There's a major disconnect between critical consensus and the public consumption of pop music. I've heard respected music journalists refer to Trent Reznor and his work as Nine Inch Nails as being "the most vital artist in music" and "the poet laureate of rock", but it's really hard to see any immediate influence descending from Reznor into modern pop. And yes, though he made a mix of metal, synth, goth and industrial, I consider Trent Reznor's music to be pop, more or less. He's had several #1 albums and none of his studio releases fell short of financial success. What puzzles me is why NIN was always so popular but no major musical acts outside of substandard angst-rock like Korn, forgettable crossover successes like Orgy or overstated imitations like Marylin Manson did anything with Reznor's incredibly sharp take on modern sound.
Listening to NIN's debut 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine, the picture gets a little clearer. Goth/Industrial enjoyed a decent run in the 80's, but its originality burned out rather quickly. It's a genre of fashion, and fashion is all about one kind of conformity or another. Certain sounds were not just industrial regulars, they were practically mandatory. Take, for instance, the slowed-down snare drum or the sped-up slap bass. So, why was NIN so popular when Throbbing Gristle and Skinny Puppy were niche? Well, part of it was probably the grunge sound of tracks like "Head Like A Hole", but the better half can be attributed to the hip hop and dance influences in the likes of "Ringfinger". Trent Reznor, like many great artists, is a dabbler.
- Wish
- Happiness in Slavery
The 1992 EP Broken is the first product of Trent Reznor's very public distaste for the business of music. His publisher at the time, TVT Records, enjoyed the hit it had in Pretty Hate Machine so they began putting pressure on Reznor to produce another dancey industrial album. Instead, he began recording under pseudonyms to retain creative control. The result was the five-track record Broken, a more guitar-driven bone-breaker of an album. I don't care if it required Reznor crawling through shattered glass to get to a secret studio, just as long as "Happiness in Slavery" still got on tape.
- Heresy
- March of the Pigs
- Closer
- Ruiner
- The Becoming
1994's The Downward Spiral should be required listening for anyone who wants to make modern music. It's a unique collection of styles that sounds at once perfectly produced and squishily organic. Not "organic" in the acoustic guitars on porches way, but "organic" like a vivisected mammal. It marries the intense metal of Broken with the electronic layers of Pretty Hate Machine, then achieves a kind of ideal state of scary beauty. Its centerpiece "Closer" is one of the top five songs produced in the 1990's, bar none. Yeah, Spiral was recorded in the house where Charles Manson killed Sharon Tate blah blah blah, I don't care. Culture cred doesn't concern me. If freaking Mariah Carey, who released Music Box earlier that year, had recorded in the Tate house, it wouldn't have sounded this stunningly dark. Give credit where credit's due.
It's widely accepted that Johnny Cash's end-of-life cover of "Hurt" is superior to Reznor's original and I'll echo that sentiment, with the caveat that the "(quiet)" rendition from NIN's own Further Down the Spiral EP is preferable to the LP version as well. It's not as stifled by the machines. When it comes to superior covers, NIN's take on Joy Division's "Dead Souls" for the soundtrack to The Crow is an awesome update of an already awesome song. Also among the soundtrack greats during this period is "Perfect Drug" from Lost Highway. It's a shame Trent Reznor's personal problems got in the way of a new album after Downward Spiral. "Perfect Drug" deserved a better airing than the soundtrack to a cult classic.
Between 1994 and 1999, Nine Inch Nails didn't release a full album, mostly due to Trent Reznor's drug addiction and depression. It wouldn't be until 1999's double album The Fragile, following a bout of legal issues with Reznor's old manager, that NIN would be back in the spotlight. I'll be back later this week to catch up with the rest of NIN's discography.
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