LOS ANGELES – JANUARY 1975: Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Gene Simmons of the rock and roll band Kiss pose for a portrait session in January 1975 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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Kiss may no longer exist as a touring band, but Kiss the brand is still very much alive. The rockers played what they billed as their final concert in late 2023, ending a run that stretched over half a century, but the plan was never to retire the name.
Kiss has always been about more than albums, singles and concerts. The makeup, costumes and four distinct characters helped turn the group into one of the most recognizable brands in rock, and that imagery has been applied to a seemingly endless line of merchandise, with the musicians selling everything from toys and comic books to games and clothing. There’s even a future for selling the Kiss name, even if no new material is expected.
Experimenting with exactly what Kiss could mean to the public has been core to the group’s success. The band was doing just that 48 years ago today, on September 18, 1978, when Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss all released solo albums simultaneously. In the decades since, many musical acts that have followed have learned from Kiss’s bold marketing move.
Kiss Turned Four Solo Careers Into One Product
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 09: Musician Gene Simmons, a founding member of the rock band KISS, is seen on Capitol Hill on December 09, 2025 in Washington, DC. Simmons is expected to speak at the Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing on “Balancing the Interests of Local Radio, Songwriters, and Performers in the Digital Age.” (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Members of successful bands releasing music on their own was nothing unusual, even in the 1970s. Usually, though, the point is to create some distance from the group and establish an identity of one’s own as an artist. Kiss went in almost the opposite direction.
The four releases were presented not just as solo albums but as pieces of one larger Kiss event. The covers matched, as the familiar Kiss logo remained prominently featured, even though the full-lengths were credited under each musician’s own name. The typography and overall presentation connected the records visually, even as each musician was trying to show fans who he was outside the group that brought him to superstardom.
The move was an obvious risk. Kiss was asking the same fan base to spend money on four full-priced albums at the same time. That meant the public would quickly reveal which members were most popular and which projects listeners cared about least. Labels today usually work hard to avoid that kind of direct competition, as it can hurt one person’s brand and future release plans. While that may be common practice these days, Kiss gambled and made it part of the attraction.
Ace Frehley Scored the Biggest Hit Among the Group
The four albums – all self-titled affairs – did not perform equally in the American charts. Simmons climbed the highest on the Billboard 200, with his release peaking at No. 22. It was followed by Frehley at No. 26. Stanley reached No. 40, while Criss stopped short of that important tier, with his full-length stalling at No. 43.
Frehley walked away with the most memorable smash from the entire experiment. His “New York Groove” became the clear breakout single from the quartet of albums after it climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The projects may have looked similarly, but they sounded distinct from one another. Stanley and Frehley remained relatively close to the hard rock style that had made Kiss famous, while Criss leaned more toward R&B and ballads. Simmons delivered the most stylistically varied of the four.
Modern Pop Acts Take a Less Risky Approach
INDIO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 19: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been processed using digital filters.) Blackpink perform at Sahara Tent during the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 19, 2019 in Indio, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Coachella)
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This exact stunt has not been repeated exactly, but the problem Kiss was attempting to solve remains familiar to this day. Popular groups still have to figure out how individual members can build solo careers without damaging the larger act – or, when possible, each other’s chances.
Kiss may be far removed from K-pop, but the rising genre shares some similarities with what the rockers attempted. Blackpink can be seen as a particularly clear modern example. Jennie, Rosé, Lisa and Jisoo all developed increasingly prominent identities outside the girl group, but their solo releases were spread out instead of arriving too close to one another. The four singers were given room to succeed on their own before Blackpink reunited earlier this year.
BTS followed a similar path, with solo projects from all seven members released throughout a several-year-long hiatus that ended when the septet reunited around Arirang this spring.
The Kiss Brand Outlived the Touring Band
DETROIT, USA – 16th MAY: American rock group Kiss perform live on stage at Cobo Hall in Detroit during the concert recording of Alive! on 16th May 1975. Left to right: Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)
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That willingness to stretch the definition of the band helps explain why Kiss remains such a valuable name even after the musicians stopped touring and releasing new music. At the final Madison Square Garden concert in 2023, the flesh-and-blood performers actually handed the stage over to digital avatars, which sets up the next phase of how people will interact with Kiss in the future. The musicians can stop playing, but that doesn’t mean the characters have to.
Even the group’s decades-old music continues to find new audiences and perform well. The band has scored multiple new hits and another bestselling album in the U.K. in only the past month.
After nearly five decades, Kiss dropping four solo albums at once feels slightly gimmicky, but that’s not unusual for the band. There were plenty of reasons why the musicians might have wanted to avoid comparisons to one another or potential commercial failure, but Kiss has always been willing to try something new. The group’s creativity has helped more modern stars understand what to do – and perhaps what not to do – to keep a brand strong.
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