KISS/YMMV

• Base Breaker: Gene Simmons: is he the single Manliest, coolest looking and most Badass and Lead Bassist ever, or a greedy megalomaniac who wastes his money on everything he finds ?
  • How about Thayer and Singer after they took Frehley and Criss' makeup ?
  • Heck, any lead guitarist not named Ace to an extent. Vinnie Vincent in particular. Mark St. John, not so much.
• Covered Up: Many people forgot than "New York Groove" (the most well known track in Ace's 1978 solo album) was a song by Argent, originally by Hello.
  • Also, the Power Ballad "God Gave Rock n' Roll to You", which was also originally by Argent. When KISS covered it, they added a "II" to the title, possibly to differentiate the two songs more clearly, as KISS' version has completely different lyrics except for the chorus.
• Dork Age: For many, the 1979-1981 period, from Dynasty to Music for the Elder. To be specific...
  • Dynasty: it's unarguable that it was perhaps the biggest commercially successful studio album in the entire history of the band (if one ignores the Alive compilations), but what most people don't know is that, in the long run, Dynasty itself almost destroyed the band when it was first released. With the shift to the far more mainstream disco genre, although the album proved to be a commercial success, it pretty much alienated the fans that had followed the band since its early beginnings, resulting in nearly empty arenas and stadiums when the band went on tour, something unheard of when it came to KISS concerts and their particular fame.^[1]
  • Unmasked: After promising a return to the heavier sound they were known for they proceeded to release Unmasked, which was a critical flop due to the still present "pop sound". To make matters worse, the following album was...
  • The (in)famous Music from "The Elder": The band's Concept Album proved to be a catastrophic commercial and critical flop which lead to the outright cancellation of the album's tour, once again a first for any KISS release.
  • Creatures of the Night, while successful critically due to being the heaviest KISS album yet and featuring the band's strongest songs in some time, didn't fare any better on the commercial and on the tour side of things (many people also attribute this to two founding members, lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss leaving the band around the same time, but Your Mileage May Vary).
  • ...And finally, they remove their makeup and released Lick It Up, which didn't chart very high, but was still certified gold within a few months of release. This is largely considered attributable to publicity generated by the band's decision to do away with the makeup and costumes concurrent with the album's release. Then Animalized was released, went gold quickly, and the band's finances were back at normal (excluding contractual issues with Vinnie Vincent and health issues with Mark St. John), although sell-out concerts would still elude them for one more album, finally going to back to their usual tour success with Crazy Nights.
• Ear Worm: Several. "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "I Was Made for Lovin' You" are very good exemples of this.
• Epic Riff: You know the house is gonna come down when "Detroit Rock City" and "Rock and Roll All Nite" (and others !) start playing.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Their second drummer Eric Carr is universally beloved by the fanbase thanks for being a very Nice Guy, especially in the wake of his tragic death in late 1991.
  • Ace is also very well liked too. Having the best 1978 solo album helps.
  • Mark St. John after his death in 2007 sort of became this, and although the debate of who's the best KISS guitarist will go around forever, most fans universally agree he was a DAMN good guitar player, and perhaps the most technical guitarist KISS ever had.
• Face of the Band: Simmons and Stanley, particulary the former; justified as they're the only original members still in the band.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The Music from "The Elder" album sounded so much unlike anything KISS had released to that point that fans and critics alike universally panned it, and sales were so poor that anything related to the album was instantly scrapped. The band quickly moved forward and forgot about the whole fiasco as fast as possible.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sorta. One of the songs in the album, "A World Without Heroes", entered their MTV Unplugged following a vote-in, and in a concert in Australia in 2004, they tried to play I... but Gene had long forgotten the lyrics. It is now a collector piece, and manage to have its supporters. (Unmasked and Criss' 1978 solo album being the remaining main competers for 'worst studio KISS album')
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Australia really likes Dynasty and Unmasked.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the 90s, Tommy Thayer is in a KISS tribute band called "Cold Gin" and took the role of Ace Frehley. And guess which member he remplaces (makeup inclued) ?
  • Mark St. John liked to tell a tale about how he was introduced to Vinnie Vincent one night and was told that he was "KISS' new lead guitarist." Mark St. John's reply? "KISS, what a shitty band!" Fast forward two albums later...
• Memetic Sex God: Try to find ONE fangirl who never dreamt about sleeping with Stanley, or at least admitting he looks good.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: This will generally be the attitude among a vocal portion of the band's fandom whenever a personnel shakeup takes place. The current lineup especially gets people riled up, since Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer are wearing the makeup of the absent original members, and there are some out there who still resent Singer for not being Eric Carr.

1. ↑ In fact, they lost money during this tour, as each concert cost no less than ONE million dollars each !