Shock value is something that has always been a part of, and probably
always will be a part of
rock and roll music. Everything from
Elvis thrusting his hips suggestively to
Iggy Pop mutilating himself with broken glass (a move stolen by
Marilyn Manson) to the very name itself, an
old-school slang term for having sex.
The examples are
limitless and varied. From
The Velvet Underground romanticizing
bondage and
heroin usage to
Darby Crash covering himself with
peanut butter and licorice and
falling from high places, to the
Plasmatics cutting TVs in half with chainsaws and
driving buses through walls of flaming TVs, shock value is something that has always been a part of
rock and roll. But there's shock with a purpose - like the
Dead Kennedy's offensive name and lyrics, which were used to get people to pay attention to their music and
Jello's political ideas - and then there's shock with no purpose other than to get kids to
buy records and worship satan. Good examples are
Marilyn Manson,
Rob Zombie,
Slipknot, and basically any type of new music that could be considered a
hybrid of
metal and another genre:
hip-hop,
hardcore, whatever. It's all the same
bullshit.
There's nothing wrong with
pissing people off. But if you're not doing
something constructive at the same time, what's the point?