The Beautiful People (song)

This article is about song by Marilyn Manson. For other uses, see Beautiful People.

"The Beautiful People"
Single by Marilyn Manson
from the album Antichrist Superstar
ReleasedSeptember 22, 1996
Recorded1996
StudioNothing, New Orleans
Genre
Length3:45
Label
Composer(s)Twiggy Ramirez
Lyricist(s)Marilyn Manson
Producer(s)
Marilyn Manson singles chronology
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
(1995) 		"The Beautiful People"
(1996) 		"Long Hard Road Out of Hell"
(1997)

"The Beautiful People" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released as the lead single from the band's second studio album, Antichrist Superstar, in September 1996. Classified as industrial metal, the song was written by frontman Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez, and was produced by Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie and Manson.

The title of the song comes from Marylin Bender's 1967 book The Beautiful People,[4] which exposed the world of scandal within the "jet-set" lifestyle of the 1960s, and the culture of beauty as it pertained to fashion and politics.[4][5] In the context of the album's concept, the song refers to the privileged class of elites whom the titular character, a populist demagogue called Antichrist Superstar, fulminate against. Lyrically, it discusses what Manson refers to as "the culture of beauty".[4]

The single peaked at number 26 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and remains known as one of Marilyn Manson's most famous and most successful original songs; in a 2004 review, Richard Banks of the BBC called the track "still the most impressive"[6] in the band's catalogue, and in 2006 it was ranked at number 28 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs.[7]

  1. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Marilyn Manson | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
  2. ^ Ramirez, AJ (August 3, 2011). "The 10 Best Alternative Metal Singles of the 1990s". PopMatters. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  3. ^ "Release The Bats – It's The 20 Greatest Goth Tracks – NME". NME. March 5, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c Manson, Marilyn. "How I Wrote "The Beautiful People". May 2005, Kerrang!, reported by Blabbermouth.net Archived March 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine; last accessed September 24, 2006.
  5. ^ Steven Daly (February 3, 2008). "The book that started the madness". The Telegraph. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
  6. ^ Richard Banks, "Rock & Alt Review", 2004, at BBC.co.uk Archived December 18, 2005, at the Wayback Machine; last accessed September 15, 2006.
  7. ^ "VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs", May 1–4, 2006, VH1 Channel, reported by VH1.com; last accessed September 10, 2006.