Manson was once considered a "monster" tailored for the entertainment industry, with a shocking personality, a weird makeup like a mask, and singing outrageous lyrics... Today, this "successful work" created by the record commercial has completely fallen off the altar.
| Author: Ershui
| Editor: Ah Ye
| Editor: Su Su
More than half a hundred years old, the famous heavy metal rock singer Marilyn Manson once again fell into the whirlpool of public opinion.
On Feb. 1, actress Evan Rachel Wood, who has been in the spotlight for starring in "Westworld," posted on social media accusing her ex-fiancé Manson of sexually assaulting her for years.
Manson (left) and Wood
Wood said she was 18 when she met Manson and he was 36. During the nearly 5 years the two had been in a relationship, Manson mentally controlled and abused her. Even after the two broke up, she lived a life of fear of reprisals and blackmail, and she was worried. Today, she is no longer silent, in order to let more victims stand up.
Subsequently, four more women came forward to accuse Manson, saying that they had been sexually assaulted by him, punched in the face with a baseball bat, forced drug use, forced blood oath, and illegal imprisonment. One victim also said Manson routinely psychologically abused "everyone he hired, everyone he dated," including "band members, girlfriends, and friends."
After the fermentation of public opinion, Manson had to respond. Posting on social networking sites, he said, "My intimacy has always been consensual with like-minded partners. ”
This statement did not stop public opinion from criticizing him, but a number of women said that they were also Manson's "victims". Immediately after, Manson's new fantasy drama "American Gods" and horror drama "Ghost Show" and other film and television works announced that he would delete his roles; his record label Loma Vista also announced that it would no longer promote his recently released new albums and would not cooperate with him in the future.
A decaying and withered childhood
People who don't listen to rock and roll may not know Manson at all, but there is a popular saying in European and American rock circles: "Only by trading with the most evil demons can you exchange marilyn Manson." ”
From the beginning of his arrival in this world, Manson has experienced a life that ordinary people cannot imagine.
Born in Ohio in 1969, his original name was Brian Hugh Warner, and he grew up in a broken family. The family never cared about him, his grandfather had transvestites, and his next-door neighbor was a pervert who had killed the puppy in front of him.
Young Manson (left) and father
All kinds of misfortunes make Manson like a "monster", there is no hope in his eyes, only sadness and anger. Sometimes, he would escape reality by reading his favorite fairy tale, Alice in Wonderland, where Alice could travel to fantasy places, while he could only go through pornographic magazines hidden by her grandfather in a dimly lit basement. When he is unhappy, he will also read articles related to the famous American murderous maniac Manson and get pleasure from them.
Later, Manson vented his childhood fears and insecurities through the brush. In his paintings, the figures and animals are brightly colored but their eyes are hollow, their bodies are skinny, and they look gorgeous, but they show an internal state of decay and withering. He said, "From the beginning, I fell into the dark side of life. ”
Manson's exhibition
When Manson was 18 years old, the family moved to Florida. At the time, he became obsessed with writing and enrolled in the journalism department of a community college. After graduating, he became a music critic and published several reviews in the music magazine Rolling Stone.
In 1989, at the age of 20, Manson became desperate to make his voice in the world, trying to change the world in his own way.
Manson as a young man
He thought about the trauma of his upbringing and the days when he was frantically reading stories about the murderous manson. Thus, a heavy metal rock singer named Marilyn Manson and the band of the same name came out. Marilyn is a popular actress in the United States, and Manson combines the names of beauty stars and perverted killers to symbolize the contradiction between angel and demon, beauty and terror. In order to echo Manson, the other members of the band also have stage names that are a combination of beauty stars and killer names.
Marilyn Monroe (left) and the murderous manson
However, the gimmicky name did not help the band earn much fame. Manson had his brains up again: set up a telephone hotline to leave messages for fans who cared about the band, and he would regularly distribute his own press releases and new song information to fans.
In that era of underdeveloped technology, few artists would promote themselves so hard. At this time, Manson was only a little luck away from big red.
Turned into a devil returning from hell
Manson later discovered that his propaganda was nothing more than flattering others. However, people only resonate with songs when they hear what they are willing to hear. To this end, he began to pay attention to social issues, observe other people's views on the problems, and then write these contents into songs.
Later, most of Manson's songs were related to topics such as violence, sex, and antichrism, and were full of darkness and death. In order to maintain his creative inspiration, he constantly switches between the identities of "Brian Warner" and "Marilyn Manson": observing the world through the identity of "Brian Warner" and then expressing it in the way of "Marilyn Manson".
When the lyrics, which are full of dirty words, are mixed with a very strange style, it becomes Manson's unique music. It cannot be seen or touched like a ghost, but it can linger in the brain of the listener.
In addition to conveying antisocial sentiment in music, Manson also tried to add gothic elements to the dress. Tragic white faces, blood-red lips, heterochromatic pupils, ambiguous gender attire... This is just Manson's most ordinary outfit, which can be called the "originator of the Killing Matt Community" in the United States.
Even more jaw-dropping is Manson's MV plot and live performance content.
For example, in a 1998 MV, he appeared as an asexual person, and the picture was full of uncomfortable elements. At the concert, he also knows how to provoke the emotions of fans: in the death-filled performance scene, the protagonist Manson is like a ghost returning from hell, standing on a high platform to tear off the Bible with his own hands, or standing in the middle of the stage, holding a broken beer bottle to scratch his skin, from the chest to the edge of the ribs...
It is surprising that such a crazy way of performing has been sought after by countless young Americans. Many fanatical fans wore Manson's T-shirts and squeezed into the band's various performance scenes, and the scene even made it seem that Manson had opened up a new religion.
Eventually, Manson was closely associated with labels such as "perverted," "thriller," and "Satan."
After becoming famous, Manson made friends with celebrities in Hollywood and fell in love with star models.
In 1998, he became engaged to sexy actress Rose McGowan and had a secret wedding at a friend's private castle. But their love affair lasted less than two years, and they broke up in December 2000.
Later, Manson associated with "the world's first stripper", Tita Vantis. Tita rejects the kindness of all her suitors, but in 2005 she married the "Satan on Earth" who practiced "no madness, no life.". But the marriage did not last long, and after only one year of marriage, Tita submitted the divorce agreement to court, and the two formally divorced in 2007.
Manson and ex-wife Tita (right)
"I want to represent everything you oppose"
People who like Manson believe in him as a god. Manson's albums have sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, and the concert venue is full, and fans who can't buy tickets stay up all night outside the rehearsal hall to see Manson's true appearance.
People who hated Manson hated him to the bone, believing that his music conveyed extreme content, especially many parents in the United States, spontaneously resisted him. However, the more things that parents prohibit, the more popular they are often with their children, and many young people's love for Manson is more fanatical, and even extreme events have occurred.
In 1999, a tragedy occurred at a high school in Colorado, USA. Two students, armed with guns and bloodied, committed suicide after killing 13 people and injuring 24 others.
In 2012, a 15-year-old middle school student was accused of attempting to shoot a classmate. On the morning of the shooting, the student left a message on the social networking site, "The first day of school and the last day of my life!" ”
Local police found in a subsequent investigation that the students were fans of Manson. Some mainstream media in the United States began to blame Manson's work for triggering these school shootings.
Manson's past experience has been controversial beyond that. He has repeatedly mentioned his feelings about drug use in interviews, and even unscrupulously discussed with reporters which drugs were better; he was a serious alcoholic, pouring vodka like water.
He also has a habit of collecting strange collectibles: prosthetic props from horror movies, which he bids for at a high price and places them at home; he likes to collect things related to the German Nazi Regiment, and once asked a Jewish girlfriend to help him buy a German Nazi military uniform online...
Once, during a field interview with a Guardian reporter at Manson's house, Manson was particularly proud to show off the home's ornaments — the skeleton of a four-year-old girl, the skeleton of a seven-foot-tall man, and skulls scattered around from the cemetery. He calmly told reporters that when he picked up the skull, it was as natural as picking up strawberries from the ground.
When the outside world cast a strange look, Manson never felt unwell. "I knew I had to go to extremes to get my point across. I want to start at the bottom and make myself the most hated character. I want to represent everything you oppose! I think the most satisfying thing is that no matter what you do, you can't hurt me, and there's nothing you can do unless you kill me. ”
Perhaps Manson's music has helped some young Americans vent their anger and release their repressed desires, but that doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants in the name of rebellion. Faced with reality, one has to worry that he will create a bad example for teenagers, which will lead to extreme social behavior. And if it is eventually found out that Manson has abused women, then no matter how many fans and aura he has, he should be punished as he deserves.