The Complete Clip
Look, I’m about as burned out on this as you are, but if you’re interested in watching the entire debate, you can view it here:
At this point, having been exposed to more of Gene’s antics via stories and links from my subscribers, I now know the way Gene behaved was no different than he does in any other public forum.
For further background, please listen to Mr. Simmons’ interview with Terry Gross of NPR, which can be accessed here:
Also, if you want a laugh, be sure to check out Lisa Lampanelli’s roasting of Gene here:
Turns out that Mr. Simmons generates as much animosity as love. You’d think a platinum-selling band would garner more kudos, but the degree of hatred towards KISS is staggering, a great deal of it based on Mr. Simmons’ personality.
But we live in such a vast world that the haters can coexist with the lovers, and never the twain shall meet. In other words, KISS can function privately in its own backwater and the rest of us can ignore the band.
That’s how the music business is today. It’s narrowcasting. The key is to gain someone’s attention and to try to grow from there, fan by fan until you can support yourself playing music and give up your day job. As for broadcasting, spreading the word far and wide? That concept started breaking down with the advent of cable TV and its 500 channels and has now been all but decimated by the Internet. Train-wrecks are ubiquitous, everybody knows about the latest school shooting. But shy of that, everything’s got a limited audience. And train-wrecks have a very short shelf life. In other words Gene, a band you sign could have sex on stage tomorrow and it might be big on the Net for 24 hours, but if anybody even remembered the act’s name a year later, they certainly wouldn’t recall the music.
You can try and generate instant heat and instant sales. There is a business there. But if that paradigm were so damn good, the major labels would be prospering instead of dying. We’re in the era of artist development. You’ve got to develop your craft and your audience. Musicians and fans are bonded, for the long haul. It’s not clear where they’re going, it’s an exciting journey. Pre-fab is becoming marginalized.
So if you tell me you’re going to sign a band, change its name, its players, its hairstyles and its music and then ram the result down the throat of the public, I’m gonna tell you very few people are going to care and that you’d better not invest much money, because limited dollars will come in return, and you’d better get out quick, because the act is going to burn out almost instantly.
Build slowly. From the core out. Breaking a band today is more of a whispering campaign than banging the public over the head with a blunt instrument. You lead with your music. Sure, networking/managerial/Internet tools are important, but it all comes down to the music. You can click online and hear it instantly. Is it any good?
The public decides. Gatekeepers? Physical retail is just about dead and radio has been marginalized. It’s a direct connection between musician and listener. You’d better be good, baby.
