Tuckster wrote:

I'm not really a big fan of them, but I think at least 'God Save the Queen and 'Anarchy in the UK' are pretty good. What gives with the hate? Do you just hate people who pretend to like them because they think it gives them 'punk credibility'?

Well, "Anarchy" is a solid song and I really like the Megadeth and Motley Crue covers of it. But my biggest problem with The Sex Pistols stems from the band themselves. The genesis of The Sex Pistols is not much different than the boy bands who dominated the radio in later half of the 1990s. The story goes like this: a British fashion store manager named Malcolm McLaren was looking for a way to sell his clothes. So he assembled a bunch a degenerate group of young men with minimal musical ability and a way too much attitude so that he could push the store's clothing lines. They represent the worst aspects of music, they were both trendy and contrived. I think they also represent the worst aspects of punk. I enjoy bands like The Ramones and The Clash because they seemed generally interested in writing music and both bands wrote some great songs. The Sex Pistols were much more interested in their "fuck everything" message. And I hate that. I oppose any band whose message is more important to them then their music. And unfortunately, there are a lot of punk bands who have taken The Sex Pistols model and adapted into something that's more politicized but just as cacophonous. Most of them don't reach the level of recognition that The Sex Pistols did, but they're out there and they're coming soon to a college campus near you. If you're a punk band and you want to criticize American politics, write something that doesn't suck. Write something like American Idiot. Don't fucking scream "You're gonna die for your government!" over and over again.

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

Well I agree with everything you say, I'd like to point out that as much as I love KISS, the music was never as important as the spectacle. Of course, it was still all for the sake of a kickass show...except in the eyes of Gene, who sees each of us as a walking paycheck.

I would say KISS is probably about 50% music, 50% spectacle. They had a working knowledge of basic songwriting and they wrote some of the all-time rock classics like "Beth" and "Love Gun". The make-up and pyro was just a gimmick to set them apart from all the other rock bands out there. And at the very least, KISS cared about putting on a good show. That's more than the Sex Pistois ever did, their stage show was a fucking trainwreck. The only member who could play worth a damn was their original bassist and founding member, Glen Matlock. But he was fired and replaced with Sid Vicious because Sid's self-destructive nature was better for the band's image.