When the World Gets In My Face

So on one hand, I'm happy for people that can go out and make a lot of money doing what they love. Sports ( a topic which occupies way too much space in my blog ) is a prime example of this. Are athletes overpaid? In many regards, yes. But it's market value. Someone ( an owner ) has to be willing to pay them, so if the athlete can get the money, then I say more power to 'em. I love this country that has an economic system set up where people can make millions of dollars a year for playing a game.

But then there's music. I know for every commercial pop 'artist', for every manufactured flash in the pan 'artist', there are thousands of musicians waiting for their break. So again, if you have the market demand for it, then by all means, go get your piece of the pie.

So I guess I can't say I'm shocked that Bon Jovi has gone and made a few more songs. It's not like he needs the money, so I'd like to think that he's still putting out songs because that's what he loves to do. But Jon... it's not 1987 any more. Here's an excerpt of some of his lyrics from "Have a Nice Day":

"Ohhh, if there's one thing I hang onto,
It gets me through the night.
I ain't gonna do what I don't want to,
Im gonna live my life.
Shining like a diamond, rolling with the dice,
Standing on the ledge, show the wind how to fly.
When the world gets in my face,
I say, Have A Nice Day.
Have A Nice Day."

Twenty plus years of rockin', and that's what he's got left in the tank? "Shining like a diamond"? "Rolling with the dice"? You're going to teach the wind how to fly Jon? You're going to tell the world to "Have a nice day"?

Hard, edgy rocking stuff there Jon. It must be tough to keep the 'badass' image of yours up during your old age.

But people will buy the record, no matter how crappy it is. It has the name on it, and the people that still consider him to be an all-time great musician will buy the album. And Jon will get his money. He'll get alot of money. He'll get more from the people that buy the album when they buy tickets to see him in concert. So like I said above, good for him. But when I heard a portion of the song on the radio, it kinda made me cringe inside a little. Why this guy? What kind of pre-birth lottery did he win by being born as Bon Jovi? How nice is that, when you can produce basically the same album every few years, and make TONS of money for it?

So I find myself kinda conflicted. On the one hand, like I said earlier, if you can do something and become successful, go for it. But I also can't stand musicians that don't ever grow, or try new things. Music is an art in my mind, and making cookie-cutter songs, and doing the same thing over and over and over doesn't count for me.

A favorite band of mine, Pearl Jam, has changed over the years to the point where I don't like alot of the stuff they make any more. But that's okay. I like that they tried something different, even if I don't care for the music.

As for Bon Jovi, at least we'll always have "Slippery When Wet". But in the late 80's when everyone was rocking out to that, I never thought we'd be hearing it recycled and repackaged in the year 2005.