In an article by Anmar Frangoul for The Sunday Times, Jon Bon Jovi states:
Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it.
God, it was a magical, magical time. I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: ‘What happened?’ Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.
Full article, subscription required, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Johnny Bongiovi misses the time when children were cajoled into parting with their allowance money for wildly overpriced, forced bundles of sight unseen, or rather, sound unheard, crapshoots; 99.9% of which were packed to the gills with filler. Ah, “the good old days.”
Johnny’s also probably upset that in order for him to sell a full album nowadays, he’d have to come up with 10-12 good songs, a feat he hasn’t accomplished during his entire lifetime. Yes, the magical, magical times certainly are over for Johnny.
Today, thanks to Steve Jobs, a good portion of music consumers still actually pay for music and also actually have – *gasp* – consumer choice! Music consumers can now buy exactly what they want while not paying for things they don’t. Imagine that! Consumers can also still buy a full album via Apple’s iTunes Store, complete with artwork and more, if they so desire. Nobody’s stopping them. And, oh by the way, artists are still getting rich. All of this is thanks to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs is personally responsible for saving the music business, you vapid twit.
[Attribution: WENN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Brawndo Drinker,” “Manny S.,” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Who the hell is Jon Bon Jovi and how is his music relevant today?
Has Elvis risen from his grave?
You must ge living in the past too. Who the fsck is Elvis?
Are you Elvis? You sound like a curmudgeonly old fart.
he’s an angry dinosaur!
Bon Jovi rocks and will always be relevant.. don’t confuse his sentimentality of being able to make 2 or 3 songs people liked per album with his talent.
(Now if Def Leppard said this, they might have cred but they’d still be wrong)
Once upon a time the artists were the drivers and their music spoke for itself. The record companies and agents were just parasites in the background. Giants like Zed Zeppelin, The Doors, Santana, Joplin, Hendrix wrote what they liked and it sold. Back then we wouldn’t even listen to Top 40 radio, much less buy any of it.
Then in the late 70’s the parasites got control. It was all marketing and fake from then on. Bon Jovi was the result.
Bon Jovi is formula filler. I never listened to him in high school and college, and I admittedly listened to some crap, especially in high school. Top 40 stuff.
Sorry dude but you’re living in the past. You’re blaming Jobs for killing vinyl? The music industry did that!
Bop Till You Drop – Ry . 1st CD ever recorded.
Bop Till You Drop- Ry Cooder. 1st CD ever recorded, 1979.
Slight correction: Bop Til You Drop was the first DIGITALLY recorded rock album, not the first CD.
According to Wikipedia, the first CD pressed was “The Visitors” by ABBA, and the first released was “52nd St” by Billy Joel.
I also remember saying to the wife in the pre-iTunes days: “The problem with ‘Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits’ is that they aren’t all great”. Mr Bon Jovi should shut up and sing (something people want to buy).
Ah yes Wikipedia, the ultimate authority for a dumbed down planet.
Is Wikipedia unreliable?
Is that rhetorical?
Hurts that much to be wrong? Get your facts right and the breeze coming out of your pie hole won’t be so warm. With all due respect, of course.
Just that quoting Wikipedia as a reliable references puts you standing in mud…with all due respect of course.
Are you sure about that? In the 83, 84 time frame as a computer sales person we talked about the future when Compact Disk would hold an album and albums would sell for $5.00 because they were so cheap to produce.
Is Jon Bon Jovi Osama Bon Laden’s evil twin?
Steve Jobs, my hero, gave me this sleek little delightful device that holds 1000s of esoteric songs which I have spent over 40 years collecting, with superb sound quality, and which I can hear wherever I go, and which I can easily stream to 11 speakers throughout my house to raise the rafters in heavenly joy, all for a very affordable price, keeping me extraordinarily happy. I thank God for Steve Jobs day and night!
Amen
Praise unto the lord…
Superb sound quality??? Superb? I doubt you’ve heard superb sound quality….
I thought you might want to know.
You don’t HAVE to use the included earbuds.
He needs to shut up
He sounds stupid and misguided
Everybody was stealing music
Apple has helped the music industry
This is the same Bon Jovi that came out during the 2008 presidential campaign and said the “ONLY” people that wont vote for Mr. Obama are racists. Brilliant singer here that seems to be going down in a blaze of glory all on his own. He should zip it while he can.
I don’t care what his political persuasion is. He generally makes formula crap. Just like Ted Nugent makes crap from his perch on the right.
But wait……. Tom Petty claimed it was kids dropping all those quarters at the video arcades that was killing the music business…..
Steve Jobs was responsible for that too. He used to work at Atari : )
Sorry, but Bon Jovi sounds moronic.
Jobs killed the music business the same way he “kills” iPods and iPhones–by replacing them with superior models.
So giving music lovers more easier ways to buy and consume their love of good music is killing the music business eh?
Sorry Jon and co, Steve Jobs saved the music business. It’s not his fault that sales of your average albums have dropped through the floor.
Why not try and writing some decent songs that appeal to the modern music lover instead of trying to appeal to aging 35yr old women who have followed you since they were 16yrs old.
Hang up your guitars guys – you’re past it.
@Jon Bon Jovi,
Hey, you gave us the This Left Feels Right album. This is as much your fault as Steve’s.
Probably one of the worst albums ever. Yes, ever.
…and independent artists everywhere thank him for doing so.
The music business was living on a prayer when Steve Jobs saved it with iTunes. Jon Bon Jovi gives higher life forms a bad name. Yeah, the good old days of vinyl, when if you wanted to tote your music around you’d have to make a crappy copy onto a cassette tape to play it on your crappy cassette player in your car. Truly magical!
The music industry was “Livin’ On A Prayer” in the digital age until Apple gave those floundering fools a chance to make money with iTunes.
And there’s nothing wrong with killing today’s music *business*. The actual musicians, and the music that’s actually good, can easily survive and thrive under a new music business which isn’t so fan-hostile.
To slightly paraphrase Upton Sinclair, it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when he thinks his paycheck depends upon his not understanding it.
Oh-oh, he’s half-way there
Oh-oh, he’s livin on a prayer
If it were not for the macintosh and itunes, i’d still be sitting in front of my linux box running a fast tracker clone, looping one of the 20 or so free .xm files I would grab off of one of those ftp servers every now and then (I didn’t even get cover art!). I would let it loop for 5 mins or so, then it would start getting annoying so I would kill the tracker and relaunch with a different file. now I have a macbook (1st anniversary was ~ a month ago) and itunes with ~200 odd songs. And they actually have lyrics too!!!
(btw: xm is like a really simple and beepy version of midi)
You make it sound like GNU/Linux can’t play music, which is plain wrong.
I don’t see how having a Mac makes it easier to listen to music…
Too bad Jon Bon Jovi never wrote an album as magical as he describes!!!
Note that Bon Jovi says Steve Jobs “killed the music BUSINESS”. That’s a good thing – all those faceless middle men who controlled the industry but didn’t create a thing are gone! Thankfully music itself hasn’t been killed, far from it.
Also a good thing that I don’t have to buy an entire album to get the one song I liked, only to discover that the one song was the band’s attempt at something different, and the remainder of the album is horrible!
I remember when it was novel and cool that you could listen to the album in the store at the kiosk before deciding to buy it. That saved me some money as well (actually just re-directed it to a good album).
As for Jon Bon Jovi, now kids don’t need to save their allowance money for music. They can easily buy one, two, five songs at a time when they wouldn’t have plopped $17.99 down for an album. How many people have bought a Bon Jovi song for $0.99 to use in a party mix, etc. when they would never have bought the album to get the song?
I put together about 24 songs for our son’s pre-game football pump-up music. I had about 10 of them already, but bought the rest. And these are songs I will not likely ever listen to outside of pre-game warmups. Bon Jovi’s “It’s My LIfe” is in the playlist, BTW.
I guess Rock Band and Guitar Hero are ruining music as well?
I remember seeing Bon jovi live at Milton Keynes bowl in the UK and they were absolutely aweful.
It was the end of their 18 month tour, they were exhausted of playing the same 22 songs that they had performed countless times every night.
Jon Bon Jovi couldn’t remember the lyrics to those songs – and he wrote the god damn things.
Tico Torres was out of time and Richie sambora was overplaying.
Was the first and last time I saw them live – and they haven’t improved since.
My condolences. They had one song that didn’t make my ears bleed, “Livin’ on a Prayer.” I’m sorry you had to listen to the 21 other ear molestations.
And that song even sucks, maybe a little less so than his others.
Look, I think Jon Bon Jovi is wrong about this issue. Steve Jobs saved the music business from completely succumbing to online piracy. But I’m also a fan of the band. I’ve seen Bon Jovi twice in the last 4 years and both times were absolutely amazing. When did you see them? By the way, they don’t play the same setlist every night. They actually change it up much more than one would expect, so your point is moot.
1987 when they had their one good song.
U2, 1992, Mile High Stadium, Zoo TV Tour. Now, that was a concert!
Doors, 1968, San Diego, CA. The opening act was the Chambers Brothers. That was a concert!
I’m sure it was. Unfortunately, I was still 3 years from being born.
Now maybe we can bet back to a time I remember. When the word “music” was never followed by the word “business”.
It became all about the money, and it sucked.
Please stop kidding yourself. Such a time NEVER EXISTED.
The day artists no longer want to be paid for their art is the day that “music” and “business” will no longer fit in the same equation.
What, no potshots at Shawn Fanning and his ilk?
Oh, right. What have we heard from Shawn lately?
Since the iPod i play my choosen music more often with a headphone ..
Jon grew up and made his name in the era of Album-Oriented Rock, so of course he will get misty for the end of that era, but Napster did more to kill that then Steve Jobs.
Apple’s actions helped to create a logical, legal, useful structure out of the chaos and illegal fragmentation brought on by uncontrolled p2p sharing networks (that cut musicians out of the loop entirely.) Had Steve Jobs not done what he did Jon and every other musician would be forced to see recording as a marketing tool for concerts, T-shirts and paid media appearances rather than a potential direct generator of income.
Bingo. The world was waiting for a sensible convenient way for people to purchase music. The kids were waiting for a way to get music inexpensively. $20 for an album or a buck for the song they actually wanted. Rather than p2p they could get the song hassle-free. Good deal. Now they are in the habit of paying the musician.
Hey! We didn’t start the fire! It’s been burnin’ since the discs been turnin’. RCA, EMI, Universal Music Group …
Go smoke a pipe Jon, you have to be kidding me. Did he just wake up and discover iTunes? I have more music now than I ever did growing up and I never once missed the hands on of buying an actual record or CD. Granted I realize that some people like that but they are the ones on Bon Jovi’s side of the fence. At the end of the day this is a truly misguided statement that should have stayed backstage with the groupies. Sorry Jon, you lose but if you really think about it, you’re still winning. My advice to Jon Bon Jovi is pull your entire catalog of music from iTunes and come back with a statement in 3 months. nuff said.
There was a time when you bought an album for the 1 or 2 songs that got airplay. Shortly after, you ended up liking the songs that never made the radio even better, so I don’t buy the argument that 99% was filler. The album cover certainly was a big part of the experience (think Led Zepplin). When the industry started selling CD’s for about $4.00 more than vinyl, (soon after, AOL started shipping them for free) and delivered them in plastic clamshells, it was the beginning of the end. It also didn’t help when they started signing groups based on looks rather than talent (see Bon Jovi)
@artist
You have to be honest here. Buying albums back in the day was a big goatf@&k. Yes you knew the couple of songs that were on the radio every freakin hour, then you oogled at the album cover and try to place tunes to the tracklist on the back. However if you grew up when I did you hated being the sucker. Only a few artist had solid albums: Michael Jackson, led zeppelin, pink Floyd, motley Crüe, ll cool j, beastie Boys, nas, dr. dre to name some of my favs
BTW, who bought an album based on the jacket, anyway?
The Beatles White Album, for sure.
Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon
And Spinal Tap’s “Smell the Glove”.
Santana – Abraxas
Whipped Cream-anyone?
(And the music!)
Hot d@mn, I loved that Herb Alpert album cover. The music was ok, but that lady covered with whipped cream is a fantasy of mine to this day…
Velvet Underground album with the big yellow Warhol banana too.
You have a good point about many album songs that weren’t radio hits becoming favorites. That was always the case when I bought vinyl. Bon Jovi is having fond memories big album covers and liner notes, which I miss too. But Steve Jobs didn’t kill that. Apple has been trying to do many things to bring back the liner notes, artwork, and extras to make albums more attractive. I think the biggest problem is that the quality of the material that makes up today’s albums is far worse than it used to be. Music industry people just lost the sense of quality. It has turned into “Get a hit song and record 8 other pieces of shit to fill out an album. Charge $18 for it.” It was the Music Business who lost its sense of providing a value proposition with albums. I note that they also killed the “single” during the same time frame, which only opened the doors for a Napster to come along in the internet era like a Robin Hood to poke all the King John record moguls in their collective eye. Bon Jovi doesn’t want to point at the real culprits because they helped make him rich, but it’s his buddies at the big record companies that killed the golden goose.
Talk about misplaced sentiment.
Why in the world would a generation from now, long for the days that never existed, in their mind? That’s just stupid.
I think barbecued ribs are magical, but I don’t long for a time when you had to slaughter a cow to get some!
He makes a good point in so far as the impulse buy that turns out to be amazing. I remember my first Pixies record was like that. However, he forgets the other 9 out of 10 times where there was like one good song and a bunch of junk. I mean, for every “Appetite for Destruction” there were a million “New Jerseys.”
I remember the days of buying cassette tapes (usually around $10 – $12) and having to save all my allowance money or get them as birthday or Christmas gifts. I hated having to rewind, turn the tape over, etc. just to get to the 2 or 3 good songs. Later, I joined BMG and other CD clubs to get big discounts on CDs. I now have probably around 200 CDs and a majority have the same 2 to 3 good songs (and some only have the one-hit-wonder that got people to buy the rest of the crap). The days Bon Jovi are referring to are the ones that artists could release a bunch of garbage and only have to put any effort into one song and make the cover look appealing. Now if you want to make money, you have to put effort into all your songs.
If anyone should be blamed, blame Napster and LimeWire and all other file sharing services that made people feel entitled to music for free. I was once one of those and downloaded almost anything because I could. However, now with iTunes, I pay for almost everything (there are a few obscure albums almost impossible to find that I didn’t pay for) – what I have on my computer now is over 90% legal. iTunes (and Steve Jobs) got me to pay for my music rather than downloading it and the artist receiving nothing from me.
Certainly it had nothing to do with creating over 3 decades of crappy music.
He is a donkey.
Buzzy, I know you. You’re a jack ass. Far worse.
I all-too-well remember the days when I would buy an expensive (to a kid) album based on hearing one song on the radio, and finding that I only liked that one song.
I remember buying albums based on their cover art, and finding that I didn’t like any of the songs -> Goodbye Summer Job money!
I remember when the only music available was whatever the radio stations decided we should hear (and buy), and migod, most of it was crap, but we had no chance to hear anything else (saved now, by the internet!), and I remember buying that crap while feeling that I was settling for much less than I deserved.
I stopped buying music and I didn’t purchase any music for a couple of decades.
Then, Steve Jobs’ company allowed me to buy only the music that I liked and knew I wanted. Plus, I could sample other music, buying it if I so desired.
I began to buy music again.
Steve Jobs’ company has saved the real music industry, while hopefully killing off the filler-and-crap industry.
Jon Bon Jovi has neither my scorn, nor my pity.
I’m just thankful that people like him no longer have control over what the public gets to hear and purchase, and that it no longer matters what he, and others of his now-irrelevant breed, think or say.
Thank you, Steve Jobs.
Well said!
Well said…but misguided. I like Bon Jovi as do a million or so other people. He can speak his mind if he wants to. FYI…my sons are in the music business and vinyl is the cool “new thing”. So, if consumers want it, it will happen.
you mean your spoiled faux-cool hipster kids that think vinyl is so “retro”…
He’s full of himself. Does he not remember “singles”. If anything Steve has made it more profitable for everyone. Singles were $1-2 bucks for kind-of two songs (b-side usually always sucked except for maybe Jack & Diane from John Melencamp) and now you pay $1+ for one song.
He needs to go back to his time machine of the 80’s, let him figure out how to market and distribute his own crap without any help from others. He’s a tool that doesn’t understand the first thing about the what it would take to actually sale his own product.
Mr. Bon Jovi, go ahead and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Steve Jobs killed the music business that was openly gouging it’s customers, whilst giving practically nothing to the artist. Poor music execs, unable to buy a new super-yacht…
Thanks Steve!
I remember my “Columbia House” tape and CD club times. Getting discs and tapes with many songs on them I didn’t want because singles weren’t an option. I guess I wouldn’t want a single on a tape or CD but that’s what “mix” tapes were for – aggregating those single. Seems we wanted individual songs even before Napster and MP3 players existed. Sure, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were complete albums I wanted but the rest, not so much. By the way, I prefer Jon-Bovi.
Haha! I love Jon-Bovi! Nice reference.
Jon Bon Voyagi.
I’m 42 years old, and have attended concerts since I was 15 and to this day the Bon Jovi concert I saw in 1989 was by far THE WORST concert I’ve ever been to.
I suggest you try seeing Bon Jovi again. Back in 1989 they were rundown and exhausted from one of the biggest tours in history. They almost broke up afterwards. Nowadays they put on the best show I’ve ever seen. And I’m not a blind Bon Jovi fan… Jon is wrong about this issue. But his concerts now are amazing.
You can’t blame exhaustion for putting on a crappy show. That just shows they didn’t give a crap about their fans. Nowadays, U2 puts on twice as many shows as Bon Jovi did in 1989 and they bring their “A game” every night.
He’s gotcha there, Tony. I haven’t liked U2’s music in a long time, but they still put on a pretty amazing production. And they’re still better than BJ ever was.
hmmm.. slightly inappropriate timing considering that Jobs is on sick leave.
Let’s face it – Jobs will be remembered in 100 years for being a visionary technologist, where as Bon jovi will be long forgotten
Nah. At least in my experience, Bon Jovi will always survive on college campuses. “Living on a Prayer,” and “Shot Through the Heart,” ring out eternally in college bars across the country.
There’s probably a bunch of Bing Crosby and Al Jolson fans out there that would agree with you 🙂 !
The last record I ever bought was CSNYs Four-way Street. A double album that ate up the better part of a twenty-dollar bill. That was 1968 and the album is MIA.
2nd to the last was Iron Butterfly’s Inagadadavida, 3.50 at Tower Records. I would spend an entire day there sitting on the floor tripping my ass off and then hit up McDs for 21-cent burgers.
Now that’s how longing works Bon Bon! We long for the things we miss, not for things we never had.
When I was a kid I only every bought albums when a number of singles had been released from it that I still liked months later because I couldn’t afford to buy stuff I wasn’t going to want to listen to. Now I buy individual songs even if I might get bored of them later and that I would never have bought the album for at any time.
iTunes has certainly changed the music industry, and I can see that certain albums will find it harder to be heard because people won’t take the plunge and listen to them, and learn them, and discover the quality, but MDN has a more valid point that so much of the music churned out now is just crap. There are far too many people given record deals. The rise of “talent” shows has flooded the market with a litany of crappy karaoke artists who have five minutes of fame then disappear. Talent shows give people a change, but so does sending talent spotters to small gigs, so does actually taking a gamble and maturing talent rather than just constantly finding a new supply of cookie cutter teen pablum. Another thing to try would be to not play songs on the radio and tv for months before they’re released so that by the time they are people are sick of them and A won’t buy them as singles, but B definitely won’t bother even trying the album.
If anyone could shoulder the mantle of “Artist Bitching about Technology” passed down by Lars Ulrich, it’s Jon Bon Jovi.
One, too many drugs.
Two, too many drugs.
Three, refer back to one or two.
Shot through the heart and you’re to blame, you give…
Johnny Bongiovi credentials:
Uncle owned top recording Studio (Power Station in NY).
Uncle hires Aldo Caporuscio a top session guitartist, writer, producer, jingle writer to help his nephew become a rockstar. (Aldo Caporuscio wrote a lot of the McDonald commercials in the 90’s, discovered Celine Dionne and had his own hit using the name of Aldo Nova).
His band auditioned after the first single was released. They were hired to fit an image, not necessarily by talent. It is very hypocritical of Jon Bonjovi to condemn Steve Jobs. These fake rockstars created way more damage. iTunes is levelling the playing field. Not everyone has a rich influential uncle to help them.
lol what a load of bullshit. did you see what his band looked like? the band he had connections with since the late 70s when he was playing bars? People who refuse to give Bon Jovi props never cease to sound ridiculous.
The music business was already in a death spiral when Steve Jobs dreamt of how to save it.
$18 for a cd with one or two decent cuts was not the good old days. With the advent of digital files, music lovers were incentivized to steal instead of being robbed. Steve Jobs found a fair way of securing cash flow for the labels while giving users an affordable method to get much more music. Personally I started spend more on music after iTunes was introduced than before. And yet the labels and no-talent acts like Bon Jovi decide to hate Steve Jobs (who saved them) instead of facing the reality the world has changed.
Um….. although I think Jovi’s completely wrong about Jobs, the MDN take is ridiculous. Many of us who grew up going to record stores miss the experience that Jovi describes. That is from a different era, but there was a little more to the record store experience than getting stuck with a “crap shoot”.
As far as abum art and linear notes, seems to me the iPad can take care of that. I don’t have one yet but it’s the perfect size to bring that back, I know iTunes had some interactive album art a while ago but I see a scenario where you listen to your album on iTunes or your iPod, maybe play it through the iPad and the big color artwork pops up, with interactive booklet. That already happens for all I know, looking forward to actually buying an iPad.
My prayers to the Jon Bon Jovi family.
Senility is a terrible affliction.
Steve Jobs saved music.
Blame the napster guy.
“Oh, she’s a little runaway”
At least Apple still has a model where people BUY their music. I can’t believe artists get much of anything from Rhapsody and all the other subscription models. Jobs ensured that people buy and own their music, instead of renting or stealing it.
Yeah, pesky Steve Jobs eh? Making sure that even crappy artists like Bon Jovi get royalties for having their music downloaded, not like the old days. oh, man! how we used to love hangin’ out with fhose great guys at Napster, Limewire and iMesh!
“God, it was a magical, magical time.” That “magic” he speaks of was the money flowing into his and the record labels’ pockets. I’m saying this as a musician.
I sympathize with Bon Jovi, but I think he has it wrong. Yeah, it was great having real album covers. I still miss them.
But they really went out with the CD, and while Jobs simplified (and legalized if you don’t take me too literally) the digital music revolution, the mp3 thing had already happened and by the time iTunes hit the street, it was inevitable whether Apple was involved or not.
You Give Music a Bad Name
I think it is the producers and engineers who are destroying the music business thanks to the loudness war. There’s no top end and no dynamic range. Therefore I deem most music production now to be utter crap.
My headphones go to 11.
Actually, I’m listening to .. and buying .. FAR more music now than ever before. Thanks, Steve.
What a complete and utter moron this guy is. For those who like his music: How does it feel to be seranaded by an idiot?
What a misguided saddo.
iTunes rekindled my love of music and opened the door to a galaxy of new sounds.
What nicer way to spend an hour of so on a Friday evening than listening to ‘n’ variations of a tune? (Well strike that, if she’s warm n willing).
Seriously, Bon Jovi is very wrong indeed, and I speak from the heights of being many years his senior.
Everything has killed the music business except for crappy music and artists.
Its like saying that Henry Ford is responsible for the oil shortage. Just because you have pop records doesn’t mean you are a good musician or understand the music biz or that we should pay any attention to him.. Whatever to Jon.
Spoken by someone who has one of the largest villas in New Jersey… Bought by all that “allowance” money… I happen to like Bon Jovi somewhat, but give me a break… And yes, I agree with the above, the record industry killed vinyl, not Steve Jobs…
If it was not for iTunes I would have stopped buying music 20 years ago. In my office listening to Bon Jovi on my iPad. Thanks Apple!
I thought “Video” killed the music business.
(oh wait… that was the radio star)
Ahh, it was a magical time – you looked at the sleeve, were in love with that one song which was playing on radio all the time, plonked down your dough, grabbed the LP and rushed back home, only to discover that, other than that one song, you had been royally screwed, usually nine times.
Napster, Limewire and other “sharing” services are responsible for severely damaging the music business. Apple is the one source responsible for saving it. And oh yeah, the public who doesn’t think they need to pay for music is to blame as well.
If what was most important to that moment was clutching an ablum, looking at the images on the cover, and the thrill of gambling with your allowance, then the music must have been pretty feeble.
I like great images with CDs, the thrill of finding an out of print CD, etc, but the most important thing to me about the first play is the music.
Bon Jovi is also assuming that only that particular experience can possibly be as sweet. I understand nostalgia, but the reality is that kids are associating some other set of circumstances with the joy of listening to some particular piece of music. Those sort of experiences of discovery as a teenager are just more pungent. Sorry, Jon. As long as there are teenagers and there is good music, they are going to have the same emotional experiences, it just won’t be the same as the one you had.
Ahh, nostalgia. It isn’t what it used to be…
As normal I agree with MDN view.
John B. your an Ass.
Has anybody else checked out the an iTunes Deluxe addition LP. Runs kind of like a DVD with band videos, photos and other stuff. its some cool shit!
Hinder has one – All American Nightmare (Deluxe Edition) – iTunes LP Some great tunes also!!
Oh, Thanks Steve!
Tom
Jon Bon Jovi is personally responsible for a lot of bad music!
I’d like to tell Old Man Bongiovi where to get off, but I don’t know Morse Code.
I DON’T agree with BonJovi at all…but I wouldn’t argue it with his “irrelevance”. Bon Jovi was the top grossing tour in the States for 2010. Love or hate his music, he still has draw.
Jon, i still like your songs… BUT THAT WAS ONE OF THE DUMBEST COMMENTS EVER ABOUT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT IN MUSIC.
YOU FORGOT THAT NAPSTER, etc… IS WHAT KILLED THE MUSIC BIZ THAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. iTunes was the solution TO YOU STILL GETTING PAID…
LEAVE THE GUY ALONE… HE ALREADY HAS CANCER TO DEAL WITH…
STUPID…
LET JON KNOW HOW STUPID A COMMENT THAT WAS…
http://www.bonjovi.com/
How ironic … I was just telling someone that I thought music “jumped the shark” when Bon Jovi sold any albums/CDs/songs/concert tickets.
I hope Jobs continues to kill the music industry because it is full of people who miss the essence of music and the artistry and are only concerned with money.
I agree that I mis the big LP record covers but that is something totally distinct from the record business.
Now if BonJovi REALLY cares about this, he ought to be perhaps creating his own record label, eh?
Pretty sure weak, made for video, spandex and eye shadow wearing, “I wanna be an actor”, if I hear the first three notes I leave the room or change the station, bands like Bon Jovi “killed” the music business. ITunes saved it. Sorry he feels old; his music already died, he will eventually meet the same fate and won’t be missed.
“Video killed the radio star…”
I had a album of Jon BonJovi that I had purchased for 12.99 and listened to it once to realized there is only 1 track that I like and had to sell it for 1.99 to a recycling store… Screw you Jon for being so self-centered.
you liking only one track is your own fault. it’s called familiarity and the refusal to put effort into discovering the songs you dont know. people sound like hicks when they tow out the ‘only one good song per album’ party line. Albums are a wonderful thing to discover, but most people will never know.
What is he…like 5′ 4″ or something. Nuf said.
Jon Bon has a case of the good-ole-days-syndrome.
I don’t even need to formulate an opinion on how the world is changing and moving forward. YOU ALL KNOW IT!
Slight correction: Bop Til You Drop was the first DIGITALLY recorded rock album, not the first CD.
According to Wikipedia, the first CD pressed was “The Visitors” by ABBA, and the first released was “52nd St” by Billy Joel.
I also remember saying to the wife in the pre-iTunes days: “The problem with ‘Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits’ is that they aren’t all great. Mr Bon Jovi should shut up and sing (something people want to buy).
Wow, he’s right — he is an old man.
I think that’s just fantastic and wonderfull news,
especially getting informed by Bon Jovi.
I’ll cancel my iTunes account right away,
and will go back to buying CD’s
Thank you, Steve
Yup Jon,
Your right. Your old. Please just fade away. Wait, you already did. hahaha.
LOL….. Poor Jon Bon Jovi. The music industry just loved it when we had to buy the entire album with two good songs with ten filler songs that no one wanted. Now, musicians have to actually produce a good album. My heart bleeds for you, it really does.
How does he listen to HIS favorite music? Vinyl? Cassettes? Zunes? And how many THOUSANDS of mp3’s do you think he owns as of today??? I’ll bet he can justify his own hypocrisy pretty well.
The industry killed itself. It also might have a little to do with MTV not playing music anymore?
The Good Old Days?
Whatever happened to Bo Diddley’s money?
According to Bo he never got a royalty cheque.
“BTW, who bought an album based on the jacket, anyway?”
Well, the art and the information on the jacket, sure. What has changed is the _way_ we get information about the album now. FWIW, I bought several albums back in the day based solely upon the jacket and the info, same as now….
Who is Jon Bon Jovi? Was she married to Woody Guthrie?
Napster and Limeware where already pervasive before iTunes came to the rescue. If anything Steve Jobs made it possible for this clown to sell his music at all. If Apple would have not shown the way, this and all artist would be relegated to playing concerts and giving there music out for free.
What happened? Wake up, man. It is 21st century. Everything goes with technology. It is the trend people want. If you don’t like it, don’t even use damn cellular phone. Do you?
Hey Jon, Take a Hike & go write some Good Music 4 a Change.
No wonder those Last Couple of CD’s A’int Flying off the Shelves, Having only 1,or 2, songs that Music Lovers like me can Gravitate Towards.
Thanks to Steve Jobs, for Looking out 4 All of Us, Now we have the Option of Buying Exactly what we want instead of the Music Industry of which ur a Part of Forcing all that Crap on us.
(Yeaaaaaaaaaaa)
I always thought this guy was a looser. And so was his music.
This statement just solidifies he is a looser!
Let’s see…holding an album vs. no music at all since artists would not want to work if music is free. Thank God for Steve Jobs providing a way for people to PAY for music and SUPPORT the artists!
The record companies are to blame as they never look to the future – If they did they could make this new download model just as great as it was on vinyl.
Can we stop this madness? 131 comments and counting? Bon Jovi’s gonna think he’s more relevant than he really is.
I guess Jon Bon Jovi doesn’t want to sell any more songs on iTunes.
How many adults today with hearing loss wish they had a device when they were younger that parents could set volume limits. Nothing like the good old days of cranking it all the way up and losing your hearing later.
Steve Jobs took away the power from the record companies, and business sleaze who gave people careers based MORE on how they look or the “package” than real talent. Bonjovi represented the hair bands, which myself, as a musician of the same age back then, was completely against, and I was certainly not alone. I have nothing against Bonjovi personally, he was irrelevant back then, and is irrelevant right now. Since 2004 (or a little earlier), thanks to Steve, I can make music and sell it on iTunes, at minimal cost to me. Also, thanks to Steve and Apple for making Macs, Logic, and etc. (and thanks to Ableton and others) for making affordable music production software so that many of us non-glam, pensive, hard-working musicians can be heard and can make our fair share of money with complete artistic freedom – no producers, no middlemen, no studio sleaze and no “shareholders”.
To any real musician, Steve Jobs is a hero, and I’ll pass that along to my children and their children.
This is great to hear from a real musician, MacMusician. Thanks for sharing your perspective. What is your band name? I would like to take a listen.
Thanks Dan. Much appreciated. I’m not in a band anymore, I just do session stuff every now and then for all kinds of music. I’m just a drummer/percussionist, but I make my own music (thanks to Ableton Live, synth plugins and my Macs). I’m almost done with my next release, which will hopefully be on iTunes soon. It will be under my name “Joseph D’Aqui” and linked from my website at http://www.josephdaqui.com. Take care man – all the best to you!
“Bonjovi represented the hair bands, which myself, as a musician of the same age back then, was completely against, and I was certainly not alone. ”
LOLOLOL how full of yourself you are. If you BOTHERED to listen to and follow Bon Jovi you’d know that a term like ‘hair band’ means NOTHING. Just like the term ‘grunge’ didnt either. Dont write about things you know nothing about. You being a musician doesn’t mean you know every bit of music or its value to people. It just means you were an easily influenced musician who sees things in black and white.
You are obviously a fan, sorry, meant no disrespect to you. I like all kinds of music, regardless of genre an I would not call myself the best musician or claim to know everything about music – quite the opposite. However, I did teach music/drum/percussion theory in my early twenties, played every NYC/NJ club in several genres, so i have some experience.
I actually met him way back when, He was a nice, down-to-earth guy, and he was very forthcoming about his ambitions, he was a serious businessman and bandleader. He was honest about capitalizing on the image of music back then (the way they looked) as part of the package, and obviously, he was successful, and being a good businessman, adapted as the music landscape changed over the years. I respect him for that and all he has done to “give back” to NJ and the communities instead of squandering or holding on to all his wealth. That’s a good man in my book.
Now, his statement, the topic of this discussion, is ridiculous and also, as I stated, a slap in the face of young, struggling musicians, maybe even people who want to be like him.
In the “big picture” or when referencing the legends of our time, Led Zep, Jimi Hendrix, Stevey Ray V, Bowie and etc. come to mind in the music realm, not BonJovi.
As far as humans who have changed the world, Steve Jobs come to mind immediately, and will be for many years to come.
I really miss the time when I would but an album of 12-14 song and find I only ever listen to 3-5
Who is Jon Bon Jovi? Was he a member of that Beatles band thing that Apple was advertising a while ago?
There are still live concerts to enjoy… Plus: i’m an old man too, but i never “hold the jacket” to listen to music. Closing eyes: yes! Of course! But not “holding jackets”…
Having experienced the scenario JBJ describes, I have to agree it was magical. However, it was also unstable. The record companies ruined that experience long before Apple started the iTunes eco-system.
As I’ve been blethering all over the net today:
Apart from the rampant technology ignorance that is part of Bon Jovi’s rant, it is the music industry itself that is to blame for their own decay. If you abuse your customers and treat them by default as criminals, expect nothing back from them but equal disrespect. Nothing has promoted the piracy of media as much as DRM (digital rights management), the blatant attempt to destroy Internet ‘radio’, inflated pricing and vicious lawsuits against minor music downloaders by the media industry. Meanwhile, the music industry has treated their artists as factory units, providing them with as little payment for their work as possible. Abuse only incites reciprocal abuse. The media industry started the abuse. They can end the abuse by treating the customers and artists as what they are: The bosses. Customers and artists enable the entire industry, not the mean spirited executives, not brain addled artists who cannot comprehend the legitimate music download business, not the overall corporate oligarchy. The industry reaps what it sows, a very old behavioral system that flies over the heads of these parasites.
Sounds to me like a multi-millionairre is upset because he is continuing to make millions instead multi-millions to gas up his helicopter.
In the old days buying albums is a rip-off. It is no joke that one was forced to buy the same song numerous times found on different albums or compilations because that was how the music companies gorged on the consumer. Now with iTunes we only buy songs that we want and not forced to accept rubbish from the music companies.
Jon Bon clearly misses the point. Want to blame someone or some thing? Try the RIAA. Read books like Ripped or Appetite for Self-Destruction.
John – You’re giving Apple a bad name and looking foolish in the process.
I hadn’t been on this site for about a month ever since my MDN app quit working, but I see the attitude heavy douche factor is as high as ever. Well done MDN fans!
Who’s Jon Bon Jovi? Was she married to Woody Guthrie?
Don’t besmirch Woody Guthrie like that…
Jon Bon Jovi should just consider himself lucky that “girls” my age and older still support his anything. And… the only reason there’s a new generation of Bon Jovi listeners is because the aforementioned “girls” generally force their children to listen to and “like” Bon Jovi.
http://taketotask.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/you-give-music-a-bad-name/
I should clarify, thanks to English and its tricky interpretations, that “girls” my age meant girls that are the same age as I am (I’m a guy). 😛
yeah what do those silly erratic females know about music.. Said in the same thread as a bunch of idiots criticizing someone for sounding ‘old fashioned’.
Hello again, G.J. Nice to see you out here instead of just yelling at me on my blog.
You can argue with demographics all you want, but the term exists for a reason. Bon Jovi’s current demographics are women, generally 35+. This is accurate because of his type of music as well as it being the age of the females who grew up listening to Bon Jovi.
As for my comment on “forcing” their children to listen, I SEE it regularly. A good friend of mine still loves her Bon Jovi and, while she doesn’t force him to listen in the literal sense, she drives the point home that “Bon Jovi” is good. Except…. if you’re a 13 year-old boy and you go to school telling your friends that “Bon Jovi” is good, it’s likely to wreak havoc. 😛
And he caused the earthquake in Japan.
Album rock was once cool. Bands would create entire album sides that would flow beautifully. Some still do. Once we got used to buying albums, cynical music factories would crank out albums with one or two desirable songs, bundling a load of crap along with it.
I’m looking at you, Bonster.
Come to think of it, I’m also looking at you, Comcast.
As someone older even than Mr Jovi, I find it sad seeing older guys the passing of their age. What they really mean to say is “It was better then, because I was younger, and I mattered more.”
Whatever, Bon.
Take solace in the fact that even the most smug hipster d-bags of today will become as thoroughly retrograde as you are now, faster than they could ever believe possible. (They might not try to keep their hair-do’s, but all those aging tattoos will be problematic.)
Mr Jobs, when you’re feeling better, could you please do the same to the cable companies that you did to the recording industry?
Thanks so much.
I meant to say “seeing older guys LAMENT the passing of their age”
Sort of the way I lament my inability to type correctly.
I love the way MDN edits all posts now so nothing negative appears in the comments.
Apple has SAVED the music business, at least as far as us small acts are concerned. How else will we be able to reach as many people as an artist like Bon Jovi without having a huge corporation behind us? Now us nobodies can sell our art as well.
Thanks to your hero with his Anally-Inflicted-Death-Sentence get all the music I want for free to play on my shiny ipod.
No kid I know actually pays for music anymore.
No, Mr. B.J., the lack of musicians and greedy industry execs has killed the music industry. When Justin Bieber is one of the hottest acts around, there is a serious disconnect on real talent.
Jon Bon an idiot. Since itune I purchase more music both singles and full albums then I every did. I fine itune very positive in a lot ways less packing which I hate paying for and getting. The immediacy of hearing a song you like and buying it. I live in a small town with no really record store and would have to almost travel two hours to fine some really hard to get albums. ITunes is far from perfect, there are still certain artist missing and the quality could be much better, but at least I am buy my music more than ever.
Whatever. Thanks to a musical movement outta Seattle we were spared having to listen to more of his schlock-rock-pop.
Bon-Jon-Bovi your @$$ outta here and go manage one of your faux sports investments.
I have to say I find myself agreeing with some of the nostalgia Jon Bon Jovi speaks of. First though, yes of course it is amazing to be able to have my entire music collection in one small device and I do not have to tote a 300 disc case into and out of my car every day (I did in the late 90s).
That said, back in the late 90s when I had just 300 CD’s, I had pretty much every one of them memorized. Now I’ll hear a song by a band I like, and be like, what album is that on?
And yes, I felt the same way Jon did in the record store, using actual cash money saved up to by that next CD, and yes it was a bit of a crap shoot perhaps, but I actually LIKED that element of it.
Anyway, that time is long past. I do not see anything wrong with being nostalgic for it though, while at the same time appreciating the conveniences of the digital revolution.
I too am an “old man” Jon but you’re wrong, my friend. Steve Jobs didn’t kill the music business. PS–you’re too old to still be so vain. Take a chill pill and loosen up!
he’s right
music isn’t “cool” anymore which is sad
you can load 1000s of songs on an iPad and just click click click and never even hear a whole song let alone an entire album the way the artist intended
“rock n’ roll” means nothing really nowadays
But – it was NOT Steve Jobs that changed things. It was 4 OTHER things actually:
1. CDs – allow you to quickly skip songs and program track listings – bad for album sales and listening
2. Blank CDs – people could make perfect digital copies of music – forget the jackets and all – music becomes worthless and free for anyone – ask a college kid from the 1990s
3. MP3 – not created by Apple or Steve Jobs – a file format to save decent quality music in decent size files – bye bye CDs
4. Napster and the like – rampant copying of music, worthless music got even cheaper, free becomes less than free, all for the price of an internet connection
Steve Jobs and Apple have only made the best MP3 players in the world, they did not create MP3 players or the MP3 format. At least iTunes gets some money back to the musicians unlike Napster, etc.
Well said!
Never one to shy away from biting the hand that feeds her, Joni Mitchell is famous for rebelling against the biz, for artistic reasons.
“…as the radio blared so bland
Every disc, a poker chip
Every song just a one night stand
Formula music, girly guile
Genuine junkfood for juveniles
Up and down the dial
Mercenary style.”
Bon Jovi, personally responsible for killing the publics view on rockstars with that statement. The only magical experience going on back then was bon jovi’s bank account collecting people’s hard earned money while the music industry charged $15 – $20 for 15 songs when 2 were any good. If anything steve jobs saved us normal folk alot a wasted cash.
If people didn’t want to buy this way iTunes would have flopped before it started. The people have spoken.
I’d like to remind Jon of the lyrics of one of his own (most popular) tunes: