If they had been clean-cut men in traditional suits, sitting in chairs playing their music, the way classical musicians do, and their music sounded exactly the same in every detail as it did with the costumes and makeup, would they still have been superstars?
shareNo, but this reliance on appearance isn’t limited to Kiss.
If Elvis didn’t have the slicked back hair, pompadour, and handsome features; would he have been the highest selling individual artist of all time? If Eminem wasn’t white, would he have been the highest selling rapper of all time? If Britney Spears and Christina Auguilera were fat chicks with crooked teeth; would they have been superstars?
List goes on and on ...
I agree, you've made a good point. In the case of Elvis, however, I think he was good enough (before the bloated, drug-addled Las Vegas years) that his records would hold up even if listeners had never seen him. I'm not familiar enough with Kiss to make a similar judgement in their case.
We see the same phenomenon even in classical music. I've never seen an album cover of a female classical pianist, violinist, or guitarist who was a "fat chick with crooked teeth". They are almost all "hot" to some degree, as if there were a correlation between sex appeal and instrumental talent.
It's all just show-biz.