I know a lot of people(mostly men) consider Bon Jovi as a band for women, ballads, etc, not my thing…right? Well, at one moment I came across Richie Sambora’s solo albums, and that, my friends, turned me into a a fan!

I don’t know if you have listened “Hard times come easy”. If you haven’t, I suggest you do. I have both his albums at home and I love to listen them with the light off at night. I realized that I don’t know other band to relax me the way his music does.

I guess the reason for this is the beautiful mix between the voice and the guitar, because, you know, on his solo albums, Richie Sambora plays “another” guitar.

He is closer to his blues roots and honestly I have been surprised by what he plays there. I know Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi’s albums, I am used to his playing, but the guitar on his solo album is an other thing…The guitar on his solo albums, is bluesy, he seems calm and relaxed, feeling that he succeeds to transmit to the audience. I guess it also comes from the fact that he doesn’t need to play and sing for a living anymore, right?

I have also listened Jon Bon Jovi’s solo albums, but they didn’t get through. Richie’s albums yes! I have Hard times come easy on a CD in my car and I listen it when in the mood.

Try it for yourself here and share your opinion on this.

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Yesterday I started to pay more attention and study the song Living on a prayer of Bon Jovi since I discussed with Costi about playing it. The song is one of those that put a mark on my rock life, it is an icon of the music of the 80′s, nobody could deny this. The whole song is sustained by the bass line and by the voice of Jon plus the “uha,uha, uhuhuha” effects of Richie Sambora’s talk box. That’s what gives life to that song. And the good melodic line and the expansive way of being of the young Bon Jovi.

Then I have listened more Bon Jovi songs on YouTube and I couldn’t miss the very big difference between what Bon Jovi used to play and what they play now. I don’t know, I love them with both of their musical directions, however some won’t consider what Bon Jovi plays now as rock. Maybe pop or pop-rock the most, but not rock.

So, I was thinking, is this selling out? Or is just adapting yourself to what the market asks. If you would remain to that initial sound of energetic songs, will you still be here in the music business?

The music changes day by day and if you make a living out of playing music, then you need to adapt yourself, even that most of the fans will consider you are not the same you used to be when you started.

I actually think it is something else…

The mot active period of a music fan is the one between 14 and 20(something). From this period we retain the most from music: taste, bands, songs. This is the period that define our musical personality.

Of course, later in our lives we refine our musical taste, we find new things, we become more complex, but nobody can deny the fact that the most important period from the point of view of forming a musical taste is this one.

On the other hand, the bands that we like need to follow trends in order to match the musical preferences of the ever-changing teens that find something new as being cool every few years, so the music they listen will be changed every few years. Bands can not stay “true” to the music they used to play 20 years ago in order to be loved by their 20 years ago fans because 20 years ago fans are now grown people with kids, jobs, responsibilities and tend to give less and less importance to music and of course, spend less and less money on it.

That is why I think that no band should be accused of selling when adapting to follow trends. They follow music evolution, adapting to new waves of teens hungry for love and music, the ones who can not change is us, fans of music played long ago in our teen life.

So I think this is not selling out. It’s evolution and it’s us who don’t follow it.

What do you think?

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“I could say that this post is not about guitars since what I am going to write further is more about blogging than about playing the guitar”

This is how I intended to start this post, but after a few seconds I realized that I would be wrong in more ways than one. This post IS about blogging AS MUCH AS IS about playing the guitar and being part of a band. And I will tell you why.

As you probably know, I have started a dare with myself a few days ago, to reach 5000 unique visitors per day in the next 6 months on this blog. Due to that dare, I have started to think what would make me reach my target. I have plenty of ideas,to be honest, I only wish to have the time to put this in practice since this blog is not the only thing I do, as you probably imagine. So, beside social networking, which may be a double edge knife, crushing your server and leaving no real value behind, I asked myself what would make a blog stand out of the crowd?

1) First thing I could think of is to FIND A VOICE

As you probably imagine, it is not THAT voice everybody thinks he/she possess when singing in the bathroom. No. It is about the voice you blog with. Such a voice gives you personality, is part of your branding process, makes your readers know you better and builds a place for you in your reader’s consciousness.

You may be the angry guy over the music store, picking on every band ever appeared. Of course, you hate Metallica, you don’t like Clapton, Bon Jovi is a sissy, while the last album of Sting sucks! (Sorry, man, I really don’t think so!)

Or you may be the tech guy, giving information about everything, you may be the reviewer that just uses a colder and objective position when reviewing.

Some speak using the third person (a bit strange, IMO, but it works) some plural form of the first person. It is nothing but a way of finding your own voice in this already crowded blogging world.

2) Find your OWN POSITION

Or niche, or point of view, that specific something that identify you, just don’t follow masses. It may be cool to speak about something popular, but if everybody speaks about it you will be just a drop in an ocean. Not easy to get noticed, right? Instead, find your position, find that special something that you can give to the public and give it in the best possible way. You may want to speak about how to buy an electric guitar and offer tips to support this.

Or maybe you review electric guitars. Good one! A stronger one? Review very expensive, rare guitars. That’s even better!

Now think about it. It may be cool to play metal the way Skid Row used to do it. It may be cool to jam with your friends over some Megadeth songs. Rock on! But don’t ever try to make it big this way cause you won’t! They made it big, the song is already played! Instead, find that special something that identify you as a band and stick to it.

Did you see Bon Jovi play about politics? Well, I haven’t, if he did, I don’t know about it. He sings about loooove!!! Remember? Never say goodbye, never say godbyeyeyeeee!! Do you like Gamma Ray?! Politics! Politics and…social politics. Whatever that means! Manowar?! Brothers of true metal!! Hail, hail, hail and kill! We are not afraid to die!! (I am a big fan of Manowar, but, man, if I am going to hear this one more time I am going to hail, hail, hail and kill!!!) By the way, did you know that Joey DeMaio, the bass player and main man of Manowar worked as a pyro-tech for Black Sabbath during their “Heaven and Hell” tour? He liked that music, but do you see him playing it? No, he found his own place!

All these bands stick to their theme and rolls it over and over again because this is what keeps their audience in place. Do it when blogging and you will see the results!

3) Branding!!

Now, that’s a bit more complex. I am not marketing educated, I am engineer (yep!) by education, programmer by profession and web developer/marketer only by hobby, but if I know something about blogging is to brand yourself!

Remember? Brand yourself! Make your blog and your name a brand. And here I would count a good domain name, well designed, unique logo, a motto! (You find it, I wasn’t yet able to find one for myself!), colors that are consistent through all your site, THAT VOICE I was speaking about early, your blog theme, a CUSTOM SKIN! Yes, that is a must. Don’t try to impose yourself on the market with that default skin cause you won’t make it too far! Instead have a custom blog skin that make a big impression on your readers!

You know, it is like with women! I know she is smart, but God, couldn’t you make it a bit more beautiful to make me come closer and see how smart she really is?!! That’s true with blogging too. A custom skin will make your visitors pay more attention to your blog and get to read what you actually have to say.

Of course, this goes the same way with a band. Branding for a band includes a custom logo (I don’t know about the motto), theme of the music and lyrics, the image the band imposes to the public (think KISS, think ACDC, think Manowar), a particular way of behaving on the stage, this is also part of the brand, the sound, the musical style, etc. Think about it!

4) Start a BUZZ

That is something that goes a bit further, it is something that we all desire but not everybody succeeds in doing this. In order for your blog to make it big, you need to start a buzz, to make some waves, to have people notice you. It is in close relationship with No 1. If you go with the wind, you won’t be noticed. Instead, also as part of your voice, you may just be the NO guy! If everybody speaks in a good way about a trend, YOU start screaming and buzzing and making a big fuss about it. Somebody big will finally notice you and argue with you, probably he will point to you, others will join to kick your ass and all of a sudden you are somebody in this crowded world.

You are that particular SOMEBODY that EVERYBODY would like to beat up! But you’ve got noticed!

If you don’t believe me, think of actors that built a whole career from being the bad ass everybody hates. Think soap opera. Well, of course, I know YOU don’t watch it, you probably are the dominant male around, ok, I see, but your girlfriends, mothers, wives watch them so there is a big chance YOU know what I am speaking about. I know I do…

5) Create SOCIAL PROOF

This is like when you get in touch with famous bloggers and they start speaking about you. If they speak about you, you must be good, right? Even if you bought a review on some famous site or on some famous blog.

How is this similar with being in a band? Well, very easy! Didn’t you ask why unknown bands get together to play with big bands on the same show? How do they come to the same TV shows? Exposure in well known places, in the company of a famous somebody! You must be also somebody! I will buy your CD!!!

6) Build an audience

Well, this is one of the most important things to do and I let it as a last resort! Build an audience! When blogging, you use RSS, email, fan base. When playing, your fans are the most important assets of yours. That is why I hate bands not treating fans right. They are there because WE put them there. THEY live as a band because of US! Damn, I got a bit too passionate about it, I think! Whatever!

That is about all for the moment. It is very late in the night and I think I need some sleep, this was a long post and I find it already difficult to focus.

Also, please keep in mind I am aware of everything I have written here. However, if you will see that I missed implementing some of these things on my blog, well, remember that you should do what the preacher says, not what the preacher does…Or how you put it in English…

Now, Stumble that!

This article has got a quite big push on StumbleUpon (thanks, guys!!), so if you are here, why don’t you also give it a push on Digg?

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I was thinking about how many of us would be really able to grow old in this music business? You see these guys on stage, 55 years old and you say, man, these guys are great, what a life they had! And probably you are right, not many get to see what they have seen during their long rock and roll life. Booze parties, drugs, sex and a lot of money spent without one regret on their reckless life.
The sex, drugs and rock and roll model was maybe fit for the 70′s but if you look back, just count how many died along the way. I have seen somewhere some numbers, saying that the probability of a rock star to dye before his time is 3 times higher than for a regular person due to drug abuse. It gave me something to think about at that moment…

Did you think about great bands, like Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Metallica, etc. Ask yourself if they still throw parties like they used to do long time ago. You will say that they are not that young anymore now and maybe you are right, that may be the reason. But I am sure it is something else: they took music seriously, they took it as a business. They are business people behind their rock and roll glamor. They all had their share of drugs and alcohol and reckless life, but now they look at the music business in a serious way. They know that in order to resist and beat time, they need to keep a steady pace, without the abuses they were used to while very young.

This is the model and the model is there, in front of our eyes, but how many would be able to follow it and take what’s best of it?

What do you think,am I right or not?

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