Marilyn Manson: Difference between revisions

Marilyn Manson (initially Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids) are an American rock band founded in 1989. Most of their music technically falls under industrial rock with some [[Heavy Metal (Music)|metal]] elements, but the band are best known as shock rockers, with their graphic imagery and ruthless attacks on the mainstream media winning them a reputation of the kind seldom seen before in music. In fact, the [[You Can Panic Now|moral panic]] against them was so great that they were blamed for the [[Useful Notes/Columbine|Columbine]] massacre by sections of the media, under the belief that the killers had been inspired by their music.

Due to the fact that the band name is also the lead singer's stage name, Marilyn Manson is one of the most notorious examples of [[I Am the Band]] in existence. Many people are not, in fact, aware that they are a band and credit all the group's music to the singer alone. This has become more prominent over time, to the point where Marilyn Manson the person has become a household name, yet the other band members are known only by fans, ex-fans and (some) music critics. The number of them doesn't help -- Marilyn Manson's line up changes almost constantly, and they have gone through 17 guitarists, bassists, drummers and keyboardists in just 20 years. This has often been attributed by those who have worked with him to (among other things) Manson thinking, well, that [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|he is the band]] and the others are just there to provide background scenery for him.

* [[Limp Bizkit (Music)|Wes]] [[Black Light Burns (Music)|Borland]]- Guitars (touring)

* [[Book Ends]]: Counting the hidden track, the two distorted "when you are suffering, know that I've betrayed you" at the start and end make ''Antichrist Superstar'' a perfect loop of the ''[[The Wall (Music)|The Wall]]'' variety.

* [[Cowboy Bebop At His Computer]]: Marilyn Manson is not a goth band, and they have never claimed to be so. It seems as though only reason people think they are a goth band is because the media kept saying they were. The makeup, nail polish, black clothing, and stereotypical "darkness" of the band didn't help much. The music video for Tainted Love also does not help, what with it being filled with goth kids and all (one even wearing a shirt stating "Nothing but a G(oth) Thing").

* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Roli Mosimann was chosen to produce ''Portrait of an American Family'' due to his work with [[Swans (Music)|Swans]], but he turned in a flat and lifeless mix. As an [[Author's Saving Throw]], [[Nine Inch Nails (Music)|Trent Reznor]] (who agreed with Manson that the mix "sucked") brought them to LA for seven weeks of remixing and re-recording, and Mosimann was demoted to "engineer" in the album credits.

* [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]]: Twiggy in the Antichrist Superstar era (convincing enough to make a [[Moral Guardians|Christian right wing group]] say he was a female guitarist who did things onstage). Manson also got into drag for the [[Nine Inch Nails (Music)|Nine Inch Nails]] video "Starfuckers, Inc." (a.k.a. [[Bowdlerise|"Starsuckers, Inc."]]), and in the 'Long Hard Road Out Of Hell' video. He was surprisingly convincing on both occasions.

** Try telling someone about their cover of [[Patti Smith (Music)|Patti Smith]]'s song "Rock N Roll Nigger". Just try.

* [[Record Producer]]: Manson has had a co-producer credit on every album, but he's always gotten assistance from others - Trent Reznor (''Portrait of an American Family'', ''Antichrist Superstar''<ref>This one also included Sean Beavan and [[Skinny Puppy (Music)|Dave Ogilvie]], from the NIN camp</ref>), [[Soundgarden (Music)|Michael]] [[Red Hot Chili Peppers (Music)|Beinhorn]] (''Mechanical Animals''), [[Oasis (Music)|Dave Sardy]] (''Holy Wood''), Ben Grosse (''The Golden Age of Grotesque'', which was co-produced by bandmate Tim Skold), and others.

* [[Sex, Drugs and Rock And Roll]]: The band single-handedly kept America's cocaine industry going through [[The Nineties]]. Well, sort of.

** The line "We're from America/where we eat our young" sounds like a reference to [[George Clinton (Music)|Funkadelic]]'s album ''America Eats Its Young''.

** Rather [[Hate Dumb]]-ishly, the chorus of "(m)OBSCENE" was accused of being too imitative of the chorus of [[Faith No More (Music)|Faith No More]]'s "Be Aggressive", "The Fight Song" was accused of being a [[The Jimmy Hart Version|Jimmy Harted]] [[Blur (Music)|"Song 2"]] and "Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes" is occasionally charged with [[The Jimmy Hart Version|ripping off]] [[Ministry (Music)|Ministry]]'s "Burning Inside".

* [[Autotune|Vocoder]]: Used to [[Nightmare Fuel|terrifying]] effect in the outro of "Cryptorchid" and the chorus of "Kinderfeld."

* [[We Used to Be Friends]]: Manson was close friends with [[Nine Inch Nails (Music)|Trent Reznor]], who got them on his Nothing Records label, produced their first two albums and generally helped promote them. Then, at some point they had a pretty drastic falling out, and despite a short reconciliation around 1999-2000 (enough for Manson to make a cameo in the "Starfuckers, Inc." video and play a concert together), they pretty quickly went back to not being on such good terms anymore. Trent took a potshot or two at Manson, mocking his "Personal Jesus" cover when responding to a fan's question, and Manson's still angry because the Nothing people lost the master tracks for his first three albums<ref>This wasn't strictly Trent's fault, as he got involved in a lawsuit with his former manager and gave up the label. Also, Rob Sheridan had to completely re-do the artwork for the ''Pretty Hate Machine'' remaster because Gary Talpas' original was lost by the Nothing staff as well</ref>. The whole feud's died down somewhat since, even if they're not gonna start being friendly again anytime soon.