History Music / ManicStreetPreachers

!!This band provides examples of:

+ Music/{{Queen}}

* LongTitle: "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart".
** Also, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest (and bracketless) title for a number one single.

** The US release of ''Generation Terrorists'' axes "Born to End", "So Dead", "Spectators of Suicide", "Damn Dog", and "Methadone Pretty", adds "Democracy Coma", remixes "Slash 'n' Burn", "Nat West–Barclays–Midlands–Lloyds", "Little Baby Nothing" and "You Love Us", and rearranges much of the running order. The result clocks in at just 58 minutes compared to the UK edition's 73.

* ReCut: Did this with ''Know Your Enemy'' in 2022, incorporating unreleased tracks to reconstruct it into the two albums they'd initially planned to release in its place, ''Solidarity'' and ''Door To The River'', and remixing the whole thing.

* ShoutOut: Numerous examples, such as Music/PinkFloyd and Music/TheWho in "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" and Music/MarilynManson in "There by the Grace of God".

** "All Is Vanity" (from "Journal For Plague Lovers") - the title is from [[Literature/TheBible Ecclesiastes 1:2]]

--> I'll walk you through the apocalypsse.

* GriefSong: Several, about Richey. ''Nobody Loved You'' and ''Still Snowing In Sapporo'' are two of the most notable.

* LanguageEqualsThought: Discussued in 'Orwellian', as part of the song's dystopian look at 21st century Britain.

** ''Don't Let The Night Divide Us'' from ''The Ultra Vivid Lament'' is a bouncy, upbeat piece about the British people's growing discontent, up to and including political violence.

** "4st 7lbs" ends ends with the narrator [[spoiler:surrendering themselves to anorexia nervosa and being strongly implied to die.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Journal for Plague Lovers'' was inevitably seen as this to ''The Holy Bible'', what with the Richey Edwards lyrics and the occasional sampling.

-->"[...] Too impossible. Some of them are little haikus, four lines. '[[WordSaladLyrics Dolphin-Friendly Tuna Wars]]', that's one."

The band was founded in 1986 as a [[Music/TheClash Clash]]-influenced PunkRock outfit, but quickly moved in a more PostPunk direction before releasing their first EP, ''New Art Riot'', in 1990. Their debut album, ''Generation Terrorists'', was released in 1992 and sported a more mainstream, Music/GunsNRoses-influenced sound. In this period the band tried to attract more attention by going to the press and bashing a ton of their contemporaries, especially {{Shoegazing}} bands like Music/MyBloodyValentine and Music/{{Slowdive}} (who they called "[[GodwinsLaw worse than Hitler]]") and Madchester bands like the Music/HappyMondays and The Charlatans. This backfired on them badly and got them massive HypeBacklash and criticism that only worsened when Wire infamously declared during a Christmas concert the same year "In this season of goodwill, let’s pray that [[Music/{{REM}} Michael Stipe]] [[WhatTheHellHero goes the same way as]] Music/FreddieMercury [[DudeNotFunny pretty soon]].", but they managed to stay above the water with their DarkerAndEdgier {{Grunge}} album ''Gold Against the Soul''.

Tragically, the band's rhythm guitarist, lyricist and spokesman Richey James Edwards vanished in 1995, possibly over the side of the Severn Bridge, after a long history of depression and self harm. He was declared [[LegallyDead presumed deceased]] in 2008. His disappearance occurred less than a year after the release of the controversial but critically acclaimed release, ''The Holy Bible'', a noisy, angst-ridden collection of tracks dealing with such [[SarcasmMode lighthearted topics]] as prostitution, the Holocaust and eating disorders.

The band achieved mainstream success in 1996 with ''Everything Must Go'', with a grandiose sound in many ways reminiscent of the {{Britpop}} movement popular at the time. The followup album, ''This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours'', had a similar sound and enjoyed similar success. Their later releases have tended to be more polarising, but all have been successful, to varying degrees.

The Manics' songs are characterised by highly political, often confrontational lyrics and bleak, at times nihilistic themes, as well as diverse cultural references ranging from Vincent van Gogh to Marilyn Manson to Creator/SylviaPlath. They were notably the first popular Western rock musicians to play in UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}. In their native UK, they have had two number one singles, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" and "The Masses Against the Classes".

!!Studio albums

Below: The PowerTrio formation, [[NeverFoundTheBody post-Edwards's disappearance.]] ]]-]

->"I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit and force it to look in the mirror."
--> - JG Ballard, as sampled in "Mausoleum"

* CelebrityElegy: "Kevin Carter" is explicitly inspired by the life of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter South African photojournalist]] of the same name, who killed himself partially due to trauma from the many gruesome events he had witnessed during wars, civil unrest and famines, and his moral self-hatred about making money out of them.