It was probably very similar but music was so divided back then (IMO - In A Good Way)... You are looking at this One Dimensionally / Black and White... Today music seems more divided by era but back then it was divided by type...

There really aren't any mainstream rock stations anymore devoted strictly to rock but in '97 there were actually 2 or 3 of them... There were also other stations devoted to pop acts or the main stream acts like Madonna, Spice Girls, Hanson, Salt & Pepper, etc... (and it's been like that since the 80's - or maybe even longer)... Midnight In Chelsea did get some airplay on those mainstream stations but it really didn't have a target audience. Those rock stations wouldn't even dare to play it and Bon Jovi weren't the acts they are today... Today, they are legends that earned respect through longevity. In '97, they were just 80's rock stars trying to stay afloat in a dominant rock world.

You are making it seem like the grunge bands were out and poof, 80's bands are back... Grunge might not have been the dominant genre of music but it was still around and there were other harder rock acts making their marks like Alanis Morissette, Creed, Smash Mouth, Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind, Sublime, 311, Everclear, Live (which was one of my favorites for a long time), etc... I don't know what you categorize them as but like I stated from inception, Jon's Sha LaLa's just weren't what people wanted to hear in that rock world...

Now songs like Bed Of Roses and Always did give the band an edge over some of the other 80's bands like Poison but it still wan't enough to warrant instant success for a JBJ Solo album... Music took another 3 years to change and find a Bon Jovi niche which it obviously did with IML...