re: I’m a classic rock fan but I can’t stand KISS

you'll find a lot of folks sharing your opinion.

I enjoy Kiss and their live shows are awesome. I'm not on the hate Kiss bandwagon.

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46 years in the business and still selling out arenas while most bands their age have quit, or dead, or playing casinos. Put some respect on that.

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Yeah they made a lot of money jumping around in silly outfits, spitting blood, shooting bottlerockets off of guitars and marketing themselves to pre-pubescent boys. They earned every penny playing those sh!tty songs night after night, year after year, decade after decade.

I think your perception of KISS is very dependent on your age. I fall right into that perfect KISS niche - when they were really at their peak (Destroyer/Love Gun/Alive I & II), I was 10-12 years old. I wasn't really "into" music yet, but KISS was a spectacle and was putting out some solid songs back then. Fast forward to my high school years, and it was the prime hair metal era. At that point I was really into bands like Motley Crue, Ozzy, Queensryche, etc. - perfect high school fodder. KISS was an afterthought musically, but a KISS concert was still a fun time. Jump ahead to my college years, when I put a little more thought into the music I listened to, and Metallica/Megadeth were in their prime.

But for people my age, KISS hit at just the right time (pre/early teens). They will always hold a sentimental place, and occasionally crank out a good song, but it was more about the live shows and the spectacle. That being said, I will always consider Destroyer to be a top 10 album of all time, and there is ample evidence that they influenced just about every other metal band out there. So those who completely write them off as a joke don't have a solid leg to stand on.

I often enjoy eating meat but I'd be perfectly happy to never eat a Slim Jim again in my lifetime. Some things are just a mystery, aren't they?

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They are the greatest hard rock band ever.

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I remember being a kid and wanting the Kiss radio they were selling on TV. I was under the mistaken belief that it only played Kiss songs.

Rock and Roll Over is an all time great album.

If I’m talking music with someone and they say anything about KISS I immediately stop talking to them because they are retarded

Okay, this isn't pointed at any one poster but are my random thoughts on all the posts in this thread. Full disclosure, I 100% of a pro-KISS bias.

There is no doubt in my mind that KISS is by design a lot of flash and flare but I have no idea why people hold that against them compared to any other band.The fact that some of you are acting like they've got no musical depth and are all show and no substance are ignoring the fact that they've sold over 100 million records, have more Gold albums than any other American rock band in history, and continue to sell out arenas. If there music was so bad none of this would have happened and they sure has shite wouldn't be playing 45+ years later.

This kind of goes back to my first point - a lot of bands try to "wow" or "shock" audiences but after a while their popularity plateaus or outright fades away. Think about some of the other more well-known "shock rockers" in history - Alice Cooper (an inspiration for KISS), Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, etc. - all popular in their own right but no one comes close to the level of combined success and longevity as KISS does. Again, if KISS was all show and no substance this just wouldn't be the case. I've got plenty of friends I know who can't stand KISS or at best don't give a damn about them... but I can almost always find at least one deep cut song that they like. You'd be surprised what people think of their music if they don't realize it's them. People listening with their eyes and not their ears.

People seem to forget just how influential they were to generations of musicians after them. Two bands already mentioned in this thread - Motley Crue and Metallica - were at least partly inspired by KISS. Not to mention other artists ranging from Lady Gaga to Slipknot to Bon Jovi to Garth Brooks to Pantera and to the aforementioned Manson and Zombie and so many others.



Fanboy rant over. Excuse any shitty grammar.

I think the 100 million was a brain fart on my part. Either because of Gene interviews or because I was on Aerosmith’s wiki page not long before I wrote that.

I think the official RIAA number is 75 million plus. And you’re right, I’m pretty sure that does include all their compilation albums but again that only reinforces my point about people wanting their music and not just their show.

I’d need to confirm but if wiki is to be believed these are their peak chart numbers at their apex:

Alive!: Released 09/10/1975.
Peaked at #9 on billboard 200

Destroyer: Released 03/15/1976
Peaked at #11, #4, or #3 depending on what US chart you look at

Rock and Roll Over: Released 11/11/1976
Peaked at #11 on billboard 200

Love Gun: Released 06/30/1977
Peaked at #4 on billboard 200

Alive II: Released 10/14/1977
Peaked at #7 on billboard 200.

So that’s 3 studio and 2 live albums in basically a 2 year span with all but one cracking into the top 10. Around the same time Beth was winning a People’s Choice award and a Gallup poll declaring them the most popular band in the US all of which occurred right before the band really started to implode within the next year or 2.

Honestly, I think people these days don’t realize just how big they were at their peak.

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Honestly, I think people these days don’t realize just how big they were at their peak

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When I was a kid, there were 2 full pages of KISS merchandise in the Sears Christmas catalog. Amazing.