From the first gyration of Elvis Presley's hips on "The Milton Berle Show" (way back in the summer of 1955) to the last grab of the crotch during Adam Lambert's Sunday (November 22) night performance at the American Music Awards, musicians and live television have shared a rather contentious relationship.
Throughout the years, in attempts to shock audiences, promote albums or share their political views (or, you know, just because they were inebriated), artists have given censors fits with performances that pushed the boundaries of good taste — everything from bare butts to obscenity and potshots at the Pope. Things like that are the reason they invented the seven-second delay, after all.
So now, with Lambert already feeling the heat following his racy AMA performance, we decided it was a good time to re-visit some of the most shocking musical moments from in TV history — the ones that earned public condemnations and half-hearted apologies. Censors, get your fingers on the button.
Click here for photos from the most controversial musical television moments of all time, featuring Adam Lambert, Marilyn Manson, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake!
Sinéad O'Connor Rips The Pope On "Saturday Night Live," 1992: Sinéad O'Connor and "Saturday Night Live" already had a rather interesting relationship before she decided to rip up a photo of the Pope in her infamous 1992 performance. Back in 1990, she backed out of a scheduled appearance on the show because she didn't want to share the stage with host Andrew Dice Clay. Two years later, after performing a moody a capella version of Bob Marley's "War," she produced a photo of Pope John Paul II, tore it to shreds and shouted "Fight the real enemy!" The audience reacted with stunned silence, and the media vilified O'Connor as an enfant terrible, and while she would later apologize for the act, she remained unrepentant.
Prince Shows Off His Assets At The VMAs, 1991: The Purple One took the stage at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards dressed in canary yellow, but it was his outfit didn't have that raised more than a few eyebrows: Read more...
OK, so it's a day early, but we would be remiss if we didn't celebrate Halloween. Originally a Celtic celebration that marked the end of the summer, Halloween means different things for different people. For some — mostly children — it's an excuse to gorge yourself on candy. For others — mostly young, drunk women — it's a reason to wear as little clothing as possible in public under the guise that they're dressing as a "sexy kitty." Still others use it as a justification for mischief, or simply the appropriate time of year to watch all of the films in the "Friday the 13th" series ("Jason Takes Manhattan" is my favorite).
Some people love Halloween so much that they live it year-round. Take Marilyn Manson, who has spent a career bringing together industrial-infused metal, Satan, scary make-up, David Bowie-esque posing and a cheeky sense of humor for a unique stew that frightens parents and keeps kids thinking spooky thoughts. Though Manson's effect has dulled over the years, he's no less a provocateur, and his career collection of music videos is impressive and often genuinely terrifying. "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" casts him as some sort of mythological creature, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" saw him make tutus unnerving and "The Dope Show" put him in the role of a druggy, androgynous alien. But the greatest fear factor in a Manson video comes from "The Man That You Fear," the last song from Antichrist Superstar. There's something about it that just seems wrong — even the hats seem otherworldly. Have a good scare, and if you're still looking to be spooked, check out the list of videos much, much scarier than "Saw VI."
Why settle for one controversial image when a half dozen will do? That seems to be the tactic Rihanna is employing on the cover to "Russian Roulette," the first single from her upcoming album Rated R. It's got everything: the giant, gleaming blade "R" logo; the blood-dripping track title; a sinister peek-a-boo eye patch; gold corset; and, of course, her provocative barbed wire-wrapped torso.
While it's just the companion image to her single (so who knows what the actual album cover will look like?), the edgy picture has already set tongues wagging and gotten us thinking about some of our other favorite envelope-pushing album artwork.
(Click here for more controversial album covers from the likes of Prince, Nirvana, David Bowie and Bon Jovi!)
» No list would be complete without the bloody baby bodies and butcher outfits donned by the Beatles for Yesterday … and Today. The Fab Four were forced to replace the art on their 1966 album with a more benign image of them crowded around a steamer trunk. (Meanwhile, the original became a sought-after collector's item.)
» What's more disturbing? The image of a buzz saw slicing through a man's tight trousers as his bloody hands hold onto a metal codpiece, or the title Animal (F*** Like a Beast)? Whatever you think, metal band W.A.S.P. found out in 1983 that what really offended people was foul language, so a pair of stars were cloned in to cover up the offending word.
Read more...
By Cara Alwill
The dreaded swine flu remains an affliction that shouldn't be taken lightly. That's why when Marilyn Manson announced on both is Facebook and MySpace pages that he had been diagnosed with the illness, everybody took it seriously (although the singer seemed to be in pretty good spirits about the whole thing, joking that he "didn't f--- a pig" to catch it). Although he might have contracted a potentially fatal sickness, he teased in his posts, "So I have officially been diagnosed, by a real doctor, with the swine flu. Unfortunately, I am going to survive."
But on Friday, the Gillett Entertainment Group and Live Nation sent out a release denying that Manson had contracted the illness and confirming that he would play his two remaining Canadian tour dates. After his stops in Canada, Manson has a string of performances lined up through December, where he'll take the stage in Australia, Russia, Germany and various other European countries.
Manson is hardly the first musician taken down by this particular infection disease. Melissa Auf Der Maur came down with swine flu over the summer, as did the members of Kasabian and Swedish singer Jens Lekman.
Could Manson just be pulling everyone's leg — or tail — in this case? He continued in his post, "The doctor said, my past choices in women have in no way contributed to me acquiring this mysterious sickness." It's possible that Manson is truly ill, and we will probably never know either way (though both of the posts that Manson put up have since been deleted from both Facebook and MySpace). But he has certainly done what he does best: Freak us out.
What is it about August 10 and psychopaths? There are two notable events that occurred on this day, and both of them involve serial killers — a dark way to star the week for sure, but interesting nonetheless.
On August 10, 1969, six of Charles Manson's followers entered the Los Angeles home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. It had only been 24 hours since the rampage that killed Sharon Tate, and the LaBiancas represented the latest step in Manson's "war." The LaBiancas were tortured and killed by the Family and found the next day. Though the Los Angeles Police Department initially found no connection between the LaBiancas and the Tate murders, but Manson Family member Susan Atkins copped to the crimes (and their connection) in exchange for immunity from the death penalty (which ended up being useless, as the state of California repealed capital punishment in 1972, which is why Manson himself has never been executed).
What's eerie is that on the same day a mere eight years later, another famous killer made the news, though this time he was brought to justice. On August 10, 1977, David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz was finally captured after terrorizing the city of New York for most of the summer. Berkowitz was connected to over a half-dozen shootings, which he claimed he did because a demon who possessed his neighbor's dog told him to. After a lengthy police hunt, Berkowitz was finally apprehended at his home. His first words to the police were, "What took you so long?"
Both Manson and Berkowitz lived on in Marilyn Manson, the band started by Brian Warner in the early 1990s. The band's initial gimmick was that each of the members gave themselves aliases, with one name attached to a famous model and the other as a tribute to a killer. Frontman Marilyn Manson brought together Mariliyn Monroe and Charles Manson, while guitarist Daisy Berkowitz combined David Berkowitz with "Dukes of Hazzard" character Daisy Duke. The group's first album Portrait of an American Family was a primitive outing, but it certainly set the tone for what the band would become. The video for "Lunchbox" is also pretty primitive, but again, it gets right to the heart of what Marilyn Manson was all about: Rage, rebellion, vengeance and violence.
Yesterday, the first images from Tim Burton's upcoming "Alice in Wonderland" hit the Internet. According to the stills, the film will be both frightening and delightfully insane (which is exactly what we're looking for in a Burton/Depp collaboration).
There's no shortage of references to Lewis Carroll's classic novel in pop music (Gwen Stefani's video for "What You Waiting For," Marilyn Manson's 2007 album Eat Me Drink Me, the 7,000 metal bands who have songs titled "Malice in Wonderland"), but Alice in Chains always brought the best combination of beauty and fear. Formed in 1987, disbanded in 1996 and reformed with a new singer (replacing departed frontman Layne Staley, who died in 2002), the band was always had one foot in the metal arena even as they rode the Seattle grunge wave. The clip for "Would?" is a fantastic time capsule, as it represents the sound, the clothes and the attitude of 1992. Plus, it's got footage from Cameron Crowe's "Singles" in it (which let Alice in Chains win a VMA in 1993 for Best Video from a Film).
(Check out thousands of music videos from the past 25 years at Music.MTV.com)
Everyone loves Lady Gaga: Kanye, Wale, Katy Perry, Tap Tap Revenge, millions of record buyers, pop radio, Perez Hilton, Christina Aguilera … us.
And for the most part, from her pants-less proclivities to her wacky headgear and fetish-inspired videos, we've been on board her future-funk-disco express. But every love affair has to end at some point, and this morning we tapped the brakes for the first time when we heard the latest remix of her "Love Game" single.
See, Amsterdam-based ghettohouse remixer Chew Fu killed it on the track, chopping up Gaga's vocals into bits and shoveling on a big, stupid bass beat and a gang of air raid siren effects. Things are rocking for the first two minutes or so … and then the train starts to derail a bit. We get that Gaga is up for anything and wants to share her music with as many creative forces as she can.
But Marilyn Manson?
When the goth rocker pops up midway through the remix "rapping" the song's lyrics and then doing his best creepy recitation of the hook, the first thought is "Really?"
Manson has long been fascinated with pitfalls of celebrity, so it kind of makes sense to have him hop on the track and it's logical that the two would see eye to eye. And we know that Britney Spears is a fan of the "Sweet Dreams" cover, so maybe Manson is becoming a secret pop muse (though it hasn't helped the anemic sales of his new album The High End of Low). But the sound of him speed singing a verse and growling the hook over and over just makes the forward-thinking remix sound very 1999. Was that dude from Third Eye Blind not available?
By Nicole Guanlao
When it comes to image and musical style, Britney Spears and Marilyn Manson are on opposite ends of the spectrum. One is a pop princess who made her mark as a dancing schoolgirl in " ... Baby One More Time," while the other is a shock rocker who wears makeup and creepy contact lenses.
A duet from these two would be odd and unlikely (which makes it genius!), but thanks to the Circus tour, Brit's fans got pretty close to a Manson/Spears collaboration. During the concert, a video pops up on the jumbo screen of Miss Spears gyrating on a set of couches with masked men and women caressing her as she sings along to Manson's cover of the Eurythmics classic "Sweet Dreams." The dark rocker can't be seen in the video, but his voice and aesthetic influence are recognizable.
Some of Manson's videos can make Spears' younger supporters a little scared (remember the video for "Beautiful People"?!), which begs the question: Do the screaming fans in Spears' concerts even know who Marilyn Manson is and that he's the artist singing in the background?
To my surprise, many of the fans we spoke to at Brit's Pittsburgh concert knew all about Manson and his "Sweet Dreams" rendition. They were even stoked that their favorite pop star was incorporating it into her act.
Read more...
Gidget Gein (born Bradley Stewart), the onetime bassist for Marilyn Manson, was found dead in his Burbank, California, home on Thursday of a suspected drug overdose. Gein, 39, was the second bassist for the Manson band, appearing on several of the band's early recordings, as well as their full-length 1994 debut, Portrait of An American Family.
Read more about Gidget Gein's death here.
The nice thing about being the guitarist in Marilyn Manson's band is that you know you won't be wearing the greasepaint and getting dry-humped by the singer for very long. Nothing lasts forever, least of all a gig with the former king of shock rock. The latest recruit to Team Manson is none other than former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland, who already loves wearing goofy makeup, and whose promotion to the gig was announced by Manson at a press conference a day before Borland was to make his live debut with the band at a show in Seoul, South Korea, as first reported by Blabbermouth.
Borland joins a distinguished list of Manson guitarists that includes Daisy Berkowitz, Mark Chaussee, Tim Skold, Zim Zum and John 5 (luckily for Borland, his new boss isn't making him come up with some goofy stage name). Read more...
