Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive

What this video is

Released in 1987 as the third single from Slippery When Wet — the top-selling album of that year with over 12 million U.S. copies sold — this video arrived at the zenith of Bon Jovi's commercial ascent. The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Slippery When Wet the first glam metal album to place three singles in the Top 10. The video's road-weary, black-and-white documentary aesthetic stood apart…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of arena rock's visual language: the black-and-white tour documentary format deployed here became a template for authenticating stadium-scale acts against the artifice of the MTV era. Its stripped-down, cinéma vérité approach directly prefigures the 'unplugged' aesthetic that…

The director

Wayne Isham (born December 2, 1958, Vinita, Oklahoma) is an American director who attended UC Santa Barbara and was inspired by David Bowie's 'Ashes to Ashes' to pursue music video work. He has helmed over 200 credited projects spanning Bon Jovi, Metallica,…