Now that Eminem is highly prased as a rapper today, I can actually look back and see the deeper meaning of this song. It is very morbid and no doubt one of Eminem's most controversial songs. However if you analyze the overall meaning it's really brillant. First I agree the Stan part means ST as in stalker and AN as in fan, symbolism of Stan.
When you think about it, a lot of Eminem's songs are about his personal problems as well as society's problems. I think he used himself to represent a society problem, the media and music influencing people. Stan becomes so obsessed with Slim, and lives his life for Slim. I think he's trying to show the person's side rather than the music/media. It almost reminds me of the Columbine Tragedy, many people thought Marilyn Manson's music had an influence on the boys behavior and indirectly caused them to shoot innocent people. I think Eminem is trying to show that music may influence it, it is always initially the person who has the problem and not the music. You can clearly see Stan has mental issues which leads to his suicide and killing of his pregnant girlfriend (when he kills his girlfriend it actually really seems to symbolize Columbine because innocent people were killed because of madness). In the end, you hear Slim saying "You cut your wrists too, I was clowin man, I think you need some help, why you so mad, I don't want you to do some crazy shit." This part is the strongest in saying how you can't literally take all controversial music or use it to blame people's problems.
Now that Eminem is highly prased as a rapper today, I can actually look back and see the deeper meaning of this song. It is very morbid and no doubt one of Eminem's most controversial songs. However if you analyze the overall meaning it's really brillant. First I agree the Stan part means ST as in stalker and AN as in fan, symbolism of Stan. When you think about it, a lot of Eminem's songs are about his personal problems as well as society's problems. I think he used himself to represent a society problem, the media and music influencing people. Stan becomes so obsessed with Slim, and lives his life for Slim. I think he's trying to show the person's side rather than the music/media. It almost reminds me of the Columbine Tragedy, many people thought Marilyn Manson's music had an influence on the boys behavior and indirectly caused them to shoot innocent people. I think Eminem is trying to show that music may influence it, it is always initially the person who has the problem and not the music. You can clearly see Stan has mental issues which leads to his suicide and killing of his pregnant girlfriend (when he kills his girlfriend it actually really seems to symbolize Columbine because innocent people were killed because of madness). In the end, you hear Slim saying "You cut your wrists too, I was clowin man, I think you need some help, why you so mad, I don't want you to do some crazy shit." This part is the strongest in saying how you can't literally take all controversial music or use it to blame people's problems.