Ive never liked Midnight In Chelsea, Staring at your window, Naked and Little City.
Dont particularly like the sha laa laa laas in QoNO either

Sad song night and Talk to Jesus were good but my fav is august 7 and Its Just Me.

At a time when Soundgarden and STP were tearing it up, here comes Jon with his Sha LaLa's... it was a little tough to be a Bon Jovi fan but looking back now on it, i get where he was going... Just bad timing for America.

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Was grunge at it's height in 1997, 1998? I remember Midnight in Chelsea on the Muchmusic countdown and it was a lot of britpop and Hanson alongside it.

I personally love the album, but I could see how it would bore a lot of people. It's artistic as hell but so far removed from the Bon Jovi world.

At it's height? No! Still mainstream radio and the go to choice for Rockers? Absolutely! If you go to a bar or pub, that's what they are playing... If you see a cover band, that's what they were covering... Most grunge bands were going on their 3rd albums at this point so they were practically legends.

Go back and look at all the albums that came prior to DA, in '96 / '97 (Albums released in '96 were still pumping out singles in '97) - This was a time when Emo was just starting to cross over too...

- Load/ReLoad - Metallica
- Down on the Upside - Soundgarden
- Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - STP
- Endless List

BTY, MMMBop was one of those flukes... They were just one of those Justin Bieber acts of today.

Hanson was the one hit wonder of the day and the major trend in my recollection was "angry women." Alanis Morrisette had started the trend and was followed by Shawn Colvin, Merdith Brooks, Paula Cole, Natalie Imbruglia, goodness.... I can't remember all their names because most of them were in the few-hit wonder category. There were a LOT of women on pop radio/VH-1 in 1997.

Interesting! It must have been different here in Canada. We had a ton of pop on the charts, Spice Girls especially. The rock scene wasn't charting too well at that time here.

For me personally, DA is one of those albums where every time I listen to it, I notice something different. Every song is likable in one way or another, and the album art, production, and themes are all very consistent and interrelated. The feels very connected with the real world, and yet remains relatively 'arty'. Ugly, Every Word Was A Piece Of My Heart, Queen of New Orleans, Learning How to Fall, It's Just Me, Little City - they're all greats songs in my opinion and speak to the listener in quite an intimate and real way.

I love this album, though I do prefer the Jovi records of that decade. The live performances I've seen on YT from this era are phenomenal and very unique - they have a distinct identity. Unreleased songs were being thrown around, plenty of album tracks, high energy from Jon, and solid vocals. I only which I was around to experience it first-hand!

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...

That's close enough to what I was saying. My world of music consumption was what my friends were listening to in school, the Muchmusic countdown, and the radio. Those markets were catering towards a newer rock sound (Foo Fighters, Our Lady Peace etc). I think we agree with each other. Jon's sound fit in really nicely with the Britrock/pop sound, an era that was just about ending when D.A came out.

That's what Jon was going for, admittedly... These Days catapulted the band internationally and not only was Jon trying to ponder to that audience but trying to bring it here. Oasis were really the ones but I guess Jon wanted to be the first American rock band to bring it... I give him Kudos for the attempt and it ended up being a treasure for most diehards but at the end of the day, it failed miserably in the US... Along with that Movie...


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