This was my application for the Deseret News Teen Editorial Board.

America is Letting Marilyn Manson Win
(C) Doug Smeath, 1997

It was perhaps the most controversial rock concert ever to take place in Utah. But it wasn't a controversy confined to Utah by any means. In nearly every city hit by rock band Marilyn Manson's recent "Dead to the World" tour, angry protests hit back.

The concern came when conservative organizations across the country gained more and more information- some true, some false- about the band, whose lead singer and namesake calls himself a minister of the Church of Satan. The issue has had noticeable effects on the cities in which the conflict has been most animated. Communities have become divided over the issue. The band's fans, mostly teenagers, have become even more adamantly opposed to their parents' conservative dogmatism against which Manson is so vocal. Curiosity has sparked concert sell-outs and substantially increased album purchases.

America has let Marilyn Manson win.

Parents have good reason to be concerned. The band's lyrics are certainly unorthodox, though their alleged violent and sexual themes have been exaggerated and misinterpreted in many cases. Marilyn Manson's concerts are often frightening, but the claims that they involve bestiality, satanism, and other extremely lewd and disgusting acts are false. The band's image is laughable. Even the label "musician" is questionable at best. But in this case, as well as in most others like it, the attempted censorship has not only been unconstitutional, it has been counter-productive. Indeed, concerns are justified, but not the hysteria that has ensued.

The Marilyn Manson hysteria began rather suddenly as major conservative watchdog groups across the country began sending packets of information to community organizations, churches, governments, and concert venues. At the heart of these packets were a number of anonymous affidavits from the Internet that report unthinkable concert antics that simply did not occur, according to concert-goers and venue officials.

Although the band says it grew tired of the constant threats from communities to ban Marilyn Manson from their local venues, the controversy has been a victory for the shock rockers.

Marilyn Manson certainly isn't the first band to fill the hearts of parents with such fear. Shock rock has existed as long as rock and roll music has. Breaking barriers and stirring up trouble have always been an essential part of rock music, and some bands simply revel in that more than others.

The reaction Marilyn Manson has received is precisely the reaction he and others like him strive for.

It is true that Marilyn Manson thrives on questioning, mocking, and discrediting traditional values and beliefs. However, that is all they thrive on. They don't endorse satanism any more than they endorse Christianity or atheism. Their message is the clichè but still volatile "Question authority." They preach individuality and an extreme brand of non-conformity. Society's focus on the most negative aspects of Marilyn Manson spells out narrow-mindedness to rebellious teenagers.

The lies and false accusations that so often tainted the anti-Manson crusades have served to more completely discredit the protests and widen the generation gap.

The band and its supporters have fed off its foes' inconsistencies. They have dramatically struggled against the seemingly unfair battles for repression and censorship. They have screamed, "Unconstitutional!" And America's teenagers have been listening.

Conservatives have taken a scrawny, gothic, talentless misfit in makeup and vilified him. They were unfortunate in that they chose as their victim a musician whose image, beliefs, and music so many teenagers identify with and love.

Protestors, parents, and conservatives have ironically been the tool for achieving Marilyn Manson's most detrimental and malicious ends. They have alienated teenagers. They have contradicted their own generation's fight for free speech and civil rights. They have divided communities. And they have glorified Marilyn Manson's weirdness, the very gimmick used to sell the product that is Marilyn Manson.

If America hopes to bring Marilyn Manson down, it must first stop elevating him.

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