2. The Church of Satan is responsible for the place of Satanism in popular culture
Although devil worship and Satan himself are ancient concepts, the explosion in Satanic-themed films, music, and fiction in the 1960s and 1970s can all be traced to LaVey’s mass marketing. He was far from original in his choice of imagery, of course, but his confrontational approach to increasing the Church of Satan’s membership meant that the devil was pictured all over the media and his name on the lips of every Christian talk-show host, concerned parent, and minister in the US. Such opposition merely made Satanism cool, popular, and thus a viable commodity to this day.
