#342/978
September 16 1985
Kiss
Asylum
Genre: Rock
1.75 out of 5
Maybe I talked about this before but, I have a soft spot for Kiss. I think they represent everything that is pure about Rock n Roll.
Allow me to explain:
Before the mid 50s there was really no such thing as a “teenager”. The very concept was a Madison Ave creation. A marketing scheme. A group to exploit. The Boomer kids that got horny when Elvis swiveled his hips were the same that were on the receiving end of age-direct marketing on steroids. Sure, you could see advertisements in magazines that were directed towards kids but nothing like what exploded in the 50s and beyond. George Lucas didn’t invent merchandising. He just understood how to exploit it because he was of the age group that was directly bombarded with this newfangled information transference machine: the TV.
Rock and Roll was designed to sell. To sell image, to sell sex, to sell singles. It is all sales.
What are songs on the radio, anyway? They are advertisements for something to buy. In most cases, the ad is a sales pitch to THAT song. You heard it, you bought it. A buck a track, or so. In the bloated rock era the single was the advertisement to buy the rest of the album.
Why else would Payola exist? You get the record played, “teenagers” go out and spend their babysitting/lawn mowing money on it.
Interscope knew this. They bought 3 minute blocks of advertising time in the PNW and played a 3 minute Limp Bizkit song. That’s because the song IS the ad.
Kiss understood this. It’s all sales. It’s all merchandise. The thing about Simmons and Stanley is they weren’t shy about it. They didn’t hide behind a veil of import and gravitas the way, say, Queen has. Because Queen is the other side of that coin. They want your money but they did it while pretending it was really about “the music”.
It’s not. It has never been.
It’s always about lawn mowing and babysitting money.
Which is why Kiss is the most Rock and Roll band ever.
This album of theirs is bad, though. Desmond Child can’t save this one. Tho he tries. Boy, are they trying to play catch up to Motley Crue, huh? (“I’m Alive”)
No comments:
Post a Comment