Who could guess that a woman named Madonna would conquer 2000 years of Christianity with some simplistic melodies and an expansive wardrobe of lingerie. According to some, 'she rocked the world with her mixture of religious imagery and eroticism'. Marilyn Manson, an androgynous creature who belongs in Dante's fifth ring of hell, is seen flinging nihilistic schlock as Anti-Christ Superstar. It is the nightmarish ante-chamber of a child's adolescent insecurities and energies, turned violent. This is supposedly the defining achievement of Generation X, as Carson Daly and Bobby Brown opine.
Videos differ wildly.
Some are as offensive as bubble-gum, others simply surreal. And, occasionally, there is an artistic vision. They all promise sweet or sick satisfaction to the frustrated adolescent. Just as communism promises bread to the stone-faced and starving. MTV promises paradise, in a Real World of expense accounts, casual sex, and Hawaiian bungalows.