Tokyo goes pop!

Like any great capital, Tokyo is the subject of an untold number of homegrown songs, but it also holds a unique fascination for foreign songwriters. In the course of researching this article, we've seen Tokyo as the sex-driven temptress; Tokyo, the inscrutable mystery; Tokyo, the apocalyptic nightmare, and Tokyo, the city that you throw in to give your song some kind of ill-conceived, futuristic edge. As the centre of one of the world's biggest music markets, of course, Tokyo is also a potentially huge cash cow; replace New Jersey with Tokyo and watch the yen roll in, as Bon Jovi are about to demonstrate...

Tokyo Road

Artist: Bon Jovi
Available on: 7800° Fahrenheit
Time Out says: Quite where (or who) Jon Bon Jovi thinks he is in this song is not easy to discern through his lyrics. He may or may not be a soldier ('Sent to war in a land, they said we'd fight for their freedom'), but it's all rather peripheral anyway because, before anyone can yell 'woah-oh!', our hero is 'snorting whiskey, drinking coke' in a bar, just like in any other Bon Jovi song. We suspect that Tokyo Road (sorry, where?) might actually be a truckers' lay by on the New Jersey Turnpike in disguise. Nice try, Jon.