Can someone please explain th band KISS to a Milenial?

Ex-childhood KISS Army member, here.

I won't argue your "quality of the music" standpoint, because it's a pointless exercise. Look at what music becomes popular and what does not over time, and it's clear that the "instrumental or lyrical talent" as you describe it has almost no relevance or connection to 'appeal'.

Really, KISS was good branding and the foresight to see some serious merchandising opportunities. Of course, The Beatles and other bands had merchandising and all that, but KISS took it further with the makeup and so on (a huge part of it, as a child I was Gene Simmons for Halloween for several years straight). Kind of like KISS meets David Bowie with simplistic but effective arena rock that was appealing to kids, and astute business sense. It's not hard to understand, especially when viewing in retrospect.

I've wondered the same thing for awhile now.

I hear they put on a good show.

As a "gen x" person, I can't stand Kiss. Never have.

From the 70s, I'll take Van Halen and Pink Floyd, from the 80s I'll take Slayer and Metallica.

easy weeks wrote:

Ex-childhood KISS Army member, here.

I won't argue your "quality of the music" standpoint, because it's a pointless exercise. Look at what music becomes popular and what does not over time, and it's clear that the "instrumental or lyrical talent" as you describe it has almost no relevance or connection to 'appeal'.

Really, KISS was good branding and the foresight to see some serious merchandising opportunities. Of course, The Beatles and other bands had merchandising and all that, but KISS took it further with the makeup and so on (a huge part of it, as a child I was Gene Simmons for Halloween for several years straight). Kind of like KISS meets David Bowie with simplistic but effective arena rock that was appealing to kids, and astute business sense. It's not hard to understand, especially when viewing in retrospect.

Were they widely popular, or only popular among a cult following? I'm wondering because it seems like every who says they were KISS fans as a kid is a member of the lower class today, usually living in a trailer.

This scene from Role Models is all you really need to know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5IUj42fL58

jamin wrote:

Were they widely popular, or only popular among a cult following? I'm wondering because it seems like every who says they were KISS fans as a kid is a member of the lower class today, usually living in a trailer.

Haha, well they were quite popular among kids my age. I was born in 1968, and was a big fan in the mid-late 70s, so I guess I was quite young. My father's a doctor, professor emeritus, and internationally-known researcher (in his field) who has authored over 600 journal articles, and I certainly did not grow up in a trailer. I didn't notice a correlation between classes and education levels and whether you were a KISS fan or not, but I was pretty young. All my friends that like them were similar to myself in terms of placement on the 'class' ladder, but I wasn't hanging out in trailer parks, so I have no idea what 70's kids listened to in those settings.

They just really appealed to kids. Think of a cartoon come to life. All the old kids had their 'grownup' bands that we were too young to fully appreciate, and KISS seemed to fit the need at the time.

KISS was huge and sold tens of millions of albums in the 1970s. Hundreds of millions of dollars in KISS themed merchandise was sold. Clearly not just to rednecks as the numbers show much wider popularity. I was a kid and I had a KISS lunchbox:

http://www.montrealexpress.ca/media/photos/unis/2012/08/09/2012-08-09-05-31-52-KissLunchbox1-1.jpg

While not the most lyrically and instrumentally talented, as you stated, I wouldn't judge them on that song.

jamin wrote:

They look like a heavy metal band but sing dorky songs like "I wanna rock and roll all night" and have no instrumental or lyrical talent as far as I can tell. Can a Gen Xer explain what was the appeal of this band?

All you need to know is three things:

1) "I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day" Perfect lyrics for a rock and roll song.

2) Basically KISS was a spin off from Glam Rock, with a harder, metal edge. Glam Rock was huge in the 70s, concerts were no longer just shows, they were spectacles. KISS took it in a different direction and to a higher level.

3) Gene Simmons tongue.

Typical lazy Millennial asking others to explain rather than doing his own research and formulating his own opinion.

I was never a fan, but BETH is one of the all-time great ballads.

malmo wrote:

1) "I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day" Perfect lyrics for a rock and roll song.

It appears I don't "get" it. Was it supposed to sound like a perfectly generic rock song? Was that supposed to be the genius behind it?

party rock wrote:

Typical lazy Millennial asking others to explain rather than doing his own research and formulating his own opinion.

+1

I was a kid when Kiss was popular. I could not stand their music at all. I liked AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, in my heavy metal phase.

Kiss's music really just seemed to be a pretext for the stage show and image. The looked dangerous. Gene Simmons's character was basically a demon. Some thought the band was about Satan worship.

They became popular because they were an antidote for disco and top 40 music. The music was not very ambitious, especially compared to Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. But the stage shows were pretty crazy with lots of pyrotechnics and the costumes. So, if you had a jean jacket with a Kiss logo on the back, you certainly separated yourself from the kids who liked disco.

jamin wrote:

They look like a heavy metal band but sing dorky songs like "I wanna rock and roll all night" and have no instrumental or lyrical talent as far as I can tell. Can a Gen Xer explain what was the appeal of this band?

Campy self-aware irony before it was cool.

I saw them twice in the '70's when the original band was still together. They were AWESOME! If anything ever got boring they'd just blow some more sh$t up! Certainly not a band for someone hoping for an intellectual exercise, but c'mon - rock'n'roll, fire, explosions!!!! What more do you need?!

jamin wrote:

It appears I don't "get" it. Was it supposed to sound like a perfectly generic rock song? Was that supposed to be the genius behind it?

There's a lot of things you don't get, Jamin, like everything.

KISS are dreadful. There's a band in your town that's better than they are, even if you town only has 500 people. Their fans are for the most part drunk and any amount of bombast and pyrotechnics will make them happy.