15 minute read
ALTERED ALTARS
from Jerk May 2021
A deep dive into the story of anti-religious imagery in music.
words by Zoe Glasser, Megan Adams, and Luke Maddren illustration by Lance Evans
For as long as organized religion has existed, it has inspired artists. Whether it be Indigenous deities, the classical Greco-Roman pantheon, or the capital-G God that monotheistic religions worship, religious figures and their associated iconography have been recreated time and time again. Oftentimes, these depictions are positive; Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, for example, portrays God perched atop his heavenly cloud reaching out to Adam.
Others depictions, though, use negative or bastardized versions of religious images to prove their point. The inverted cross was originally a pro-Christian image if you can believe it, but it has recently become associated with anti-Christian sentiment and even Satanism.
All this is to say that artists have been using and subverting religious images since, basically, the beginning of time. Within the past century, though, these images have made their way into popular music. In response to the religious fervor of the mid20th century, stars such as Madonna and Prince released music that used religious themes to tackle issues like sex, politics, and often religion itself. This trend continued in the years leading up to the new millennium, peppered with controversies like Sinead O’Connor ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II live on SNL. Now, we have artists like Lady Gaga, Frank Ocean, and, most recently, Lil Nas X to thank for our fill of (sac)religious images in music. Take a journey with us to find out how members of the LGBTQ+ community use religious themes in their art, how emo and pop-punk play into religious themes, and why parental advisory labels exist (spoiler alert: it’s because of white moms).
Led Zeppelin and Lucifer
How rock and roll nearly tore America apart at the seams.
words by Luke Maddren illustration by Lance Evans
Pastors accusing teenagers of drinking human blood. Parents claiming teachers were involved in a ritualistic sex cult. Ever-present rumors of a nationwide Satanism corrupting our kids and ultimately destroying America. In the 1980s, America was facing a full-on nation-wide “Satanic Panic.” Concerned parents and religious leaders accused everyone and everything that could maybe, hypothetically, have some nominal connection to Satanism of being involved in a global Satanist conspiracy — complete with ritual sacrifice, sex trafficking, and murder — with absolutely zero evidence.
In the 80s, “the rules were shifting, and society is never comfortable when that happens,” said Mary deYoung, a professor of sociology at Grand Valley State University. “The easiest way to deal with that anxiety was to find someone or something to blame.” While Satanism was connected to all kinds of culture, one of the most popular cultural phenomena to fall victim to these accusations was rock and metal music.
Teenagers started to cast aside the records by rock musicians like Elvis Presley in favor of those by Black Sabbath and Slayer. This new rock and roll was fast, loud, and abrasive. Songs were commonly about violence, sex, and drugs, which flew in the face of everything Christian. As a result of this new, unholy trend, concerned Christians tried to find any connection between the rise in rock and roll music and Satanic ritual sacrifice. One particularly common technique of identifying “Satanic messages” in rock music was playing records backwards. Some listeners, for example thought that when played in reverse, Led Zeppelin's 1971 song “Stairway to Heaven” repeated the words “my sweet Satan.”
A group of perturbed parents called the Parents Music Resource Center put together a list of 15 songs they considered to be obscene or violent, which they called the “Filthy Fifteen” — nine of the fifteen songs were heavy metal songs. The PMRC even testified in front of Congress in 1985 about the lyrics used in rock songs with the goal of forming a warning label system for explicit content. Despite backlash, the PMRC got their way and the Parental Advisory: Explicit Content label we all love to ignore was created. Under this new system, bands had to change or completely omit parts of their previously-mixed albums In order to keep their records in stores.
While this might seem like parents just being parents, the Satanic Panic had real consequences. In 1993, three teenagers were convicted of murdering three children in the woods — and one of the accused’s favorite bands was Metallica, which played into the prosecution’s favor, said deYoung. With years upon years of campaigning by rock musicians and the release of several HBO documentaries, the trio, called the West Memphis Three, were exonerated.
At the end of the day, the rock and roll genre survived the public outcry. For some, however, the experience gives rock music a special place in their heart, such as Les Rose, a professor of broadcast and digital journalism at Syracuse University who’s been to over 1,300 rock concerts in his life. “I’m 64 years old, and I’ve been listening to rock music since I was ten, including hardcore heavy metal,” Rose said. “To this day, I have not killed anyone, and I haven’t worshipped Satan. I just enjoy it for what it is.” Despite all odds and the wrath of bornagain parents, the rock and roll genre came out on top — and it’s safe to say that America hasn’t been destroyed… yet.
Oh My Goth!.
Ever wondered how sacrilege intersects with goth, emo, and punk music? What about this intersection’s impact on mainstream culture?
Satanism in music isn’t new, but watching Lil Nas X have literal sex with Satan is. Pop music has always had sacrilege integrated into it, but what brought on this modern influxion of sacrilege in music, and what is it about the goth, emo, and punk lifestyles that are conducive to sacrilege imagery? We have to consider what it is we think of when we think of sacrilege and what sacrilege in music influence us to think of — love, hell, Satan, and sin.
Music has been based in religion since its invention, but sacrilege became mainstream in recent history, namely after 9/11 when My Chemical Romance was formed in its wake (which then inspired Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, which inspired Fifty Shades of Grey, which led to the infamous Dakota Johnson “That’s actually not the truth, Ellen” interview that we treasure to this day, but we digress). Specific lyrics from pop artists today influence our mental imagery of sacrilegious music. Billie Eilish’s “all the good girls go to hell” has lyrics like “Pearly gates look more like a picket fence” which paints a disapointing picture of heaven, and even the title implies a glorification of “hell.” MCR does things very similarly in their music but even more embedded in the pop punk scene than mainstream Eilish. Their song “Welcome to the Black Parade'' represents a journey from death to the afterlife, where they note that if the son of the dying man “[becomes] the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned'' he will join the Black Parade when he dies — the Black Parade being the way to the afterlife or heaven. As opposed to Eilish’s lyrics, MCR seems more inclined to represent religion less backward and glorifies heaven but draws comparisons between life on Earth and hell instead.
We spoke with Professor Michelle Santosuosso in the Bandier program about emo, goth, and punk movements and their cultural impact.
Jerk Magazine: How would you define the emo/ goth movement of the early 2000s to someone who didn’t already know about it?
Michelle Santosuosso: I’d describe it as a sonic and stylized offshoot from alternative rock music that was popular then.
JM: Is there any song or band that sticks out in your head as quintessentially goth/emo and why?
MS: In the 90s, Marilyn Manson and NIN were covering the goth side of things with their imagery, and there were some bands in that time frame who got some exposure due to this. Death Cab, Jimmy Eat World also come to mind.
JM: How do you think the goth/emo movement has impacted the cultural landscape as of more recently? MS: I mean, in LA (where I’m from and spent the last 30 years), lots of people dress up as goths, still to this date, and go to Smiths conventions and fan nights.
JM: Do you foresee a comeback of the emo lifestyle?
MS: In my experience, popular music trends tend to run in cycles, so there could be a new band or new musicians who reignite this in the future, for sure.
JM: Why have emo/alt/punk musicians incorporated sacrilegious imagery into their work? How has that impacted the movement?
MS:To be inherently counter-culture and challenge the mainstream value systems; part of why emo music is sometimes referred to as “Punk’s moody younger sibling.”
JM: How has the emo/goth movement changed?
MS: Currently it does not have the same amount/level of groundbreaking ambassadors as the movement had in the past.
TheY're I Flaming!
The history of LGBTQ+ musicians queering religious iconography.
Words by Zoe Glasser Illustration by Jenny Katz
It would be an understatement to say that many organized religions don’t have a reputation of being welcoming to their LGBTQ+ adherents. It should come as no surprise, then, that LGBTQ+ artists who were raised in religious settings often choose to publically subvert the imagery of a religion or religions they were taught hated them. As Lil Nas X displayed in his “Call Me By Your Name” video, artists often choose to reclaim religious imagery and make it tell their stories by showing it through a queer lens.
We’re sure you’ve seen the video by now, so we’ll spare you the intimate details. Those familiar with the GIFs that have been making their rounds on Twitter, however, know that the video features Lil Nas X sliding down to Hell on a gazillion-footlong stripper pole wearing nothing but boxers and leather thigh-high heels. At the end of the video, he seduces Satan (played by himself), kills him, and becomes king of the underworld.
Contrary to what Ben Shapiro and Company’s panic over this video would have you believe, Lil Nas X was far from the first to queerly subvert religious imagery. According to William Robert, director of Syracuse University’s LGBTQ Studies Department and associate professor of religion, people have been “queering” religious iconography since medieval times. Beginning in about 1250, he says, Jesus was depicted with less clothing and was more often seen dead.
“In some instances, depictions of Christ become feminized to the point that Christ is represented as a trans person with masculine facial features and breasts. Believers nursing at the breast of Christ, which is obviously a destabilization of gender and familial relations. At the time, these images weren’t considered particularly troublesome because they corresponded to theological ideas in Christianity. But when we look at them now, they’re quite shocking to see,” said Robert.
He also points out that we cannot say whether the artists who created those images were LGBTQ+, as that nomenclature was created in the 20th century. However, LGBTQ+ artists have consistently used pious imagery to express their identity and relationship with religion since then.
“The turn to art as a means of negotiating identity has largely to do with the fact that a Christian person might say, ‘I’m looking at these [religious] images and I don’t see myself. I don’t see any space for me in these images, and so I’m going to create spaces in which I can find myself, I can see myself reflected,’” said Robert.
In 1990, for example, singer George Michael released the song “Freedom! ‘90.” Written in the style of a spiritual, the song celebrates Michael’s new career as a solo artist and, more covertly, as a gay man — though he didn’t come out publicly for another eight years.
As acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community increased, so too did the popularity of using religious themes in art and music to express queerness.
One of the most famous people who has used Christian imagery is the mother monster herself. Lady Gaga received plenty of backlash in the early 2000s for her song “Judas,” in which she uses the biblical figure as a stand-in for her lover. Gaga, who is openly bisexual and proudly Christian, regularly uses her lyrics to highlight the intersection between her gender, sexuality, and religion.
Shortly after “Judas,” Frank Ocean released his debut album Channel Orange, which features the track “Bad Religion.” Similar to his predecessors, Ocean uses traditionally Christian and Muslim themes to tell the story of his unrequited love with another man. He repeats the line “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is greatest,” throughout the song, singing over chilling chords on the organ. Despite comparing love to overt religious practices and figures in the same way Gaga did, Ocean did not face the same pushback as her.
Reactions to Lil Nas X’s “Call Me By Your Name” video were polarized, to say the least, but one thing is abundantly clear: he did what he came to do. Lil Nas X, like so many before him, manipulated and subverted Christian iconography to fit his own experiences with the religion.
The day the video premiered on YouTube, Lil Nas X tweeted a letter to his 14-year-old self. He wrote, “I know we promised to never come out publicly, I know we promised to never be ‘that’ type of gay person, I know we promised to die with the secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.”
In fact, being “that type of gay person” is exactly what brought Lil Nas X an outpouring of support on social media. By subverting and queering Christian imagery, he allowed young people with similar backgrounds to feel open about expressing themselves too.
“She’s My Religion” - Pale Waves “Heaven in Hiding” - Halsey “HEAVEN” - Troye Sivan “God In Jeans” - Ryan Beatty “Savior” - St. Vincent “Pussy Is God” - King Princess “religion (u can lay your hands on me)” - Shura “Holy” - Zolita “Sanctify” - Years & Years “Judas” - Lady Gaga “mary magdalene” - FKA twigs “Bad Religion” - frank ocean “HIM” - Sam Smith
1966
Age of Satan
Church of Satan declares 1966 as the first year in the “Age of Satan”
1969
Belgian Singer Hugo Raspoet releases Evviva Il Papa
In the song, Raspoet criticizes the Catholic Church as a whole — as well as Pope Pius XII’s alleged silence about the Nazi persecution of Jewish people during World War II.
1971
John Lennon releases "Imagine"
The song famously features a line about a world with no religion. While the song is meant to be a song about hope for the future and a stop to religious hate and division, the “anti-religious” lyrics pissed off some religious listeners.
1989
1992
Madonna releases “Like a Prayer” music video Irish singer Sinead O’Connor rips up picture of Madonna’s music video for her song “Like a Prayer” the Pope on SNL garnered a lot of negative attention when it was On the late night comedy show, O’Connor released, especially from the Vatican. The video performed a cover of Bob Marley’s “War”, with featured, among other things, Madonna dancing the lyrics changed from being about racism to around burning crosses and a makeout session with being about child sex abuse. At the end of her a saint. performance, she yells “Fight the real enemy!” while ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II in front of a stunned audience.
Synopsis of Sacrilege
From Madonna to Montero: the evolution of sacrilegious imagery in music.
words by Luke Maddren illustrations by Thanh Thai
1984
Ricky Kasso murders
Ricky Kasso, a Satan-obsessed teenager from Long Island, murdered his friend over a dispute over drugs. Unfortunately for fans of rock music, he was arrested wearing an AC/DC shirt — and some drew connections between Ricky’s cold-blooded murder and heavy metal.
1987
Negativland releases " Christianity is Stupid"
2011
Lady Gaga releases “Judas”
Even though she’s known for her sex-positive lyrics and videos, Lady Gaga drew criticism from religious groups for her song “Judas,” which is about how she’s in love with biblical figure Judas, who betrayed Jesus to the Romans and had him crucified. Negativland’s album "Escape From Noise" releases, featuring a track called “Christianity is Stupid”. After the album tour was cancelled, the band put out a fake press release saying that the album was involved in the Brom murders, where a teenager named David Brom killed his parents and both of his siblings. The mainstream media didn’t know the press release was a joke, though - and they ran with it.
Lil Nas X’s video drew both praise and criticism for, you know, the part where he pole dances into Hell, gives Satan a lap dance, snaps his neck, and then puts Satan’s horns on his own head, so he becomes Satan? In addition to the video, Lil Nas X released his own custom shoe - which featured Devil imagery on it as well as a drop of (supposedly) real human blood in the sole. Only 666 pairs were made at a price tag of over $1k.
2021
Lil Nas X releases " MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" music video
