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Wow, Gene Simmons Brutally Blunt Take on The Industry


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For a guy who has made enough $$$ to not worry about the current state of the business, he seems pretty annoyed still... and I agree with him on a lot of it. Especially the part where he calls out bands and artists for not going after "college kids" for stealing music. 

 

 

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I agree with SOME of what he's saying.  I don't see any reason why rockers need to act like rappers, but it is true that illegal downloading has had a HUGE effect on the record industry.  And this can be a problem for new bands.  The sad truth is that a band has to make money if it wants to get bigger than "local band" status.

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Gene really has nothing to say about anything and never has. His lyrics are about sex, partying all night and sleeping all day. He gets attention, his favorite thing after money, by being snarky and edgy in interviews. He really couldn't care less about the music business because he's not really in it - he's a merchandise businessman.

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Jes Johnson wrote:

 

 I don't see any reason why rockers need to act like rappers,

 

This was one of his best points.   Rock music is dead to a large degree because rockers stopped acting like rock stars, being bigger than life and having sex appeal.   They started taking it all too seriously and bored 90% of the public in the process.

The rappers are only imitating what the rock stars of the 60s, 70s and 80s were doing and took over doing it when the rockers of the 90s and 00s started to believe they were "better" than that.

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I find it interesting that a man who hasn't written a half-decent song since 1975 is taking a shot at musicians who chose to put more importance on their art than their pocketbook.  Today that's a breath of fresh air.

It's pretty clear who he is targeting with his comments, but what he seems to ignore is those same "non" rock stars dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the "rock stars" he thinks so highly of, basically erasing their existance from the music scene until they became nastalgia.  All the non rock-star guy did was  give the public what they wanted; good music, not spandex and hairspray and verse prechorus chorus repeat guitar solo chorus.  Gene's anger is misdirected.  He should be pointing the finger at the rock stars for **** it all up.

Rappers are the new rock stars?  That's so 1999.  Biggie and Tupac are dead.  Snoop is now a Lion, Kanye is a Kardashian and Jay-Z owns the Nets.  Tyler the Creator spends more time on a skate board then pimpin' a mercedes. 

Welcome to the digital age Gene.  Twitter.  Facebook.  Instagram.  MTV (that's Music Television for any of you under 18) stopped playing music videos 20 years ago to enlighten teenagers with The Real World and Teen Mom.  In today's world, stars are made by putting their home porn video on the internet...with their mother's blessing.   People wait in line to get autographs from people who get kicked off Survivor or the Amazing Race the second week of the show.  There are your Rock Stars.  Farrah Abraham.  Snooki.  the DJ at XS who made $250,000 for a 90 minute pre-recorded set.

Someone once sang video killed the radio star.  They would have had a hell of a time writing a song about the internet and wifi.

And just to be clear I don't hate Kiss.  The first record I ever bought was Kiss Alive (the second and third were Destroyer and R&R Over), my fake name at 6th grade camp was Gene Simmons, and the first concert I ever took my son to when he was 4 years old was Kiss in full Gene Simmons make-up (maybe the 20th time I've seen them).

 

 

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The whole idea of music as a huge industry was never more than a passing fad brought about by the inception of recording technology and its inaccessability to "regular folks" for the better part of a century. It's now returning to the vaudeville stage and home parlor rooms.

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