Kiss' Gene Simmons says there are no more big rock bands: "They don't exist. Name one, if you can think"

Gene Simmons of Kiss — (Image credit: Pierre Suu/GC Images)

Gene Simmons has once again offered his opinion over the current state of rock music, revealing that he believes there are no "big rock bands" in existence.

Having made quite the stir over recent years for his repeated declarations on the genre's supposed death, the Kiss bassist has now expanded on his views, detailing why he thinks rock music is being overshadowed by pop.

During a recent appearance on the Greatest Music Of All Time podcast, host Tom Cridland asks Simmons why he thinks rock is no longer as "fashionable" as it was in previous decades.

In response, he says (transcribed by Blabbermouth): "It's the business and who the fans are. The people that buy rock are predominately white. Although it's still vibrant in stadiums across the world — Iron Maiden does very well live and Metallica and so on, but these are old, old bands.

"We took Iron Maiden on their first tour. We took Bon Jovi on their first tour. We took AC/DC on their first tour.

"You can't find a new big rock band," he states. "They don't exist. Name one, if you can think. Foo Fighters it's a big band, and that's 30 years ago. And that has to do with the fans, who's buying it. So once you could get that music for free, the business model stopped working."

When questioned on why he thinks the industry favours pop and rap, he explains: "Because [of] younger pop fans, predominantly — there are so many great pop singers; Ariana Grande is really fabulous — she can imitate anybody, a great artist. And there's Dua Lipa, and there's a lot of them. But the fanbase are young females. So a lot of it has to do with souvenirs.

"I don't wanna come off like Professor Of Rock, Professor Of Music, but if you study it, there are reasons why things are happening. If you like that music, 'Oh, I kind of like that,' and then they're different business models. So you can actually sell some units if you're a rap band, because it's culture. Rap is culture, not just music. In fact, it's more culture, often racial culture, because it talks about 'us' — 'us against them' or 'the world against us'."

Stressing the importance of strong fanbases within music, Simmons continues, "It is in your favour if you have a fanbase that feels like they're connected and they have the flag, like in soccer. That is tribalism. It doesn't have to be mean-spirited. It's an identity.

"'Swiftie' [movement consisting of fans of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift] is a culture. They're not just fans. She stands for something. When you think about it, above and beyond the music and the lyrics and so on — 'This guy broke my heart' — and these songs that Swifties love, above that is her as the Jesus of the movement, if you see what I mean.

"I mean, what's Christianity as a movement, religion, without Jesus, right? So you need these leaders, these apostles at the top to encapsulate what the culture and that thing is about. So the thing that Taylor has is Swifties…"

Simmons then goes on to share his love for pop superstar Lady Gaga, who he hails as being "more talented than all the others". He says: "Her songs and her are, 'I was born this way.' And so the music is not just — and I don't mean 'fluff' in a bad way, because there's some wonderful fluff stuff.

"A lot of the British Invasion was all these great songs that you sang meant nothing. But when a song is saying [singing] 'you want a revolution', the song is about something. And so if you have a body of work that's about something, you get the beginnings of tribalism. And if you're the embodiment of that tribe, now you've got something.

"Yes, Gaga's fanbase is about that. And of course, she's widened her thing by doing pop, Tony Bennett, and all this stuff. She's the real deal. She's got the musical chops. She can play, sing; [she is a] chanteuse."

Listen to the full interview below:

#210 - GENE SIMMONS INTERVIEW - YouTube

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Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.