Gene Simmons says Rock is Dead

[zekko]

This isn't exactly news because the story came out a few weeks ago. But I wanted to comment on it. Basically the story is that Gene Simmons, the bass player for Kiss, told Esquire magazine that rock is dead. Here's the most
pertinent part of the article:

"Rock is finally dead," Simmons declared in an interview with Esquire. "The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered," he added. But rock's killer wasn't the blurring of musical genres or lack of craftsmanship. Instead, Simmons blames file sharing and the fact that no one values music "enough to pay you for it" for murdering rock n' roll.

"It's very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don't have a chance. If you play guitar, it's almost impossible," Simmons tell his son Nick, who interviewed him for Esquire. "You're better off not even learning how to play guitar or write songs, and just singing in the shower and auditioning for The X Factor.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gene-simmons-rock-is-finally-dead-20140907

Now I agree with Simmons that rock is dead, but for different reasons. Basically, he is complaining about the death of a business model and the record companies. And particularly that there are some dollars not finding their way into his pockets because of file sharing. Well, be that as it may...

I think rock is dead because it has simply run its course. By that I don't mean that you can't find good bands to listen to, or that they never play rock on the radio, or that no one is listening to it, or that there aren't talented musicians out there playing it.

I just think that by this point, everything has been done. There are no new sounds. There was a time when rock was new and young, almost everything that you could do was new and exciting. New sounds were being invented and heard for the first time. Rock was fresh.

Now everything has been done several times, everything has cycled through from minimalism to progressive and back again several times. Styles have been mashed together, and all kinds of effects have been used. Rock was born out of the electrification of the instruments, particularly the guitar and bass guitar. That has now been established and taken about as far as it can go.

I'm not saying there is no good music anymore. But everything has been done, and everything in rock has basically repeated itself. That's why the popularity of the genre has fallen off. It is no longer fresh.

 

[FairShake]

There's been a ton of ex-rockers learning the banjo, mandolin, and bluegrass guitar around Philly lately.

I think bluegrass and alt-country is where the ex-alternative rockers and punks are going.

Which is great in my opinion.

Rock will never die but it will become a "scene" like, say, bluegrass is now.

 

[FairShake]

He should say "mainstream rock" is dead. Good riddance.

But if you live in a big city and go to bars to see live music you know that it's hardly dead. If anything it's "death" has meant the freedom to really do things differently.

 

[Fatal Jay]

I like some rock, but even I know gene simmons is the biggest sell out on this earth, if anything he killed it.

 

[Maximus Rex]

Here's the Problem with Rock

Best Rock Performance

Radioactive (Winner)
Imagine Dragons

Always Alright
Alabama Shakes

The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
David Bowie

Kashmir
Led Zeppelin


My God Is The Sun

Queens Of The Stone Age

I'm Shakin'

Jack White


Best Metal Performance

God Is Dead?

Black Sabbath

T.N.T.
Anthrax


TThe Enemy Inside
Dream Theater

In Due Time
Killswitch


Room 24
Volbeat Featuring King Diamond


Best Rock Song

Cut Me Some Slack (Winner)
Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear, songwriters.

Ain't Messin 'Round
Gary Clark Jr., songwriter (Gary Clark Jr.)

Doom And Gloom
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, songwriters (The Rolling Stones)

God Is Dead?
Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi & Ozzy Osbourne, songwriters (Black Sabbath)

Panic Station
Matthew Bellamy, songwriter (Muse)

BEST ROCK ALBUM

Celebration Day (Winner)
Led Zeppelin

13
Black Sabbath

The Next Day
David Bowie

Mechanical Bull
Kings Of Leon

..Like Clockwork
Queens Of The Stone Age

Psychedelic Pill
Neil Young With Crazy Horse



The bolded is what's the problem with rock. When Led Zepplin is getting nominated for "Best Rock Performance" for a song made thirty-nine years ago, and cats like Zepplin, Bowie, McCartney, and Young are getting their "G.P." grammys, sh*t is problematic.

Now this has no bearing on how I feel about these artists personally. Zepplin is my favorite art across any musical genre, and I f*cks with Sabbath, Bowie, and McCartney heavy, but Kashmir as best rock performance in all of 2014? Really.

For some reason labels aren't signing true rock and metal bands. Which is a damn shame because that genre of music has become stagnant as hell.

I like some rock, but even I know gene simmons is the biggest sell out on this earth, if anything he killed it.

I never understood this attitude, what was exactly wrong with Simmons marketing his band to maximize it's earning potential? Isn't that what we're suppose to do when when we have a job? Make as such as humanly possible? It's just that Kiss happened to be a band, and Paul, Gene, Ace, and Pete and they make music. As I stated earlier, I don't get this struggling artist sh*t.

 

[zekko]

The bolded is what's the problem with rock. When Led Zepplin is getting nominated for "Best Rock Performance" for a song made thirty-nine years ago, and cats like Zepplin, Bowie, McCartney, and Young are getting their "G.P." grammys, sh*t is problematic.

Well, maybe that's the problem with the Grammys, which have always been known for their sh!t choices. But the reason you have all these old classic rockers in there is because Simmons is right, rock is dead.

Like FairShake says, rock will end up more as a "scene", like bluegrass. Let me repeat: There are no new sounds in rock, everything has been done, several times over. ALL forms of music run their course, and the people who are most well known and associated for those forms of music are the ones who were around when they were still fresh and growing art forms. That's why the Grammys are giving awards to classic rockers.

Again, I'm not saying there isn't any good new music out there or that people aren't enjoying it. But rock as a form is not growing, it is stagnant. There is nothing new left to do, everything has been done. And not only once, but several times over.

 

[Stagger Lee]

I posted about this a couple weeks ago. Simmons said, that white middle-class Americans killed rock and roll with file sharing. And he said, white Americans are unpatriotic and feel entitled. He said that immigrants are patriotic and don't feel entitled.

So there you go, an Israeli born jewish immigrant says white American males killed rock and roll and are entitled and unpatriotic. White American=bad; Foreign-born, non-white=good.

 

[Fatal Jay]

Best Rock Performance

Radioactive (Winner)
Imagine Dragons

Always Alright
Alabama Shakes

The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
David Bowie

Kashmir
Led Zeppelin


My God Is The Sun

Queens Of The Stone Age

I'm Shakin'

Jack White


Best Metal Performance

God Is Dead?

Black Sabbath

T.N.T.
Anthrax


TThe Enemy Inside
Dream Theater

In Due Time
Killswitch


Room 24
Volbeat Featuring King Diamond


Best Rock Song

Cut Me Some Slack (Winner)
Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic & Pat Smear, songwriters.

Ain't Messin 'Round
Gary Clark Jr., songwriter (Gary Clark Jr.)

Doom And Gloom
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, songwriters (The Rolling Stones)

God Is Dead?
Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi & Ozzy Osbourne, songwriters (Black Sabbath)

Panic Station
Matthew Bellamy, songwriter (Muse)

BEST ROCK ALBUM

Celebration Day (Winner)
Led Zeppelin

13
Black Sabbath

The Next Day
David Bowie

Mechanical Bull
Kings Of Leon

..Like Clockwork
Queens Of The Stone Age

Psychedelic Pill
Neil Young With Crazy Horse



The bolded is what's the problem with rock. When Led Zepplin is getting nominated for "Best Rock Performance" for a song made thirty-nine years ago, and cats like Zepplin, Bowie, McCartney, and Young are getting their "G.P." grammys, sh*t is problematic.

Now this has no bearing on how I feel about these artists personally. Zepplin is my favorite art across any musical genre, and I f*cks with Sabbath, Bowie, and McCartney heavy, but Kashmir as best rock performance in all of 2014? Really.

For some reason labels aren't signing true rock and metal bands. Which is a damn shame because that genre of music has become stagnant as hell.



I never understood this attitude, what was exactly wrong with Simmons marketing his band to maximize it's earning potential? Isn't that what we're suppose to do when when we have a job? Make as such as humanly possible? It's just that Kiss happened to be a band, and Paul, Gene, Ace, and Pete and they make music. As I stated earlier, I don't get this struggling artist sh*t.

um have you seen the stuff they put behind their name

they have kiss hello kitty dolls, kiss golf clubs, kiss cologne and I wish I was kidding about those products, and it is countless more that exist, those dudes ***** 'd themselves.

You have to have more respect for your brand and legacy

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

Cry me a river makeup boy.

It's called "Destructive Technology" for a reason. New technology comes along, and it messes up the old business model. It's always been like that.

You can either adapt, and do OK, or whine, and slowly die. U2 Just released their latest CD FOR FREE.

You just have to be creative as a business person on how you make your money. Maybe give away studio music, and always be on tour. Or spend a little bit of your cash making UN-SHARE-ABLE files.

Rock isn't dead. It never will be. Music's been around since the dawn of time. Just because you can't leverage economies of scale so easily doesn't mean "Rock Is Dead."


While superbands like KISS may not make nearly as much money as they used to, there's tons of folks out there, playing in front of people who otherwise would NEVER have had a chance. I've seen plenty of decent "amateur" musicians on YouTube that, judging by their views, are doing pretty well advertising wise.

During the heyday of KISS, you had to be a supergroup to get any play. Now there's a WHOLE RANGE of ways to get your sound out there in between super group and garage band. (Soundcloud, etc).

Before you had to have thousands of dollars just to buy instruments and get an hour or so of studio time. Now you can buy decent recording stuff on a PC, and have a studio in your house.

Just like claims that the traditional "Move Industry" is slowly "dying." It's just that there TONS more ways to movies to get in front of viewers besides big screens. That doesn't mean movies are dead.

 

[zekko]

So in 1968 you had the advent of rock. Then in 1992 you had Grunge. In my opinion there hasn't been anything groundbreaking since Nirvana.

Rock started in the 50s. It became more sophisticated and began to be considered art in the 60s. Around '68, which you mention, the basic sound began to get heavier. Bands began to play arenas and the music became more progressive and indulgent (20 minute drum solos and such). Punk began a backlash against the arena rockers, and brought in a more minimalistic approach more similar to the earlier days of rock. But technical playing continued to get more sophisticated. Hair bands of the 80s took the place of the arena rockers. Then Grunge was essentially Punk Part II, again rebelling against the arena rockers and bringing in a more minimalist and simpler approach to the music. The guitar solo, once a staple of most rock songs, grew out of favor.

At that point, rock had basically repeated its whole cycle, twice. I agree that Nirvana was probably the last thing that could be considered groudbreaking, even though it was really just restating the punk phenomenon.

 

[dasein]

Schlock like KISS may be dead or dying, and the extremely lucrative gravy train that KISS merch was for decades, doesn't mean rock is. It died a bit when Lux Interior died a few years back, but lots of good things died some that day.

 

[Stagger Lee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Oka6fB_xo&list=RDx0Oka6fB_xo&index=1

 

[zekko]

I personally think there's Rock and Roll. And then there's Rock.

I see what you're saying there, and I can't disagree, although I tend to lump it all together.

Yes but I don't see Grunge as a sub-Genre of Punk. It's more significant than that, in my opinion.

Grunge is more sophisticated than punk was, but it served the same purpose - as a rebellion against the status quo and a return to minimalism.

The early, early 90's (1991-93) was awesome.

I liked the early 90s better than the 80s.

my feeling is, something will come along and redefine music.

Yeah, it might not be rock, though.

They have their own, deserved place in the history of rock. I respect them and their marketing team because they managed to make it big, despite being panned by critics, never being played on the radio, and never releasing a decent studio album.

Where Kiss was successful was that wanted to put on a big show, with lots of bombs and explosions, costumes, and fireworks. And they did that. And even if you don't like their songs, I thought they had a nice live rock sound back in the mid 70s. It was just Gibsons through Marshalls, but it was effective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Oka6fB_xo&list=RDx0Oka6fB_xo&index=1

Lol, that's from 1983.

 

[Stagger Lee]

Lol, that's from 1983.

Yeah and even back then it was answering the question, "Can you still rock in America?" lol. I liked Night Ranger and 80's rock.

 

[jimmy18]

Rock is completely dead.

It was a hoax guys

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-dead-fast-and-furious-7-star-latest-to-be-subject-to-death-hoax-report-9534654.html

 

[Huffman]

Well, "Rock" - as far as Heavy Metal is concerned, it's had great bursts of creativity right into the late 90s. Now you don't have to like Norwegian Black Metal, but wow - if that's not evolution then what is!

I'll agree that the last 10 years haven't showed any real advancement of the music... so in a sense metal is (artistically) dying right now. But to say that all rock has been dead since the 80s? That's just stupid.

 

[zekko]

I'll agree that the last 10 years haven't showed any real advancement of the music... so in a sense metal is (artistically) dying right now. But to say that all rock has been dead since the 80s? That's just stupid.

I don't think anybody said that. We were saying it has been dead since the early 90s, which I stand by.

 

[zekko]

\Simmons knows his wealth is being threatened by Youtube and Napster. Less millions for him.

To be fair, Simmons has made his millions (not that he wouldn't mind more). I do believe that it genuinely saddens him that younger musicians coming up won't have the same opportunities he had.

 

[FairShake]

Just a thought. As I was listening to the country station in Philly yesterday I noticed that rock lives on in country music. Especially "bro country" like Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. It won't be recognized as such because rock fans don't like country but plenty of country fans love rock and the two have been blurred on and off since Elvis Presley. The current stuff sounds like southern rock mixed with glam metal if you ask me.

Since country music is arguably the most popular musical genre in America and has been for years I'd say people still like guitars and good times somewhere.