Marilyn Manson: Columbine massacre 'destroyed' my career

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*Dylan actually did have a Marilyn Manson CD

He also had his car sticker, if I recall correctly.

sororityalpha wrote:

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*Dylan actually did have a Marilyn Manson CD

I think him saying that it destroyed his career is a bit much. MM has always been controversial, he became even more so after Columbine. I am sure he gained followers simply because he was always in the media regarding Columbine.

I have always liked MM, he was different and his music videos were always wild as hell. Plus people do not seem to realize that he is a very intellectual guy.

By the way, take CNN news articles with a grain of salt, they are not a fairly reliable source of information.

1Mare1 wrote:

By the way, take CNN news articles with a grain of salt, they are not a fairly reliable source of information.

AGREED!

From what I remember he gained popularity because of the media attention. I had friends (back then) that picked up the album just cause they heard he "caused" Columbine lol.

I think he's a great musician and enjoy his music.

1Mare1 wrote:

By the way, take CNN news articles with a grain of salt, they are not a fairly reliable source of information.

Seconded.

Take ALL media information with a grain of salt.

I wouldn't say it destroyed his career but i do think he was unfairly persecuted and it stigmatized his fanbase as being school shooters. The crazy part is E&D didn't even listen to MM like that.

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Hahahaha, Columbine destroyed your career? Riiiight, Mr. Manson--it has absolutely nothing to do with you releasing a bunch of shitty albums.

If you ask me, the whole thing probably invigorated his quickly diminishing influence and made some people sit up and take notice, as others before have already mentioned.

If anything, it made him 'dangerous' again.

Let's not forget how he directly profited from the massacre, with both 'Disposable Teens' and 'The Nobodies' being issued as singles.

Not to mention...

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W.A.R. wrote:

I wouldn't say it destroyed his career but i do think he was unfairly persecuted and it stigmatized his fanbase as being school shooters. The crazy part is E&D didn't even listen to MM like that.

I agree with you on that. If you were a teen who listened to Manson, that alone was a red flag to a lot of people after Columbine. But the MM/Columbine connection also sparked a whole new trend of teens ONLY listening or wearing MM T-shirts, etc because they wanted to look dark and dangerous. Even if they didn't know anything about his music, or even listened to it before Columbine. Same with KMFDM and Rammstein.

In the entertainment industry, most think any publicity is good publicity. If you are in the news, then you are being talked about, people see you, hear your name. I am sure that MM did lose a good portion of his fan base, but it was replaced by others who wanted to fit the dark, Goth mold.

Manson was injured by a prop during a concert in the last couple of days and had to be taken out on a stretcher.

The prop was a display in the shape of a couple of gigantic handguns.



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I bought a Rammstein Tshirt (the one EH had) and a spiked necklace after Columbine to scare the bullies away. I figured I had 2 months left in High School maybe people would leave me the hell alone. They didn't. I do like some KMFDM and Rammstein though and I read Atlas Shrugged because of Brooks Brown... sighs.

MM was a scapegoat that shouldn't have been. He had said he would have listened to them because no one else would. The thing is from what I gather from Eric and Dylan is, they weren't honest 99% of the time in their feelings. They seemed to have friends and have each other, so I doubt they'd tell some well meaning adult that they were planning a massacre and if someone would just tell them they were okay they wouldn't do it. Eric did say "maybe if I just got laid" who knows if that was true? Without Eric, would Dylan have backed out? If the girl he liked was like "Dylan, I really want to date you, I know we are going to college but dammit you're amazing, let's get coffee and really get to know each other" would that have changed?

Screamingophelia wrote:

I bought a Rammstein Tshirt (the one EH had) and a spiked necklace after Columbine to scare the bullies away. I figured I had 2 months left in High School maybe people would leave me the hell alone. They didn't. I do like some KMFDM and Rammstein though and I read Atlas Shrugged because of Brooks Brown... sighs.

MM was a scapegoat that shouldn't have been. He had said he would have listened to them because no one else would. The thing is from what I gather from Eric and Dylan is, they weren't honest 99% of the time in their feelings. They seemed to have friends and have each other, so I doubt they'd tell some well meaning adult that they were planning a massacre and if someone would just tell them they were okay they wouldn't do it. Eric did say "maybe if I just got laid" who knows if that was true? Without Eric, would Dylan have backed out? If the girl he liked was like "Dylan, I really want to date you, I know we are  going to college but dammit you're amazing, let's get coffee and really get to know each other" would that have changed?

The 'what if's' of Columbine are endless. Who knows what may have transpired if just one tiny little thing happened or didn't happen at the right moment to either of them.

The possibilities are pretty incredible.

Screamingophelia wrote:

The possibilities are pretty incredible.

Yes they are or were. Which only makes Columbine all the worse.

The public/media was desperate to find answers to why something like that would happen. So they were blaming anything they could get their hands on. TCM/Bullying/Video Games/Music. It may have hurt his career a year or two after the shooting due to parents not wanting their kids to listen to his music and become brainwashed. But at the end of the day. Money is money and if he made a hit song. It would have been played all over the radio just like any other hit.

suburbanmessiah wrote:

Hahahaha, Columbine destroyed your career? Riiiight, Mr. Manson--it has absolutely nothing to do with you releasing a bunch of shitty albums.

If you ask me, the whole thing probably invigorated his quickly diminishing influence and made some people sit up and take notice, as others before have already mentioned.

If anything, it made him 'dangerous' again.

Let's not forget how he directly profited from the massacre, with both 'Disposable Teens' and 'The Nobodies' being issued as singles.

Not to mention...

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I forgot about that painting! I always thought it was a pretty unflattering portrait of e&d haha

Kinda OT but a group of us freaky kids went to a MM concert a couple weeks before Columbine happened. From what I remember it was a decent show, but I was in the pit so most of my memories of it are focused on my experience in the pit haha

No, the media's reaction to Columbine made some soccer moms angry at MM. Columbine itself didn't completely "destroy" his career. The media blamed him a lot for Columbine at some soccer moms threw temper tantrums but that's about it. He's still releasing music with quite a big fanbase. I wouldn't call his career "destroyed".

Yeah. As far as I know, Manson's career is far from destroyed. Period.

Here's an old Rolling Stone article from 1999 about Manson's feelings on Columbine, the media and being scapegoated:

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