Video of the Day: Marilyn Manson's "The Dope Show"

For some strange (yet completely justifiable) reason, everytime I watch anything from Lady Gaga I immediately think of Marilyn Manson.

For one thing, Gaga's postmodern concept of Fame (singing about fame and its perils, embodying fame through her clothing and imagery, etc.) is almost exactly what Marilyn Manson tried to do in the mid to late 1990's with his "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mehcanical Animals" albums. Just as Gaga is supposed to be a surreal, hyperbolic version of the idea of the "starlet" or glamourous pop superstar, Marilyn Manson was supposed to be the ultimate version of the malevolent, irresponsible, satanic rock star. It is literally all he sung about for years.

There's no doubt that Gaga has certainly been influenced by the work of Marilyn Manson, as both understand and execute the visual side of their work like no one else. Check out 1998's "The Dope Show" for example, and you're sure to find similarities to Gaga's new video "Bad Romance" in terms of the art direction, fashion design (all white body suites, for example?), the cinematography, and the bizarre, yet quite similar storylines in both videos.

If Manson was the King of Shock Rock, is Gaga the Queen of...Shock Pop?

Anyways, check out the video of the day, Marilyn Manson's classic 1998 clip, "The Dope Show"!