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Kiss (band)

Kiss (often styled as KISS) was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973 by Paul Stanley (vocals, rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals, bass guitar), Ace Frehley (lead guitar, vocals), and Peter Criss (drums, vocals). Known for their face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid-1970s with shock rock-style live performances which featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band went through several lineup changes, with Stanley and Simmons remaining the only consistent members. The final lineup consisted of them, Tommy Thayer (lead guitar, vocals), and Eric Singer (drums, vocals).

With their makeup and costumes, the band members took on the personas of comic book-style characters: the Starchild (Stanley), the Demon (Simmons), the Spaceman or Space Ace (Frehley), and the Catman (Criss). Beginning with their 1975 live album Alive!, Kiss became one of America's most successful rock bands and a pop culture phenomenon during the second half of the 1970s. Due to creative differences, Criss departed the band in 1980, followed by Frehley in 1982. They were replaced by Eric Carr (the Fox) and Vinnie Vincent (the Ankh Warrior), respectively.[1] The band's commercial success declined during the early 1980s before experiencing a resurgence in 1983, when they began performing without makeup and costumes, marking the beginning of the band's "unmasked" era that would last until 1996. The first album of this era, 1983's platinum-certified Lick It Up, successfully introduced them to a new generation of fans, and its music videos received regular airplay on MTV. Vincent left the band in 1984, being replaced briefly by Mark St. John before Bruce Kulick joined the band for the next twelve years. Eric Carr died in 1991 of heart cancer and was replaced by Eric Singer.


In response to a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the mid-1990s, the original lineup reunited in 1996, which also saw the return of their makeup and stage costumes. The resulting 1996–1997 reunion tour was highly successful, grossing $143.7 million, making it the band's most successful tour. Criss and Frehley subsequently left the band again following the 2000–2001 tour, which at the time was intended to be Kiss' last. Criss and Frehley were replaced by Singer and Tommy Thayer (Criss briefly rejoined the band from 2002 to 2004), respectively. The band continued with its original stage makeup, with Singer and Thayer using the original Catman and Spaceman makeup respectively. After 46 years of recording and performing, Kiss began a four-year-long farewell tour, the End of the Road World Tour, in January 2019 and retired after performing their final show in New York City in December 2023.[2][3][4][5][6][7]


Kiss is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of all time,[8][9] as well as one of the best selling bands of all time, claiming to have sold more than 75 million records worldwide,[10] including 21 million[11] RIAA-certified albums.[12] Kiss has also earned 30 Gold albums, the most of any band from the United States. Kiss has 14 Platinum albums, three of which earned multi-Platinum.[9] On April 10, 2014, the four original members of Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kiss was ranked by MTV as the ninth "Greatest Metal Band of All Time",[13] and placed tenth on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list,[14] as well as being ranked as the third "Best Metal and Hard Rock Live Band of All Time" by Loudwire magazine.[15]

Artistry[edit]

Musical style[edit]

Kiss has typically been classified under the genres of hard rock,[268] heavy metal,[269] shock rock,[270] glam metal,[271] and glam rock.[272] Most of its 1970s albums, particularly the first six released between 1974 and 1977 as well as 1982's Creatures of the Night and 1984's Animalize, featured a hard rock or traditional heavy metal style. 1979's Dynasty and 1980's Unmasked featured a more disco/pop rock sound, and 1981's Music from "The Elder" found the band dabbling in progressive rock. In 1983, starting with Lick It Up and the removal of its trademark makeup, the band began incorporating glam metal into its sound and visual image.[273][274] Later, in the early 1990s, its sound grew heavier and abandoned the glam metal sound.[275] In the mid-1990s, the band returned to its original sound.[272]


Its music is described as "a commercially potent mix of anthemic, fist-pounding hard rock, driven by sleek hooks and ballads powered by loud guitars, cloying melodies, and sweeping strings. It was a sound that laid the groundwork for both arena rock and the pop-metal that dominated rock in the late 1980s."[272] The first review of Kiss by Rolling Stone, in 1973, described the band as "an American Black Sabbath".[276] The same magazine's review of Hotter than Hell stated that "with twin guitars hammering out catchy mondo-distorto riffs and bass and drums amiably bringing up the rear, Kiss spews forth a deceptively controlled type of thunderous hysteria."[277] At the same time, Bennington Banner from Rock Music magazine said, "With its members' bizarre, Kabuki-like makeup, studded black leather costumes and arsenal of on-stage firepower – both musical and literal – Kiss represents the most extreme form of hard rock in 1974."[278]

Makeup designs[edit]

The band is famous for its iconic makeup designs, each of which represents a different character or persona. The current lineup consists of the original four designs: the "Starchild", the "Demon", the "Spaceman" and the "Catman". The band formerly included a practice of giving any new members a new persona, such as "the Fox" for Carr and "the Ankh Warrior" for Vincent; this practice was ended after Thayer and Singer took up Frehley's "Spaceman" and Criss's "Catman" personas respectively. When asked on the matter, Simmons stated "Why wouldn't we use the classic makeup? We own it". Criss relinquished his rights to his makeup when he left the band in 2004, which he later regretted, saying "I'm pissed at myself that my makeup slipped through my hands"; while Frehley claims he licensed his design to the band and would get it back, a notion which Stanley has called "a fantasy".[279]


During 1973–74, Stanley occasionally used an alternative makeup design called the "Bandit" for select photo-shoots and live shows after Neil Bogart, head of Casablanca Records, suggested to him that he use a design that was symmetrical like those of the rest of the band. During this time, he was also still using the Starchild makeup—sometimes even using both designs at the same photo-shoots. In 1974, he stopped using the Bandit design permanently. On the cover of the band's debut album, Criss used a drastically different variation of his Catman makeup (dubbed the "Pantomime Cat") after he allowed the makeup artist at the shoot to use their own ideas instead of following the usual design. Carr was originally going to be the "Hawk", a design which Simmons recalled in his autobiography looked like Big Bird from Sesame Street. One photo of Carr wearing this proposed design exists today, and also one of a mannequin Stanley set up wearing the proposed makeup and outfit. Unlike the Bandit and Pantomime Cat, this alternative design was never used in any official capacity. The Hawk design was also considered for Vincent and Singer.[280]


St. John and Kulick were members of Kiss only during the non-makeup period. Kulick stated that had he ever worn makeup in the band, he would have liked to have been the "Dog": "I figure that since there's already a cat in the band, I should probably be the dog. I'd have a big circle around one eye and I'd look like Petey from the Little Rascals. I've actually seen one or two fan renditions of what that might look like, so yeah, I'd be the dog." The four original makeup designs have been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with ownership and licensing rights held by Simmons and Stanley.

– lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar (1973–2023)

Paul Stanley

– lead and backing vocals, bass guitar (1973–2023)

Gene Simmons

– drums, backing and lead vocals (1991–1996, 2001−2002, 2004–2023)

Eric Singer

– lead guitar, backing and lead vocals (2002–2023)

Tommy Thayer

Final lineup


Former

Album era

Kiss videography

List of songs recorded by Kiss

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

List of bestselling music artists

Official website

at Curlie

Kiss

at fbi.gov

FBI Records: The Vault - Kiss

on Spotify

Kiss