10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 1970's

10. KISS

Deep in the heart of New York City in the early 70's, 4 misfits came together to put together one of the greatest rock shows ever conceived. When KISS got the ball rolling, the band were amateur musicians who were focused on using spectacle as a way to grab their audience by the throat. As they went on, they ended up churning out some of the best rock and roll of the era.

When you go back and listen to the band's early records, the songs are more or less just meat-and-potatoes rock and roll. However, their live album Alive! showed the world the band's capacity of taking their standard rock songs and blowing them up to gargantuan proportions. Once the door had been kicked down, the band took great strides in the studio with fantastic tales of rock and roll debauchery like on "Detroit Rock City" and "Love Gun." The band even had more gentle moments in their catalog that foreshadowed the power ballads of the 1980's like "Beth" and "Hard Luck Woman."

The message behind the band's music may not be the most profound, but KISS reinforced the idea of rock and roll as a 24-hour party with a sound that was larger than life.