It's crazy to think that Columbine massacre happened over 15 years ago. At the time, it was a hugely disruptive event for the media. Suddenly, if a movie was rated R, you needed to bring ID to prove you are old enough to see the movie. Certain music videos were pulled from rotation on MTV for promoting violence. The Matrix was analyzed for it's affect on society. And, Marilyn Manson was anointed the face of the type of music that caused these kids to shoot up a school. Except the truth is those Columbine idiots didn't like Manson and likely thought he was just some poser, but that didn't stop the media for placing the blame directly on Manson. And Manson felt the pressure.
In a recent conversation at Cannes, Manson talked in depth about the effect the media backlash had on his career at the time. Billboard offered the following recap:
"With Columbine, it really shut down my career entirely, to the point where casinos — gambling establishments — refused to book my shows," Manson said.
Rehabilitating his reputation was a slow and incomplete process, one that left him bitter about the hypocrisy of news outlets that would demonize his music while prominently featuring criminals.
"They put these two killers (Harris and Klebold) on the cover of Time magazine," Manson said. "I've never been on the cover of Time magazine. That's the whole point."
For Manson, the Columbine experience, along with other consistently arising controversies throughout his career, has been one side of the coin he forged when he decided to invent a terrifyingly seductive persona in the early 1990s. On the plus side, he could create an artistic and provocative image from whole cloth, but at the same time, parents and pundits could project their own fears onto his invented identity.
I wonder how much money Manson lost out on at the time because venues wouldn't book him due to the tragedy. Manson famously was one of the more intellectual interviews in Michael Moore's documentary about the shooting, Bowling for Columbine, to the point where I remember friends' parents do a complete 180 on their opinion of him.
