"Rock is dead" - Gene Simmons

[Tetora 625]

Gene Simmons is making headlines again, this time for burying rock ‘n’ roll. The outspoken artist says “Rock is finally dead,” in an interview conducted by his son Nick for Esquire magazine. The Kiss singer-bassist also shares his thoughts on the failing record business and how he would not want to be an up-and-coming artist today.

“The death of rock was not a natural death,” Simmons offers. “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.”

Simmons also offers sobering advice for young musicians and songwriters saying, “Don’t quit your day job is a good piece of advice. When I was coming up, it was not an insurmountable mountain. Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support.” He adds, “There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent. But for performers who are also songwriters — the creators — for rock music, for soul, for the blues — it’s finally dead. Rock is finally dead.”

He continues on about how he feels for this lost generation of kids who will not have the same opportunity that he had with Kiss. “It’s very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don’t have a chance.” Simmons remarks. “If you play guitar, it’s almost impossible. 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.’ And I’m not slamming ‘The X Factor,’ or pop singers. But where’s the next Bob Dylan? Where’s the next Beatles? Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators?”

Simmons added that he is not being simply being cantankerous offering, “I’m not the guy to be pouting and complaining about stuff. I make a decent living. I’m very, very lucky. But that’s because we started before the chaos, in the days when people had to buy records. If you didn’t like a band, you didn’t buy their albums, and the people decided.”

 

 

 

Abridged version of a very interesting article by Esquire. I posted the short version to make an easier digest, but please read the whole thing:

 

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/gene-simmons-future-of-rock

 

 

Please share your thoughts!

[keyinjpop 89]

It's harder to make it big, I'll give him that.

[ramrod 108]

He's an idiot. The shit that has been coming out of his mouth lately is purely controversial to get himself back in the headlines.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/gene-simmons-of-kiss-tells-depressed-people-to-kill-themselves-cops-triple-m-ban/story-fnk822dn-1227025850379

[Tetora 625]

He's an idiot. The shit that has been coming out of his mouth lately is purely controversial to get himself back in the headlines.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/gene-simmons-of-kiss-tells-depressed-people-to-kill-themselves-cops-triple-m-ban/story-fnk822dn-1227025850379

Definitely harsh and controversial but I think it would be best to discuss that in another thread if desired, and leave this thread's focus to discussing the matters brought up by the article, and also avoid only discussing whether people like Gene Simmons or his music, etc. as that takes away from the concentration on the huge discussion we can have about Rock, consumers, and the industry.

A lot of my friends have been diverting the focus to Gene Simmons or Kiss, etc... And I feel like that is besides the point with this article.

Please let us know what your say is on the topics addressed by Gene in this instance.

[Original Saku 1593]

i find it hard to take this seriously considering he is obviously basing his opinion on the western world (read America) and not the entire world. Hell I could of told you rock was dead in the west (America not Europe) and it's been so for some years now. All the new stuff coming of of the U.S. is uninspired wannabe shit IMO. It doesn't help that the youth of today are only concerned with artist's like Miley Cirus, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber... like how can you even call that shit music?

So yes I'm probably of the opinion that hes saying all this shit just for the publicity XD

[CAT5 9075]

I think he's referring more so to the music industry, and not rock as a genre - and if that's the case, then I agree with him. Any mildly curious person with internet access would be able to tell that rock isn't dead, but the spirit of rock, the spirit of DIY musicians, and artistic integrity is definitely pretty dead within the industry. None of this is really news, though.

[doombox 4421]

Pretty much agree with CAT5 here, the ability to go out and play some songs in a coffee shop or your local rock house, get a label to notice you and make a well paying career out of that (in the US) is a pipe dream. I believe the rock industry is dying. I don't believe, however, that the spirit of rock is dying. Bands are figuring it out on their own more and more these days, and with iTunes, bandcamp, youtube, and a plethora of social media, bands are doing it for themselves. I do believe we'll see more indie labels or completely DIY artists. Maybe rock goes back underground for a while... but for most of the genres I listen to, they've always been like that. As for Gene, he'll be sorry to see the passing of the torch from the days when Rock was King handed off to other genres. But the pendulum will always swing, and maybe the genre needs to go back to grass roots for a while to weed out all the bandwagoners and money grubbers ripping off the bands to make a buck. 

 

Edit: Slightly edited that comment to sound more coherent. I'm sleep deprived and it was kind of redundant in parts.

[relentless 254]

TECHNICALLY, for the sake of specifics, Rock & Roll has been dead since the early 60's with the over-saturation and over-commercialization of the music in a world where pop groups (i.e. The Beatles and a large part of the British Invasion) took precedent over lesser known groups with tighter associations to the blues. Simmons is one to talk, who has used Kiss as a marketing tool ever since the inception of the band.

 

 

I definitely agree with his opinion that music is becoming difficult to break into, though. The world today has far more amateur musicians and those learning music than in something like the 50's and 60's when Rock & Roll was at its strongest. Though, this feels more like a stagnation and development period of the industry than anything else. With the current model of big labels slowly (very slowly) being pushed out in favor of a more personal model of self promotion and consumption separate from Major Label influence, I have hopes that means will be developed for good music to be easily distributable to the masses. Time will tell.

[Senedjem 510]

old man yells at cloud

[bonsaijodelfisch 328]

old man yells at cloud

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

miyavi told us that it wan't dead so who do we believe