History Music / KISS

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: The entire band to varying degrees, but not necessarily all together:

** Gene claims that he has never been drunk or done drugs. On the other hand, he is one of rock and roll's most notorious womanisers and has reportedly had sex with thousands of women.

* [[AbsenteeActor Absentee Musician]]: Ace Frehley, during much of ''Music From The Elder'' and the entirety of ''Creatures Of The Night'', leading to his replacement by Vinnie Vincent. Also Peter Criss during much of ''Dynasty'' and the entirety of ''Unmasked'', leading to his replacement by Eric Carr. And finally, both Frehley and Criss were absent for most of ''Psycho Circus'', with Frehley playing guitar only on two songs (three if you include bonus track) and Criss playing drums on only one song.
** During his absences in the 1970s, Frehley was replaced in the studio by Bob Kulick (whose brother Bruce would later join the band) and former Music/AliceCooper guitarist Dick Wagner, while Criss was replaced by future Creator/DavidLetterman drummer Anton Fig.
** Eric Carr did not record anything for ''Revenge'', outside of "Carr Jam 1981". {{Justified|Trope}} however, since he was suffering from a rare form of cancer that killed him before the album was finished.

* SesameStreetCred: One of the hosts of the original version of ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact'' had a backstage look at the intricate preparation and management of a concert of the band.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Usually in the 5-6 range. They occasionally cross into a 7 as well. Their ballads drop significantly below this.

** Apparently their breakthrough album ''Alive!'' had guitar overdubs, sound-check songs with the audience added in the studio, and other less-than-live shenanigans (over and above the normal studio mixing and whatnot), to compensate for the quality issues of the original live recording. In his autobiography, Simmons denied this was the case, stating that at that point the band was in a bad financial situation, and their label Casablanca Records was also in dire straits after their double album of Johnny Carson monologues, leaving them with a meagre budget for the album. However, Criss (in his autobiography) and producer Eddie Kramer both claim that the only thing remaining from the original live recordings is Criss' drums, though Kramer at a much earlier period mostly agreed with Simmons that only few overdubs to correct the most obvious mistakes were applied.

* ArchEnemy: Pretty much every music critic of the last 40 years, especially at ''Rolling Stone''.

** Arguably Frehley, as he was electrocuted during an early concert but recovered well enough to finish the show. Since then, the band use wireless guitars (one of the first bands to do so!), and Ace wrote a song about this accident, "Shock Me", which became his vocal debut. [[FridgeBrilliance Which is fitting, considering that iron conducts electricity...]]

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Usually in the 5-6 range. They occasionally cross into a 7. Their ballads drop significantly below this.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Usually in the 5-6 range. Their ballads drop significantly below this.

* '''''Chaim Witz (Gene Simmons)''''' – lead and backing vocals, bass, guitar (1972–Present)

* {{Jerkass}}: Gene Simmons is somewhat infamous for being a huge asshole and is completely unrepentant about it.

* ReallyGetsAround: All of the band members had their groupies, but Gene Simmons was the most promiscuous of the lot [[note]]at least, that's what Gene says[[/note]].

KISS is an American heavy metal rock band, formed in [[TheSeventies 1973]] in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. It is well known for the face paint and complex costumes worn by the band-members, and its [[GreatBallsOfFire theatrical concerts]], which involve, among other things, fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, and [[ImpressivePyrotechnics lots of pyrotechnics]]. The [[FaceOfTheBand most well-known members]] are front-man Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar; his stage persona is "Starchild", due to being a "starry-eyed lover" and "hopeless romantic", a little ironic as he's now HappilyMarried) and of course Gene Simmons (bass; the "Demon", cynical and fan of dark elements, and also known for [[OverlyLongTongue his enormous tongue]]). The two other founding members are the guitarist Ace Frehley (the "Spaceman", a reflection of his fondness for science fiction and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} supposedly being from another planet]]) and drummer Peter Criss (the "Catman", in accordance with the belief that [[CatsHaveNineLives he had nine lives]] because of his rough childhood in Brooklyn.), whose make-ups are still worn by their current replacements, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer (respectively).

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: From ''Revenge'': "Gimme...TOUGH!...LOVE!"

** In addition the {{Backronym}} by unhappy parents that [=KISS=] stood for "Knights In Satan's Service"

-->"In Philadelphia, apparently the [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap hydraulics didn't work and The Demon was stuck in his coffin for about three minutes before they could get him out."]]

* {{Instrumentals}}

-->'''GENE''': "There's no such thing as bad press, there's only press. If you don't get press, that's bad."

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: Although they had started to drift toward HairMetal as early as their fifth studio album, ''Rock and Roll Over'', in 1976, in the 1980s Kiss fully embraced it, and their albums from the "non-makeup" years (1983-1992) sound drastically different from the "classic" Kiss sound, with fast (occasionally ''very'' fast) Music/VanHalen-like solos. In part this was due to new guitarists - Vinnie Vincent, Mark St. John, Bruce Kulick - who sounded nothing like Ace Frehley. But it was also due to the band having to adopt a grittier and more "controversial" image in order to keep pace with the bands they'd inspired. Thus, along with the usual goofy anthems about [[IntercourseWithYou sex]], there are a number of DarkerAndEdgier tunes with more of a "punk" attitude and even some [[PrecisionFStrike Precision F Strikes]] very much at odds with their former (relatively) kid-friendly image. The makeover was only partially successful, with Kiss having fallen into semi-obscurity by the late '80s and enjoying only scattered success until they put their makeup back on in 1996.

* NoSwastikas: Due to German law, the band's usual logo (the band name with the two S characters depicted as lightning bolts) cannot be used in Germany (because the double-S resembles the [[StateSec Schutzstaffel]] logo). While the band has been accused of being Nazis, it seems unlikely that Simmons or Stanley (both being ''Jewish descendants of concentration camp survivors'') intended the logo that way. Hence, the alternative logo with two backwards Z.

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** The best example of this trope is from the Simmons solo album: Gene Simmons sings a heartfelt version of ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Pinocchio}} When You Wish Upon A Star]]''.

!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):

!!Studio Discography:

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!!Live Discography:

* DressRehearsalVideo: "I Love It Loud".

* LastNoteNightmare: The album version of "Detroit Rock City" ends with a car skidding, crashing and '''[[EveryCarIsAPinto exploding]]'''. Then the record segues into "King of the Night Time World".

KISS is an American heavy metal rock band, formed in [[TheSeventies 1973]] in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. It is well known for the face paint and complex costumes worn by the band-members, and its [[GreatBallsOfFire theatrical concerts]], which involve, among other things, fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, and [[ImpressivePyrotechnics lots of pyrotechnics]]. The [[FaceOfTheBand most well-known members]] are front-man Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar; his stage persona is "Starchild", due to being a "starry-eyed lover" and "hopeless romantic", a little ironic as he's now HappilyMarried) and of course Series/{{Gene Simmons|FamilyJewels}} (bass; the "Demon", cynical and fan of dark elements, and also known for [[OverlyLongTongue his enormous tongue]]). The two other founding members are the guitarist Ace Frehley (the "Spaceman", a reflection of his fondness for science fiction and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} supposedly being from another planet]]) and drummer Peter Criss (the "Catman", in accordance with the belief that [[CatsHaveNineLives he had nine lives]] because of his rough childhood in Brooklyn.), whose make-ups are still worn by their current replacements, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer (respectively).

* {{Jailbait}}: "Christine Sixteen" is about an older man who becomes obsessed with a sixteen year old girl after he sees her walking out of her school. When the song was released, many radio stations refused to play it because of its subject.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: If you really pay attention to the lyrics of the song "Nothin' to Lose", it becomes apparent that the song is about a man talking his girlfriend into anal sex. Although she's initially reluctant, she agrees and ends up enjoying it. Word Of God has confirmed that this is what the song is about. For a song released in 1974 it had very racy subject matter, but most people didn't realize what it was really about because the chorus was so catchy. KISS even got away with performing the song on Dick Clark's TV show, and it's remained concert staple for the band for over 40 years.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Peter on "Hooligan," which likely explained why he never got another opportunity. Ace does this on ''Love Gun'''s song "Shock Me", since before that Ace was too shy to record lead vocals on any song, and since then continues to sing lead.
** Oh, and Peter messed up the lyrics to "Rock and Roll All Nite," of all possible songs, on ''MTV Unplugged.''
** Actually, as a member, Peter got to sing again on the [[Music/{{Dynasty}} following album's]] "Dirty Livin'", plus two songs on ''Alive II'', plus his complete solo Kiss album from 1978.
** Earlier, Peter sang in "Nothin' to Lose" (shared with Gene), "Black Diamond" (shared with Paul), "Kissin' Time" (shared with [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs both Gene and Paul]]). His first solo vocal credits came in ''Hotter Than Hell'', with "Mainline" and "Strange Ways", followed by "Getaway" (''Dressed to Kill''), "Beth" (''Destroyer'', the best-known example), "Baby Driver", "Hard Luck Woman" (''Rock and Roll Over''), the aforementioned "Dirty Livin'" and "I Finally Found My Way" (''Psycho Circus''). Ace, meanwhile, would go on to sing on "2,000 Man" (a Music/TheRollingStones cover), "Hard Times", "Save Your Love" (all three from ''Dynasty''), "Talk to Me", "Two Sides of the Coin", "Torpedo Girl" (all three from ''Unmasked''), "Dark Light" (''Music from The Elder'') and "Into the Void" (''Psycho Circus'').
** While "Beth" is traditionally more a Peter Criss song than one for the whole band (after all, he wrote it for his mother), Eric Carr covered it on the 1988 ''Smashes, Thrashes, And Hits'' album. He also sang "Little Caesar" in ''Hot in the Shade'', the following year.
** Eric and Peter share "Nothin' to Lose" in the band's ''MTV Unplugged''.

* VocalTagTeam: Usually between Paul and Gene, but the rest is given a chance. Well, except for...