Marily Manson: His Own Self Parody?

Marilyn Manson has returned. He has a new explicit video, a new album, and appearances in several magazines. Yet the Marilyn Manson of 2007 is not much like the one we met ten years ago. In fact this Marilyn Manson is a bit of a parody of his former self. I am going to separate Marilyn Manson's career into three eras:

1 - Brief period at the beginning of his career where he is a genuine threat to middle America. This is both solidified and destroyed when Manson performs "All the Beautiful People" at the MTV Video Music Awards - he finally has a platform to shock the masses, yet such an invitation shows a level of acceptance he claims to reject. His shock cred is restored when certain politicians blame him for the shootings at Columbine High School.

2 - Longer period where Manson remains an interesting, if not so shocking, artist. No one knows what to make of Manson at first, yet an appearance on Politically Incorrect establishes a certain level of intelligence. When more see him in Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine, it's pretty clear that the dude is pretty smart. A stronger emphasis on electronics makes his music more accessible, and kitschy hits like "The Dope Show" make him almost a modern day David Bowie.

3 - Slow descent into self-parody. Such a level of mainstream acceptance can wreak havoc on your creative output. Manson has gone from threatening cultural figure to spoof of himself. His decisions - both in terms of sound and fashion - have become increasingly predictable, void of both shock value and creative intellect. He relied on covers for a few years there - a not-so-bold take on "Tainted Love" accompanied by a pathetically sad pseudo-spoof video ...

The attempted theme is "look at me, I made it, and now me and my goth pals are crashing your party" but what comes across is merely "please let me come to your party, I'll be your clown and sing karaoke." When Manson covered "Personal Jesus" for his greatest hits album, even his most devoted followers called the decision "obivious."

Now, Manson is back, only to find that his life of absinthe, porn stars and Hollywood starlets is exactly what we'd expect of him. Oh, and he's not too fulfilled by it either. His latest move is to have sex in a rain of blood with new girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood...

To be totally honest, I kind of like the song, but it's almost a nostalgic last hurrah for a man who knows he cannot return to glory days. Many of the shots in the video remind me of David Lynch's Wild at Heart and Lost Highway, the latter of which features a cameo from Manson. It's fitting, seeing as how Manson has somehow become the victim of his own Lynchian story. He seems to be driving down this lost highway, under the impression time never leaves 1997. Only the sad reality is that he does get older, and when he reaches the present day they don't remember him - at least not the way he wants to be remembered.