They've Gone Country?

Sure, he's proclaimed to be a cowboy, and he rides a steele horse. But that doesn't necessarily make him country...does it? Apparently, it does.

Bon Jovi has been nominated for a CMT Award for Group Video of the Year for (You Want To) Make A Memory. Knowing that Miley Cyrus was sharing hosting duties with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was enough to make me dry heave, but this nomination made me vomit in my mouth.

Their nomination for Collaborative Video of the Year with LeAnn Rimes for 'Til We Ain't Strangers Anymore makes sense; at least LeAnn Rimes is a country star. However, Make A Memory isn't country. It's not even close. Last time I checked, that tune should have been filed under ballad or adult contemporary. But country? Not a chance. It is beyond me how it was even considered for a country music award.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Bon Jovi is now on Mercury Nashville. Why the shift from Mercury to Mercury Nashville? Is it because they did a collaboration with Sugarland and one with LeAnn Rimes? I'm not sure if that justifies a shift from pop to country because 100% of their music is still pop rock.

I have no beef with country music, except that most of what's out today is crap. But good ol' fashioned, outlaw country is still some of the best music that's ever been made. However, Bon Jovi's music has no place in either realm of country. I just don't think their nomination should have taken the place of some other authentic country group who may have deserved it.

Regardless, Bon Jovi will never be a country band, at least to me. I don't care how many songs he writes for cowboy movies. They're a rock band. They've already made a shift to adult contemporary, so can we please just leave it at that and not give them another stupid genre?