Bon Jovi vs. Van Halen

This.

Van Halen was at one time my favorite band. Humorous though that people are pegging them as an 80s band. I guess it shows how ignorant some are on music history. Their debut album (and some would say their best) came out in 1978 and was a mammoth success. They were firmly established in the late 70s. Also two of the four albums with Hagar came out in the 90s and both of them had a number of hits, so...

 

Bon Jovi blows ass, and Van Halen is cheesy and overrated.

 

Van Halen, hands down. I kind of put them in the same category as KISS. Not the greatest band in the world, but they put out decent, fun rock music.

Even during my teenage hair band days, the two bands I could never get into were Bon Jovi and Poison.

 

Tim, do be kind. Remember that many JCers were not sired until the start of the grunge era, so history is a little fuzzy for their ilk.

 

I was being kind. I was giving a short history lesson.

 

Van Halen actually had alot of artistic credibility early on.

Eddie has alot in common with Hendrix. Both were very revolutionary guitar players who basically redefined rock guitar for an entire generation and more. Great rhythm players, and a good lead players as well.

Here's where they split:

Hendrix influenced some phenomenal guitarists, and even the mediocre Hendrix clones are still good.

Eddie, on the other hand, spawned a generation of hair-sprayed, finger-tapping morons with a few bright spots in-between.

But in any case, the real question should be:

Bon Jovi vs. Poison

Who is worse?

 

Exaxctly- I'm still offended by the premise of this thread, you can't lump VH (despite not being that great) in with BJ for a comparison. BJ needs to stay with the Poison's of the world.

 

BJ lol

 

lol

 

Eddie was a revolutionary guitar player. When they first started out playing gigs, he would turn his back to the audience b/c he didn't want anyone to steal his tapping technique.

 

For sure, Van Halen is not a "hair band" at all. They had real talent and as I said above went long before and after the hair band trend.

That said, I am on the cusp between 80s and 90s music, so I grew up with a lot of the 80s rock. I like Poison, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi...

 

He was also an arrogant ******.

Strilo edit: That word is not allowed that way.

 

Who vs. who?

 

Wrong thread, Suzuki. The Who isn't being discussed here.

 

Oops. My fault.

 

I feel embarrassed for the creator of this thread.

 

A number of hits not make one great!

Under Hagar's reign, Van Halen--in my opinion--went the Eric Clapton route by sugarcoating a lot of their songs so that they would appeal to a mass amount of people. Pop radio friendly. Gone is the impressive talent exemplified on songs like "Eruption" or the fun showcased songs like "Hot For Teacher" on the Hagar/Other Guy albums. Ah, well. They made their hits and they made their money so I'm sure they can't be complaining.

 

Both great bands. But in my opinion, Van Halen is in a league all their own, blasting Bon Jovi right out of the water. Bon Jovi can't even touch the sheer number of classics generated by Van Halen under the David Lee Roth era.

 

LOL.

Slimy!

 

I once saw an interview from the '80s where Eddie Van Halen talked about how big an Eric Clapton fan he is; and his girlfriend/wife/random woman sitting next to him was making fun of him for how starstruck he acted when he met Clapton. So he's alright in my book.




EDIT: Then again, I recall Richie Sambora being a huge Clapton fan too. Oh, well.

 

I was too young back then to really understand them, but I remember my sister and her friends always listening to the Bon Jovi albums, notice I said albums, not cds. This was during the mid 80's.

I remember thinking David Lee Roth looked weird with that long hair, hey I was like 5 or 6 back then. I do remember the Jump video.

I remember the beat it video with Eddie Van Halen on guitar.

 

Eddie is an amazing guitarist

 

If you took a poll of all professional rock musicians about who the top 10 guitarists are of all time, Eddie Van Halen would be in just about everyone's top 5 or 10.

 

Eddie used to slow down Clapton's solos using a variable-speed tape machine so he could learn them.