As good as Bob Dylan, better than Bowie. But not as good as Michael Jackson.
Didn’t Blondie cash in for $30m? That sounds a steel.
Kiss
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
$300m? I don’t even know a single Kiss song. And they look daft. They’ll be having four separate biopics next I expect.
Always baffled me yet look on youtube and the overwhelming opinion by those who bother to post is that they are the greatest band that has ever existed. With Rush coming a close second of course.
Huge in North America
Seriously?
Never got Kiss. Got to be one of the worst acts to sell so many records. That should be a thread
I think I only know 3 Kiss songs:
God Made Rock & Roll For You
Crazy Nights!
I was Made for Lovin’ You
Those songs are irredeemably, utterly, mind-numbingly, shit. I have no interest in listening to anything at all by Kiss.
Oh !! I like the last two in an irony free way
God Made… was written by one of those blokes from the Zombies as I recall.
Rod Argent, if I’m not mistaken.
(I might well be…)
Russ Ballard wrote it (Argent was indeed the band) though Kiss ‘modified’ the lyrics.
Improved, according to Russ – “Kiss changed the first verse but I think they got it right. I mean, ‘Put your faith in a loud guitar…’ is more rock ‘n’ roll. I was trying to be, what I am, very loving and funny – I was trying to express my feelings more than anything. But they got it right because they made it a real rock song and they sped it up. I always thought ours was too slow and while we were rehearsing it I said it should be more ‘up’. I think Kiss spent time getting that tempo absolutely spot on.”
April 1st was three days ago, mate.
They key part is this I think:
“However, Pophouse, will own not just the rights to the music but the entire Kiss brand, including intellectual property sales, which will allow the Swedish firm to generate future AI-generated content.”
The company produced the ABBA Voyage concerts, so there will likely be future Kiss versions of these concerts, among other things. It’s about the brand rather than the back catalogue. And pretty smart too I think. They know they can’t physically tour anymore so this is a way to keep the brand going after that. All acts are a brand, at least Kiss are blatant about it. They’re not so popular in the UK, but as Dai mentions above, they’re huge in North America and they also do good business in Japan, South America and Aus/NZ.
As regards the song catalogue, I like Kiss a lot. Not really Afterword-friendly, but if you approach them as producing uncomplicated hard rock party music, then they’re a lot of fun, especially the early 70s records.
“Intellectual” is not a word commonly used in relation to discussions of this pantomime of a band. Not that I have anything against pantomimes. (Oh yes you do).
Given the choice of “intellectual” or entertaining, I’d take the latter every time. And given they’ve made a $30m exit after a 50 year career, I’d say it’s proven pretty lucrative.
I recall in one of the Word Podcasts Stuart Maconie described Queen as a “pantomime Led Zeppelin”. I think it was meant as an insult, but I thought it sounded a great idea.
I’d figured Kiss would, given the theatrics and makeup, deal with the ravages of time by hiring two replacements for main men Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons in a Menudo-style way to keep the brand rolling on indefinitely. Stanley sounded awful in latter years – but at least he hasn’t been getting vocal ‘help’ as a lot of heritage acts allegedly have. They previewed the avatars at the end of their last show and they looked more than a bit shonky, but there’s doubtless a load of fine tuning to be done.
The $300M will presumably be split $100M each for Stanley, Simmons and the manager – the Cat and the Spaceman have been hired hands for the last 25-odd years. As much as Gene Simmons loves money (I’ve always thought of him as the rock Donald Trump), he’s surely got to have enough to retire on.
I don’t know any of their songs and they’ve always struck me as rock’s equivalent of WWF (no wonder they’re big in USA). Did anybody watch that programme Rock School with Gene Simmons a few years bck, where he taught a bunch of kids to be a rock group? One of the kids had a hit single off the back of it, calling himself Lil Chris, then sadly went on to commit suicide aged just 24. I wonder if Simmons and the show’s producers felt any responsibility?
Nah.
He taught those kids fuck all – just sat there looking stupid with his dyed weave and his sunglasses. The series was inspired by Jack Black’s School of Rock – but where Black’s character taught the kids that rock’n’roll was about stickin’ it to The Man, Gene was The Man.
The ABBA comparisons are apt. The avatar thing is already underway.
Apparently there was some grumbling by fans at the final Madison Square Garden show that it was a little perfunctory, then they ‘finished’ with this clip. It was seen as a little opportunistic is the vibe I get.
No surprises they’d go in the direction. Like ’em or not, they saw the value of branding pretty early in the piece, and have been unapologetic in their approach. I’ve seen them live a handful of times (in the ‘back in make up’ era) and they put on a balls to the wall show with singable hits and there is not a dull moment in the night. I spent every second either giving it the devil horns and/or laughing at Paul Stanley’s stage banter. While playing very much to the back row, there’s something about his camp schtick that projects an enjoyably healthy knowingness.
I don’t reach for the records often – and Double Platinum is all you really need – but there are far more critically lauded acts whose Best Ofs wouldn’t run nearly as long.
And my 10 year old son loves them too, so taking him to see them last year was a fucking hoot.
Only two thoughts on this: Kiss are the perfect act for the Pophouse treatment, and I trained the (excellent) lawyer who did the deal, so feeling a very warm glow around this news.
Seriously?