MUSIC AND POLITICS: Marilyn Manson Back in the News

As someone who listened to Marilyn Manson in high school (and still listens), this news story about the recent school shooting in Montreal really infuriated me. Error:

"Gill also maintained an online blog, similar to Klebold and Harris, devoted to gothic culture, heavy metal music such as Marilyn Manson, guns and journal entries expressing hatred against authority figures and 'society.'"

As five seconds on Wikipedia would have told the author, Harris and Klebold did not, in fact, listen to Marilyn Manson. They were into German industrial metal groups like KMFDM and Rammstein. Manson may be one of the heaviest acts to sell millions of records, but he barely scrapes the surface of extreme music.

I should stress here that my problem is with the factual error, not with the general notion of music affecting behavior. I've always been a little miffed by people who say heavy metal "lets you get it all out." Just as happy music can put a bounce in your step and horror movies horrify you, angry music can inspire negativity. That doesn't mean it's to blame when parents let the media raise their kids, but I think defenders of music and speech need to be realistic -- it's entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking, but it's certainly not therapeutic.

Now let's just hope Manson doesn't feel compelled to write another rambling, nearly incoherent defense of himself.

I'm feeling a little rambunctious, so I e-mailed the AP about the error.

UPDATE: Gill was in fact a rather big Marilyn Manson fan, though not a true one, as he called "Holy Wood" "old" Manson. By that point Manson'd been around about 10 years (that was 2000 or so; the band started around 1990 and released four major-label CDs -- "Portrait of an American Family," "Smells Like Children," "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mechanical Animals" --and some demos before "Holy Wood").