Did I Miss Something?

When did Bon Jovi achieve iconic status and why do they deserve such high regard? I saw them on the "new" MTV Unplugged and it made me want to barf. The show began with a bevy of entertainers praising them for their genius, as if they were Aerosmith. Then they opened with a low key yet anthemic version of "Livin' On A Prayer" complete with a string section. They continued with a loungy, Sinatra-esque version of "You Give Love A Bad Name". WTF? Now granted, there are plenty of guilty pleasures that permeate the landscape of my iTunes library, several Bon Jovi songs included. And the Discovery Channel has made good use of "Wanted Dead or Alive" by including it as the theme song for Deadliest Catch. But to me, these guys will always be just another 80's hair band who wrote some catchy ( albeit cheesy) songs, and have happened to sustain a lengthy shelf life. And they've really seemed to have parlayed the whole Jersey thing into a Springsteen-like workingman vibe. I wonder if they'd be where they are now had they been from Dover, Delaware instead of Jersey. And what's up with the keyboardist's hair? Dude, the Chia pet has been out for years now.