Marylin Manson is a legitimate reverend with the Church of Satan. His position is to promote the ways of the Church. The chosen method he is doing this with is through the musical expression of his band. While doing so he englightens many to the ways of the Church Of Satan, but also summons from the past an era of music that had almost been forgotten. Does Marilyn Manson represent a great promotion for the scene, or does it pose a grave danger?
Marilyn Manson is a licensed minister with the Church Of Satan. The Church has ten basic rules, or commandments if you will. It is interesting to note that these are merely suggestions and indications of normal humanity. The religion preaches only that one should do what they feel is right, give in to human lust and desire. It's inappropriate for this article to explore the church any further, but it is important to note that Manson himself said he wishes to expose the fallacies of religions to those that are open minded. In this case religion would exclude the breed of Satanism that the Church promotes.
The relevance of his position as reverend to the music isn't just a fleeting notion. The performance of Marilyn Manson is based almost entirely on his wish to promote the ways of the church. The freakish costumes he wears on stage, combined with the unusual visuals on various videos, are an expression of individuality. Manson makes no doubt that he really doesn't care what people are saying about him. He goes a little further than his individualistic appearance though, he attempts to be the embodiment of evil, despite that Church of Satan having nothing really to do with evil.
Manson has become a vent for one's expression as a rebel. Thousands, possibly millions, of people buy the albums, go to the concerts, and adorn themselves with merchandise to show their support for the band, and to show that they to are not going to be dictated to by society. On more than one occassion Manson has promoted this total freedom by encouraging the audience to destroy the venue the band was playing in. A question that has arisen from an individual is "How many shirts and albums of Marilyn Manson must I buy before I am an individual?"
Marilyn Manson is a business venture likely contrived by those that have no real interest in music or freedom. The quality of the music is not worthy of praise; what does it say when a cover of a Eurythmics song is of their most popular (when without doubt the Eurythmics did a better job of playing it). The songs tend to lack originality, integrity and are full of artificial emotion, produced mainly by their frontman, Marliyn. The acts of the band are only to achieve popularity. The lyrics are also very pathetic. They have very little to say, are quite cheesy, broken, and with the possible exceptions of "The Reflecting God" and "Man That You Fear" they contain little value. The lyrics are part of the image, the more hateful and spiteful things Manson can say to offend all possible groups the better. It is very easy to offend people.
Getting banned from playing in a particular venue, or city, is also a relatively easy feat. You could set some places on fire, you can tear up holy books of other religions, or you could masturbate a fake black penis on stage. Inciting chaos from false pretenses and artificial motivations is an irresponsible act and serves no purpose. If one wishes to protest censorship or religion, there is no point in trying to enrage young minds by confusing them. Those that are being lead to Marilyn's side are not in positions of power, and to corrupt them with the "music" will likely only force them away from positions of power in the future.
Marilyn Manson is all about an image, whether the image is real or fake is irrelevant. The band is achieving their moment of fame through an image that is quick to rise, but easy to fall. The 80's were the best decade for this type of performance, which has little to do with the actual music. Regardless of what veil you pull in front of it, this is called Glam. While Glam was almost always of a distinct musical style, the basic premise to it was about the image. Band members would make their hair really big and wear lots of makup and colorful costumes. The music is being used as an easy outlet of an image that has been created, for music is very accessible to a large number of people.
There has always been problems with metal labelled as being Satanic, and Marilyn Manson is feeding off that stereotype. Those that are offended by Marilyn Manson shouldn't be, his comments are superficial. Those that fear what Marilyn is trying to do shouldn't worry, he isn't evil nor is he powerful. Those that seek to prevent his escapades should stop, he feeds off the publicity and without it he'd have no energy to continue, it's so cliche to even say this. Marilyn will manage to damage susceptible minds, but for the most part it will be short lived.
The true fear that Marilyn presents is the damage he will do to the music community. Many worthy bands have worked very hard to build a respectable image, and now Marilyn threatens to ruin whatever postive public image the genre has attained. Don't judge the genres by what this "image" is doing. If you are looking for truly disturbing lyrics, go check out "Suffocation" or other old school death bands. If you want some intense music with a religious attack, check out "Altar". If you want some evil music, check out some black metal such as "Emperor". And if you really like "Sweet Dreams", then go buy the old Eurythmics' albums.
Marilyn Manson is a joke, some will enjoy it, some will not, but as with a joke, feel free to have fun, but don't forget to laugh.