Jon Bon Jovi Slams Steve Jobs

Ok, time marches on and we can't stop progress but I do know what Jon Bon Jovi is talking about. Those were the days. Your thoughts?

Btw, Jon is still looking good.


TIS



Don't expect to see Jon Bon Jovi rocking out with an iPod — the singer claims digital downloads are destroying the music industry.

"Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business," he says of the Apple co-founder in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine.

The Bon Jovi frontman believes that music fans nowadays are missing out on the fun of actually going into a record store and picking a disc based on album art and just a few previously heard tunes.

“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," he reflects. There was also "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.”

Bon Jovi admits that his views may sound a bit dramatic, but he believes other music lovers will eventually feel equally nostalgic.

“I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am," he says, "and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: 'What happened?'"











http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/jon-bon-jovi-steve-jobs-is-killing-the-music-business/

I'm not really that familiar with his music and what I've heard hasn't impressed me much. At all.

That said, he's both right and wrong. Before the LP became widely available/popular the single was what drove the music business. You were only as good as your last single. Touring was where the money was.

With the rise of the LP and later CD as well as the fantastic increase in numbers and buying power of baby boomers, not to mention cultural attitudes about the primacy of the album, we had a 30-35 year run where albums were king and that was where people found artistry.

However just because a song was on an album or a CD didn't mean it was good. There were a lot of crappy songs on albums -even back in the glory days of the seventies. With the advent of the CD you had people putting 11, 14 or even 16 songs out on one disc. Most musicians simply don't have the talent or creativity or marketing ability to justify that. The ratio of good songs to bad dropped dramatically even as the price increased and sound quality decreased.

This left the industry wide open to downloading and/or people wanting to only pay for the songs they liked.

All that said, there really is no justification for stealing people's music. I don't have an iPod; I don't think digital sounds as good as analog and post 1990 or so most modern CD's are mastered way too loud. But that doesn't mean I should trade in music that hasn't been paid for.

To sum up, today's increasing marginalization of music is really just a return to the marketing schemes of pop music pre-1960 or so. The party is over. Bon Jovi was lucky enough to get in at the tail end. A band starting out today , even if they are talented, attractive and marketable usually can't hope to move units in comparable numbers to what even marginal bands did back in the nineties.

I hear where Jon is coming from. I remember spending hours in record stores. But technology is a wonderful thing. I couldn't have imagined 25 years ago that someday I could go on a computer, and buy almost any album ever released without leaving my house. I also could have never imagined that I'd be carrying almost every album/cd I ever owned on a tiny device in my pocket.

Nice idea, Jon - spend $15 on a CD that has 2 songs you like and 10 you don't. Then spend $15 next month and get another 2 songs you like and in 6 months you actually have 12 songs you like to go with the 60 you don't care for and you are out $90. Or go to itunes and spend $12 and get the 12 songs you like (assuming you actually buy songs legally). The fun of buying an album based on the artwork? Does he buy books because the cover appeals to him?

I agree with progress and I don't think there is any stopping it or going back. And the idea of having the convenience of all your favorite music in one small convenient place is wonderful. I too understand and have experienced in my day buying an album and liking only a few songs.

However, I too remember going to the music store and thumbing thru albums and checking out the covers of my favorite artists. I remember the feeling of listening to the music while holding the album (especially if it is a blockbuster) for instance, like Sgt. Pepper. I remember listening to the music checking out every part of the cover. I suppose we just have to accept it as progress, yet I can't bring myself to get rid of a collection of albums I have EVEN tho I have many on a CD. There's something special about them.

TIS

Just because kids are given freedom to buy individual songs they want, doesn't mean the artform will die off as Mr. Bon Jovi implies. As Lilo mentions, the industry might just revert to being singles-dominant. You'll still have musicians put out albums with "art" in mind.

Of course here is the clutch at Bon Jovi and other people's argument: With there great albums before the mid-1960s, when the "album" became more famous and respected than the songs within it?

Well yes there was.

Besides....what if the kids liked the songs and then decide to buy up the album? Selling some of them sort, no?

The other day I was thinking how hard it was to get your hand on a song, let alone a foreign song and how easy it has become today. And then I wish I was born in this day and age.

Anyway, I would've never heard of Bon Jovi for sure if not for all these.

Thats why bands all tour so much nowadays, charging small fortunes for tickets and merch, that's where the money is for them these days!

I think Jon is just letting nostalgia get the best of him. He's at that age (he turned 49 two weeks ago) where middle-aged longing really sets in.

Personally, I love buying old vinyl albums on eBay for the very same reason, I'm a nostalgic kind of guy. But if they started printing new albums on vinyl again tomorrow, you can bet your ass I'd be screaming for everything from cds to digital downloads.

Times change. Demographics change. Most importantly, technology changes. You have to roll with it, Jon.

The only thing Jon rolls with is his 1983 Walkman.

at the very least I'm thankful for never having the opportunity to pick out a Bon Jovi record without hearing it...what a HACK.

now THE RIVER on vinyl? still a worthwhile purchase in 2011.

Technology has come a loooooooooong way......