Gene Simmons says the rock business is dead

Very true, Phasecorrect. And since the days of Kiss's large merchandising sales and mega record sales are over, Rock is dead, as far as Gene is concerned. A case of ego and tunnelvision.

He may be right, he may be wrong. How do you prove it? It's just an opinion. Who cares what Gene Simmons says?

To be fair, Kiss was a live spectacle. It took a dbl live Lp (albeit doctored) to break them, but they really pioneered for better or worse what we now as a modern stadium show, minus the LCD/led screens. Their use of pyrotechnics, lights, and volume made for thrilling theatre youngsters in the late 70s. Although one could argue Cooper did it first and much better.

I think Bowie was the first with the big stage show, although
there might be some overlap. Before that, major artists would
just come out on the Filmore East stage in T-shirts and play the
most incredible (rock) music the world has ever heard. Funny -
Hendrix, Sly, Joplin, Cream, Tull, Creedence didn't seem to need
fireworks, guys running around in gorilla suits, makeup or
explosions to hold an audience's attention. I wonder why. Well,
Joplin and Hendrix didn't wear T-shirts, but the point is the
same. In fact, they dressed rather alike, now that I think of
it. The San Francisco thing, I think.

Re: large scale theatrical shows and Kiss

It's tough to recall who started the whole production intensive rock show thing. I remember that a bunch of prog bands were doing the full-blown production well before Kiss came along (+/-1973 IIRC). Yes, ELP, and a few others were doing that in 1970ish. I saw Genesis in 1971 and they already were employing costume changes, lighting effects, flash pots, etc. Kiss may well have commercially exploited that approach on a mass scale earlier than most and tip your hat to them for that. However, the approach was already well established before they came along.