#44 - Wild in the Streets

Artist: Bon Jovi
Album: Slippery When Wet
Other Versions: None
Era: Late 80s "hair metal"

Lyrics

Now here's some good old-fashioned cheesy happy overblown fun.

You can't sit still listening to this one. The music is just so danceable. The drumming is fast and energetic and the guitar just runs right along with it. And the synth pads just give the whole thing this happy cheery devil-may-care feel that goes so well with the lyrics.

These lyrics are so Bon Jovi. Personal and humanistic and optimistic and just good. Stories about realistic people, realistic situations, but more so it's still the escape from reality that lots of people crave from music. You know exactly who he's singing about - Hell, I grew up in suburban Vermont in the late 90s and early 00s, and I was the "good" kid who was generally well-behaved and I know all this crap they're singing about in this one. Universal appeal, Bon Jovi style.

"Wild"'s chorus is unfailingly triumphant. What a song to throw your fist in the air and shout along to!

Music doesn't need to make any kind of social commentary, doesn't need to carry the weight of a generation on its shoulders. Sometimes it's totally cool to be a happy fun song about good times and friends and hanging out. This song just conjures up this image for me of a bunch of teenagers with drinks they're not supposed to be drinking and cars they're driving too fast with too many passengers and radios turned up too loud who are the happiest they've ever been in their whole lives. It's just happy. There's the trick to saving the world through music - just make people feel good.

My Rating: 7/10

Edit: Yes, Anonymous, I was talking about Wild in the Streets. This is what I get for updating when I'm full of cold medicine. Thanks for pointing that out, because it would have been a while before I noticed it on my own. Have some e-points, or an e-cookie. :)

Edited 3/25/06: Added lyrics