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Opinion on Gene Simmons
- Thread starter twdavis13
- Start date
For KISS, Gene Simmons is ths MAN on bass!
Who else was supposed to play bass "better" for that band? Jaco Pastorius?
Technically, the Beatles weren't great musicians, but they were amazing for the music they played and the style they defined.
Could Gene Simmons play bass for Rush? No. Would I rather listen to KISS than Rush? Yes.
Who else was supposed to play bass "better" for that band? Jaco Pastorius?
Technically, the Beatles weren't great musicians, but they were amazing for the music they played and the style they defined.
Could Gene Simmons play bass for Rush? No. Would I rather listen to KISS than Rush? Yes.
There's nothing to discuss. You have some starry-eyed unrealistic view of the music industry that just isn't so.
Gene is awesome. He is a good player, a good songwriter, and a great showman. The secret weapon.
Umm, no. I'm just explaining to you that everything isn't just the one singular narrow view you like to purport.
Sure, it must be self-satisfying to think "well I didn't make it big, but that's only because I wanted to maintain my own musical integrity" but applying universal points like "noone in the music industry has integrity" to the myriad of bands, contracts and people is like saying that all musicians who play in coverbands can't write songs.
By his own admission, Gene Simmons got into music simply to make money. The entire enterprise of KISS has been to provide audiences with a good value product for their money (similarly, by many accounts Mick Jagger, graduate of the London School of Economics, sees the Stones as a very profitable business).
So, I conclude that Gene Simmons and Mick Jagger have a tremendous amount of integrity. They see pop music for what it is (a business) and have stuck to their business model of providing quality entertainment.
Musical integrity? That's for the rest of us who play in 'originals' bands to 5 or 10 people on a Wednesday night.
Well that gets to the point I'm making that has fallen on deaf ears (bit weird for a music forum, but anyway) is that the influential musicians, those who have forged a new sound that spawned generations of bands to follow in their wake (Beatles, Cure, Led Zeppelin for example) have musical integrity - they created sounds and those sounds in turn were taken by those on the business side of things and created a market that didn't exist before. And no, it's not a starry eyed idolism that makes me think this, it's the 10 million other bands out there who write songs that makes the listener go "I've heard that before... oh yes, the Beatles did it first".
I'm wondering how exactly it is you know that any of the bands you mention there have musical integrity. I'm pretty sure none of them "invented" anything. Part of a movement? Sure. But there were plenty of bands playing the type of music those bands did. But inventors? I don't buy it. Some bands just get lucky and those are the bands you hear about. Thanks.
Was there anywhere in my post I used the word "invent"?
Stick to putting words in your own mouth, thank you.
Stick to putting words in your own mouth, thank you.
I'm also interested in what you define musical integrity as.
At the moment it seems to be any avoidance of the musical industry as a whole. Five pages of discussion and nothing, well that's an easy stance to take I guess.
For me, it's about writing the best music to your own ears and somehow finding your 'own' sound. If doing that means I actually listen to the suggestions of others (like band mates, or my girlfriend who has written a lot of songs) to improve the quality because they hear something I don't, I don't feel I've lost any notion of my own honesty or truthfulness in music.
At the moment it seems to be any avoidance of the musical industry as a whole. Five pages of discussion and nothing, well that's an easy stance to take I guess.
For me, it's about writing the best music to your own ears and somehow finding your 'own' sound. If doing that means I actually listen to the suggestions of others (like band mates, or my girlfriend who has written a lot of songs) to improve the quality because they hear something I don't, I don't feel I've lost any notion of my own honesty or truthfulness in music.
Gee, then you wonder why no one wants to discuss with you. Very defensive.
When someone says, "the Beatles did it first" or so-and-so "created sounds", I take that as saying they invented it. Most people who did something first invented it. I could be wrong though. Sorry.
I apologise for my tone, I just get a little frustrated when I'm putting points forward and asking for the same in kind, when instead of offering an alternate point or why one may hold a certain view (ie. validate their part of the discussion) instead I get the response that I'm somehow naive for putting it out there that everything is not one dimensional as certain posters believe it to be. But hey, if people want to hold the view that successful musicians lack musical honesty and truthfulness, they can go right ahead.
I didn't mean to derail a thread, apologies for that also.
JimmyM and Eric618 are the voices of reason in this thread IMO.
On a musical level, I really have no opinion of Gene, and I don't begrudge him for his success.
On a musical level, I really have no opinion of Gene, and I don't begrudge him for his success.
it was funny seeing him in his red footy PJ's on TV.
Marketing & Creative genius. Made bass cool to a lot of little kids. No harm in that.
Smart enough to never sign the rights away to Kiss.
Marketing & Creative genius. Made bass cool to a lot of little kids. No harm in that.
Smart enough to never sign the rights away to Kiss.
Listen here buddy!!!
I've been called a lot of things, but NEVER has anyone called me a... oh.... nevermind! 
Maybe this says more about me than him but I had to loop those triplet riffs in Detroit Rock City for 3 hours straght gradually building speed before I got them right. Now that I actually tore some of his stuff apart I have more respect for him. Same with Duff McKegan (sp?)
