CSPC: Bon Jovi Popularity Analysis

https://flic.kr/p/8psRVF

Original Album Sales – Comments

1984 Bon Jovi – 3,600,000
1985 7800° Fahrenheit – 3,600,000
1986 Slippery When Wet – 23,600,000
1988 New Jersey – 13,900,000
1990 Blaze of Glory – 4,900,000
1992 Keep the Faith – 8,600,000
1995 These Days – 7,600,000
1997 Destination Anywhere – 2,900,000
2000 Crush – 8,100,000
2002 Bounce – 2,900,000
2005 Have a Nice Day – 3,600,000
2007 Lost Highway – 3,100,000
2009 The Circle – 1,750,000
2013 What About Now – 900,000
2016 This House Is Not for Sale – 400,000

At 88,55 million, total studio album sales of Bon Jovi are very healthy. Obviously, just like U2 or Madonna, they got lucky to get their hey-days during the best years of the music industry, also constantly getting heavy promotion giving their strong appeal.

If we check breakdowns of all albums we start understanding why the band belongs more to entertainers category than singer-songwriters, more to pop stars than classic rock bands. Although this latter group of artists accumulated significant sales in Japan for example thanks to decades of catalog appeal, they never got truly massive. Bon Jovi did the same as ABBA or Michael Jackson there, getting incredibly big at some point, even selling at retail an unreal 379,000 units of These Days in its first week there, an all-time record up to that point. That album shows an impressive 7,6 million sales worldwide despite a mere 1 million units moved in the US.

Their blockbuster album clearly remains Slippery When Wet though. Up to 23,6 million units sold, it was on 13 million by the end of 1988 with 9 million of them coming from the US alone. During the 90s, as they penetrated strongly more and more markets they lost a large chunk of their popularity in their native market.

A small clarification, figure of This House Is Not for Sale is an estimation of its to date shipment. As it just came out, the gap between sales and shipment is still relevant, but it will be fulfilled in a matter of weeks.