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Nine Inch Nails
"NIN" redirects here. For other uses please see Nin.

Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN and typeset as NIИ) is a critically and commercially successful American band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 by Trent Reznor, who is the only consistent member. As producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor has remained solely responsible for the musical direction of the band, and has described NIN as "two separate entities" [1]: the "studio," consisting almost entirely of himself; and the live band.

Etymology

Reznor describes the meaning behind the name Nine Inch Nails as such:

I don't know if you've ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about 200 of those. Nine Inch Nails lasted the two week test, looked great in print, and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn't have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough and manly! It's a curse trying to come up with band names.[2]

The Nine Inch Nails logo (the letters "NIN" with the second "N" reversed, looking similar to "NIИ") was inspired by Tibor Kalman's typography on the album cover of Talking Heads' Remain in Light. [3].

Genre

Variously, NIN's sound has been described as alternative, electronica, heavy metal, rock, or, most commonly, industrial or industrial rock. Regarding his music being categorized as industrial, Reznor said in a 1994 Axcess Magazine interview:

What was originally called industrial music was about 20 years ago Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept. We have very little to do with it other than there is noise in my music and there is noise in theirs. I'm working in the context of a pop song structure whereas those bands didn't. And because someone didn't come up with a new name that separates those two somewhat unrelated genres, it tends to irritate all the old school fans waving their flags of alternativeness and obscurity. So, I'd say I've borrowed from certain styles and bands like that.[4]

NIN's songs cover a range of genres: "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, "Down in It" was influenced by early Skinny Puppy [5] as can be heard by comparing the beat to Skinny Puppy's "Dig It", "Happiness in Slavery" is tinged with industrial metal in the vein of Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark electronic pop.

Style

Even with the band's sonic versatility and flexible song writing, common techniques and styles can be found throughout Nine Inch Nails' work.

Extreme dynamics are a staple of Nine Inch Nails. It was evident in an early cover of Queen's "Get Down Make Love," but it wasn't until Broken that it became a signature of Reznor's. Songs like "Wish" and "The Day the World Went Away" demonstrate his tendency to quickly change from pianissimo to fortissimo. Some songs end with a loud climax followed by an abrupt stop rather than fading out or letting the final note resonate. Reznor's style of singing follows a similar pattern, fluctuating back and forth from a whisper to a scream.

Since The Downward Spiral, Reznor has included at least one ostinato per album. These typically begin moderately quiet, and slowly crescendo to a wall of noise and distortion. "Help me I am in Hell," "Eraser," "The Way Out Is Through" and "Beside You in Time" are prime examples. Typically, the ostinatos are accompanied by a video feature when performed live.

Reznor also has an affinity for dissonance in his music. This is often created through chromatic melody and/or harmony. Perhaps the most famous use of this technique is in the song "Closer", when a four-note motif featuring a strongly emphasized augmented first, is added after the first chorus. He then concludes the song with a heavily chromatic piano motif. "Hurt" features a highly dissonant tritone, B5(#11), in the verses which is emphasized as Reznor holds the word "I," every time the B/E# dyad is played. In more obvious cases, Reznor resorts to pure atonality, either using oddly tuned instruments in songs like "The Downward Spiral" and "The New Flesh," or literal noise in songs like "Happiness in Slavery" and "The Art of Self Destruction."

Reznor's music also has distinct rhythmic features. His songs often feature odd time signatures, time signature changes and cross-rhythms found in songs like "March of the Pigs," "La Mer" and "The Collector."

Discography

Main article: Nine Inch Nails discography

Although Nine Inch Nails has existed for over 18 years, it has only produced five proper full-length albums: Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, and With Teeth, with an average of three years between each album.

The seeming sparseness of this discography belies the extent of NIN's work, as each main release serves as a center to numerous satellite releases, including remix albums, singles with extensive collections of b-sides, and tour documentaries. Indeed, each primary release is seen as the center of an associated era, in which the secondary releases are viewed as vitally important to understanding of the artistic whole. This feeling is enhanced by Nine Inch Nails' adoption of halo numbers to number each release, regardless of format. This sequential system carries the implicit message that every NIN release, from albums to singles, is an equally-important part of NIN's catalog.

In addition to official releases, NIN has performed work on numerous soundtracks and remixes.

Pretty Hate Machine

File:Nin-pretty hate machine.jpg
Pretty Hate Machine
(1989)
Main article: Pretty Hate Machine

NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings (released later unofficially as Purest Feeling.) This was also NIN's first collaboration with producer Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went triple platinum in the U.S. and produced the singles "Head Like a Hole", "Down in It", and "Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the video for "Sin" was not released to the public until 1997, with the release of Closure.

In the credits of Pretty Hate Machine, Trent Reznor thanks British Horror/Fantasy writer Clive Barker for inspiration towards the stirring sound the album portrays. As of August 19, 2005, the ownership rights to the album were put up for auction by TVT Records, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. It was part of an overall biddable package that also included the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder would also be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including Broken, Fixed, The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral. Rykodisc, who did not win the auction but were able to license the rights from Prudential [6], re-issued Pretty Hate Machine on November 22, 2005. Rykodisc wanted to release a Deluxe Edition of the album, similar in concept to the Deluxe Edition of The Downward Spiral, however Reznor was not willing to produce it without payment [7]. Rykodisc also re-released Pretty Hate Machine in 12" vinyl, as well as the single "Head Like a Hole", on January 31, 2006.

Broken

File:Nin-broken.jpg
Broken
(1992)
Main article: Broken

NIN's second major release was Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch mini-CD with the remaining bonus tracks. After Trent Reznor discovered that some unscrupulous record store owners would remove the mini-CD and sell it separately, it was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "Wish", aided by the video directed by Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson of Coil, won a Grammy in the "metal" category. Jon Reiss directed a music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show Alternative Nation. Also videos for "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Gave Up" and 1995 live footage of "Wish" were made. A full length video informally called The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release. The Broken Movie, as of 2005, can only be found on bootleg. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed.

The Downward Spiral

File:The downward spiral.jpg
The Downward Spiral
(1994)
Main Article: The Downward Spiral

NIN's second full album and third major release was The Downward Spiral (1994). This was NIN's second collaboration with Mark 'Flood' Ellis. Two singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", were released from this quadruple platinum album, and two additional tracks, "Hurt" and "Piggy", were sent to radio without a single release. Music videos were made for "March of the Pigs", "Closer" and live versions of "Eraser" (which would never receive airtime) and "Hurt". The edited MTV version of "Closer" became very successful. The video for "Closer" (directed by Mark Romanek), in many ways, set a standard for Nine Inch Nails videos with its eerie images of pigs' heads and S&M paraphernalia. Also, "Closer (Precursor)", a remix of "Closer", was used for the opening credits of the movie "Se7en". The album's final track, "Hurt", would enjoy success once again when it was covered, with slight alterations to the lyrics, by Johnny Cash in 2003. In 1995 David Bowie sang a duet version of "Hurt" with Trent Reznor on the Outside tour.

The Downward Spiral was followed by the remix album Further Down the Spiral, which featured a collaboration with electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin and new guitar parts being lent by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. There are two versions of Further Down The Spiral, the second featuring some different remixes. A remastered version of The Downward Spiral was released on November 23, 2004, with an accompanying CD of B-sides and rarities. The remastered recording was also released as a two-sided DualDisc. The Deluxe Edition of the remaster features multichannel and stereo SACD versions of the album as well as a remastered standard CD layer on the first disc, and stereo SACD and standard CD layers on the second. The DualDisc contains a remastered CD-Audio on one side and features a DVD-Audio format side containing High Resolution Stereo and 5.1 Surround mixes of the entire album with expanded album art, a discography, and music videos "Closer" (stereo and surround), "March of the Pigs", and "Hurt (Live)".

The Fragile

File:NIN-TheFragile.jpg
The Fragile
(1999)
Main article: The Fragile

NIN's fourth major release was the two-disc album The Fragile (1999). It produced three singles, one released in the US ("The Day the World Went Away"), one in the UK ("We're In This Together") released as a 3 part single, and one in Japan and Australia ("Into The Void"). Music videos for "We're In This Together", "Into The Void", and "Starfuckers, Inc." (retitled as "Starsuckers, Inc.") were aired in the US.

It is often speculated that "Starfuckers, Inc." was a parody of Reznor's former friend and protégé, Marilyn Manson. Several vocal takes were chopped up and spliced together, purportedly as a not-so-subtle jab at Manson's alleged inability to capture his desired vocal style in a single take. According to this view, the lyrics satirized Manson as being vain and insincere. Manson and Reznor later reconciled, and Manson even appeared in the music video for Starfuckers, Inc. Despite popular consensus, there does not appear to be any official confirmation from Reznor that the song was aimed specifically at Marilyn Manson; in fact, the video even includes a scene where Reznor is throwing baseballs through busts of himself, among a variety of other artists including Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. The video also contains an overweight woman being dunked into a pool of water in the common carnival game style, dressed in a style that many consider to be mocking Courtney Love on the cover of Live Through This.

Many also believe that Reznor borrowed the song's title from fellow musician and friend Tori Amos, though it is not considered an insult to Tori, since Trent has always spoken highly of her. The term "starfucker" was actually borrowed by both musicians from a much earlier Rolling Stones song entitled "Starfucker," which was released in America with the less offensive title of "Star Star."

In interviews prior to the album's completion, Reznor said he was considering organizing the tracks such that one disc would contain all instrumentals and the other the songs with lyrics. These plans changed when Bob Ezrin suggested an arrangement of tracks that would strengthen the "four corners of the album"—namely the beginnings and ends of each of the two discs. Ezrin is credited in the liner notes as having "provided final continuity and flow".

The Fragile was followed by the remix album Things Falling Apart. The Fragility Tour was recorded and released on CD and DVD as And All that Could Have Been. A special edition came with a companion disc called Still, featuring acoustic re-recordings of songs from across NIN's career along with several new songs. Still is regarded as a classic among fans, and there was much speculation prior to the release of With Teeth in 2005 that the album would take a form similar to Still. Three videos for Still were released on NIN's official website.

In 2000, the record company Vitamin Records (unaffiliated with either Nothing or Interscope) released a remix set called Radiant Decay, featuring various remixes of NIN songs by different artists (it was labelled "A Tribute to Nine Inch Nails").

With Teeth

File:Nine Inch Nails With Teeth.jpg
With Teeth
(2005)
Main article: With Teeth

NIN's fifth major release, With Teeth (preliminarily titled Bleedthrough), was written and recorded following Reznor's battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. The album involved the collaboration of the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl (ex-Nirvana) playing live drums for many of the songs. The music video for the first single, "The Hand that Feeds", premiered on the official NIN website rather than on the traditional music video channel. The album was leaked prior to its official release on May 3, 2005 on both CD and DualDisc formats. Though the package for the album lacks the typical liner notes, nin.com/with_teeth (registration required) features access to download a digital PDF poster full of stylized artwork and lyrics. The band allowed the entire album to be listened to in streaming audio at MySpace beginning April 27, 2005 [8]. The vinyl, Japanese, Australian & UK release of With Teeth all featured an extra track, "Home", a leftover cut from the With Teeth recording sessions. Along with the standard edition and "Limited Tour Edition", a DualDisc version is available, which features With Teeth in stereo and 5.1 surround sound, DVDA stereo and surround playback, a Dolby Digital stereo and surround mix, the music video for "The Hand that Feeds", an interactive discography, and a slideshow of NIN-related images.

Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the 2005 MTV Movie Awards show because of a disagreement with MTV over the use of an unaltered image of George W. Bush as a backdrop to the band's performance of "The Hand that Feeds", which includes such lyrics as:

What if this whole crusade's a charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood on which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

"Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me", Reznor said. They were replaced on the show by the Foo Fighters.

In fall 2005, Nine Inch Nails launched a North American tour supported by Queens of the Stone Age, as well as Autolux for the first half of the tour followed by Death from Above 1979 during the second half.

Nine Inch Nails live on tour in 2005

The second single for this album, released in mid-July, was "Only." A video for "Only" was completed around May. It was created using primarily computer-generated imagery, and directed by David Fincher. It debuted on July 11th on Fuse and can been seen on the band's official website.

In April of 2005, Trent Reznor released the source files for "The Hand that Feeds" in Garageband format, to allow his fans to remix it. The release spawned an Unofficial Remix Contest, in which over 500 fan remixes were submitted. After receiving such a tremendous response from this "experiment", the source files for the next single "Only" was released in a wider range of formats. On the NIN official Web site, Reznor said: "There is no agenda here other than for you to explore, experiment, and have fun with it, I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with." Fans were able to access The Ninremixes Myspace Page to upload their remixes, vote for their favorites, and comment about their experiences in a blog. As an alternative to this, fans also created a database with similar features to host these as well as other remixes, creating one of the largest fan created media sites to date, ninremixes.com. The source files are in various file formats, including Garageband and ACID formats. They can be found on nin.com.

On December 10, 2005, Nine Inch Nails performed at the sixteenth annual of the Acoustic Christmas by the Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ. It was the first time the band ever performed at KROQ concerts.

The third single to With Teeth, "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" was released in April of 2006, but Reznor has confirmed that a music video will not be released. [9]

With Teeth was RIAA Certified Platinum in March 2006.

Reznor is currently in the studio finishing the follow up album to With Teeth.

Reznor's other works

Trent Reznor often performs work outside the context of Nine Inch Nails. More information on work credited to Reznor can be found in Trent Reznor's discography.

Music videos

Song Director Released Notes
"Down in It" Eric Zimmerman & Benjamin Stokes September 1989 The birth of Nine Inch Nails' logo can be seen in the jacket that Trent Reznor is wearing
"Head Like a Hole" Eric Zimmerman March 1990 the audio for this video is not the album version and is in fact from the remix titled "Head Like a Hole (clay)," found on the U.S. "Head Like a Hole" single
"Sin" Brett Turnbull November 24, 1997 never aired (an edited version appears on Halo 12, though the original video only became available through TVT's website [10] and has yet to be officially released)
"Pinion" Eric Goode & Serge Becker February 1992 The video of '"Pinion," though not the audio, was used for the introduction of MTV's Kennedy-hosted Alternative Nation.
"Wish" Peter Christopherson February 1992
"Help Me I Am in Hell" Eric Goode & Serge Becker November 24, 1997 Never Aired. Later released on Closure
"Happiness in Slavery" Jon Reiss November 24, 1997 Never Aired. Later released on Closure
"Gave Up" Jon Reiss November 24, 1997 Never Aired. Later released on Closure
"Wish (live)" Simon Maxwell November 24, 1997 aired on 120 Minutes, Later on Closure
"March of the Pigs" Peter Christopherson & Trent Reznor March, 1994 The released video was second attempt, after a more complex concept was abandoned. [11]. There is speculation that clips from the original shoot appear in Closure.
"Closer" Mark Romanek May 12, 1994 two versions of video released (Original Version / Nothing Version)
"Burn" Hank Corwin & Trent Reznor August 24, 1994 for Natural Born Killers
"Hurt (live)" Simon Maxwell March, 1995
"The Perfect Drug" Mark Romanek January 18, 1997 for Lost Highway
"Eraser (live)" Simon Maxwell November 24, 1997 Never aired. Later released on Closure
"We're in This Together" Mark Pellington August 27, 1999 three versions of video released (Short / Long / Mark Pellington Edit)
"The Day the World Went Away" Unknown 1999 never completed (original clips compiled with live video on Halo 17)
"Into the Void" Walter Stern & Jeff Richter January 14, 2000
"Starsuckers, Inc." Robert Hales & Brian Warner May 2, 2000 edit of "Starfuckers, Inc."
"Deep" Enda McCallion August, 2001 for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
"The Hand that Feeds" Rob Sheridan March 17, 2005 released on nin.com
"Only" David Fincher July 12, 2005 90-95% CGI

Broken , the unreleased short film directed by Peter Christopherson, contains the videos for "Pinion", "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery". It also features a video for the song "Help Me I Am in Hell", and a different video for the song "Gave Up" than what appears on Closure, set to scenes within the film and containing extremely graphic depections of a person being murdered then subsequently mutilated. It is commonly referred to as the "Broken Movie."

Future NIN releases

Reznor has been quoted in Kerrang! magazine as commenting that he has enough material for a new release tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2007 featuring the tracks that were not on With Teeth. [12] [13].

In the months following the release of With Teeth, two new Nine Inch Nails songs surfaced: "Non-Entity" recorded live at the ReactNow! Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, and "Not So Pretty Now" has appeared on the setlist of a few recent Nine Inch Nails live shows. Reznor has stated that both these songs were outtakes from the With Teeth sessions, and that studio recordings may see future release [14].

A DVD version of Closure is forthcoming, but has already been delayed for several years. Reznor has indicated that it is now in the hands of Interscope, and the latest news on the DVD is about the work on the menus [15].

Reznor has indicated that he would like to release remastered surround sound editions of Pretty Hate Machine, Broken/Fixed and The Fragile [16]. However, the Rykodisc reissue of Pretty Hate Machine does not contain a surround sound mix [17].

On June 24th, 2006 near the end of performing at the Molson Amphitheatre [18] in Toronto, Trent Reznor confirmed there would be a new album released "shortly". He again confirmed this at the Verizon Ampitheatres in Irvine, CA and Indianapolis, IN, and Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, CA saying that he was going back into the studio for awhile and would be releasing new material after the first of the year. He also said that he would be coming around on tour again in support of the new material.

On March 28, 2006 and March 30, 2006, two of NIN's live shows (Oklahoma City and El Paso respectively) were filmed in high definition for possible future DVD release. In September 2006, Nine Inch Nails' official website released a promotional video stating that in Early 2007 a new release, "Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time", would be available in 3 formats: DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray. [19].

Awards

RIAA Certifications

Grammy Awards and Nominations

Others

  • Named one of the top 15 bands of the past 25 years by RollingStone.com
  • Named one of the top 100 artists ever by Rolling Stone Magazine
  • Has received the prestigious RMS Music Society Award on numerous occasions

Singles

Year Song U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Modern Rock U.S. Main- stream Rock UK singles Album
1989 "Down in It" - 16 - - Pretty Hate Machine
1990 "Head Like a Hole" - 28 - 45 Pretty Hate Machine
1990 "Sin" - - - 35 Pretty Hate Machine
1990 "Terrible Lie" - - - - Pretty Hate Machine
1992 "Happiness in Slavery" - 13 - - Broken
1993 "Wish" - 25 - - Broken
1993 "Gave Up" - - - - Broken
1994 "March of the Pigs" 59 - - 45 The Downward Spiral
1994 "Closer" 41 11 35 25 The Downward Spiral
1994 "Piggy" - 20 - - The Downward Spiral
1994 "Burn" - - - - Natural Born Killers soundtrack
1995 "Hurt" - 8 - - The Downward Spiral
1997 "The Perfect Drug" 46 11 21 43 Lost Highway Soundtrack
1999 "The Day the World Went Away" 17 - - - The Fragile
1999 "We're in This Together" - 11 21 39 The Fragile
1999 "Starfuckers, Inc." - 39 - - The Fragile
2000 "Into The Void" - 11 27 - The Fragile
2001 "Deep" - 18 37 - Tomb Raider soundtrack
2005 "The Hand that Feeds" 31 1 2 7 With Teeth
2005 "Only" 90 1 22 20 With Teeth
2006 "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" 56 1 12 - With Teeth

Members

Trent Reznor is the only permanent member of the band, writing all of the music and lyrics himself and maintaining sole control of the direction of the band. While recording, Reznor assembles various producers, engineers, and musicians to assist him in creating new songs.

Similarly, Reznor assembles a live backing band for each NIN tour. The first band, assembled in October 1988 to support Skinny Puppy on several dates, was composed of what was described in a Goldmine Magazine article as "session musicians." The band was apparently poorly received, as they were asked to leave the tour after ten dates.

Aside from Reznor himself (vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer), musicians in post-1988 live incarnations of NIN have been:

Pretty Hate Machine era tours (October 1989 - September 1991)

(Pretty Hate Machine promo tour; Jesus and Mary Chain support tour; Hate '90 Tour; Lollapalooza '91 Tour; European 1991 mini-tour) [citation needed]

Self Destruct Tours (March 1994 - February 1995)

[citation needed]

Dissonance Tour with David Bowie (September - October, 1995)

[citation needed]

Fragility Tours (November 1999 - July 2000)

[citation needed]

Live: With_Teeth (March 2005 - July 2006)

[citation needed]

Popular Culture

Main article: Nine Inch Nails in popular culture

The term "nine inch nails" has been used in various cultural references, and as an otherwise unlikely phrase is often assumed to be in reference or tribute to the band. Examples include musicians such as Tori Amos, video games such as Quake, and movies such as The Machinist.

Trivia

See also

Official sites

Major fan sites

Other

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