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Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN or more appropriately, NI?) is an American industrial rock music group, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction. NIN's music straddles a wide range of genres, while retaining a characteristic sound using electronic instruments and processing.
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Encyclopedia
Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN or more appropriately, NI?) is an American industrial rock music group, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction. NIN's music straddles a wide range of genres, while retaining a characteristic sound using electronic instruments and processing. After recording a new album, Reznor usually assembles a live band to perform with him. The touring band features a revolving lineup that often rearranges songs to fit a live setting. On stage, NIN often employ spectacular visual elements to accompany performances, which frequently culminate with the band destroying their instruments.
Underground music audiences warmly received Nine Inch Nails in its early years. The band produced several highly influential records in the 1990s that achieved widespread popularity: many Nine Inch Nails songs became radio hits, two NIN recordings won Grammy Awards, and the band has sold over twenty million albums worldwide, with 11 million sales certified in the US alone. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time magazine's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music."
In 2004, Rolling Stone placed Nine Inch Nails at 94 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Despite this acclaim, the band has had several feuds with the corporate side of the recording industry. In 2007, these corporate entanglements resulted in Reznor announcing that Nine Inch Nails would split from its label and release future material independently.
Since 1989, Nine Inch Nails have made eight major studio releases. The most recent releases, Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, both released in 2008, were released under Creative Commons licenses. Both were initially released digitally, with physical releases coming later. The digital release of The Slip was made available completely free of charge. NIN has been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards and won twice for the songs "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery", in 1992 and 1995 respectively.
History
Formation (1988–1989)
In 1987, Trent Reznor played keyboards with a Cleveland band called the Exotic Birds, then managed by John Malm, Jr.. Reznor and Malm became friends, and when Reznor left the Exotic Birds to work on music of his own, Malm informally became his manager. At the time Reznor was employed as an assistant engineer and janitor at Right Track Studios, and asked studio owner Bart Koster for permission to record some demos of his own material for free during unused studio time. Koster agreed, commenting that it cost him "just a little wear on [his] tape heads". While assembling these, the earliest Nine Inch Nails recordings, Reznor was unable to find a band that could articulate the material as he desired. Instead, inspired by Prince, Reznor played all the instruments except drums himself. This role remains Reznor's on most of the band's studio recordings, though he has occasionally involved other musicians and assistants. In 1988, after playing its first shows supporting Skinny Puppy, Reznor's ambitions for Nine Inch Nails were to release one 12-inch single on a small European label. Several labels responded favorably to the demo material, and Reznor signed with TVT Records. Ten selections from the Right Track demos were later released in revised form on the band's first full-length studio release, Pretty Hate Machine in 1989.
Reznor said in 1994 that he coined the name "Nine Inch Nails" because it "abbreviated easily", rather than for "any literal meaning". Other rumored explanations have circulated, alleging that Reznor chose to reference Jesus' crucifixion with nine-inch spikes, or Freddy Krueger's nine-inch fingernails. The Nine Inch Nails' logo, which consists of the letters "NI?" set inside a border, was designed by Reznor and Gary Talpas. The logo first appeared on NIN's debut, "Down in It", and was inspired by Tibor Kalman's typography on the Talking Heads album Remain in Light. Talpas, a native of Cleveland, would continue to design NIN packaging art until 1997.
Pretty Hate Machine (1989–1992)
Written, arranged, and performed by Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails' first album Pretty Hate Machine debuted in 1989. It marked Reznor's first collaboration with Adrian Sherwood (who produced the lead single "Down in It" in London, England without having met Reznor face-to-face) and Mark "Flood" Ellis. Flood's production would appear on each major Nine Inch Nails release until 1994, and Sherwood has done remixes for the band as recently as 2000. Reznor and his co-producers expanded upon the Right Track Studio demos by adding singles "Head Like a Hole" and "Sin". Rolling Stones Michael Azerrad described the album as "industrial-strength noise over a pop framework" and "harrowing but catchy music"; Reznor proclaimed this combination "a sincere statement" of "what was in [his] head at the time". After spending 113 weeks on the Billboard 200, Pretty Hate Machine became one of the first independently released records to attain platinum certification. MTV aired videos for "Down in It" and "Head Like a Hole", but an explicit video for "Sin" was only released on the 1997 home video Closure.
In 1990, NIN began the Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series, in which they toured North America as an opening act for alternative rock artists such as Peter Murphy and The Jesus and Mary Chain. At some point, Reznor began smashing his equipment while on stage; Rockbeat interviewer Mike Gitter attributed NIN's early success in front of rock oriented audiences to this aggressive attitude. Nine Inch Nails then embarked on a world tour that continued through the first Lollapalooza festival in 1991. After a poor European reception opening for Guns N' Roses, NIN returned to America amid pressure from TVT to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine. In response, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference.
Broken (1992–1994)
In 1992 Nine Inch Nails released Broken, an EP featuring six songs and two bonus tracks. In the liner notes, Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band as an influence on the EP's sound. Reznor characterized Broken as a guitar-based "blast of destruction", and as "a lot harder [...] than Pretty Hate Machine". Songs from Broken have earned NIN its only two Grammy Awards: a performance of the EP's first single "Happiness in Slavery" from Woodstock '94, and the second single "Wish".
Peter Christopherson of the bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle directed a performance video for "Wish", but the EP's most infamous video accompanied "Happiness in Slavery". The video was almost universally banned for its graphic depiction of performance artist Bob Flanagan disrobing lying on a machine that pleasures, tortures, then kills him. A third video for "Pinion", partially incorporated into MTV's Alternative Nation opening sequence, showed a toilet that apparently flushes into the mouth of a person in bondage. Reznor and Christopherson compiled these three clips along with footage for "Help Me I Am In Hell" and "Gave Up" into a longform music video also called Broken. It depicts the murder of a young man who is kidnapped and tortured while forced to watch the videos. This footage was never officially released, but instead appeared covertly among tape trading circles.
A separate performance video for "Gave Up" featuring Richard Patrick and Marilyn Manson was filmed at 10050 Cielo Drive (then renamed "Le Pig studios" by Reznor), site of the Tate murders; a live recording of "Wish" was also filmed, and both videos appeared on the Closure video compilation in 1997. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed in late 1992. Rather than tour in support of the new material, Reznor began living and recording full-time at Le Pig, working on a follow-up free of restrictions from his record label.
The Downward Spiral (1994–1999)
Nine Inch Nails' second full-length album, The Downward Spiral, entered the Billboard 200 in 1994 at number two, and remains the highest-selling NIN release in the United States. Influenced by late-1970s rock albums Low and The Wall, by David Bowie and Pink Floyd respectively, The Downward Spiral features a wide range of textures and moods to illustrate the mental progress of a central character. Flood once again co-produced several tracks on the album, though it proved to be his last collaboration with Nine Inch Nails. Longtime Flood-collaborator Alan Moulder mixed most of The Downward Spiral and subsequently took on more extensive production duties for future NIN releases.
"The Downward Spiral" was recorded at Le Pig Studios, Beverly Hills – built by Reznor in the house where Charles Manson's "family" killed Sharon Tate, wife of noted film director Roman Polanski.
The album spawned two singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", along with "Hurt" and "Piggy" which were issued to radio without a commercial single release. The music video for "Closer" was directed by Mark Romanek and received frequent rotation on MTV, though the network made extensive edits to the original version, which they perceived to be too graphic. A radio edit that partially mutes the song's explicit lyrics also received extensive airtime. The Closure video documented highlights from NIN's Self Destruct tour, including full live videos of "Eraser", "Hurt" and a one-take "March of the Pigs" clip made for MTV.
The Downward Spiral features guest performances by Stephen Perkins (of Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros) and Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe
Critical response to The Downward Spiral has generally been favorable: in 2005 the album was ranked 25th in Spin's list of the "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005", and in 2003 Rolling Stone ranked the album number 200 on their "500 greatest albums of all time" list. After The Downward Spiral's release, Reznor produced an accompanying remix album entitled Further Down the Spiral, the only non-major NIN release to be certified gold in the United States. It featured contributions from electronic musician Aphex Twin, producer Rick Rubin, and former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, among others.
The Self Destruct tour in support of the album reached its widest mainstream audience with a mud-drenched performance at Woodstock '94 that was broadcast on Pay-Per-View and seen in as many as 24 million homes. Nine Inch Nails received considerable mainstream success thereafter, performing with significantly higher production values and adding theatrical visual elements to the live show. Around this time, Reznor's studio perfectionism, struggles with addiction, and bouts of writer's block prolonged the production of a follow-up record.
In 1997 Reznor produced the soundtrack to the David Lynch film Lost Highway. The release spawned the single "The Perfect Drug", the video for which was again directed by Mark Romanek. A tenth anniversary deluxe reissue of The Downward Spiral was released in 2004.
The Fragile (1999–2005)
Five years elapsed between The Downward Spiral and NIN's next studio album, The Fragile, which arrived as a double CD in September 1999. On the heels of the band's previous successes, media anticipation surrounded The Fragile more than a year before its release, when it was already described as "oft-delayed". When the album was finally released, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 228,000 copies in its first week and receiving favorable reviews. Spin hailed The Fragile as the "album of the year", and several songs from it were regular features on alternative rock radio stations. However, the album slipped out of the Billboard Top 10 only a week after its release, and Reznor funded the subsequent North American tour out of his own pocket.
According to Reznor, The Fragile was conceived by making "songwriting and arranging and production and sound design [...] the same thing. A song would start with a drum loop or a visual and eventually a song would emerge out of it and that was the song." Canadian rock producer Bob Ezrin was consulted on the album's track listing; the liner notes state that he "provided final continuity and flow."
Before the album's release, the song "Starfuckers, Inc." provoked media speculation about whom Reznor had intended its acerbic lyrics to satirize. Cinesexuality critic Patricia MacCormack interprets the song as a "scathing attack on the alternative music scene", particularly Reznor's former friend and protégé Marilyn Manson. The two artists put aside their differences when Manson appeared in the song's music video, retitled "Starsuckers, Inc." and performed on stage with NIN at Madison Square Garden in 2000. Nine Inch Nails released three commercial singles from the album in different territories: "The Day the World Went Away" in North America; "We're in This Together" in the EU and Japan (on three separate discs); and "Into the Void" in Australia.
Reznor followed The Fragile with another remix album, Things Falling Apart, released after the 2000 Fragility tour, which itself was recorded and released on CD, DVD, and VHS in 2002 as And All that Could Have Been. A deluxe edition of the live CD came with the companion disc Still, featuring stripped-down versions of songs from the NIN catalog along with several new pieces of music.
With Teeth (2005–2007)
A further six years elapsed before Nine Inch Nails' fourth full-length album, With Teeth, was released in 2005, though it was leaked prior to its official release date. The album was written and recorded following Reznor's battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. Like The Fragile, With Teeth debuted on top of the Billboard 200. The album's package art lacks typical liner notes; instead it simply lists the names of songs and co-producers, and the URL for an online PDF poster with lyrics and full credits. The entire album was made available in streaming audio on the band's official MySpace page in advance of its release date. Critical reception of the album was generally favorable: Rolling Stones Rob Sheffield described the album as "vintage Nine Inch Nails".
A promotional video for the song "The Hand That Feeds" premiered on NIN's website in March 2005, rather than the traditional music channels. Reznor also released the source files for the song in GarageBand format a month later, allowing fans to remix the song. Reznor similarly released files for the album's second single "Only" in a wider range of formats, including Pro Tools and ACID Pro. David Fincher directed a video for "Only" using primarily computer-generated imagery. The third single, "Every Day Is Exactly the Same", was released in April 2006, but a planned music video was reportedly scrapped in the post-production stage. The song topped Billboards 2006 year-end Hot Dance Singles Sales and Hot Digital Songs charts.
Nine Inch Nails launched a North American arena tour in autumn 2005, supported by Queens of the Stone Age, Autolux and Death from Above 1979. Another opening act on this tour, hip-hop artist Saul Williams, performed on stage with Nine Inch Nails at the Voodoo Music Experience festival during a headlining appearance in hurricane-stricken New Orleans, Reznor's former home. To conclude the With Teeth era of the band, NIN completed a tour of North American amphitheaters in the summer of 2006, joined by Bauhaus, TV on the Radio, and Peaches. In late 2006, the official NIN website announced that a tour documentary entitled Beside You in Time would be released in three formats: DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Year Zero (2007–2008)
Nine Inch Nails' fifth studio album, Year Zero, was released only two years after With Teeth, a marked change in pace from the release of previous albums. With lyrics written from the perspective of multiple fictitious characters, Reznor described Year Zero as a concept album criticizing the United States government's current policies and how they will impact the world 15 years in the future. Critical response to the album was generally favorable, with an average rating of 76% on MetaCritic.
An alternate reality game emerged parallel to the Year Zero concept, expanding upon its storyline. Clues hidden on tour merchandise initially led fans to discover a network of fictitious, in-game websites that describe an "Orwellian picture of the United States circa the year 2022". Before Year Zeros release, unreleased songs from the album were found on USB drives hidden at NIN concert venues in Europe, as part of the alternate reality game. Fan participation in the alternate reality game caught the attention of media outlets such as USA Today and Billboard, who have cited fan-site The NIN Hotline, forum Echoing the Sound, fan club The Spiral, and NinWiki as sources for new discoveries.
The album's first single, "Survivalism", and other tracks from Year Zero were released as multitrack audio files for fans to remix. A remix album titled Year Zero Remixed was later released, featuring remixes from Year Zero from other artists. The remix album proved to be Nine Inch Nails' final new release on a major record label, as the act had completed its contractual obligation to Interscope Records and did not renew its contract. The remix album was accompanied by an interactive remix site with multi-track downloads and the ability to post remixes, after legal issues delayed its debut.
Ghosts I–IV and The Slip (2008–present)
In February 2008, Reznor posted a news update on the Nine Inch Nails website entitled "2 weeks." On March 2, Ghosts I–IV, a 36-track instrumental album, became available via the band's official website. Ghosts I–IV continued Reznor's experimentation with digital distribution, as the album was released online before physical copies were available. Like Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! (which Reznor produced), the album is available in a number of different formats and forms, including a free download of the first volume, a $5 digital download, a $10 double CD set, a $75 deluxe edition set, and a $300 Ultra-Deluxe limited edition package, which sold out all 2500 copies (grossing $750,000) in three days.
The album was created over a 10-week period and contributors included Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder, Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew, and Brian Viglione. Reznor described the 36-track collection as a "soundtrack for daydreams", and that it is "the result of working from a very visual perspective — dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture". The album is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. Nine Inch Nails also sponsored a user-based film festival through its YouTube page, with the music of Ghosts at its center. Reznor has also stated that "more volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future."
Similar to the announcement that ultimately led to the release of Ghosts I–IV, a post on the band's website in April 2008 read "2 weeks!" Before any further announcements were made, American radio stations received a single entitled "Discipline". The stations were allowed to provide their listeners with online links to the song, available at NIN's website for free download along with the multitrack files for remixing.
On May 5, 2008, Nine Inch Nails released The Slip via their website without any advertisement or promotion. The album was made available for download free of charge, protected under the Creative Commons attribution Non-commercial Share-alike license. Since it was first made available, The Slip has seen individual downloads surpassing 1.4 million. The Slip has since seen physical release on both CD as a Limited Edition set of 250,000 (of which Reznor has been photographed owning copies 1 and 250,000) with the album on CD and live renditions of five songs from the The Slip recorded during rehearsals for the upcoming tour on DVD, and a non-Limited Edition vinyl release.
Since the release of Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, a 25-date tour was announced in several North American cities, and was later expanded to include several more North American dates as well as dates in South America. Cortini and Freese returned as members from the previous tour, while Robin Finck rejoined the band. The lineup was initially to include Rich Fownes, but before any scheduled performances it was revealed that Justin Meldal-Johnsen would instead be contributing on bass guitar. The tour has been widely acclaimed for its light performances and its wide setlist, usually including songs from Ghosts I–IV in a special "unplugged" set.
In late 2008, it was announced that Josh Freese and Alessandro Coritini would be leaving the live band,and that the band will become a four-piece, with Lostprophets drummer Ilan Rubin replacing Freese. Reznor later hinted that any shows in 2009 may be "the last shows for the foreseeable future." In a from December 2008 before the last Lights In The Sky show in Las Vegas, Trent stated he planned to take at least a year off from touring starting in the fall of 2009 to work on a new record (likely to encompass the second half of the Year Zero narrative), the television mini-series for Year Zero and a secret software development project.
On January 7, 2009, Reznor offered HD-quality footage from three shows as a download of over 400 GB via bitTorrent. The raw, unedited footage was filmed with multiple consumer HDV cameras during the Victoria, Portland, and Sacramento dates of the tour.
On February 16, 2009, Reznor posted his thoughts about the future of Nine Inch Nails on NIN.com, stating that "I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while." It is unclear when or even if Nine Inch Nails will return after the end of their 2009 tour with Jane's Addiction, although Reznor has stated "We will be back some day, in some form" at a number of recent live performances. He has also stated in an interview that if other paths that he will be pursuing, such as the possible Year Zero television show, don't work out then he'll return to Nine Inch Nails, but if they do lead somewhere, he isn't sure what the future holds.
Musical characteristics
Allmusic's Steve Huey states that "Nine Inch Nails were the most popular industrial group ever and were largely responsible for bringing the music to a mass audience." Reznor has never referred to his own work as industrial music, but admits to borrowing techniques from such early industrial bands as Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept. Despite the disparity between those artists initially operating under the term "industrial" and Nine Inch Nails, it has become common in journalistic descriptions of Reznor's body of work to describe it as such. Reznor acknowledged in Spin magazine that "Down in It" was influenced by early Skinny Puppy, particularly their song "Dig It"; other songs from Pretty Hate Machine were described in the same interview as synth-pop. Reviewing The Fragile, critic Steve Cooper noted that the album juxtaposes widely varied genres, such as solo piano in "The Frail" and drum and bass elements in "Starfuckers, Inc."
Certain techniques and styles can be found throughout NIN's catalog. Songs such as "Wish" and "The Day the World Went Away" exhibit changes in dynamics, changing from quiet to loud and back again, and end with an abrupt stop. Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern, frequently moving from whispers to screams. The band's music also occasionally features complex time signatures, notably in "The Collector", from With Teeth, and concert favorite "March of the Pigs". Reznor also uses noise and distortion in his song arrangements, and incorporates dissonance with chromatic melody and/or harmony. These techniques are all used in the song "Hurt" , which features a highly dissonant tritone played on guitar during the verses, a B5#11, emphasized when Reznor sings the eleventh note on the word "I" every time the B/F dyad is played. "Closer" concludes with a chromatic piano motif: the same melody that first appears during the chorus of Heresy, and then recurs on the title track of The Downward Spiral. On The Fragile, Reznor revisits this technique of repeating a motif multiple times throughout different songs, either on a different musical instrument, with a transposed harmony, or in an altered tempo.
Influence
Nine Inch Nails has influenced many newer artists, which according to Reznor range from "generic imitations" dating from NIN's initial success to younger bands echoing his style in a "truer, less imitative way". Following the release of The Downward Spiral, mainstream artists began to take notice of Nine Inch Nails' influence: David Bowie compared NIN's impact to that of The Velvet Underground. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time magazine's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music". The RIAA certified sales for 10.5 million units of the band's albums in the United States, which accounts for roughly half of the band's reported sales worldwide. Bob Ezrin, producer for Pink Floyd, Kiss, Alice Cooper, and Peter Gabriel, described Reznor in 2007 as a "true visionary" and advised aspiring artists to take note of his no-compromise attitude. During a rare appearance at the Kerrang! Awards in London that year, Nine Inch Nails accepted the Kerrang! Icon, honoring the band's long-standing influence on rock music. "Weird Al" Yankovic did an obvious parody of his style of music entitled "Germs", though it was not acknowledged as a parody of his songs, either for copyright reasons or because it did not parody one of his songs in particular, but rather what Yankovic reverently refers to as "style parody"
Live performances
Trent Reznor is the sole official member of Nine Inch Nails. However, Reznor has typically formed a backing group of musicians to perform the songs in a live setting. This live band, also known as Nine Inch Nails, rearranges the band's studio catalog and creates a different sound than that of Reznor's studio recordings. Band members have occasionally been invited to participate in the recording process, but creative control within the studio has always been exclusively with Reznor.
The Tapeworm project was created in 1995 as a Nine Inch Nails side-project between Reznor and various live-band members as a more "democratic" creative environment. The band initially included band members Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser, but eventually expanded to feature other frequent NIN contributors Josh Freese, Atticus Ross, and Alan Moulder. However, after 9 years of studio sessions, no material was ever officially released from the group, and it was confirmed to be no longer active in 2005.
The lineup of the live band has a tendency to change drastically between major tours: aside from Reznor remaining on lead vocals and guitar, no member of the live band has remained constant since its inception. Reznor cited the long gestation period between studio albums as part of the reason for these frequent personnel changes, as well as his desire for fresh interpretations of his music. The 2009 incarnation of the live band features Reznor with Robin Finck, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Ilan Rubin.
Corporate entanglements
Trent Reznor is an outspoken critic of the music industry, particularly corporate influence on his artistic freedom. As a result, Nine Inch Nails has clashed with several corporations, culminating in a decision to proceed as a free agent without any recording label contracts.
In the early 1990s, Nine Inch Nails was involved in a much-publicized feud with TVT Records, the first record label to sign the band. Reznor objected to the label's attempted interference with his intellectual property. Ultimately, they entered into a joint venture with Interscope Records in which Reznor forfeited a portion of his publishing rights to TVT Music in exchange for the freedom of having his own Nothing Records imprint. In 2005, Reznor sued his former friend and manager John Malm, co-founder of Nothing, for fraud, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, and other claims. Their relationship was formally severed in a New York courtroom, with damages awarded to Reznor in excess of three million US dollars.
At the behest of Prudential Securities bankruptcy proceedings, TVT put the rights to Reznor's recordings for the label on auction in 2005. This offer included the whole TVT catalog, including Pretty Hate Machine and a percentage of royalties from Reznor's song publishing company, Leaving Hope Music/TVT Music. Rykodisc, which did not win the auction but was able to license the rights from Prudential, re-issued the out-of-print Pretty Hate Machine CD on November 22, 2005. Ryko also reissued the "Head Like a Hole" CD and a vinyl edition of Pretty Hate Machine in 2006. The label considered releasing a deluxe edition, just as Interscope had done for The Downward Spiral; however, Reznor declined to produce it for them without payment.
Nine Inch Nails was scheduled to perform at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, but withdrew from the show due to a disagreement with the network over the use of an unaltered image of George W. Bush as a backdrop to the band's performance of "The Hand that Feeds". Soon afterwards, Reznor wrote on the official NIN website: "apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me." MTV replied that it respected Reznor's point of view, but was "uncomfortable" with the performance being "built around partisan political statements". A performance by Foo Fighters replaced NIN's time slot on the show. During the Lights In The Sky tour in 2008, some performances of "The Hand That Feeds" had the image of Bush on a video screen behind the band. At some gigs leading up to the election, the face of Bush slowly morphed during the song into the face of John McCain.
In 2006, after being alerted by a fan website, Reznor issued a cease and desist to Fox News Channel for using three songs from The Fragile on air without permission. The songs "La Mer", "The Great Below", and "The Mark Has Been Made" appeared in an episode of War Stories with Oliver North detailing the battle of Iwo Jima. A post appeared on Reznor's blog, which read: "Thanks for the Fox News heads-up. A cease and desist has been issued. FUCK Fox Fucking News."
As part of the alternate reality game which accompanied the release of Year Zero, three tracks from the album were intentionally "leaked" prior to their official release at a number of NIN concerts on USB flash drives. The high-quality audio files quickly circulated the internet, and owners of websites hosting the files soon received cease and desist orders from the Recording Industry Association of America, despite the fact that the viral campaign, and the use of USB drives, was sanctioned by Nine Inch Nails' record label. The source that broke the story was quoted as saying "These fucking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on."
The music of Nine Inch Nails has reportedly been used by the U.S. military as music torture to break down the resolve of detainees. Reznor objected to the use of his music in this way with the following message on the front page of the Nine Inch Nails website: "It's difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you've put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture. If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities. Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration's reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us."
Disputes with Universal Music Group
In May 2007, Reznor made a post on the official Nine Inch Nails website condemning Universal Music Group (parent company of Nine Inch Nails's record label, Interscope Records) for their pricing and distribution plans for Year Zero. He criticized the company's retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia as "ABSURD," concluding that "as a reward for being a 'true fan' you get ripped off." Reznor went on to say that as "the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more." Reznor's post, specifically his criticism of the recording industry at large, elicited considerable media attention. In September 2007, Reznor continued his attack on UMG at a concert in Australia, urging fans there to "steal" his music online instead of purchasing it legally. Reznor went on to encourage the crowd to "steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'."
Reznor announced on October 8, 2007 that Nine Inch Nails had fulfilled its contractual commitments to Interscope Records and was now free to proceed as a "totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label". Reznor also speculated that he would release the next NIN album online in a similar fashion to The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, which he produced. Reznor later released The Slip in 2008 for free download.
Via another post on the official NIN website, Reznor again openly criticized Universal Music Group for preventing him from launching an official interactive fan remix website. Universal declined to host the site just days before its scheduled launch, citing the potential "accusation", in Reznor's words, "that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing [other media companies] for". Reznor wrote in response that he was "challenged at the last second to find a way of bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other's feet". Despite these obstacles, the remix website was launched in November 2007.
Discography
Nine Inch Nails has produced eight major releases:
In addition, the band has released four remix albums:
Further, there have been three tour documentaries:
Nine Inch Nails has also released numerous singles containing several B-sides. The majority of these are labeled with Halo numbers, a sequential numbering system used to catalog the core Nine Inch Nails body of work.
Awards
Nine Inch Nails has been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards and has won twice. Winning nominations are listed below in bold.
- "Wish" — Best Metal Performance, 1992
- The Downward Spiral — Best Alternative Music Performance, 1994 (nomination)
- "Happiness in Slavery" — Best Metal Performance, 1995 (from Woodstock '94 compilation)
- "Hurt" — Best Rock Song, 1995 (nomination)
- "The Perfect Drug" — Best Hard Rock Performance, 1997 (nomination)
- The Fragile — Best Alternative Music Performance, 1999 (nomination)
- "Starfuckers, Inc." — Best Metal Performance, 1999 (nomination)
- "Into the Void" — Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2000 (nomination)
- "The Hand That Feeds" — Best Hard Rock Performance, 2005 (nomination)
- "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" — Best Hard Rock Performance, 2006 (nomination)
- "34 Ghosts IV" — Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2009 (nomination)
- Ghosts I–IV — Best Boxed Set or Limited Edition Package, 2009 (nomination)
External links
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