Bon Jovi
photo: slgckgc · cc by 2.0 ↗Bon Jovi formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey, built around frontman Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi Jr.) and guitarist Richie Sambora, whose talkbox leads and harmony vocals became half the band's signature. Their third album, 'Slippery When Wet' (1986), turned them into one of the defining arena-rock acts of the era on the strength of fist-in-the-air anthems like 'Livin' on a Prayer' and 'You Give Love a Bad Name,' pairing glam-metal polish with blue-collar, everyman storytelling. Long after the '80s hair-metal wave receded, the band sustained a stadium career and reinvented itself for a new decade with the 2000 hit 'It's My Life.'
A fellow New Jersey act, Jon Bon Jovi has spoken about growing up on Springsteen's Jersey Shore scene and cited him as a hometown influence; the band's fondness for named, working-class characters chasing a way out of a dead-end town echoes the blue-collar storytelling Springsteen built his early anthems around.
listen forPlay Springsteen's 'Born to Run' and then 'Livin' on a Prayer' — both take a young couple pinned down by hard-luck jobs and money trouble and lift them into a widescreen, fist-in-the-air chorus about holding on and breaking free.
Aerosmith turns up in accounts of Bon Jovi's influences, and you can hear it in the band's rowdier singles — the bluesy, strutting hard-rock groove and cocksure vocal delivery that Aerosmith made their signature in the '70s.
listen forCue Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' next to 'Bad Medicine' — both ride a syncopated, blues-rock riff and a leering, party-rock swagger, with the vocal biting into the beat rather than sitting on top of it.
Less a documented namecheck than a clear sonic kinship: Bon Jovi's hardest-hitting singles are built on the lean, hard-charging riff-rock and shout-along gang-vocal hooks that AC/DC turned into a stadium blueprint across the late '70s and early '80s.
listen forSet AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long' against 'You Give Love a Bad Name' — listen for the same pouncing, stop-start guitar riff kicking off the song and the big, chanted gang vocal on the chorus hook.