Recently, a heavy metal band called Marilyn Manson started to appear on MTV. First came "Sweet Dreams," a cover of an old Eurythmics tune, and most recently "The Beautiful People," a production of their own. The band's dark, grinding sound was instantly appealing to me. I even got their second CD, a collection of remixes from their first album. When I listened to this CD, entitled "Smells Like Children," I was appalled. The only acceptable song on the album was "Sweet Dreams," the single that appeared on MTV. All of the other tracks were either a collection of eerie sounds or littered with obscenities and spoke of devil worship or had disgusting sexual themes.

Over the past week, I have read several articles about Marilyn Manson and was further shocked. The singer, also known as Marilyn Manson, is a strikingly ugly man with one brown eye and one pale blue eye. He met up with the bass player, the other mastermind behind the band, in a mall, where they phoned death threats to a girl working in one of the stores. Marilyn and Twiggy Ramirez had formed two other bands before Marilyn Manson. The first was a fake Christian heavy metal band which tried to sabotage Christian clubs and cause mayhem, which never got far.

Marilyn Manson (the name comes from Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson) is now popular, thanks to Trent Reznor, lead singer of Nine Inch Nails. He became friends with Mr. Manson and asked that his band be the first on his new Nothing record label.

Marilyn, Twiggy, and the three other members of the band recorded their first album, "Portrait of an American Family," on the Nothing/Interscope label. They gained many fans with this record, but it was not popular enough to show up on MTV. That came with their second album, "Smells Like Children," which is just a collection of remixes from the first album and the hit remake, "Sweet Dreams." The video for this single was regarded as the weirdest and scariest ever. This was only surpassed by Marilyn Manson's latest single, "The Beautiful People," from the band's third album, "Antichrist Superstar." The songs on these three releases are the exact opposite of what is acceptable. They speak of child molestation, homosexuality, devil worship, sex crimes, and violence.

Banned in England and several cities including Salt Lake City, Utah, Marilyn Manson's concerts are barely, and in some cases, not legal.

Despite what I have read and heard about Marilyn Manson, I still enjoy their music. I don't like all of it, but the singles are good. I'm not sure what the success of this group says about America, but it can't be good. Manson believes that America is already dead and is a ghost, but doesn't realize it yet. His view of American society today is much the same as the city in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. He believes that it is coming to an end because of its loss of morals