always wearing black and Manson was an immensely popular “shock rocker” at the time. Although the media really wanted Manson to be at fault, he was not. Not at all. In a peer reviewed academic resource that I found called “Marilyn Manson and the Apt Pupils of Littleton”, by Gary Burns, Burns addresses an exceptionally good point:
If he did somehow inspire Harris and Klebold, that would be interesting and disturbing, but it still has not been proven. Manson’s influence, if any, must also be considered in the light of at least three questions: What other popular culture did these teenagers consume? Why haven’t Marilyn Manson’s thousands or millions of other fans shot up the local high school? Is “Shoot up your school” really a plausible message to draw from Manson’s songs? Obviously, the second question partially answers the third. (Burns)
In all fairness, we should consider the words of Brian Warner (A.K.A Marilyn Manson) himself. He has written extensively about the false claims that he is responsible for the Columbine massacre, and we will visit his remarks later in this essay. But first, I would like to point out that it is not only the media that makes misconceptions, but also society at large. An example of this is evident in the 1985 court case in which the parents of two friends, who had made a suicide pact with each other, decided to sue heavy metal band “Judas Priest” because the two friends were “Judas Priest” fans and listened to their albums repeatedly just before the two friends took action to make good on their pact. I can certainly imagine how heartbroken the parents of each of the two friends were after discovering what they had done. I can empathize with them for their anger
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and need for someone to pay. I can understand the need to take action. However, State District Judge Jerry Whitehead did not agree that it was the fault of Judas Priest and ruled against the 6.2-million-dollar lawsuit. My point is this: It’s not only the media but some members of society who make gross misconceptions about Rock and Roll musicians. Te following is an example of these misconceptions:
In this case, however, lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the
young men were driven to shoot themselves by the subliminal messages the musicians placed in the music, such as ‘’Let’s be dead’’ and ‘’Do it.’’ Tough he has yet to decide whether the Judas Priest recordings had such material, Judge Jerry Carr Whitehead has ruled that such subliminal messages were not a form of speech and therefore were not covered by First Amendment protections.
Lawyers for the Belknap and Vance families have contended that some subliminal messages were masked by being played backward in songs, an argument Ms. Fulstone urged Judge Whitehead to dismiss as having no scientific basis. ‘’Te courtroom is no place for reveries about the unknown capacity of the human mind’’ to absorb such material, she said. (Rohter)
Although I deeply and sincerely empathize with the families and victims of school shootings and all those effected by those who commit suicide I cannot within a clear conscience blame the artist for their work. Oftentimes the work of an artist is the artist’s way of healing from dark situations in their own lives. It is for these reasons that I believe that it is not the famous
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