KISS

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Steve Graves

After more than 20 years in the business and sales of nearly 80 million albums, KISS can legitimately be placed in the pantheon of the world's great rock and roll bands. Their best known songs, such as "Rock 'n' Roll All Nite," "Shout it Out Loud," and "Detroit Rock City" stand as some of the greatest rock anthems of all time. The band might also be credited with inventing the radio-friendly power ballad ("Beth"), even though it took nearly 10 years before other hard rock bands made such an addition to an album mandatory. Their chart successes notwithstanding, KISS's greatest contribution to rock and roll may be their pioneer efforts on the stage. Their outrageous make-up and a commitment to over-the-top theatrics radically expanded rock fans' expectations for showmanship.

KISS was formed in New York City in 1972 by bass player Gene Simmons and vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley after their band Wicked Lester was dumped by Epic Records. Stanley and Simmons recruited guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss, both of whom who had advertised their availability in music magazines. With the lineup in place, the group devised an ingenious strategy to market their act to fans and record labels. Drawing on precedents set by glam rock acts like the New York Dolls and shock rocker Alice Cooper, the members of KISS reinvented themselves as four larger-than-life stage characters, by means of elaborate costumes and Japanese Kabuki make-up. Gene Simmons played a blood-spitting, fire-breathing demon; Paul Stanley masqueraded as a bare-chested, hyper-macho Casanova; lead guitarist Ace Frehley became an outer space guitar wizard; and Peter Criss played the role of a prowling cat-man. To intensify the effect, the quartet did not permit themselves to be seen or photographed in public without their make-up.

In addition to their clever use of theatrical disguise, KISS also developed an elaborately choreographed performance that, along with their aggressive self-promotional releases, attracted the attention of television producer Bill Aucoin, who helped the band to a contract with Casablanca Records. Their first three albums, released in quick succession in 1974 and 1975, sold modestly, and the band was lambasted by critics everywhere. Nevertheless, KISS quickly built an impressive audience through constant touring. Certainly, much of their in-concert appeal rested on their groundbreaking use of pyrotechnics, set design, and stage lighting. They also greatly expanded their audience because they were more willing than most bands to schedule dates in smaller market cities and geographically isolated places.

Recognizing that their musical energy was somewhat lost in the studio setting, KISS released a concert album. Peaking at number nine on the charts, Alive (1975) catapulted the band into the upper echelons of the rock world and relieved them of nagging debt and royalty problems. The next studio album, Destroyer (1976), marked an important shift in sound and image as KISS abandoned its simplistic, almost silly, straight-ahead guitar rock for a more polished and radio friendly sound. By broadening their sound, the band built a more diverse fan base. The KISS Army, as the band's fan club is known, once peopled almost exclusively by teenage males, began to include not only teenage females, but a lucrative pre-teen audience as well. Perhaps most important in their transition was the release of the pop single "Beth," a ballad penned by Criss as a tribute to his wife. "Beth" reached the top ten, and became the band's best-selling single. Their biggest year was 1977, which saw several of their albums on the charts simultaneously, leading them to end the year as Billboard's number two album artist, second only to Fleetwood Mac.

Capitalizing on their multi-platinum successes, the group further expanded their multimedia approach to rock. Taking a leaf out of the Beatlemania book, KISS made everything from black light posters to lunch boxes to costumed action figures available to their adoring fans. In 1977, Marvel comics published a KISS comic book, purportedly printed with ink mixed with blood drawn from the band. The next year the band was featured in a movie called KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. First released in late October, the timing was appropriate, since dressing up like a KISS character had become a favorite Halloween costume for kids across America. It was rumored that the band even bought 200 acres near Cincinnati in order to build a theme park that never materialized. KISS's widespread popularity and Gene Simmons' demonic stage character prompted concern by parents groups and the nascent Religious Right--several youths, trying to copy Simmons' fire-breathing stage act, were badly burnt--and objectors suggested that KISS was really an acronym for Knights in Satan's Service, a charge flatly rejected by the band. The KISS logo also raised concern in Germany because its last two letters resembled the swastika worn by Nazi-era military officers.

As the more conservative 1980s approached, KISS and their exaggerated excesses began to seem dated. Beginning with their four "solo" albums released in 1978, the band hit a slump that would last through the early 1980s. Among the ill-fated releases of this era were the Dynasty album (1979), which featured the peculiar disco-ish single, "I Was Made for Loving You," a song that alienated many long-term fans. They departed even further from their basic formula of teen-friendly pop-rock when they recorded The Elder (1981), a concept album that was partially co-written by Lou Reed. Neither album sold well by the standards set a few years earlier.