because it was his merit that, at a certain moment, this musical genre reached greater heights.
Bibliography
Jackson, Laura. Jon Bon Jovi: The Biography. Hachette: Biography & Autobiography, 2010.
“JBJ Soul Foundation: Our Mission.”JBJ Soul Foundation. Last modified 2021.
Johnston, Maura. “Why Bon Jovi Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”Rolling Stone, 2017.
Kielty, Martin. “Jon Bon Jovi Explains His ‘Biggest Mistake’.”Ultimate Classic Rock.
Kornhaber, Spencer. “Bon Jovi and Nina Simone, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers at Last.”The Atlantic, 2017.
Leahey, Andrew. “How Bon Jovi’s Cowboy Anthems Inspired Today’s Country Sound.”Rolling Stone, 2018.
Olson, Margaret. Bon Jovi: America’s Ultimate Band. Toronto: Scarecrow Press, 2013.
Silverman, David. “Bon Jovi Rocks Horizon, and a Good Time Was Had by All.”Chicago Tribune, 1989.
Footnotes
- Laura Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi: The Biography (Hachette: Biography & Autobiography, 2010), 11.
- Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi, 12.
- Martin Kielty, “Jon Bon Jovi Explains His ‘Biggest Mistake’,” Ultimate Classic Rock. Web.
- Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi, 12.
- David Silverman, “Bon Jovi Rocks Horizon, and a Good Time Was Had by All,” Chicago Tribune. Web.
- Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi, 12.
- Andrew Leahey, “How Bon Jovi’s Cowboy Anthems Inspired Today’s Country Sound,” Rolling Stone, 2018. Web.
- Leahey, “How Bon Jovi’s Cowboy Anthems,” para. 2.
- Leahey, “How Bon Jovi’s Cowboy Anthems,” para. 3.
- Leahey, para. 3.
- Leahey, para. 5.
- Leahey, para. 6.
- Leahey, para. 6.
- Silverman, “Bon Jovi Rocks Horizon,” para. 9.
- Margaret Olson, Bon Jovi: America’s Ultimate Band (Toronto: Scarecrow Press, 2013), 90.
- Silverman, “Bon Jovi Rocks Horizon,” para. 16-17.
- Maura Johnston, “Why Bon Jovi Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Rolling Stone, 2017. Web.
- Spencer Kornhaber, “Bon Jovi and Nina Simone, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers at Last.” The Atlantic, 2017. Web.
- “JBJ Soul Foundation: Our Mission,” JBJ Soul Foundation. Web.