Listen, since I don't have time to waste on people who listen to Skid Row (oh how sad), I'll let Piero Scaruffi respond to you once again:
"What makes Bon Jovi's lyrics even more pathetic are the Skid Row of Rachel Bolan, who catapulted to the spotlight in 1989 with adolescent anthems like Big Guns and Sweet Little Sister and street ballads like I Remember You, 18 And Life, and Youth Gone Wild, which speculate on the epic of the new 'lost generation.' In the '80s, after the rebellion of '60s and '70s hard rock, after the trend of 'student riots' (the phenomenon of '68), 'sit-ins', peace marches, and all the leftist folklore in general, a wave of arrests, exiles, and murders quickly obliterated the extremist wing of the Movement.
Thus, music is charged with a very difficult task during this period: to preserve the mood of that uncompromising rebellion. But the disengagement of the '70s lurks, and the heavy metal that grows on the ashes of revolutionary rock ends up being an unhappy parody of its ancestor, once again devoured by consumerist fever: heavy metal simply becomes an alternative to AOR. Masses of young disco-goers get excited listening to the noise that echoed in the burning streets of Detroit. From here, bands like Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Cinderella, and the entire movement that would go under the name 'pop metal' (not by chance) originate. It was these bands that initiated the slow decline of rock, transforming it into a pathetic memory of the past; the last group to revive rock by inventing grunge was precisely Nirvana... after their arrival, rock died. They were the last great band.
The lyrics confirm what I’m telling you; let’s analyze the lyrics (not to mention the video) of 18 and Life, in which they give a pathetic vision of what they think is rebellious youth: I’m attaching the lyrics here, and I recommend you go check out the video on YouTube so you can better understand what I’m trying to tell you.
"Ricky was a young boy, He had a heart of stone.
Lived 9 to 5 and worked his fingers to the bone.
Just barely got out of school, came from the edge of town.
Fought like a switchblade so no one could take him down.
He had no money, oooh no good at home.
He walked the streets a soldier and he fought the world alone
And now it's
18 and life You got it
18 and life you know
Your crime is time and it's
18 and life to go
(repeat above)
Tequila in his heartbeat, His veins burned gasoline.
It kept his motor running but it never kept him clean.
They say he loved adventure, "Ricky's the wild one."
He married trouble and had a courtship with a gun.
Bang Bang Shoot 'em up, The party never ends.
You can't think of dying when the bottle's your best friend
And now it's "