Kiss were true titans of rock music during the 70s. No one can dispute the fact that they put on one of the best live shows of all time, regardless of how stupid Peter Criss looked in that cat make-up. But eventually, a band thinks they need to evolve to roll with the ever-changing tide in the music industry. (Though Alice Cooper would beg to differ.) They proceeded to make a bunch of terrible career decisions. Toward the end of the 70s, they tried releasing four, individual solo albums (on the same day) in place of one, cohesive group album. In the 80s, Kiss washed the make-up off their faces and went all Mr. Big with it, switching into full-on power ballad mode. But no attempt to recapture the glory (and money) of their heyday was more egregious than their 2009 "reunion" album, Sonic Boom. With only two members of the original line-up willing to put the make-up back on (Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who, to be fair, are the only members people even remember), the album was only okay, underselling almost every previous album they'd released, including the godawful Music From "The Elder". They made another record with the new line-up in 2012 called Monster, which moved even fewer copies. (Damn you, digital music!) But it seems they've finally caught it quits again--for now--and have chosen to focus on their recently acquired share of the Arena Football League. That, sadly, is not the set-up to an awesome punch line.
