Electronic Music Innovations (NIN)

The band Nine Inch Nails, one of my favorite bands, isn’t really a band at all. It is the Artist name front for musical mastermind Trent Reznor. Reznor is the quintessential one man band, his method is quite unique and very much rooted in industrial with a mix of rock. Much of his music is electronic and from time to time will feature electric guitars, pulling it from strictly industrial into the world of alternative rock. The tone and demeanor of the bands music is Dark and gritty but still paints a picture of beauty and serenity. The vocals of Reznor and almost pop arrangement helped launch this dark and heavy music into the mainstream at a time when no other had the same sound. NIN is a trend setting group which spawned an entire genre of rock throughout the 90’s and beyond.

Trent began his career, as we know it, with the critically acclaimed Pretty Hate Machine. Released on TVT records, the albums first single “Down in it” was industrial and electronic sounding and spent some time on dance and rock charts. After this the next single was “Head like a Hole” which was a huge success with the rock crowd due to its more hard rock style production. The album Pretty Hate Machine went on to sell over one million copies.

TVT tried to take more control over NIN’s next album to come from the label, which did not sit to well with Trent. A legal battle ensued and he left the label joining interscope records which helped him start his own label Nothing imprint. The next NIN album was Downward Spiral which became hugely successful and launched Trent into superstar status. Since then he has had multiple hits and successful Albums. He has scored a handful of movies and recently won an Oscar for the score for The Social Network.

His impact was large influencing bands to infuse heavy electronic and industrial sounds into their music. His use of big dark heavy synths shaped the bands sound. My impression when hearing NIN’s music is firstly Awe at the wall of sound coming at me, the use of noises never used in music before, grittiness and raw feeling of the music. To me NIN will forever remain an influence to many and will be one of the deserving bands remember from our era.