I. The Backlash: When Social Media Becomes the Story When Slipknot announced their 2027 (sic)est Stadium Tour , with Marilyn Manson opening the Wembley Stadium show and joining them for the South American dates, including The Town in São Paulo, the reaction was almost immediate. Thousands of comments appeared beneath the announcement, many from people saying they would no longer attend. Some described the decision as disappointing, others said they would not spend money on a concert that included Manson, and some presented the booking as a betrayal of what they believed Slipknot represented. The reaction was real, and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. What interests me, however, is what happens after that initial reaction: how it is collected, amplified, repeated by music publications, and gradually transformed from a collection of individual responses into something that can begin to look like a universal verdict from “the fans.” The current coverage makes that process fairly e...
It is my intention to explore the Marilyn Manson album One Assassination Under God - Chapter 1 in its entirety, one track and music video at a time. There are two things I want to establish before I begin: 1. I believe the album takes place in the Holy Wood "universe", which Manson described as an "alternate dystopia of Hollywood where everything is taken to the extreme," and which was first explored in Antichrist Superstar , Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood - the so-called Tryptich - and continued to pop up on other albums. 2. I also believe that the album is a metaphor which can be applied to Manson's life, but not only. This also aligns it with what the Tryptich essentially is as well. My thoughts for the interpretation of the album will probably evolve over time, especially since this is only the first half of the story, as Manson mentioned in a statement, and we will have a much clearer picture of the entire story when Chapter 2 is released some time in ...