Blueshadow’s Bon Jovi Blog

When it comes to music, there are both advantages and disadvantages to living in a digital age. On the plus side, we have iTunes with its huge libraries of music, instantly available, and with the growth of hard drives and flash memory, we can have ever larger libraries in ever smaller spaces. On the downside, we have the death of cover art and true liner notes, something that I’ve bemoaned before. And somewhere in the middle, we have the demise of the album. (For some artists, that’s bad. For those inclined to pad their albums with filler, it’s a good thing.)

However, I’ve found that as the size of my music library increases, I start to ‘lose’ things in there. Not in the sense of physically losing anything–the files are there, and a quick search on the computer will bring them up. But I lose things in the sense that I forget about them. I often find myself stuck in a rut, reusing the same playlists until I get tired of them, and then moving on to a new set, usually drawn from deeper, darker corners of my favorite bands’ catalogs.

With Bon Jovi out on tour again, I built new playlists, pulling out the songs that have been getting played at concerts. Of course, some of the songs, like ‘Living In Sin’, I had been listening to more recently. But it was the first time in a long time that I had listened, really listened, to songs like Prayer and Wanted.

Oh, it wasn’t like I’d stopped playing them completely. But I didn’t play them anywhere near as often, and I had a bad habit of skipping them when they came up during a random shuffle. They were old hat, they were what everyone knew about the band, and I was above that. I was a fan, I knew what the good stuff was.

Except I’d forgotten why everyone knew Prayer and Wanted. They are the good stuff, and about a week ago, I rediscovered that. Maybe it was the time away from those songs that allowed me to listen again with fresh ears, maybe it was being excited about the tour, I don’t know.

Either way, it enabled me to feel again that same strange feeling that I had the first time I brought home the CD of Cross Road and listened to it. ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ was one of the first songs that I truly felt spoke to me–something that I rediscovered this week, and something that reminded me of why I became a fan.

This was a question raised to me during a discussion with some friends, and I found it interesting. While I’ve attended my share of concerts in my life, I’d never really been asked to quantify “why” before. The discussion might have moved on, but my thoughts didn’t, and I eventually came up with the following reasons.

1. Because I enjoy the experience.
   Live music has an energy to it that recordings just don’t have. Live performances allow the artist to communicate directly to you. (Well, you and 15,000 other people.) Even so, it’s an entirely different thing from a recording. Live music is exactly that–the performance is a living, dynamic thing that exists only in the moment.
2. Because I enjoy sharing.
   Some of my favorite bands, Bon Jovi included, have depths that are only revealed during live performances. I like taking friends to see artists that they otherwise might not have considered and seeing them understand.
3. Escapism.
   I can go to a concert and forget about everything that bugs me about life for awhile. It’s an escape, a diversion, and a treat to look forward to in everyday life.
4. Because the performer is hot.
   I’m perfectly willing to confess that I fantasize over Jon Bon Jovi and this plays a role in why I like to see the band live.
5. Because I can.
   This was actually the most common reason. If the tickets are cheap, the venue nearby, the artist at least moderately interesting, and I have nothing else to do, I go see stuff. Sometimes it’s a good idea, sometimes not so much.

What about you?