Marilyn Manson Essay Example

Canton, GlenOak High, graduating in 1987, then moved with his family to Florida. There he studied Journalism and Theater at Broward Community College.

While at college, Manson was Assistant Entertainment Editor for Broward's student paper, The Observer. After college, he successfully applied to be a Staff Writer at Fort Lauderdale's 25th Parallel Magazine, later advancing to Associate Editor, while forming the band Marilyn Manson And The Spooky Kids. The band name was later shortened to just Marilyn Manson. Antichrist Superstar contained the American hit single 'The Beautiful People' and reached the top 5. The Antichrist Superstar era is Manson's refinement of all previous feelings of alientation, anger, fear, and religion-focused contempt.

Becoming one of America's 'Most Reviled' and describing himself as a reflection of American society, he rises to fame and infamy. By 1998, Marilyn Manson had become one of the biggest artists in the USA, a position aided by their notoriety and propensity for upsetting US right-wing and Christian groups as by their music. Mechanical Animals was a huge American chart-topper that also placed the band in the UK Top 10 for the first time. The 1998 through 99 glam inspired era of Mechanical Animals was successful for him on many levels, personally and professionally.

Mechanical Animals gave them their first number one album, but, while touring to promote their work, something happened that cast an undeserved shadow. On April 20th 1999, two teenagers decided to shoot fellow students at Columbine High and then commit suicide. The American media decided that the boys decided to to this because they had been listening to Marilyn Manson. The misplaced media pressure became unrelenting

for Manson, and however much he knew he'd been wrongly implicated, the barrage of criticism and blatant shunning which took place did end up affecting him on a personal level.

After Columbine, Manson avoided the public eye for three months, directing his energies solely into creating an album to show he was yet again going to come out fighting. The coming album, Holy Wood, was to explore the themes of identity and status, with references to the martyrdom of Jesus, Kennedy, and Lennon. It also dealt with disillusionment and fighting back. The fifteenth track on the album The High End Of Low is the song “15”. Manson states that this is the most important song written by the band at the time.

In a Marilyn Manson interview with Revolver Magazine, he said: “... and then, January 4, at midnight, when it was becoming my birthday, I sang “15”. There were no lyrics written down. I sang and said exactly what I felt that day. It was almost like an end-title credit for me, what you hear when you walk out of the movie theatre. ” I believe that this song was written to ex-wife Dita Von Teese. The opening lyrics: “Yesterday everything I thought I believed in died/But today is my birthday. ” He's just been divorced, but he's finally gotten over it.

Another lyric that makes me feel this way is, “Anyone with half a soul/Will hear this and they'll never leave me. ” He implies that Dita has no soul, in his eyes at least. “Better of Two Evils” by Marilyn Manson is one of my favorite songs of his.

I think he makes a really big statement in the song. In the song, Manson says he's better than the people and media that use him as a scapegoat and talk badly of him. The lyrics: “Haters call me b****/Call me f**got, call me whitey/But I am something that you'll never be. He's talking about how the people and media say all sorts of bad things about him, but that makes him better than them. The lyrics: “I won't look prettier if I smile for the picture/Motherf***ers never liked me then and they/Sure won't like me now. ” Manson is saying that he's not going to change just to please everyone. The lyrics: “I will step on you on my way up/And I will step on you on my way back down. ” He's saying he will step on everyone as he reaches the top, and even if he falls, he'll still do it. The lyrics: “I'll be your scapegoat, I'll be your saviour/I'm the better of two evils. Manson is saying that since everyone is making him the scapegoat, he's basically their saviour, by taking all the blame. He is the better of two evils because the people and media are more evil than him because they say terrible things about him and blame him for everything. “WoW” is a song about Marilyn Manson's breakup with Evan Rachel Wood. Manson talks about how Evan is crazy for trying to change him into something he's not. The lyrics: “I had a dream/This one I feel the need to mention. ” His dream is the relationship between him and Evan.

The lyrics: “I was happy

for a while and I stopped being scared/And ashamed to say whats on my mind. ” He played the nice boyfriend and was what Evan wanted, until he decided to be himself again. The lyrics: “But you thought I'd change after a while/And said 'you better treat me different or else! '. ” Evan thought the act was who he was and when he behaved like his normal self, she tried to change him again. The lyrics: “'Or else' seems like a stupid f***ing thing to say to someone like me/Someone like me/Wow, Wow, Wow, Wo-wo-wo-wo-wo Wow/Don't be surprised I can look you in the eye.

This whole section is his sheer shock that Evan thinks she's in control. He's never let anyone else tell him what to do, so what makes her so special? The lyrics: “I'm worse than what you think you'd catch from me/Complicated's understated, did you stop and take a look at who/You fell in love with? /At who you fell in love with? ” He's telling Evan that he's worse than she ever thought and she should've looked a little harder at who he was, since he's always been this way and he's never changed. Why would you fall in love with someone like me when you knew what I was about.

The life experiences of Marilyn Manson are demonstrated in his songs: “15”, “Better of Two Evils”, and “WoW”. As you can see, these songs tell a lot about Marilyn Manson's life and what influences his music. Break-ups and relationships influence a lot of his music. Not only relationships influence his music, but things said about him

influence his work as well. Like said in the song, “Better of Two Evils”, when bad things are said about him, it just makes him stronger. They're just giving him more ideas for songs.

His songs have a lot of meaning and are so creative. You have to think about the meaning, and even when you think you finally understand his song, someone comes along with an interpretation or explanation that also sounds great. He leaves it up to the person listening to the music to interpret what the song is about. Some of his songs are obvious, you can tell that its about a break-up or something that happened to him recently, just like in “WoW”. But a lot of his songs are profound, you may think you've cracked the meaning when you've only scratched the surface.

He really sends a message about what is going on, and the way people act. Just like in “Better of Two Evils” he sees that people blame him for a lot of the bad things that happen, like the Columbine Massacre, which was not his fault. Those people pointing the finger are who are truly evil, for accusing him of something he didn't do, and he knows that if he himself is evil, everyone else is worse. Like the saying, “When you point a finger, you have three pointing back at you. ” In my personal opinion, Marilyn Manson doesn't get enough credit for what he does.