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Gene Simmons

США

Hard Rock

http://www.genesimmons.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/genesimmons234
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialgenesimmons/

30 июн 2025 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS BAND Performs At Opening Of 'Rock & Brews Restaurant And Concert Bar' In Oklahoma
7 июн 2025 :	GENE SIMMONS: 'THE BEATLES Are Above And Beyond Anything That Anybody's Seen In Music Over 200 Years'
19 май 2025 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS BAND Performs In Niagara Falls During Spring/Summer 2025 U.S. Tour
7 май 2025 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS BAND Performs In Red Bank, New Jersey During Spring/Summer 2025 U.S. Tour
5 май 2025 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS Plays First Two 2025 Shows With His Solo Band
29 апр 2025 :	GENE SIMMONS Says 'Astronomical' Insurance Costs Are Why He Is Charging More Than $12K For One Fan To Be His 'Roadie' For A Day
20 апр 2025 :	GENE SIMMONS Reflects On His Decision To Call His Second Solo Album 'A**hole': 'I Don't Have A Problem With It'
13 апр 2025 :	GENE SIMMONS: 'I'm Still Sad' About ACE FREHLEY And PETER CRISS Not Being Able To 'Enjoy The Fruits Of Their Labor'
21 мар 2025 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS Reads The Weather On Los Angeles TV Station
10 мар 2025 :	You Can Be GENE SIMMONS's Roadie For A Day — For $12,495
11 фев 2025 :	GENE SIMMONS Explains Why Rock Music Is No Longer As 'Fashionable' As It Once Was
24 дек 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS Admits He Took Some Heat For Contributing To 'Reagan' Movie, But Says 'I Don't Give A Squat'
21 дек 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS On Performing With His Solo Band: 'There's A Magic That Happens Up There That Words Don't Describe'
3 дек 2024 :	See Music Video For GENE SIMMONS's Cover Version Of Jazz Standard 'Stormy Weather'
2 дек 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS Says Rock Is Still Dead, Explains Why
14 окт 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS: 'I Stand By Every Word I Said' On 'Dancing With The Stars'
14 окт 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS Blasted For 'Offensive' And 'Sexist' Comments As Guest Judge On 'Dancing With The Stars'
30 сен 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS: 'I'm Okay With Being Labeled Or Thought Of As An A**hole'
23 сен 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS Weighs In On Student Protests Against Israel: 'It's Well Intentioned' But 'They're Not Informed'
24 авг 2024 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS And His Solo Band Play Fundraising Concert In North Tonawanda, New York
5 авг 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS - Fan-Filmed Video Of Entire Rattvik, Sweden Show Available
31 июл 2024 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS Kicks Off Summer 2024 European Solo Tour At Finland's KUOPIOROCK Festival
5 июл 2024 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS Covers VAN HALEN's 'House Of Pain' At Rock & Brews In Milwaukee
17 июн 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS: 'I'm Sad That I Wasn't More Hard On ACE FREHLEY And PETER CRISS'
15 июн 2024 :	GENE SIMMONS Says He 'Literally' Makes More Money Per Concert With His Solo Band Than He Did With KISS
11 июн 2024 :	Watch: GENE SIMMONS Joins CHEVY METAL On Stage At California Club To Perform KISS's 'Deuce'

11 фев 2025

GENE SIMMONS Explains Why Rock Music Is No Longer As 'Fashionable' As It Once Was

In a new interview with Tom Cridland of the Greatest Music Of All Time podcast, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons was asked why he thinks rock music is no longer as "fashionable" as it once was. He responded in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's the business and who the fans are. The people that buy rock are predominately white. Although it's still vibrant in stadiums across the world — [IRON] MAIDEN does very well live and METALLICA and so on, but these are old, old bands. We took IRON MAIDEN on their first tour. We took BON JOVI on their first tour. We took AC/DC on their first tour.

"You can't find a new big rock band," he continued. "They don't exist. Name one, if you can think. FOO FIGHTERS, it's a big band, and that's 30 years ago. And that has to do with the fans, who's buying it. So once you could get that music for free, the business model stopped working."

Asked why he thinks that favored pop and rap as opposed to rock music, Gene said: "Because younger pop fans, predominantly — there are so many great pop singers; Ariana Grande is really fabulous — she can imitate anybody, a great artist. And there's Dua Lipa, and there's a lot of them. But the fanbase are young females. So a lot of it has to do with souvenirs. I don't wanna come off like Professor Of Rock, Professor Of Music, but if you study it, there are reasons why things are happening. If you like that music, 'Oh, I kind of like that,' and then they're different business models. So you can actually sell some units if you're a rap band, because it's culture. Rap is culture, not just music. In fact, it's more culture, often racial culture, because it talks about 'us' — 'us against them' or 'the world against us'. And when culture gets into it, like a football team — football or soccer or whatever you wanna call it is not as much a sport as it is flying the colors of 'my team.' In fact, you're willing to beat the crap out of somebody who roots for the other team."

Gene added: "It is in your favor if you have a fanbase that feels like they're connected and they have the flag, like in soccer. That is tribalism. It doesn't have to be mean-spirited. It's an identity. 'Swiftie' [movement consisting of fans of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift] is a culture. They're not just fans. She stands for something. When you think about it, above and beyond the music and the lyrics and so on — 'This guy broke my heart' — and these songs that Swifties love, above that is her as the Jesus of the movement, if you see what I mean. I mean, what's Christianity as a movement, religion, without Jesus, right? So you need these leaders, these apostles at the top to encapsulate what the culture and that thing is about. So the thing that Taylor has is Swifties…"

Simmons went on to say: "[Lady] Gaga, I think, is more talented than all the others because her songs and her are, 'I was born this way.' And so the music is not just — and I don't mean 'fluff' in a bad way, because there's some wonderful fluff stuff. A lot of the British Invasion was all these great songs that you sang meant nothing. But when a song is saying [singing] 'you want a revolution', the song is about something. And so if you have a body of work that's about something, you get the beginnings of tribalism. And if you're the embodiment of that tribe, now you've got something. Yes, Gaga's fanbase is about that. And of course, she's widened her thing by doing pop, Tony Bennett, and all this stuff. She's the real deal. She's got the musical chops. She can play, sing; [she is a] chanteuse."

While rock 'n' roll has been king of the music world for decades, in the past few years, it's been unseated by the growing popularity of hip-hop. This has caused many pundits to proclaim the genre "dead" from an industry perspective, noting that it has been eclipsed in all measures by pop, hip-hop, and EDM.

Simmons previously spoke about rock's supposed diminishing status during a December 2024 appearance on The Zak Kuhn Show. Asked if rock and roll is "still dead", Simmons replied: "It is. And people don't understand how I can say that when we all have our favorite songs and we love our favorite bands — you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that… Well, let's play a game, and I've done this before. From 1958 until 1988, that's 30 years. 30 years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis [Presley], we had THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, Jimi Hendrix, all that, PINK FLOYD, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we'd like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — Oh God — AC/DC and everybody else, AEROSMITH and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had YES, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, and you had the heavy bands, LED ZEPPELIN and so on. And from 1988 until today, it's something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years. Who are the new BEATLES?"

When host Zak Kuhn mentioned NIRVANA, Gene said: "Stop. We are blinded. I'm a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, 'Who's the bass player in NIRVANA?', they wouldn't know what you're talking about. Or, 'Can you sing a NIRVANA song?' No, no. THE BEATLES and, to slightly lesser extent, THE STONES and Elvis, everybody knew THE BEATLES. If you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the way, I'm delusional enough to believe some market reports about how the KISS faces are the most recognized faces on the planet. And I've tried this before. You walk down the street, randomly ask people, 'Who's on Mount Rushmore?' They'll say, 'Uh, Elvis.' They won't get it, but they know those four faces anywhere you go. They may hate the band, but you can't deny that. So NIRVANA, one of my favorite bands. If you ask somebody who's 20 or something, there's a generation gap, 'Name a song,' they wouldn't be able to tell you. 'Who's the bass player?' No idea. And by the way, I know that because one of the other samples is my son, who's no longer that age when he was a little bit over 20. He saw a cute girl — he's telling me the story — he saw a cute girl, so he's trying to open up the conversation, and she's wearing a ROLLING STONES t-shirt that's got the tongue on it, and on top of the t-shirt it actually says, 'THE ROLLING STONES.' And he walks up, and his first line is, 'Oh, so you're a fan, huh?' And she says something like, 'Yeah. Of what?' And Nick, my son, says, 'You know, THE STONES.' She goes, 'THE STONES?' He goes, 'Yeah, THE ROLLING STONES.' She goes, 'THE ROLLING STONES? What's that? A band?' Nick says, 'Are you kidding? You're wearing their t-shirt.' And he was telling me she looked down — upside down, I guess, because it's facing [him] — and she goes, 'Oh, oh, I just like the shirt. I just like the t-shirt. And Nick said, 'You must know THE ROLLING STONES. You know 'Satisfaction'.' [hums riff] 'Nope. Never heard it.' He went through a few other songs. Never heard those songs. And he said, 'You've never heard of Mick Jagger?' And she said, 'Mick Jagger? Oh yeah, yeah. I heard…' What I'm about to tell you, my hand to God, is true. No exaggeration. She goes, 'Mick Jagger. Oh, yeah, the serial killer.' Anything you think is commonplace that the masses know, they don't. Very few things everybody knows.

After Simmons asked Kuhn to name two other bands that could be the new BEATLES, Zak brought up PEARL JAM and FOO FIGHTERS, prompting Gene to say: "Not on your life. Of course, I love FOO FIGHTERS. I love those bands. Mike McCready told me he was growing up with those KISS records. In fact, one of his solos … he took note for note from Ace Frehley. But that's not my point. My point is if you randomly walk down the street and you ask the first young person you meet, a 20-year-old, and you say, 'Name me anybody in PEARL JAM,' good luck with that. 'Name me or tell me a song. Hum a song.' They [can't].

"You and I are blinded because we're very close to it," Simmons continued. "So here's something the rest of the world knows, but we don't. Who's the prime minister of England? Tell me who the prime minister of France is. Tell me who the prime minister of Canada is. And by the way, next to PEARL JAM and NIRVANA, strangely, Dave Grohl has become far more popular. They may know Dave because he's done TV commercials and sort of rubbed shoulders with people outside of guitars and concerts. That's how you get to be iconic. So if I say Snoop Dogg, everybody knows who that is, but if you mention other rappers who might actually be bigger rap stars — M.C. Criminal or whatever; I just made that up — the masses wouldn't have any idea. It's because Snoop plays in media — he had a TV show with Martha Stewart, and that kind of thing. So the masses have no idea who's in PHISH, one of my favorite bands, or PEARL JAM. They wouldn't have a clue, unless you're a fan."

Circling back to his belief that everybody knows the KISS characters even if they don't necessarily love the band's music, Gene said: "Not everybody loves Jesus either. That's not the point. Fame itself is the ultimate reward. Everybody's not gonna like you, but they know you. We have a photographer who's been with us for — I don't know — 40 or 50 years, and he's done everybody — THE STONES and ZEPPELIN, everybody. And he's a real music aficionado. He collects posters and stuff. He hates THE BEATLES, always has — can't stand listening to them — but he knows who they are: John, Paul, George, Ringo. You know who Jesus is. Not everybody likes him. Even the people that hate the idea of it, they've heard of the name and they know who he is. Fame is the ultimate reward."

The "rock is dead" argument has popped up again and again throughout the years, including in 2018 after MAROON 5 lead singer Adam Levine told Variety magazine that "rock music is nowhere, really. I don't know where it is," he said. "If it's around, no one's invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It's better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that's why people love it."

More than a decade ago, Simmons told Esquire magazine that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

A number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians have weighed in on the topic in a variety of interviews over the last several years, with some digging a little deeper into Simmons's full remarks and others just glossing over the headline.

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11 фев 2025

gravitgroove

А вот интересно - если завтра Аббат начнет собирать сольно стадионы, Симмонс побежит в суд?

11 фев 2025

SAORjunya

gravitgroove, на самом деле, Аббат является альтер-эго Симмонса

11 фев 2025

Nicolas444883

gravitgroove, аббат никогда не будет собирать сольно стадионы. Экстремальный метал и уж тем более блэк-метал - музыка сугубо нишевая, узконаправленная. Нет никаких шансов на то, чтобы широкие массы заслушивались Аббатом.

11 фев 2025

gravitgroove

Nicolas444883, это был вопрос с уклоном в гипотезу вероятной популярности Аббата, который к тому же всегда может заиграть более коммерческий материал, но при этом продолжить бегать в доспехах и не смывать грим для такого репертуара.
Ведь уже был прецедент с KD, который был исчерпан неимением большого состояния у последнего с его же слов.

11 фев 2025

olly71

ну старик прав . в 1970е рок был музыкой молодёжи в 1980е он делил с диско в 199ое появился рэп и к нему ушла молодёжь . пройдите по улице и опросите людей до 25 лет ну если Металлику ещё они назовут то даже таких супер групп как Мэйден джужас и Хелловин очень вряд ли я уж не говорю про разные Эксенты и раннинги которые в конце 1980х знал любой подросток. Зато нянешня молодёж легко вам перечислить пару десятков разных негров.

11 фев 2025

Corpsegrinder04

olly71, десятку наврят ли, но пяток наберу свободно. Деррик Грин, Тони Макалпайн, земляки из Suffocation и Steel Prophet ну и вот этот чел посередине, я хз как его зовут, на Ленни Кравица похож. https://otvet.imgsmail.ru/download/235876419_b1972ca9b005d99b01658ed62a16cff7_800.jpg

11 фев 2025

StormReaver

Corpsegrinder04, на фотке челик из Hirax

11 фев 2025

Corpsegrinder04

StormReaver, ну то, что не внук Дубинина я догадался уже )

11 фев 2025

olly71

Corpsegrinder04, ну Ллойда Граанта тогда ещё вспомни Хендрикса Лайнота да и Слэш наполовину негра

11 фев 2025

WahrandPhain

Corpsegrinder04, вспоминали негров и забыли Caller Of The Storms, стыд и позор

11 фев 2025

Bumba Records

olly71, они даже не знают, что рэп это .. В 90-е звездный час Nirvana, Metallica, Sepultura, Pantera, Guns n Roses, Skid Row .. Aerosmith из телека не сходили . Сонм годной альтернативы, и не только. Amorphis, к примеру, появились и.т.д Никто никуда не уходил))

12 фев 2025

Klawd Air

olly71, ганзов или Зеппелин назовут уж точно. В Америках. У нас Короля и Шута, да Киношку с Сектором. Агату Кристи и Би-2 ещë возможно. А вот Пилигрим никто не назовëт, потому что говно.

12 фев 2025

Rocky Wolfsson

Klawd Air, ария, Алиса, Эпидемия, Смысловые Глюки, Пикник, Чёрный Обелиск... Но это ещё из стареньких, а вот из молодых наших кто хоть есть?

12 фев 2025

R0ck_N_R0lla

Rocky Wolfsson, слабо верю, что если сейчас подойти к ребятам лет 17-20 и попросить назвать отечественные рок группы, они назовут Черный Обелиск, Пикник и так далее. Киш, Кино, Ария - это да, скорее всего прозвучат

12 фев 2025

Rocky Wolfsson

R0ck_N_R0lla, это да, Чёрный Обелиск не на слуху, а Пикник только разве что среди более старших в почёте. Вот у Эпидемии есть молодые фанаты, одна девушка как-то хвасталась, что ей подарили винил с альбомом "Сокровище Энии"...

19 фев 2025

Dem0niac

Rocky Wolfsson, ‘Пикник только разве что среди более старших в почёте.’
Думаю, после событий прошлого года он вполне известен среди различных слоев населения.

19 фев 2025

Rocky Wolfsson

Dem0niac, да не думаю, что многие стали гуглить, что за "Пикник" такой, тем более, что они даже выйти на сцену не успели. Как-то наткнулся на статейку, где один поехавший всерьёз считал Шклярского сатанистом, при том, что он(Эдмунд) католик... Да и сами "Пикник" каждый год катаются по стране.

15 фев 2025

Klawd Air

Rocky Wolfsson, да вот хрен знает, кто из молодых есть. Надо у самих молодых и спрашивать. Э, молодые, есть вы тут? Или мы тут исключительно пенсионерской компанией сидим-пердим? Кто у вас там в фаворе сейчас из рокеров?

15 фев 2025

Nicht Von Hier

Klawd Air, neverlove же!

16 фев 2025

Rocky Wolfsson

Nicht Von Hier, плохой пример, ты бы ещё Шамана назвал...

17 фев 2025

Nicht Von Hier

Rocky Wolfsson, где связь?

18 фев 2025

Rocky Wolfsson

Nicht Von Hier, ну тоже типо рок поёт...