If you’re old enough to remember watching music videos on a channel called Music Television, you know that Marilyn Manson was a pop culture icon unlike any the world had ever seen. After thrusting his way into the mid-’90s mainstream, Manson’s devil-worshipping, animal-sacrificing, thong-wearing provocation was in stark contrast to the clean-cut, N’Sync- and Backstreet Boys-driven pop idealism of the era. And much of the world, quite frankly, wasn’t ready for it. Oklahoma especially wasn’t.
Last night, the goth-rock overlord descended upon OKC’s Chevy Bricktown Events Center — as he will in tonight’s sold-out show at Tulsa’s Brady Theater — yet the media attention today pales (no pun intended) in comparison to what it was on Feb. 2, 1997, when Manson made his Oklahoma debut at the TNT Building on the Oklahoma State Fair Grounds. The video below (h/t to Ryan LaCroix for sharing) shows just how in a frenzy the local media was. An anchor deems his lyrics “questionable.” A reporter emphasizes how the church groups that picketed offered a “positive solution” to Manson’s “negative message.” Another explains the concept of crowd surfing to what was surely a flabbergasted audience. And after a 4-feet-11-inch girl found herself in the middle of the chaos — and, subsequently, the hospital — during the concert, it was as if Manson himself had unleashed the wrath of Satan upon this poor child.
It’s all quite hilarious, really. But more importantly, if you can get through all the tracking adjustments (because, you know, the ’90s), this 8-minute video serves as a pretty damn fascinating cultural document, one that demonstrates how desensitized we’ve become in the 18 years that have passed. And that’s a good thing.
