ARTIST

Bon Jovi

The year: 1986. The band: Bon Jovi. Like a cowboy, Jon Bon Jovi rode in on a steel horse to sell over 9 million records and set the standard in the questionable art of the power ballad. Only this cowboy was a New Jersey boy named John Bongiovi, and the record--Slippery When Wet--was the first album in rock history to be market-tested on teenaged Jersey heshers. Bon Jovi was a group truly of its moment, hitting its creative peak precisely as the pop planets aligned to produce the perfect opening for a lite-metal powerhouse to seize the nation's attention. Van Halen had created the formula and the demand, but self-destructed in 1985. Bon Jovi took not only the idea for Van Halen's name, but also the brass ring that a Halen without Diamond Dave could never...
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