"Rock is finally dead. The death of rock was not a natural death, it was murdered. But rock didn't die from old age, it died because people got to the point of not wanting to pay for it. No one appreciates the hard work that goes into making an album anymore, or the idea that artists deserve to be financially compensated for their efforts. File sharing and illegal downloading killed the industry. White, upper middle class suburban kids who grew up with this sense of entitlement, that they deserve to have access to something and not pay for it."
"It's very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don't have the chance. If you play guitar, it's almost impossible. I believe the pinnacle of popular music was from 1958 until about 1983. Hundreds of amazing artists came along during that time. Since then, pretty much nothing. I believe Tame Impala, who my son turned me on to, are one of the only fresh, original bands to come along since 2000. The craft is gone. Where's the next 'Dark Side of the Moon'? The only artists who make it big today are Top 40 acts, and most of the touring bands are half old guys like me."
>Admittedly a pretty good carnival act in their day. No different than billion other garage rock bands made by college buddies in the 70s.
Evan Powell
delete your account.
Nathan Barnes
1910 - music started 1920-50 - classical music 1960-70 - golden age of music for old singers 1980 - the age of rock rebels + goth/punk 1990 - height of hip hop, 2pac, need i say more? 2000 - music is still good 2001-06 - music is changing 2007 - phase of akon and some other **** that was forgetful 2008 - some crappy music is starting to appear 2009 - crappy music is spreading, fast 2010 - you gotta be kidding me, justin bieber? realllyyyyyyyyy? 2011 - R.I.P MUSIC
Xavier Morris
kiss is literally ass music
Ian Murphy
Room Service is one of the worst opening tracks to a classic rawk album I've ever heard. Paul Stanley's vocal performance in particular is fascinatingly bad.
kiss is the kind of shit that senile old balding taxi drivers quickly losing their grip on reality think is great
Blake Torres
This entire post gave me aids. The later section shits on the former.
Jordan Anderson
>not recognizing 3 year old stale memes on sight
William Cox
It's almost as if...the same posters always post in threads about a particular band/artist!
Julian Thomas
I guess the band didn't think Room Service was that good either because this says it was only ever played live 12 times.
Liam Torres
Guess you just need to be in the right place at the right time. That and write catchy songs.
Brandon Flores
>I believe Tame Impala, who my son turned me on to, are one of the only fresh, original bands to come along since 2000. Imagine being so pleb that you think LAME IMPALA is the only original contemporary band.
Caleb Hernandez
that's the only thing he was actually right about
Joseph Howard
Tame Impala are just pastiche dadrock though.
Jackson Reyes
Gene Simmons is the guy who, once he's driving a Ferrari, forgets he used to ride a bicycle to work.
Kayden Martinez
Nah, rock isn't dead, just his kind of rock.
Jacob Green
>This entire post gave me aids. The later section shits on the former. This entire post gave me aids. The later section shits on the former.
Connor Brown
Well meme'd
Jordan Nelson
Kiss are the ultimate apex and summit of dadrock since only fat 45 year old manbabbies like them.
Nathaniel Thomas
>Tame Impala, who my son turned me on to, are one of the only fresh, original bands to come along since 2000 Coincidentally, his son's comics are also the last fresh, original comics Gene's read since 2000.
Jaxson Jackson
They had some good songs on the early albums, but they should have called it quits in 1980.
Jacob Martin
ITT: Guys with obvious daddy issues because their father used to play a Kiss Greatest Hits CD in the car while driving them to soccer practice
Isaiah Morris
fuck you asshole
Lucas Hughes
Rock died with the end of the protest movement in the early 70s senpai. The apex of rock was at Woodstock.
Levi Davis
If rock being dead means that the Def Leppard/Bon Jovi/Poison brand of rock is dead (what Gene is really referring to), then I'll take it.
Matthew Gutierrez
The Genie has it all wrong. Rock was never about the money. It wasn't even about the art. It's about having fun, street culture, and the youth movement. It isn't universal, it's dependent on the scene. Some bands (Nirvana, Minor Threat, Sublime, Oasis, etc) achieve a measure of universality, but the music is really about the time and place of which it is a product. Pretty much any artist that doesn't come out of a scene and tries to start at universal appeal is trash. Even the ones that get to the top (Nirvana, Oasis) usually become trash once they get there.
Kevin Phillips
If illegal downloading killed music, why didn't it kill pop/rap/country? This is the dumbest logical fallacy I've ever heard.
Jackson Morgan
>1910 - music started
Every time
Easton Nelson
Were you alive in 1909 to know that there was music then? Didn't think so.
Matthew Ortiz
>No one appreciates the hard work that goes into making an album anymore, or the idea that artists deserve to be financially compensated for their efforts.
This is just fucking baffling if you look at the level of quality of the KISS records and the lifestyle Simmons has enjoyed because of them.
If anything Simmons is a walking example of why you should pirate music and tank the industry,
Nolan Taylor
>Pretty much any artist that doesn't come out of a scene and tries to start at universal appeal is trash
The record industry very early on figured out how to create faux, commercialized buttrock. In fact the Doobie Brothers were probably the first such band.
Jayden Sanders
In The Heart of the Young [Atlantic, 1990]
The appalling pall that pop metal casts over 1990's abysmal Hot 100 is a triumph of mass narrowcasting. By carefully downplaying any accident of gender, socioeconomic standing, or subgeneration, it is in theory possible for any passive Caucasian under 25 to consume (in descending order of marginal differentiation) Heart or Jon Bon or Warrant or Cheap Trick or David fucking Cassidy. Winger are Whitesnake with the sexism muted and the facelifts down the road, their feigned vulnerability and youthcult rote masking their will to power. They may stay around a while, they may not. They're so bad they're not even completely terrible. C-
t. he's talking about how bands that try to start at universal appeal are trash
Ayden Perez
The point is, rock was never dependent on "making it" As long as there are local scenes still thriving, rock is alive and well.
Samuel Johnson
Kurt Cobain literally ended his own life when he realized that he was on the verge of turning into commercialized product.
Robert Jones
Christgau makes me feel stupid.
Thomas Moore
yeah if you're playing stadiums, chances are you already sold out
Aiden Parker
REEEEEEE WHY ARE PEOPLE PLAYING DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS OTHER THAN A DRUM SET AND A GUITAR.
I CAN'T INNOVATE, BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT; THE POST.
Landon Williams
IDK, but as you can see from that review, he was exposing the truth about buttrock well before any of Sup Forums was alive. The record industry was always trying to sell diluted, commercialized product made by watering down what the underground rock scene did. Dee Snider also had a lot to say about how the business works and their ability to hijack legitimate music movements for $$$.
Colton Davis
I actually was.
Logan Edwards
Teenybopper pop is just...teenybopper pop. During the 70s-80s-90s-2000s, the record business decided arbitrarily on making pop centered around the guitar format, nowadays they're not. But the music hasn't changed. Def Leppard and Ratt had no more depth or substance than Taylor Swift.
Joshua White
I think Gene Simmons has forgotten how Kiss started in the underground 70s NYC rock scene which was focused a lot on that whole glam/androgynous look. That was so long ago he probably can't remember anymore about gigging in clubs and living on one sandwich a day. To hear him talk, you'd think he was riding around in a limousine and living in a solid gold mansion since 1973.
Hunter Edwards
Yeah by the time you're riding around in a limousine, you're already a sellout.
Elijah Rogers
That's funny and cute considering him and Paul Stanley have admitted they don't care about the music anymore and are only interested in peddling safe family entertainment/nostalgia at their concerts.
Chase Harris
He's right though, Tame Impala are the most original and fresh guitar band since decades
Jason Gutierrez
Get off of Sup Forums, Kevin Parker.
Logan Collins
Is this the same guy who said to leave politics out of entertainment or whatever?
Dominic Wilson
yeah and then a record company came and turned them into rockstars which doesn't happen anymore, and that's what he's criticising. You are doomed to play in shitty little clubs in new york forever nowadays.
Kevin Rogers
*a record company in combination with people who bought their albums
Xavier Nguyen
It doesn't exist.
Robert Fisher
But that's all rock was ever really about. He's confusing rock with rockstardom.
Robert Williams
Simmons couldn't be more wrong, rock is more alive than ever thanks sites such as bandcamp. Old guy listens only shit that radio plays, and thinks that's all the "rock genre" has to offer.
Adrian Perez
That was explained in . Anyone can be a zillionaire music star nowadays, the problem is he can't figure out why the 1980s method of becoming a zillionaire music star doesn't work in almost 2017.
Thomas Rivera
You can't deny it, name me another band then
Dominic Williams
Can you be any more jewish than that?
Robert Ramirez
Christgau hits the nail on the head as often as he completely misses it imo. This is an example of him hitting it.
Anthony Thomas
How dare you compare Def Leppard to Poison?
Blake Collins
Kanye is the nearest thing I can think of to a modern day rock star and he's never touched a guitar. DESU, being a "rock star" is a concept rather than a particular format of music.
Thank God they didn't. Paul Stanley is such a closet case it's not funny.
Daniel Foster
Aren't all cock rock singers metrosexual if not outright gay?
Colton Collins
He's been married a few times and has kids.
Robert Lee
I don't like Kiss and this rant does sound like a "back in my day" cliche but he isn't completely wrong. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll and it's even longer now than it used to be.
There is no denying that mainstream music has become more formulaic than it used to be. Many bands that received mainstream success 20-50 years ago wouldn't do it today.
That being said, I think music is as creative as ever. It's just that creative music is less likely to become mainstream and lead to wealth and success like it used to do.
Thomas Smith
>There is no denying that mainstream music has become more formulaic than it used to be
>mainstream music is more formulaic than it used to be >more formulaic This is a troll, right?
Joseph Peterson
"I Was Made For Loving You" is obnoxious as fuck, probably their worst hit.
Chase Stewart
Kurt Cobain was also on a fuck ton of heroin and was depressed out of his fucking mind
Logan Green
dont u mean MURDERED? ?? ? ? ? ?? ? ?
Austin Rogers
Mainstream rawk in 1985 was just as much generic commercialized bullshit as anything out today. The good stuff was always underground and you had to listen to college radio to get it, not MTV.
Let's imagine Sup Forums existed in 1985. Do you think we'd be talking about Def Leppard, Ratt, and Night Ranger? As if.
Bentley Reed
lmao He killed himself because he was a mentally unstable junkie. I guarantee that he never complained about receiving fat paychecks.
Nolan Bell
Hey, just read some Christgau columns from 1985. He didn't exactly talk about Def Leppard, Ratt, and Night Ranger either. Nobody with any serious interest in music ever gave a shit about anything on an MTV countdown.
Gabriel Turner
I suppose I won't like many more Kiss songs then.
Christopher Russell
They had some good songs but that's not one of them. Also I agree with that other user how Gene Simmons put 1983 as his "cutoff" based on the coincidence that their last hit single (Lick It Up) happened that year.
Jayden Wilson
Yeh, as I said, when Kiss were in their prime, the music industry just happened to favor guitar music as their vehicle of choice for sugar coated 12 year old girl pop, today they're not.
Angel White
>that their last hit single (Lick It Up) happened that year nah, they still managed to successfully hop on the power ballad train in 1989 youtube.com/watch?v=d_RKO5ozLVo
Luke Allen
Not really. Most of their later career singles didn't last long and were quickly forgotten. LIU is about the most recent song that stayed in the live setlist. If you listen to later Kiss albums, you can tell they were reaching hard for another big stadium shoutalong tune like Rock and Roll All Nite or Lick It Up, but were never able to pull it off again.
Bentley Hernandez
Strutter is p good t b h f a m
Adam Richardson
Read some interviews. Gene and Paul consistently have said over the years that their post-70s albums were shit except for Creatures of the Night and Lick It Up, both of which produced a hit single or two.
Owen Gomez
Lemme give you an example. Metallica were groundbreaking and innovative only in the early years when they were basically underground. By the time you got to TBA, they were already a sellout band for soccer moms and tween girls.
Josiah Myers
>Let's imagine Sup Forums existed in 1985. Do you think we'd be talking about Def Leppard, Ratt, and Night Ranger? As if.
No, we would not.
Jordan Campbell
On that topic, how did they manage to fix a radio to a dirtbike without you being able to see it? And if the technology exists, why didn't they put it on the bicycle?
Nathan Hernandez
Err, doesn't Maroon 5 kind of disprove the notion that mainstream guitar bands are dead?
Owen Brooks
Maroon 5 _are_ the 2000s/2010s Poison sadly enough. The funny thing is they started out as an alternative band and then sold out in a horrible way.
Robert Parker
Well, yeah. Kiss are the kind of band that always relied on a couple of big, dumb, simple arena rock tunes to fill out their setlists and the post-1983 albums just didn't have them.
Xavier Morris
"Animals" is the worst thing I've ever heard with the possible exception of Five For Fighting--1000 Years.
John Nguyen
pop and pop rock music has always been mostly not good, the only difference is youve had 40 years to explore the 70s and 0 years to explore today's music. Obviously you can point out more good songs from many years ago since youve had time to find them
John Walker
>I'm the dude who sells KISS pinball machines and KISS caskets and the problem with music today is that I'm being robbed of hypothetical money
