News Archive July 2011

KISS Is The 'Only Rock 'N' Roll Brand'
From: Gatehouse News Service
Posted: July 14, 2011

In the band's nearly four-decade history, KISS has never had a No. 1 single.

But that hasn't stopped the group from selling millions of albums, singles and videos over the years. The band's popularity comes in part from its relentless, shameless self-promotion of not only the music but a countless array of products.

"Rock and Roll All Nite" is arguably KISS' best-known song. It captures one of the group's contradictions: massive popularity despite lacking one of the conventional markers of music-business success.

The song peaked at No. 68 on the Billboard pop charts. The group's highest charting single, the ballad "Beth" - likely not atop the favorites list of many hard-rocking fans - only made it as high as No. 7.

In our era of celebrities interacting with fans on Twitter and rap moguls trading street kicks for three-piece suits, the idea of "bands as brands" may not seem new. But KISS was decades ahead of its time.

"Most kids were infatuated with the look of KISS, not their music," Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote for the band's entry on the AllMusic.com.

Wearing face paint, platform shoes and body armor, KISS took the country by force in the 1970s with a theatrical live show that featured smoke, fire, blood and fancy lighting.

In New York in 1973, founding members Gene Simmons (bass, vocals) and Paul Stanley (guitar, vocals) hired drummer Peter Criss through his Rolling Stone ad. Guitarist Ace Frehley came in after seeing an ad in the Village Voice.

Criss and Frehley came and went from the band over the years. The current lineup consists of Simmons, Stanley, Tommy Thayer (guitar) and Eric Singer (drums). (A publicist for the band said an interview could not be arranged by press time.

Two of the band's earlier replacements - Vinnie Vincent and the late Eric Carr - wore new makeup designs (respectively, The Egyptian Ankh Warrior, also referred to as The Wizard, and The Fox). Thayer and Singer, however, wear the makeup designs of Frehley (The Spaceman) and Criss (The Catman).

That decision was controversial among some fans, but, as Erlewine wrote, it's never been a problem from a business or legal standpoint because Simmons (The Demon) and Stanley (The Starchild) maintain ownership of all the designs.

People who have followed Simmons closely over the years know he frequently touts his savvy as a businessman. In an interview with Alison Fahey of Adweek magazine, he talked about his decades-long work to build a brand.

"It's called KISS, which most people think is a rock 'n' roll band, but is actually the only rock 'n' roll brand," Simmons said, "because no matter how much you love U2 or the Stones or McCartney, you're not buying Rolling Stones condoms, or you're not going to buy U2 comic books. But all those things and more you can get from KISS."

Condoms, comic books, a made-for-TV movie ("KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park"), T-shirts, fragrances - there seems to be no limit to the range of products that can be branded with the signature likenesses of KISS.

"You keep testing by adding new products with those faces - not emphasizing the guitars, but more the facial, iconic imagery - and you notice that if you go to France, you can see my face on Coke bottles, without guitars," Simmons told Adweek.

"When we do KISS comic books, for example, there are no guitars," Simmons said. "It's not about guitars. It's something much bigger."