"The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered,"
Simmons does not blame things such as televised “talent” shows, the increase of awful bands having outstanding social media campaigns, no, he blames file sharing of music online. He adds that no one values music “enough to pay you for it” anymore and that has been the sole contributor to the demise of the genre which makes it exceptionally difficult to new start bands.
"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."
The KISS Bassist applauds bands and musicians from 1958 through to 1983, commenting that this was "music’s pinnacle"and could ring off a bunch of legendary artists. Examples being Tame Impala and not surprisingly , Nirvana.
"The craft is gone, and that is what technology, in part, has brought us," Simmons said. "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."In Simmon’s crosshairs lies “predominantly white, middle- and upper-middle-class young people who were native-born, who felt they were entitled to have something for free.” He goes on to add “If you believe in capitalism — and I'm a firm believer in free-market capitalism — then that other model is chaos. It destroys the structure."
This is not the first time Simmons has commented on file sharing; in an interview with Super Pop Interviews back in January of this year, he said;
"I think it's all good, because the record companies are in chaos, downloading is in chaos. The foxes have been led into the hen house, so people wonder why there's so few chickens. It's because you allowed your kids to go in there and steal the stuff for free, so record companies are dying and new bands don't have a chance. And new bands should get every chance in the world, and if it means 'The X Factor' or 'American Idol' or any other kind of [outlet], give them a chance. Few of them will survive, if any. But the old-fashioned model of a record company that cares about you and spends a lot of money to try to promote you, that's gone. It doesn't affect the big bands. It doesn't affect my living. We do a hundred shows, and there's more money there than some Third-World countries. But it does intrinsically hurt new bands. You know, the next Elvis [Presley], or the next Beatles, is gonna have a very hard time starting out today."Rock bassist turned political activist in his old age? Who knows! But before the end of the Esquire interview he made sure to sneak in a cover-up apology for his original comments immigration with “I find that many of the more patriotic people are immigrants.”
As always, stay heavy.
For more from The Devilhorn Journal, Follow on Twitter
@AJDevilhorn
@DevilJournal
No comments:
Post a Comment