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Guilty Pleasure From: TownOnline.com by David Rogers I have to fess up to a guilty pleasure. For a few months now I've been snatching up old KISS albums and singing to them in my car. While KISS should never be compared to Led Zeppelin or the Beatles in terms of musical genius, KISS does have one thing in common with them: they're a lot of fun. They're fun for two reasons. First, their lyrics and song titles are a hoot. Who can ever forget titles like "Plaster Caster," "Take Me," and "Love Gun"? As for lyrics here's a classic from "Come on and Love Me": "She's a dancer, a romancer, I'm a Capricorn and she's a Cancer." In an ever-increasing world of political correctness and parental guidance labels, it's almost refreshing to hear such blatantly immature and sexist lyrics and song titles. Second, listening to KISS is like taking a time warp back to the 1970s. Each member of KISS represented a certain persona. GENE SIMMONS was the Demon, ACE FREHLEY, the Spaceman, PAUL STANLEY, the Starchild and PETER CRISS, the Cat. And as with the Beatles, fans, known as the KISS Army, typically had a favorite band member. But what made KISS such a phenomenon back in the 1970s was their marketing strategy. KISS was everywhere. From lunchboxes, to comic books and movie screens to bowling balls, whatever KISS could slap their logo on was eagerly picked up by their fans. They toured constantly, and perhaps most impressive was the number of albums they released in such a short time. From 1974 to 1977, KISS released seven albums, six studio albums and one live. Not since the Beatles from 1963 to 1965 had a group released so much new material in such a short span. To put that in perspective, U2, arguably the most popular rock 'n' roll band today, has released two albums in four years. And while other 1970s and '80s bands could only marvel at KISS' prodigious output, they still managed to release new albums each year. Sprinkle in a tour, some magazine interviews and a few MTV videos and it was easy to follow your favorite band year-round without a lapse. I can remember the instant when rock 'n' roll became a big deal to me when I saw a Cheap Trick video clip back in 1982. Today, it's so much harder to follow your favorite band year round because there seems to be significant downtime between events. In addition to fewer albums, tours are less frequent. Also, MTV and VH1 no longer plays many videos, opting instead to air reality shows. Furthermore, today's musical acts typically have shorter shelve lives than they used to. Much of that can be attributed to the downloading of songs and the fact that more people are listening to rock music outside of their homes. Also, it seems as if record executives are less willing to take chances and only go for the next sure thing. What seems to be a growing trend these days is to become a fan of a musical genre more than a fan of one particular band. One may still have a favorite band but one is almost forced to follow other acts to satiate musical appetites. And while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does make it all the more likely there will ever be another band quite like KISS. David Rogers is editor of the Amesbury News. He considers ACE FREHLEY his favorite member of KISS. E-mail him at drogers@cnc.com. |
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