Everything about Nine Inch Nails totally explained
The distribution of
Ghosts I–IV has been described by many critics as a distribution method for other bands to follow, although some questioned the success of its technical implementation.
The album was created over a 10-week period and contributors included
Atticus Ross,
Alan Moulder,
Alessandro Cortini,
Adrian Belew, and
Brian Viglione. Reznor has described the 36-track collection as a "soundtrack for daydreams" that's "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. On the Nine Inch Nails website, Reznor stated that an "exciting partnership and experience regarding this release" was to be announced soon. This partnership turned out to be a film festival style fan-video project sponsored by
YouTube. Reznor has also stated that "more volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future."
The Slip
In early April 2008, Nine Inch Nails posted several photos on
Flickr showing the band, including
Josh Freese and
Robin Finck, in a recording studio. An
April 21,
2008 post on the band's website read "2 weeks!", echoing a similar message posted
February 16,
2008 that ultimately resulted in the release of
Ghosts I-IV, prompting news outlets to speculate that a follow-up to
Year Zero would be announced on
May 5,
2008. American radio stations began playing a new single containing Reznor's vocals and entitled "
Discipline" on
April 22,
2008; it was mastered by Alan Moulder less than 24 hours prior to this. via NIN's website, for free download along with the multitrack files for remixing. Contained within the metadata for the MP3 download of Discipline is the message "Go to www.nin.com May 5". On May 2, a new song titled "
Echoplex" was released through the band's
iLike profile on
Facebook with the same message as the one included in "Discipline" in the song notes.
On
May 5,
2008, Nine Inch Nails released
The Slip on its website. It is currently free to download all 10 tracks including artwork and credits in multiple formats, including
FLAC,
Apple Lossless, and 24-bit/96kHz
WAVE. Physical copies in vinyl and CD format will be available for purchase in July.
The Slip is licensed under a
Creative Commons attribution Non-commercial
Share-alike license.
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.
Musical characteristics
All Music Guide'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." 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.
Touring members
Trent Reznor is the sole official member of Nine Inch Nails. Reznor has typically formed a backing group of musicians to perform the songs live. The live band rearranges the songs, creating a different sound than that of the group's studio recordings. Band members have occasionally been invited to participate in the recording process, though creative control within the studio lies exclusively with Reznor. The lineup of the live band has tended to change drastically between major tours: aside from Reznor remaining on lead vocals and guitar, nothing about 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. The 2008 incarnation of the live band will feature Reznor with
Alessandro Cortini,
Robin Finck,
Josh Freese, and
Rich Fownes.
Corporate entanglements
Trent Renzor 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. 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 didn't 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's to me."
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 source that broke the story was quoted as saying "These fucking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on." 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'd release the next NIN album online in a similar fashion to
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, which he produced.
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're sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they're suing [othermedia 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 challenges, the remix website was launched on
November 27,
2007.
Discography
Nine Inch Nails has produced eight major studio releases:
In addition, four
remix albums have been released:
1992: Fixed
1995: Further Down the Spiral
2000: Things Falling Apart
2007: Year Zero Remixed
Nine Inch Nails has also released numerous singles with extensive B-sides, and tour documentaries. Most of these are labeled with Halo numbers, a sequential numbering system that has been applied to most official NIN releases.
Awards
RIAA certifications
These statistics were compiled from the RIAA certification online database.
Pretty Hate Machine (Triple platinum — May 2003)
Broken (Platinum — December 1992)
The Downward Spiral (Quadruple platinum — October 1998)
Further Down the Spiral (Gold — June 1996)
The Fragile (Double platinum — January 2000)
With Teeth (Gold — July 2005)
Grammy Awards and nominations
Nine Inch Nails has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and has won twice. Winning nominations are listed below in bold.
"Wish" — Best Metal Performance, 1993
The Downward Spiral — Best Alternative Music Performance, 1994 (nomination)
"Happiness in Slavery" — Best Metal Performance, 1995 (from Woodstock '94 compilation)
"Every Day Is Exactly the Same" — Best Hard Rock Performance, 2006 (nomination)Further Information
Get more info on 'Nine Inch Nails'.
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