Bon Jovi still a hit and a new musical find

When I was in high school and college, one of my favorite bands was Bon Jovi. Yes, it was the hair band era. The first song I ever heard my hubby play (before we even started dating) was Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive.” After I was married, the hubby and I went to see Bon Jovi in concert at a local outdoor venue. It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. And while most of the bands I liked back in the mid to late ’80s haven’t aged all that well (either physically or musically), may only show up in venues a tiny fraction of the size of the stadiums they used to fill, and haven’t had a hit since Ronald Reagan was president, Bon Jovi has been creatively and business savvy and changed with the times. And it’s paid off as they now have the No. 1 album in the country, Lost Highway, their first No. 1 album since 1988′s New Jersey. (Hubby says they have the No. 1 album because people our age don’t know how to download the songs, and if it’s not round we don’t know how to play it. LOL! Speak for yourself, says I, the proud owner of an iPod.)

I’m sure there’s someone out there who thinks they’ve sold out, but I disagree. I believe artists of all kinds can stretch themselves creatively in new directions to find new audiences and keep their work interesting both to fans and themselves. The option is staying in a rut and fading into oblivion. That’s not to say that you abandon everything your fans enjoy. Even with their new music, Bon Jovi is still Bon Jovi. It’s the same with a writer’s “voice”. It doesn’t matter if she’s writing historicals, contemporaries or paranormals, her voice is still there for readers to enjoy.

Now, shifting gears, I discovered another new-to-me band. DeVotchKa is an indie band from Denver, and I really like their unique mixture of musical styles — a little rock, a little folk, a little Eastern European, and some mariachi thrown in. This is another band I discovered because one of their songs, “How it Ends”, was used on a fan video for Smallville.

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