Gene Simmons believes the days of iconic and cross-generational rock bands are in the past. The Kiss co-founder spoke to Gulf News and was asked if he thinks some bands will be considered iconic in 30 years, and said, “I doubt it. Because the singularity that was the Beatles is a band that wrote their own songs — arranged it themselves, produced it themselves, mostly played all their own instruments. No backing tracks. No digital enhancement. No vocal correctness. Yeah, not gonna happen again. Y'know, modern artists rely so much on technology.”
He went on to say, “Rock is dead. And that's because new bands haven't taken the time to create glamour, excitement, and epic stuff. I mean, Foo Fighters is a terrific band, but that's a 20-year-old band. So you can go back to 1958 until 1988. That's 30 years. During that time, we had Elvis (Presley), the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, on and on. In disco, you had Madonna, and then you had your hard rock, you had AC/DC, maybe us, a few others. Motown, all that great music. From 1988, until today, that's more than 30 years. Tell me who the new Beatles is. You can't. There are popular bands – BTS is very popular. All kinds of bands are very popular. That doesn't mean iconic and legacy and for all time. It's different.”
In regards to modern music, Simmons explained, “You may not be able to recognize the artist if they record themselves singing in the shower. You'd be shocked. And none of the rappers play instruments — don't write songs. They write words. But chords, melodies, harmonies, and stuff. It doesn't mean that rap isn't important. It's very important. But it ain't the Beatles.”