When Marilyn Manson's One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 debuted at No. 41 on the Billboard 200, Forbes described the result as a new career low for the controversial musician. In terms of the Billboard 200 itself, that description is accurate. Chapter 2 became Manson's first traditional studio album since his debut to miss the Top 40, falling one position short of the threshold that every other regular studio album had reached since Portrait of an American Family . His previous album, One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1 , had reached No. 32 in 2024, while We Are Chaos had reached No. 8 in 2020. It would therefore be pointless to argue that the No. 41 position somehow does not represent a decline. It plainly does. What deserves closer examination, however, is what that decline actually tells us about Manson's audience and his current position within the music industry, because the Billboard 200 is only one measurement of an album's performance. When the oth...
James Dean and Marilyn Manson (and another interesting comparison between Natalie Wood and Evan Rachel Wood)
At the peak of his career at the age of 24, James Dean died on September 30, 1955 after crashing his Porsche Spyder, which he nicknamed "Little Bastard", on the highway. Within a year of the accident nearly four million people had joined his fan club and his studio was receiving up to 4,000 letters every day. Since today is the anniversary of his death, I thought I would share what I think is a relevant interview with Natalie Wood, his co-star in Rebel Without A Cause , where she analyzes the James Dean she came to know in the months before his death, as opposed to the pop culture icon the world came to love. Listen to this interview in light of the Marilyn Manson allegations, and the perception of Marilyn Manson and his art as opposed to the reality, and see if you can take from it what I took from it, which I think Natalie Wood explains eloquently and sincerely. Since we are on the subject of Natalie Wood as well, I thought it would be fun to share something I wr...