History YMMV / Kansas

* SignatureSong: Initially "Dust in the Wind", but it's since been displaced by "Carry On Wayward Son".

* FaceOfTheBand: Most will tell you either Steve Walsh or Kerry Livgren, although Robby Steinhardt has always been the frontman for the band while he was a part of it. These days, however, it's probably Rich Williams because, y'know, the eyepatch.

* ReplacementScrappy: Ultimately averted with John Elefante. While Kansas did decline during the Elefante era, most fans nowadays acknowledge it was because of internal struggles that he had little to do with, and the songs "Fight Fire with Fire" and "Play the Game Tonight", both songs that Elefante sang (and in the case of the former, wrote), are still quite popular among fans to this day. In fact, he was a popular choice to replace Steve Walsh following the latter's retirement[[note]]He was contacted by the band about rejoining, but respectfully declined[[/note]].
** Also averted with Steve Walsh's eventual replacement, Ronnie Platt, who is well-liked by fans. The fact that he brought clear vocals to the band when his predecessor could barely sing anymore didn't hurt.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: "How My Soul Cries Out For You" on ''Monolith'' starts off normally, but quickly gets weird in the second half of the song: the music comes to a dead halt. Bar chatter ensues. The barflies gasp, which leads into a brief drum solo. Distorted backward vocals rise up from the din, leading to a final runthrough of the chorus. The song fades out...[[FakeOutFadeOut only to fade back in halfway.]] The main melody of the song plays for about fifteen seconds before the tape speeds up and the song finally fades out for real. It's easily the strangest song in the band's catalogue.
* EpicRiff: Spanning several different instruments. For starters: "Dust in the Wind" for acoustic guitar, "Carry On Wayward Son" for electric guitar (plus the epic LyricalColdOpen as a bonus), "Point of Know Return" for violin, "Miracles out of Nowhere" for keyboards, "Lonely Street" for bass guitar, and "Magnum Opus" even pulls this off ''on tympani'' (which the rest of the band picks up on afterward).

* ReplacementScrappy: Ultimately averted with John Elefante. While Kansas did decline during the Elefante era, most fans nowadays acknowledge it was because of internal struggles that he had little to do with, and the songs "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Play The Game Tonight", both songs that Elefante sang (and in the case of the former, wrote), are still quite popular among fans to this day. In fact, he was a popular choice to replace Steve Walsh following the latter's retirement[[note]]He was contacted by the band about rejoining, but respectfully declined[[/note]].
** Also averted with Steve Walsh's eventual replacement, Ronnie Platt, who is well liked by fans. The fact that he brought clear vocals to the band when his predecessor could barely sing anymore didn't hurt.
* SignatureSong: Initially "Dust in the Wind," but it's since been displaced by "Carry On Wayward Son".
* SongAssociation: As stated on the main page, "Carry On Wayward Son" is commonly associated with ''Series/{{Supernatural}}.''

* AcclaimedFlop: 1988's ''In The Spirit of Things'' was the follow up to their 1986 "comeback" album ''Power'', but it was met with poor commercial reception.[[note]]Although the song "Stand Beside Me" was a MTV and rock radio hit.[[/note]] This is mainly due to the fact that their record label at the time (MCA Records) dropped support for many of the classic rock acts on the label for the latest pop stars at the time like ''Tiffany''. However, many fans and the band themselves consider it to be one of their strongest post-70's work.
** The band's drummer Phil Ehart said in the end, it didn't matter if they were dropped. He said that [[{{Irony}} Kansas is still a popular live draw to this day,]] [[TakeThat while no one is going to see Tiffany]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: "How My Soul Cries Out For You" on ''Monolith'' starts off normally, but quickly gets weird in the second half of the song: the music comes to a dead halt. Bar chatter ensues. The barflies gasp, which leads into a brief drum solo. Distorted backward vocals rise up from the din, leading to a final runthrough of the chorus. The song fades out...[[FakeoutFadeout only to fade back in halfway.]] The main melody of the song plays for about fifteen seconds before the tape speeds up and the song finally fades out for real. It's easily the strangest song in the band's catalogue.

* TearJerker: "Dust in the Wind" and "Cheyenne Anthem"

* AwesomeMusic: Pretty much all of the first five albums, for starters.

* Awesome Music: Pretty much all of the first five albums, for starters.

* EpicRiff: Spanning several different instruments. For starters: "Dust in the Wind" for acoustic guitar, "Carry On Wayward Son" for electric guitar (plus the epic LyricalColdOpen as a bonus), "Point of Know Return" for violin, "Miracles out of Nowhere" for keyboards, and "Lonely Street" for bass guitar.

* SongAssociation: As stated on the main page, "Carry On Wayward Son" is commonly associated with ''Series/{{Supernatural}}.''

* AcclaimedFlop: 1998's ''In The Spirit of Things'' was the follow up to their 1986 "comeback" album ''Power'', but it was met with poor commercial reception.[[note]]Although the song "Stand Beside Me" was a MTV and rock radio hit.[[/note]] This is mainly due to the fact that their record label at the time (MCA Records) dropped support for many of the classic rock acts on the label for the latest pop stars at the time like ''Tiffany''. However, many fans and the band themselves consider it to be one of their strongest post-70's work.
** The band's drummer Phil Ehart said in the end, it didn't matter if they were dropped. He said that [[{{Irony}} Kansas is still a popular live draw to this day, while no one is going to see Tiffany]].
* EpicRiff: "Dust in the Wind", "Carry On Wayward Sun", "Point of Know Return" (on violin)

** The band's drummer Phil Ehart said in the end, it didn't matter if they were dropped. He said that [[Main/Irony Kansas is still a popular live draw to this day, while no one is going to see Tiffany]].

** The band's drummer Phil Ehart said in the end, it didn't matter if they were dropped. He said that [[Irony Kansas is still a popular live draw to this day, while no one is going to see Tiffany]].

* MagnumOpus: Depending on whom you ask, it's usually one of their first five albums [[note]] The self-titled debut, ''Song for America'', ''Masque'', ''Leftoverture'', and ''The Point of Know Return''[[/note]].

* MagnumOpus: Depending on whom you ask, it's either ''Song for America'', ''Leftoverture'', or ''The Point of Know Return''.

* SongAssociation: As stated on the main page, "Carry On Wayward Son" has become one for ''LiveActionTV/{{Supernatural}}.''

* SongAssociation: As stated on the main page, "Carry On Wayward Son" has become one for ''[[LiveActionTV/{{Supernatural}}]].''

* SignatureSong: Initially "Dust in the Wind," but it's since been displaced by "Carry On Wayward Son".

* BlackSheepHit: "Dust in the Wind" is not particularly indicative of their style, nor is "Carry On Wayward Son" (mostly because of lack of violins.)
* SignatureSong: Initially "Dust in the Wind," but it's since been displaced by "Carry On Wayward Son".
* SimilarlyNamedWorks: "The Wall" is unrelated to the Music/PinkFloyd [[Music/TheWall album]].

* SignatureSong: Initially "Dust in the Wind," but it's since been displaced by "Carry On Wayward Son".

* SignatureSong: "Carry On Wayward Son".