Gene Simmons is Rock N Roll’s equivalent to that uncle who comes over every Christmas and subjects everyone to his verbal diarrhoea that switches between bat shit insane to just downright offensive, leaving you questioning whether you might have been adopted after all.
And when he’s not busy belittling those who suffer from depression, one of his favourite topics is the death of the music industry, and in particular rock n roll.
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Now in an interview with his son Nick, for Esquire, Simmons has outright declared rock n roll “dead”, and pointed the finger at “white, middle- and upper-middle-class young people” who “felt they were entitled to have something for free, because that’s what they were used to.”
“There was an entire industry to help the next Beatles, Stones, Prince, Hendrix, to prop them up and support them every step of the way,” says Simmons. “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.”
“Rock is finally dead.”Simmons says new musicians jamming in their garage “will most likely fail miserably” because there “is no industry for that anymore.”
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“And who is the culprit? The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. And the real culprit is that kid’s 15-year-old next-door neighbor, probably a friend of his. Maybe even one of the bandmates he’s jamming with.”
“The tragedy is that they seem to have no idea that they just killed their own opportunity — they killed the artists they would have loved. 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.”
“The real culprit is that kid’s 15-year-old next-door neighbor, probably a friend of his. Maybe even one of the bandmates he’s jamming with.”“The masses do not recognize file-sharing and downloading as stealing because there’s a copy left behind for you — it’s not that copy that’s the problem, it’s the other one that someone received but didn’t pay for. The problem is that nobody will pay you for the 10,000 hours you put in to create what you created. I can only imagine the frustration of all that work, and having no one value it enough to pay you for it.”
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“It’s very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don’t have a chance. 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? Many of them now have to work behind the scenes, to prop up pop acts and write their stuff for them.”
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Simmons goes on to claim that 1958 – 1983 was when music was at it’s pinnacle, and that he could literally name 100s of iconic musicians.
From 1984 onwards, Simmons suggests “the pickings are slim” except for Nirvana who are a “notable exception”, and surprisingly Tame Impala who “during the ’60s and ’70s they would’ve become big, I’m convinced.”
Tame Impala “during the ’60s and ’70s would’ve become big, I’m convinced.”“There was a 10- to 15-year period in the ’60s and ’70s that gave birth to almost every artist we now call “iconic,” or “classic.” If you know anything about what makes longevity, about what makes something an everlasting icon, it’s hard to find after that. The craft is gone, and that is what technology, in part, has brought us.”
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“What is the next Dark Side of the Moon? Now that the record industry barely exists, they wouldn’t have a chance to make something like that. There is a reason that, along with the usual top-40 juggernauts, some of the biggest touring bands are half old people, like me.
But not everyone agree. Foo Fighters shared the interview on their Facebook page, adding “Not so fast, Mr. God of Thunder…” Dave Grohl and company will attempt to exhume and resuscitate rock with their next album Sonic Highways on November 10th.
