KISS most popular band in America - Gallup poll from 1977

Just how accurate was this poll? For all their popularity, it's difficult for me to believe that a band that never even had a top five charting album (this poll was released just prior to the Love Gun album) were more popular than groups like Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Wings.

 

They were huge with the kids and teens. The other groups were already on their way out for some time. Although Floyd came back with a vengeance in '79 with "The Wall"

I was born in '66 and I remember by '77 Kiss was everywhere ! Even in Europe!

The next big bands at that time around here were ELO and Smokie. Smokie was unbelievably huge. Hated them.

 

Don't think the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac were on the way out. The 1977 album chart was dominated by Rumors and Hotel California.

 

Depends on the criteria of the poll and the questions asked. Word a poll properly and you can get almost any result you want.

 

Maybe merchandise sales were factored in as well.

 

I was 12 and they were everywhere - not difficult to believe the results. I was still a year away from discovering FM radio, so I don't think I knew anything about LZ or Floyd or Yes or anybody like that. And as others have said, the question was probably asked of 100 random people in a supermarket and phrased something like "Which one of these Hard Rock Groups have you heard most about this year?".

 

KISS had a "zazz" element (for lack of a better word) that those other bands, for the most part, just didn't have. As somebody said, there were a lot of 12 and 13 year olds that made up the KISS fan base, and KISS was terribly exciting to them in a way that The Eagles or Fleetwood Mac could never match up to.

 

"For 24 years I've been living next door to Alice"

LOL

 

Yeah I can believe that poll...they were huge and that pretty much was their peak. They were just different and their live shows and stage set up were incredible for the time. I saw them during the Love Gun tour so I'm old.

 

I believe it. They were the biggest band with myself and all my friends at that time. I still love them. The classic albums rule!

 

KISS - ALIVE II... My first rock album purchased in 1978 with my meager ten year-old's allowance.

Begged my mother for advances to purchase the remainder of the entire catalog up to that point the forthcoming couple of months. I still remember buying them all one at a time at the record store located in Jantzen Beach Mall in Portland, Oregon.

KISS was everywhere back then. Not difficult at all to believe they were voted most popular band in the USA in 1977. You don't have to like their music, but you cannot deny their brand. Gene was WAY ahead of the learning curve back then. KISS' marketing strategy should be studied in every University's School of Business.

 

KISS was on every notebook in my middle school, it seemed. Boys would go through the discography and which albums they had. It was half music, half cover art, but all good.

 

You would have had to have been there. That result was unique to 1977 and the United States.

 

From 1974 to 1977, Kiss put out seven albums, and toured relentlessly! You couldn't get away from them. With bands like Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, etc., it was two years or so between albums.

 

Well - I was 15 in 77 - and within the typical circle of friends I traveled with - in your typical Canadian small town - bringing up any of the bands mentioned above made you instantly look like your Dad. Put another way - when we were sitting around at a party...sneaking beer etc - no one was putting on Rumours or London Town. It was Alive, Destroyer and the Orginals

Trust me - KISS was it back in the day. It wasn't until I moved into broadcast in the early 80's that I even heard Physical Graffiti or Wish You Were here in their entirety. For a bunch of young heads on the prairies with no records stores nearby...and ratty copies of Creem magazine from the one local drugstore that actually had magazines - you bought what you saw. Kiss was practically on the cover of the rag for all of 77 so it's no surprise that's where all our cash went.

Good times!

VP

 

Definitely were not my most popular band in 1977. I turned 25 that fall and considered Kiss more for the younger set. No denying their popularity though.

 

A lot of people like to rip on Kiss, but the reality is that Kiss was huge in '77 from a pop culture perspective. The brand was bigger than the music.

 

Unpossible!

 

Interesting that this would be brought up here....read the book that Larry Harris wrote about his time with Kiss and the Casablanca label. He states (as do other books about Kiss) that all those polls were fluffed. Meaning, they paid people to buy up copies of the magazines and they would be having friends and fans fill out those ballots and send them in LOL. It actually worked too. In 1977-1978 Kiss were on top of the world and their popularity obviously helped and could help them win certain polls, but isn't funny that they managed to win in almost every catagory? Best album, best concert, best drummer, best bass player, best singer, best guitarist......seriously, those of you into Kiss and like reading about behind the scenes stuff, should pick up Larry's book.

 

KISS was enormously popular, no doubt. But I'm not sure Gallup (which, FWIW had the last presidential race at Romney +7 going into the final couple of weeks and was still calling it for Romeny, albeit narrowly on the eve of the election), is more of an accurate reflection of the tastes of the day than the album and singles charts, even as susceptible to manipulation as they were in the pre-SoundScan era.

 

I was 9 in 1977, the oldest child, and my parents were not rock fans. I knew who KISS was. I did not know who Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Aerosmith, etc. etc. were. They had penetrated beyond being a band to being a cultural phenomenon, albeit one clearly targeted at the youth market.

 

Its possible for those about 15 and under they were.

In 1977, for those of us a little more grown up, there were too many mega-popular acts to say just one was the 'most' popular. Led Zep, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Boston, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart, Earth Wind & Fire...... even Foghat riding a crest of mainstream popularity and filling arenas.

 

Some interesting info there.

 

Loved the 70's classic lineup of Kiss, but the poll should have read.. "Most Marketed Band In America"