Rockindeano wrote:Saint John wrote:Matthew wrote:The success of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard had nothing to do with any supposed shortcomings of Journey. They were just the new generation of bands coming to prominence. Simple as that.
That's not the point, needle dick. The point is that had Notrildamus not hijacked the band that they could have had
similar sales. He cost the band millions with the decision to take the "rock" out of what
was a rock band. But he
wanted to do that, so I guess he accomplished his mission.
Gotta disagree here Dan. Perry did what was smart and brave; He knew the formula is only good so long and on so many guises. Who is going to buy the same songs with different words and titles over and over? Look at TBF, Arrival and Revelaions- same stuff over and over, and, declining sales. ROR out sold all of them
combined. Also, take away the Pinoy factor for the latest effort(valid point), and you have a continuous decline from
ROR>TBF>Arrival>Revelations.
Part of what SP was doing or trying to do was stay relevant. He knew the same ol same ol was drying up- He wanted to reinvent the band and stay in the forefront. Look at the remaining 80's super bands today; U2, E Street, Madonna...like them or hate them, they all stayed huge, survived Grunge, and still play arenas and stadiums today.
You make a good argument though, but IMO, it's more complicated than what you make it seem.
Everything you've said here validates
my point. Hysteria and Slippery When Wet maintained that old ratio of "rockers" and "ballads" and went
Diamond. ROR
didn't and yielded only 1 Top 20 hit. The decision to move away from what worked was
disastrous (as far as sales goes...the album was still pretty good). What Perry did was chicken shit and spineless. It was what
he wanted to do and not what the band wanted to do (including firing members) or what the fans wanted to hear. The decision to go soft and fire great members was anything but "smart and brave." Get your balls back from the bullhorns, dude.

Here's what Journey
may have been able to do had they stayed a "rock" band. Speculation, but they certainly
had the talent.
Some stats on Hysteria:
Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums (and only the third in rock history) that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: "Women" (#80), "Animal" (#19), "Hysteria" (#10), "Pour Some Sugar on Me" (#2), "Love Bites" (#1), "Armageddon It" (#3), and "Rocket" (#12). It remained on the charts for three years and has sold 18 million copies worldwide.
Slippery When Wet:
Slippery When Wet, recorded in
Vancouver, Canada, (that should give you a stiffy

) is the third studio album by Bon Jovi, released on August 18, 1986. It is the band's most commercially successful album, selling over 12 million copies in the U.S. and has sold over 28 million worldwide. It was named the top selling album of 1987 by Billboard. Today it stands as one of the six best selling hard rock albums ever, and spawned two #1 singles, "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer", making Bon Jovi the first hard rock band to have 2 consecutive #1 hit singles. The third single "Wanted Dead or Alive" was a Top 10 hit, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Slippery When Wet stayed at #1 for 8 weeks, the record for a hard rock album on the Billboard 200.