His band never ‘ruled the roost’... Far from it. They were just a semi-interesting costume band with a few hit songs.
“His band never ‘ruled the roost’... Far from it. They were just a semi-interesting costume band with a few hit songs.”
I was mid-20s when KISS arrived on the scene. The radio stations I listened to (FM) never played a single KISS song. I never knew anyone that bought a KISS album, and nobody I knew ever mentioned KISS.
Back in the day they were a band for 13 or 14 year old males. That was ok, but for anyone out of high school they just didn’t exist.
BTW, the film ‘Detroit Rock City’ is pretty funny, about adolescent boys who idolize KISS, trying to get to one of their concerts.
Nah, they ruled for a little while- couldn’t stand their music, or performances, but those type of performances really took off when ,iss and twisted sister, and others decided to take what Alice Cooper started and run with it. Cooper was an innovator in a few genre’s actually- his theatrical performances I think inspired a number of bands- he was an original “shock rocker” too, which he later denounced-
But back to kiss- they did capitalize on e trend for wild costumes and Pyro shows- and were really controversial f9r a while- lots of parents hated them- (they hated Cooper too back in the day)- kids just flocked to them b3cause they were so different and new, and kids being rebels glomed onto them quickly. Ther e was and still,is a huge kiss market of merch and collectibles. Gene was pretty smart in pushing for that after his fame faded- he kept the dream a.ive for a long time.