Marilyn Manson

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Marilyn Manson

Rock band

Over the years, rock and roll music has witnessed several “shocking” artists, including Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie), Alice Cooper, KISS, and others who frightened parents while exciting and intriguing their fans. Marilyn Manson fit the slot of “shock” rock for the 1990s. Admittedly, singer and band founder Marilyn Manson derived his musical and performance influences from the above artists, as well as Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath, and the Beatles. Jim Farber wrote in Entertainment Weekly: “He sings about scabs, sodomy, and urine. He enjoys ripping his skin with broken bottles. And compares his music to an act of murder. Any authorities who don’t like it, he says, ‘should kill themselves.’”

Manson was born Brian Warner in Canton, Ohio, raised by his mother, a nurse, and his father, Hugh Warner, a furniture salesman. He began writing lyrics in the late 1980s with no intention of becoming a singer or forming a band. But in 1990, he did both. He invented the name Marilyn Manson, which he adopted as his own name, by watching and reflecting on American propaganda and sensationalism. After viewing talk shows and other entertainment sources, he came to the conclusion that Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson stood out as the most popular personalities of the 1960s.

“As I got into the idea further,” Manson told Jim Rose in RIP, “I started realizing the extreme positive and negative that I was trying to outline with these two names. There was a lot of beauty to be found in Manson. There was a lot of ugliness to be found in Monroe. The lines crossed. I resided in that gray area; that what I was doing transcended morality and sexuality.”

Immediate Criticism Sparked Interest

Not long after Manson formed the group, he met Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, also from Ohio. The two singer/songwriters hit it off and when Reznor started his own record label, Nothing Records, Marilyn Manson became its first signing.

Marilyn Manson released its debut album in 1994. Within the year, the group was banned from playing in Salt Lake City, Utah, after Manson ripped apart a Mormon Bible onstage. “Marilyn Manson is a bit of a challenge to people’s intelligence,” Manson told Rose. “It’s almost a little bit of a science project to see how far I can push you, and see exactly what kind of reaction I can get.” Marilyn Manson also received censorship requests and disapproval from organizations such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Christian Coalition, and members of the British Parliament.

“My rules and moralities are probably different from a lot of other people’s,” Manson told Jim Farber in Entertainment Weekly. The band did compromise on some occasions to continue to have their music published and their live shows scheduled. “Compromise is inevitable sometimes,” bassist Twiggy Ramirez told John Pecorelli in Alternative Press. “I mean, if you’re banned in 23 states, you’re not accomplishing much. No one’s going to hear your message.”

Cover Song Lured More Listeners

Marilyn Manson released their second effort, an EP called Smells Like Children, in 1995. The album included a cover version of the Eurythmics’ hit “Sweet Dreams,” which launched the EP to No. 31 on Billboards album chart and racked up platinum sales.

“It was quite obvious to us from the beginning that the song was going to have a broader appeal than the rest of the material on the album,” Manson told MTV News “From the Buzz Bin.” “I felt like it was a piece of cheese on a rat trap to a lot of people who normally wouldn’t listen to Marilyn Manson. They thought, ‘Well, this is an innocuous little song and they ended up getting their necks snapped because they were introduced to this whole world that they weren’t expecting.” However, Tom Sinclair, a reviewer for Entertainment Weekly, saw

For the Record…

Members include Ginger Fish, drums; Madonna Wayne Gacy, keyboards; Marilyn Manson (born Brian Warner in Canton, OH); Twiggy Ramirez, bass; Zim Zum (replaced Daisy Berkowitz), guitar.

Band formed by Manson, 1990; signed with Nothing/Interscope, 1993; released debut, Portrait of an American Family, 1994; released Smells Like Children EP, 1995; released Antichrist Superstar, debuted at number three on Billboards Top 200 albums, 1996.

Addresses: Record company —Nothing/Interscope, 2337 West 11th Street, Suite 7, Cleveland, OH 44113.

the band as talentless rather than shocking: “On this artlessly assembled excuse for an album, these minor-league White Zombie wannabes throw together pointless remixes, irritating skits, and lame covers of songs by Eurythmics, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Patty Smith.”

By the end of 1995, Manson had reorganized the band. He fired guitarist Daisy Berkowitz and hired Chicago-native Zim Zum. Manson and Zum, along with bassist Twiggy Ramirez, keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy, and drummer Ginger Fish, released Antichrist Superstar on Nothing/Interscope in 1996. The LP debuted at No. 3 on Billboards Top 200 Albums, and included the singles “The Beautiful People” and the title track. Within the first weeks of the album’s release, the American Family Association from Mississippi, released a statement to warn American families against Marilyn Manson and its new album. “This should serve as a wake-up call to parents everywhere,” the press release stated.

Concept Album Pushed Limits

Manson claimed Antichrist Superstar directly attacked Christianity’s “weak value system,” stating that he had recorded it in an attempt to “bring on the apocalypse.” He derived the idea for the album from his own experiences and the influence of concept albums such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.

“Marilyn Manson would have fit just fine right alongside Ziggy Stardust and Alice Cooper, the Stooges, T. Rex—any of that back then,” Manson told Pecorelli in Alternative Press. “And apparently, I’m gonna be the one that has to break my back to make rock music exciting again, because not too many other people are making the effort.” John Pareles wrote about Manson’s similarities to Alice Cooper in the New York Times. “Mr. Manson is the 1990’s version of Alice Cooper,” he wrote. “He uses a woman’s name, leads a hard-rock band, and provides a stagey spectacle.”

On the tour for Antichrist Superstar, Manson, a self-proclaimed Satanist, would often lead the crowd in a chant of “We hate love! We love hate!” Adam Tepedelen wrote in a live review in The Rocket “Manson is one sick little doggy; a writhing, taut body like Iggy Pop, a stage persona (’Antichrist Superstar’) equal to Ziggy Stardust, Alice Cooper’s flare for showb iz shock tactics, and G.G. Allin’s bent for self-destruction. Love him or hate him (he’d prefer the latter), there’s no denying he’s a spectacle.” In 1997, Marilyn Manson appeared on the Trent Reznor-produced soundtrack for David Lynch’s film Lost Highway, with the song “The Apple of Sodom.”

Though Manson claimed the album Antichrist Superstar would either bring the end of the world or the end of his band, the crowds clamored for more. So what did Manson have to look forward to after the retirement of his music career? He claimed he’d like to do a stint as a Christian television evangelist…always pushing the limits.