The Beautiful People

"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 alternative 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]