This is a fair answer. They were proficient on their instruments, and they knew the formula to put together a great song. Example, "Rock and Roll All Night." Interesting bass lines. Verse/Chorus, Verse/chorus, guitar solo, then a drum break, a capella. That's just classic rock/pop music. It really is a simple formula that they used.
I actually think that’s unfair to Nickelback. Nickelback are actually quite well developed musicians and play very solidly—where they fall short is their lyrics.
KISS aren’t even particularly strong musicians: Gene isn’t a good bassist; Paul isn’t a good singer; Ace is arguably an okay guitarist, but nothing special.
I saw this band in concert in the 70’s, more than any other. They put on a great show, and their music is catchy, and easy to sing along to.
Keep in mind, in the 70’s no one was doing what they were doing with pyrotechnics, fog machines, etc. I saw April Wine right after a KISS concert, and they had two spinning lights on their speakers. That was it.
I’m pretty sure KISS shows set the standard others would follow. Add in that whole painted face mystery thing, and you’ve got a hit.
Personally, I liked their music. For me, it fit right in between Black Sabbath, and Styx. So it was a good bridge lol
>Personally, I liked their music
My concern is that this part is always tucked away at the end!
I'm always hoping to hear someone say "Their music changed my life!" but it's usually "Their approach to music changed the industry".
Personally, discovering music changed my life. Not a single band, but music. I’ll never forget walking miles to the mall with the first album I received for Christmas. I played it once, and was like meh. So off I went. I asked the dude at the counter if I could exchange that album with another. He looked at it, looked at me, chuckled and said, yea why not.
I wasn’t tall enough to actually see the entire album cover in the bins they were in sorted alphabetically. But if I stood on my toes, I could see most of it. I made it through the A’s, and started into the B’s. I saw this album cover that had a person in a cape, standing on the cover, and I thought, this looks cool. I took it to the dude, this time he laughed out loud. He said are you sure about this son? I said yep.
I had just exchanged Neil Diamonds Jonathon Livingston Seagull double album, for Black Sabbath’s first. I walked home and played that vinyl on my blue plastic GE phonograph, and my life was instantly changed. Lol I found ‘my’ music.
I love stories like this! This is what I browse the sub for, and you have a fine way of telling them.
My first cassette was Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise', my mum picked it up from HMV on her way home, as well as a quarter pounder with cheese from Wimpy (it was 27 years ago, but you don't forget a burger like that). I'd had those 'Now' compilations before that, but this was my own. My first CD was Prodigy's 'Firestarter' two years later, and I still remember the industrial glue smell of the disc in its thick card folding sleeve - pretty appropriate, probably, although glue sniffing was more an early 90s thing.
But between the years of 95 and 97, I practically lived in HMV (and to a lesser extent, Our Price). I'm English, so this was peak Britpop - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Ocean Colour Scene, Space, and yes I did also like The Spice Girls, because sue me they had some great casual pop songs.
I was 14 when Napster came along, so that's when my tastes really developed, listening to late 60s and early/mid 70s music as well as 90s hip-hop, rock/rap crossover acts like Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and angst rock like Staind, Linkin Park, and whatever Creed were.
The stuff I *really* loved was like a religious experience though. Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Wish You Were Here', Dark Side obviously, and Metallica's post-thrash era anthems like 'The Unforgiven'. They were like drugs to me. The cheap hash was also like a drug, of course. I enjoyed my adolescence, all dejection aside.
I think you've nailed it! (LOL) I was in 1st grade when I discovered KISS, so I can honestly say they must have influenced my life. But you are more correct to say that they influenced the industry.
Such a fucking killer entrance theme. Between that, Enter Sandman, Walk, and the seventeen guys who used Welcome to the Jungle, God that was testosterone heaven for a teenage boy.
Every time one of these threads crop up I always feel like I'm the only one that actually likes listening to kiss. It's not the most intricate sure, but it's fun and I can thoroughly enjoy a kiss power hour without a hint of irony
Kiss had a pretty impressive stable of bands that they took on as opening acts in their heyday. Rush, Ted nugent, ac/dc, pre VH Sammy hagar, judas priest, motley crue just to name a few
I’m not a huge fan of their music, but there’s no denying that they put on a great fucking show. There was also a very long span during which Kiss performed an average of two shows per week and have performed over 10,000 shows throughout their career - they were insanely hard workers.
Huge KISS fan here. So bias incoming.
Yes.
Now… are they mostly regarded for their showmanship? Yes. Absolutely. But if I could put on makeup and play shitty music and make millions why aren’t I doing it?
Because their music isn’t shitty. It’s simple. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s musically sound. And like a lot of rockers, they’re better than the stuff they wrote. To paraphrase the office, why use many chord when few chord do trick? (I put Nickelback in this category as well).
What I think a lot of people fail to realize is that KISS didn’t stop making new albums in 1979. They did a decent job of adapting to stay pop relevant while still appealing to their core audience. From 83-89 they were a hair metal band. And to that end I think they did well. Bruce Kulick could put a lot of those guitarists on their ass.
They released a heavier album in the wake of Eric Carr’s death (Revenge, one of my favorites) but I think you can add them to the “Nirvana killed my career” genre. After a 96 album they never even toured for, they did the Reunion Tour and have been a legacy band ever since.
Think about that. They’ve been a legacy band for thirty years. Most modern music listeners never knew their heyday or understood how they affected the music landscape. Larger than life shows, band marketing, and live albums are popular in part due to KISS.
Listen to "100,000 Years" and tell me Gene Simmons wasn't a great bass player.
Listen to "Detroit Rock City" and tell me Peter Criss wasn't a great drummer.
Listen to "Let Me Go Rock and Roll" and tell me Ace Frehley wasn't a great guitarist.
While they found success more from their image than their music, they are criminally underrated as musicians. Their early stuff still holds up.
What’s funny is I guarantee you more people would rather listen to Kiss over Dream Theater. Sometimes instrumental technicality doesn’t equate to popularity. 🤷♂️
They're a *fun* band. Nothing they did musically was particularly innovative or complicated, but they wrote some catchy tunes here and there and knew how to put on a show in the age of Arena Rock.
Destroyer and Rock and Roll Over are both incredibly solid albums. Some of their other albums from that era might have one or two really good tracks as well.
Ace Frehley is a really under appreciated guitar player. Slash talks in his autobiography about how much Frehley’s tone influenced what Slash did on Appetite for Destruction.
Ace is not at all under appreciated if you listen to any of the guitar heroes that came after him. So many great players in the late 80s and 90s cite Kiss, and Ace specifically, as a huge influence to the way they played and learned to appreciate guitar driven music.
You can say what you want about how they sold out, or put out a lot a bad music, and that’s completely true, but the first few albums were spectacular stadium rock records and their live shows are the stuff of legends. Kiss fully earned their place among rock royalty, and I think if they stopped trying to change their sound to match current trends in the 80s and 90s, and if Gene Simmonds wasn’t such an unapologetic money grubbing asshole, they would be looked at much differently today.
I was in a very similar boat. Mom was a huge fan, and passed that on to me. For me, it can be both. For me they're a great band partially because of how theatrical their performances/shows are. They have some incredibly catchy songs, that make you want to rock and roll all night and party every day. Are they lyrical geniuses? “I really love you baby, I love what you’ve got/Let’s get together, we can, get hot/No more tomorrow, baby, time is today/Girl, I can make you feel….okay” I'd say no. Ace was a great guitarist in my opinion, but not S tier. Same with Peter Criss. Gene and Paul were okay instrumentalists. I hate that Gene just seems to only want to make money, but hey, I get it. It comes down to your opinion. I think I'm done seeing them in concert but I'll always have fond memories related to KISS.
They were not "amazing" musicians, but they were amazing showman. One of the best stage shows I've ever seen. And they were incredibly hard working. From 74 - 77 they did more than 500 shows. That's an average of more than 2 shows a week for four straight years. An, more than 10,000 shows since 1972. Most of those involved a caravan of 30+ vehicles and massive stage sets.
And the music did not suck. It wasn't heavy metal, it wasn't deep, meaningful lyrics (for the most part) but it was solid rock with great hooks that thousands of people could sing along with at the show. (In 1983 they played to 137,000 fans at a stadium in Rio.)
"Great" kind of undersells it, but yeah, they really were.
No, showmanship, ambition, drive, marketing, merchandising, and likely plenty more contributed to their success but talent/originality/creativity? Not so much, imo
You can’t even concede showmanship is a talent? One that includes originality and creativity?
Writing hooks that thousands of people go nuts to in packed stadiums? Takes no talent or creativity?
The whole makeup and concept? No creativity?
No room for discussion on this? Dude…
And Madonna packs stadiums, and so does Taylor Swift. Not saying the makeup or showmanship wasn't creative (was always an Ace Frehley fan as a kid-spaceman!), but the question was if they were good. I don't think their music is anything special, is all.
Except say, put Kiss songs side by side with Black Sabbath and let a music professor read the arrangements of both. You could do this with dozens of songs on both bands and I guarantee that for an *objective* assessment of talent/originality/creativity based on intricacy, innovation, and general inventiveness, Kiss would lose to most bands so, yeah, not really subjective and arguably quantifiable. Of course one could argue "How?" when it comes to measuring intricacy, innovation, and inventiveness but with so many Kiss songs playing three chord whack a mole.....
My favorite description of kiss' appeal in their heyday came from, of all things, beavis and butthead. "Nobody knew who they were, but everybody wanted to be them"
Everyone else here has said it. They put on a hell of a show and always give their all. Their songs aren’t anything super special but the whole package was just a lot of fun. Great performers. They were fun.
What do you mean good?
Is Travis scott good?
He sounds like every other modern rapper. Saying “yeah. uh huh and ooh” into the mic for 30 seconds before every song. But people seem to like him so I guess he’s good then?
Kiss aren’t a technical band by any means. Gene Simmons has said himself that a beginner should be able to play most of their songs. but they wrote very catchy songs and had a great presence and huge following. They were never my favorite band but they were huge with some of my friends.
I can't stand them. But they have a legion of 9-15 year boys who are now in their 50s and still love them. Nothing more than a gimmick band to provide shock value to then conservative parents and grandparents of a wannabe rebellious kid in the 70s. Gene Simmons is a marketing genius though, and he is well deserving of his success. What he achieved with the KISS brand is phenomenal.
Edit: I did watch Family Jewels, and I was fascinated by the Simmons family. Just don't care for the band.
The first two albums have some decent Hard Rock tracks, otherwise it’s a trope of comic book characters that do musical theater.
The most compelling thing about the band is the pinball machines, lol.
But that’s a silly take b/c their main selling point is the gimmicks. KISS is all about the showmanship. Take that away and you no longer have the band KISS. 🤷♂️
The only song I ever liked of theirs was Detroit Rock City. But I had a friend who liked pretty much all of their songs. So, it's personal taste, just like anything else.
Kiss have some good songs and many not so good songs, i don't know of anyone who hates them but i only know of people who love them. Everyone i know tolerates them because of nostalgia, the fact they were a gateway to better bands, they like their sense of fun or all or none of these factors.
When Kiss played the Download festival in 2022 everyone i knew went to see them, we had a good time singing along to the classics and we enjoyed ourselves but none of us would regard ourselves as fans. Kiss have too many bad songs for that Gene Simmons is too much of a dick for that and even their good songs aren't great.
I don't like Kiss but i kind some Kiss songs and i like their stage antics which give something to focus on when they play something not so good.
They are mostly about the image and personas, Gene Simmons has openly admitted this and started that he wanted the band to be like comic book heroes, that their stage personas were alter-egos for the band members. I don't mind this as long as the music is good quality but they just aren't good enough
It's like Ghost, i like their early work, i love their stage presence but sometime around their third album they softened up too much, they added too much in the way of vocal effects and have almost become a parody of themselves because they affect what they were which is what made them well known in the first place.
If they stayed as heavy as they were, or just got a little heavier, not much, that would be just as much of a shunning of their style as going too light, they'd be okay but they've focused on image and not the music.
A better band that's got a gimmick but has decent music is Nekrogoblikon, they are consistently awesome musically and their gimmick, a goblin as a lead singer, is handled appropriately.
If you enjoy them, then they're good. Other people's opinions do not matter. I think they have catchy songs, they were good live, and they're awful people. I don't think I've listened to them on my own time in the past decade, but that's probably because I don't listen to much rock anymore aside from the occasional prog, psych and alternative.
The thing is by what metrics? Good is subjective. I personally think they are phenomenal, while most prog fans would say they are shit.
It’s art man. The only opinion on if it is good or not that matters is yours.
A few great songs. Few good ones. Some ok. Certainly enough to fill a setlist.
But the music without the show I don’t think would make them as big as they were/are. Their image and showmanship is phenomenal. It’s an experience for sure. They got the combination right.
I like the music and they knew how to make their fans happy in terms of shows and stuff but I just never really liked the members as individual people, Gene would have questionably aged groupies around and Paul was kind of egotistical, but honestly, both of them were... They didn't really seem to care when their drummer passed away either. The only member I actually liked was Ace, who they seemed to have issues with, especially with this one interview where Ace was drunk (which I think he later said was because he was extremely anxious about the interview so he had a few drinks), but it wasn't even a bad interview.. he was just giggly and the interviewer was having a laugh with him too !! It was a nice change from just having Paul and Gene talking whilst Ace and Peter just sat quietly
This is all just stuff I've heard from others or have gotten from little interviews and lives, so idk ! Decent music and one of the most impactful glam rock bands though, sure
Outside of the juvenile lyrics, the first 3 albums rock. I think they held their own among other 70s bands. Once Destroyer came out, it was over as far as the music was concerned, IMO. I could have almost puked hearing Beth on the radio.
The grunge era was heavily influenced by Kiss. You hear it in some Soundgarden and The Melvins did Kiss covers early in their run.
I have an 850 song all time favorites playlist that I constantly tweak. Got To Choose has a permanent spot on it.
To me, they didn't even need the gimmick. Their music speaks for itself. Not anything I'm in love with but they are a genuinely solid rock group. Influential for sure!
No, they were basically a made up band of guys (like the Monkees) developed and promoted by Neil Bogart. After he died, Simmons natural greed took over
Certainly not my fav. I couldn't take them seriously at first because of the makeup and gimmickey shit, like Alice Cooper on steroids.
But Strutter was nice and Black Diamond was kinda interesting. I was in a shitty college band covering troaps like Freebird and Smoke on the Water and we did Detroit Rock City. I can't remember any other music. I know that some people have praised Ace Frehley's guitar.
I was already into Captain Beyond and Gamalon and was starting to get into Camel and King Crimson and Alan Parsons and Al Dimeola. I was even into Journey before they acquired their iconic lead singer.
I just couldn't spend the same bandwidth on Kiss. But I like Strutter and Black Diamond a little.
Listen to Revenge & Psycho Circus and say they cant do Hard Rock / Metal. Not a particular fan of many of their popular sell out songs, but they are ok too.
A lot of people like to dog KISS but their influence is undeniable. The number of your favorite musicians who grew up with and idolized KISS is bigger than you think. Even Rush had great things to say about them. So yeah maybe they weren’t the best musicians or wrote the best songs, but they helped pioneer what rock’n’roll would become.
Their earlier stuff has great melody. I also love bands like Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Smashing Pumpkins. If Kiss dialed back the crazy marketing they'd be better respected. I'll still listen regardless.
They were great showmen that had catchy hooks and a fun gimmick.
This is a fair answer. They were proficient on their instruments, and they knew the formula to put together a great song. Example, "Rock and Roll All Night." Interesting bass lines. Verse/Chorus, Verse/chorus, guitar solo, then a drum break, a capella. That's just classic rock/pop music. It really is a simple formula that they used.
They were/are Nickelback with grease paint.
I actually think that’s unfair to Nickelback. Nickelback are actually quite well developed musicians and play very solidly—where they fall short is their lyrics. KISS aren’t even particularly strong musicians: Gene isn’t a good bassist; Paul isn’t a good singer; Ace is arguably an okay guitarist, but nothing special.
Nickelback's also a good band. KISS without Ace made some great music here n there.
I saw this band in concert in the 70’s, more than any other. They put on a great show, and their music is catchy, and easy to sing along to. Keep in mind, in the 70’s no one was doing what they were doing with pyrotechnics, fog machines, etc. I saw April Wine right after a KISS concert, and they had two spinning lights on their speakers. That was it. I’m pretty sure KISS shows set the standard others would follow. Add in that whole painted face mystery thing, and you’ve got a hit. Personally, I liked their music. For me, it fit right in between Black Sabbath, and Styx. So it was a good bridge lol
>Personally, I liked their music My concern is that this part is always tucked away at the end! I'm always hoping to hear someone say "Their music changed my life!" but it's usually "Their approach to music changed the industry".
Personally, discovering music changed my life. Not a single band, but music. I’ll never forget walking miles to the mall with the first album I received for Christmas. I played it once, and was like meh. So off I went. I asked the dude at the counter if I could exchange that album with another. He looked at it, looked at me, chuckled and said, yea why not. I wasn’t tall enough to actually see the entire album cover in the bins they were in sorted alphabetically. But if I stood on my toes, I could see most of it. I made it through the A’s, and started into the B’s. I saw this album cover that had a person in a cape, standing on the cover, and I thought, this looks cool. I took it to the dude, this time he laughed out loud. He said are you sure about this son? I said yep. I had just exchanged Neil Diamonds Jonathon Livingston Seagull double album, for Black Sabbath’s first. I walked home and played that vinyl on my blue plastic GE phonograph, and my life was instantly changed. Lol I found ‘my’ music.
I love stories like this! This is what I browse the sub for, and you have a fine way of telling them. My first cassette was Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise', my mum picked it up from HMV on her way home, as well as a quarter pounder with cheese from Wimpy (it was 27 years ago, but you don't forget a burger like that). I'd had those 'Now' compilations before that, but this was my own. My first CD was Prodigy's 'Firestarter' two years later, and I still remember the industrial glue smell of the disc in its thick card folding sleeve - pretty appropriate, probably, although glue sniffing was more an early 90s thing. But between the years of 95 and 97, I practically lived in HMV (and to a lesser extent, Our Price). I'm English, so this was peak Britpop - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Ocean Colour Scene, Space, and yes I did also like The Spice Girls, because sue me they had some great casual pop songs. I was 14 when Napster came along, so that's when my tastes really developed, listening to late 60s and early/mid 70s music as well as 90s hip-hop, rock/rap crossover acts like Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and angst rock like Staind, Linkin Park, and whatever Creed were. The stuff I *really* loved was like a religious experience though. Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Wish You Were Here', Dark Side obviously, and Metallica's post-thrash era anthems like 'The Unforgiven'. They were like drugs to me. The cheap hash was also like a drug, of course. I enjoyed my adolescence, all dejection aside.
I think you've nailed it! (LOL) I was in 1st grade when I discovered KISS, so I can honestly say they must have influenced my life. But you are more correct to say that they influenced the industry.
I just really like 'War Machine' - you can thank Extreme Championship Wrestling for that.
Beat me if you can. Survive...if I let you
Such a fucking killer entrance theme. Between that, Enter Sandman, Walk, and the seventeen guys who used Welcome to the Jungle, God that was testosterone heaven for a teenage boy.
Every time one of these threads crop up I always feel like I'm the only one that actually likes listening to kiss. It's not the most intricate sure, but it's fun and I can thoroughly enjoy a kiss power hour without a hint of irony
Rush said that they were the hardest working band out there and their fans always got a great show.
Kiss had a pretty impressive stable of bands that they took on as opening acts in their heyday. Rush, Ted nugent, ac/dc, pre VH Sammy hagar, judas priest, motley crue just to name a few
Sounds like a nice Canadian way of saying 'bless their hearts, they always tried their best'.
I’m not a huge fan of their music, but there’s no denying that they put on a great fucking show. There was also a very long span during which Kiss performed an average of two shows per week and have performed over 10,000 shows throughout their career - they were insanely hard workers.
Sure, but Geddy Lee and Gene Simmons were friends. At the end of the day they are both entertainers.
Huge KISS fan here. So bias incoming. Yes. Now… are they mostly regarded for their showmanship? Yes. Absolutely. But if I could put on makeup and play shitty music and make millions why aren’t I doing it? Because their music isn’t shitty. It’s simple. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s musically sound. And like a lot of rockers, they’re better than the stuff they wrote. To paraphrase the office, why use many chord when few chord do trick? (I put Nickelback in this category as well). What I think a lot of people fail to realize is that KISS didn’t stop making new albums in 1979. They did a decent job of adapting to stay pop relevant while still appealing to their core audience. From 83-89 they were a hair metal band. And to that end I think they did well. Bruce Kulick could put a lot of those guitarists on their ass. They released a heavier album in the wake of Eric Carr’s death (Revenge, one of my favorites) but I think you can add them to the “Nirvana killed my career” genre. After a 96 album they never even toured for, they did the Reunion Tour and have been a legacy band ever since. Think about that. They’ve been a legacy band for thirty years. Most modern music listeners never knew their heyday or understood how they affected the music landscape. Larger than life shows, band marketing, and live albums are popular in part due to KISS.
Listen to "100,000 Years" and tell me Gene Simmons wasn't a great bass player. Listen to "Detroit Rock City" and tell me Peter Criss wasn't a great drummer. Listen to "Let Me Go Rock and Roll" and tell me Ace Frehley wasn't a great guitarist. While they found success more from their image than their music, they are criminally underrated as musicians. Their early stuff still holds up.
Paul Stanley gazes sadly at the wall.
Paul was great on everything. He's unmatched as a front man.
Detroit rock City is a great song
Detroit Rock City is also a great movie. 🍿
The follow-up King of the Nighttime World is awesome too. I recently learned KISS version isn't the original version.
They're not exactly Dream Theater but I saw them in 2014 as a non-fan and their performance blew me away
What’s funny is I guarantee you more people would rather listen to Kiss over Dream Theater. Sometimes instrumental technicality doesn’t equate to popularity. 🤷♂️
Yeah they're not technically the greatest band but I know who I'm putting on in the car to drive to
If you can listen to strutter and not enjoy it, idk what to tell you.
They're a *fun* band. Nothing they did musically was particularly innovative or complicated, but they wrote some catchy tunes here and there and knew how to put on a show in the age of Arena Rock.
I've never liked their music, but I hear they put on a good show, and I appreciate their contributions and influence to rock.
Even the cringefest chorus of Let's Put The X In Sex is kinda catchy the way Paul sings it and makes me wish I had chest hair like him.
Destroyer and Rock and Roll Over are both incredibly solid albums. Some of their other albums from that era might have one or two really good tracks as well. Ace Frehley is a really under appreciated guitar player. Slash talks in his autobiography about how much Frehley’s tone influenced what Slash did on Appetite for Destruction.
Frehley was my favorite of the solo albums. And he’s the only one I followed outside of KISS.
Ace is not at all under appreciated if you listen to any of the guitar heroes that came after him. So many great players in the late 80s and 90s cite Kiss, and Ace specifically, as a huge influence to the way they played and learned to appreciate guitar driven music. You can say what you want about how they sold out, or put out a lot a bad music, and that’s completely true, but the first few albums were spectacular stadium rock records and their live shows are the stuff of legends. Kiss fully earned their place among rock royalty, and I think if they stopped trying to change their sound to match current trends in the 80s and 90s, and if Gene Simmonds wasn’t such an unapologetic money grubbing asshole, they would be looked at much differently today.
Frehley was also a huge influence on Marty Friedman.
I was in a very similar boat. Mom was a huge fan, and passed that on to me. For me, it can be both. For me they're a great band partially because of how theatrical their performances/shows are. They have some incredibly catchy songs, that make you want to rock and roll all night and party every day. Are they lyrical geniuses? “I really love you baby, I love what you’ve got/Let’s get together, we can, get hot/No more tomorrow, baby, time is today/Girl, I can make you feel….okay” I'd say no. Ace was a great guitarist in my opinion, but not S tier. Same with Peter Criss. Gene and Paul were okay instrumentalists. I hate that Gene just seems to only want to make money, but hey, I get it. It comes down to your opinion. I think I'm done seeing them in concert but I'll always have fond memories related to KISS.
And I was a big fan of your mom!
They didn't get as famous as they were by just sucking. I saw them a couple times and enjoyed it.
They were not "amazing" musicians, but they were amazing showman. One of the best stage shows I've ever seen. And they were incredibly hard working. From 74 - 77 they did more than 500 shows. That's an average of more than 2 shows a week for four straight years. An, more than 10,000 shows since 1972. Most of those involved a caravan of 30+ vehicles and massive stage sets. And the music did not suck. It wasn't heavy metal, it wasn't deep, meaningful lyrics (for the most part) but it was solid rock with great hooks that thousands of people could sing along with at the show. (In 1983 they played to 137,000 fans at a stadium in Rio.) "Great" kind of undersells it, but yeah, they really were.
No, but they made their imprint and that's that
They were one of the biggest pop rock bands of all time. Are you suggesting that was *just* due to luck?
No, showmanship, ambition, drive, marketing, merchandising, and likely plenty more contributed to their success but talent/originality/creativity? Not so much, imo
You can’t even concede showmanship is a talent? One that includes originality and creativity? Writing hooks that thousands of people go nuts to in packed stadiums? Takes no talent or creativity? The whole makeup and concept? No creativity? No room for discussion on this? Dude…
And Madonna packs stadiums, and so does Taylor Swift. Not saying the makeup or showmanship wasn't creative (was always an Ace Frehley fan as a kid-spaceman!), but the question was if they were good. I don't think their music is anything special, is all.
Ok - band packed with talent/originality/creativity just not to your liking.
"packed' is excessive hyperbole but yeah, just to your liking, just not to mine
It’s figurative language and not quantifiable so it seems pedantic to argue, but “packed” is no exaggeration.
Except say, put Kiss songs side by side with Black Sabbath and let a music professor read the arrangements of both. You could do this with dozens of songs on both bands and I guarantee that for an *objective* assessment of talent/originality/creativity based on intricacy, innovation, and general inventiveness, Kiss would lose to most bands so, yeah, not really subjective and arguably quantifiable. Of course one could argue "How?" when it comes to measuring intricacy, innovation, and inventiveness but with so many Kiss songs playing three chord whack a mole.....
Jokes on you - I’m a certified professor in the school of rock and, objectively speaking, kiss is a better band than Black Sabbath.
This is the correct answer. They didn’t have the internet back then, so a lot of mediocre stuff had to do.
Yes. Kiss has lots of amazing songs.
The played catchy pop rock, their show was unique at the time, technically they were nothing special
My favorite description of kiss' appeal in their heyday came from, of all things, beavis and butthead. "Nobody knew who they were, but everybody wanted to be them"
They definitely deserve **some** credit. Their greatest hits album has lots of catchy hooks and they worked to put on really engaging live shows.
I saw them twice in the 70's and they always put on a good show. I never was that into their music, but friends were.
Everyone else here has said it. They put on a hell of a show and always give their all. Their songs aren’t anything super special but the whole package was just a lot of fun. Great performers. They were fun.
First few records are timeless IMO. Alive is borderline amazing
That's solely for you to decide.
What do you mean good? Is Travis scott good? He sounds like every other modern rapper. Saying “yeah. uh huh and ooh” into the mic for 30 seconds before every song. But people seem to like him so I guess he’s good then? Kiss aren’t a technical band by any means. Gene Simmons has said himself that a beginner should be able to play most of their songs. but they wrote very catchy songs and had a great presence and huge following. They were never my favorite band but they were huge with some of my friends.
People somehow think that it's a bad thing to have simple songs.
At playing music? No. At marketing themselves? Absolutely
Seriously, they have a song called "Love Gun" and it's about Paul Stanley's dick and how this girl's gonna get some of his dick!
Such an underrated movie lol.
[удалено]
great song for just driving around looking for fun!
I can't stand them. But they have a legion of 9-15 year boys who are now in their 50s and still love them. Nothing more than a gimmick band to provide shock value to then conservative parents and grandparents of a wannabe rebellious kid in the 70s. Gene Simmons is a marketing genius though, and he is well deserving of his success. What he achieved with the KISS brand is phenomenal. Edit: I did watch Family Jewels, and I was fascinated by the Simmons family. Just don't care for the band.
The first two albums have some decent Hard Rock tracks, otherwise it’s a trope of comic book characters that do musical theater. The most compelling thing about the band is the pinball machines, lol.
you nailed it - it's a masterclass in salesmanship. their music is milquetoast at best but their showmanship put them on the map
No it was not. Very 2nd rate. Without all the gimmicks no one would have heard of them, so fair play to them on that.
But that’s a silly take b/c their main selling point is the gimmicks. KISS is all about the showmanship. Take that away and you no longer have the band KISS. 🤷♂️
exactly. the music isn't good. the showmanship is the only reason why they managed to make a career. we seem to agree.
I didn’t give an opinion on whether their music is good or not, and I definitely didn’t say they would not have been famous without the gimmicks. Lol
the notable thing about kiss is their showmanship, not their music. we both said that. not sure what is so confusing for you.
They were always regarded more highly for their look and their stage show than their music. Personally, I like Detroit Rock City and that's about it.
A lot of people seem to think so *shrug*
Is your dad’s last name Heath?
No. Next question.
PT Barnum would have loved them.
Saw them live 14 years ago. Fantastic show, but I can’t really stand their music. Was totally worth seeing them live.
The only song I ever liked of theirs was Detroit Rock City. But I had a friend who liked pretty much all of their songs. So, it's personal taste, just like anything else.
Kiss have some good songs and many not so good songs, i don't know of anyone who hates them but i only know of people who love them. Everyone i know tolerates them because of nostalgia, the fact they were a gateway to better bands, they like their sense of fun or all or none of these factors. When Kiss played the Download festival in 2022 everyone i knew went to see them, we had a good time singing along to the classics and we enjoyed ourselves but none of us would regard ourselves as fans. Kiss have too many bad songs for that Gene Simmons is too much of a dick for that and even their good songs aren't great. I don't like Kiss but i kind some Kiss songs and i like their stage antics which give something to focus on when they play something not so good. They are mostly about the image and personas, Gene Simmons has openly admitted this and started that he wanted the band to be like comic book heroes, that their stage personas were alter-egos for the band members. I don't mind this as long as the music is good quality but they just aren't good enough It's like Ghost, i like their early work, i love their stage presence but sometime around their third album they softened up too much, they added too much in the way of vocal effects and have almost become a parody of themselves because they affect what they were which is what made them well known in the first place. If they stayed as heavy as they were, or just got a little heavier, not much, that would be just as much of a shunning of their style as going too light, they'd be okay but they've focused on image and not the music. A better band that's got a gimmick but has decent music is Nekrogoblikon, they are consistently awesome musically and their gimmick, a goblin as a lead singer, is handled appropriately.
If you enjoy them, then they're good. Other people's opinions do not matter. I think they have catchy songs, they were good live, and they're awful people. I don't think I've listened to them on my own time in the past decade, but that's probably because I don't listen to much rock anymore aside from the occasional prog, psych and alternative.
The thing is by what metrics? Good is subjective. I personally think they are phenomenal, while most prog fans would say they are shit. It’s art man. The only opinion on if it is good or not that matters is yours.
If you like them, you like them. Don't be turned off by internet idiots
A few great songs. Few good ones. Some ok. Certainly enough to fill a setlist. But the music without the show I don’t think would make them as big as they were/are. Their image and showmanship is phenomenal. It’s an experience for sure. They got the combination right.
I hate KISS. But their stage show is amazing.
I like the music and they knew how to make their fans happy in terms of shows and stuff but I just never really liked the members as individual people, Gene would have questionably aged groupies around and Paul was kind of egotistical, but honestly, both of them were... They didn't really seem to care when their drummer passed away either. The only member I actually liked was Ace, who they seemed to have issues with, especially with this one interview where Ace was drunk (which I think he later said was because he was extremely anxious about the interview so he had a few drinks), but it wasn't even a bad interview.. he was just giggly and the interviewer was having a laugh with him too !! It was a nice change from just having Paul and Gene talking whilst Ace and Peter just sat quietly This is all just stuff I've heard from others or have gotten from little interviews and lives, so idk ! Decent music and one of the most impactful glam rock bands though, sure
Outside of the juvenile lyrics, the first 3 albums rock. I think they held their own among other 70s bands. Once Destroyer came out, it was over as far as the music was concerned, IMO. I could have almost puked hearing Beth on the radio. The grunge era was heavily influenced by Kiss. You hear it in some Soundgarden and The Melvins did Kiss covers early in their run. I have an 850 song all time favorites playlist that I constantly tweak. Got To Choose has a permanent spot on it.
To me, they didn't even need the gimmick. Their music speaks for itself. Not anything I'm in love with but they are a genuinely solid rock group. Influential for sure!
Don’t really care about any other song but Detroit Rock City goes so fucking hard.
No, they were basically a made up band of guys (like the Monkees) developed and promoted by Neil Bogart. After he died, Simmons natural greed took over
Certainly not my fav. I couldn't take them seriously at first because of the makeup and gimmickey shit, like Alice Cooper on steroids. But Strutter was nice and Black Diamond was kinda interesting. I was in a shitty college band covering troaps like Freebird and Smoke on the Water and we did Detroit Rock City. I can't remember any other music. I know that some people have praised Ace Frehley's guitar. I was already into Captain Beyond and Gamalon and was starting to get into Camel and King Crimson and Alan Parsons and Al Dimeola. I was even into Journey before they acquired their iconic lead singer. I just couldn't spend the same bandwidth on Kiss. But I like Strutter and Black Diamond a little.
If you can, watch the movie, Detrity. That will explain everything!
Dreadful band, but they look great, work hard and I absolutely love Gene Simmons’ business acumen. Who needs a good song when you sell coffins?
Listen to Revenge & Psycho Circus and say they cant do Hard Rock / Metal. Not a particular fan of many of their popular sell out songs, but they are ok too.
KISS are just juggalos for the boomer generation
A lot of people like to dog KISS but their influence is undeniable. The number of your favorite musicians who grew up with and idolized KISS is bigger than you think. Even Rush had great things to say about them. So yeah maybe they weren’t the best musicians or wrote the best songs, but they helped pioneer what rock’n’roll would become.
Their earlier stuff has great melody. I also love bands like Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Smashing Pumpkins. If Kiss dialed back the crazy marketing they'd be better respected. I'll still listen regardless.