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IanB
IanB
4525 posts

Edited Feb 22, 2010, 09:43
Re: KISS
Feb 22, 2010, 09:35
That's a fantastic post.

Anything that points up the utter artificiality of rock n roll as an art form is going to worry people. Naked ambition and avarice worries people who romanticise the music too. Especially in a musical culture that values terminally damaged souls and unhappy endings with a touch of melodrama and Greek Tragedy - Syd, Jim, Jimi, Sid, Johnny, Janis, Drake, Parsons, Otis, Buddy, Elvis, Ian Curtis etc etc etc. Rock writers love a tragedy and they love a career that you can draw a line under for easy biographical analysis. Though this is the same culture that really measures itself in charts, in sales figures, box office grosses and awards.

What else do we expect from a genre where people are expected to produce their best work well before they are 35 (30 if they are women) and are lucky to get three consecutive years of peak creativity in their entire careers? A culture where real artistic development is often results in a commercial death knell.

The best rock n roll has an element of the serious and the silly. The genuine article and the bullshit. Kiss point up the sham but also deliver great dumb party music and the best show. You just wont see them with a well thumbed copy of Kafka or doing press conferences to "save" the rainforest or hanging out with Phillip Glass and Brian Eno. Which personally comes as something of a relief from some of the vacuous chin-stroking that goes on around parts of the Art Rock scene.

Considering they are the ultimate cartoon band it is ironic that Kiss are probably the most real, least artificial, rock and rollers of all.
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