Nine Inch Nails: Difference between revisions

The music is surprisingly varied, from ear-destroying screaming guitar-death on ''Broken'' to beautiful, mellow piano pieces on ''Still''; but most of it falls squarely under [[True Art Is Angsty]].

 

 

In the past couple of years, though, Reznor has taken a break from new Nine Inch Nails work and instead focuses on a project with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, called [[How To Destroy Angels]], as well as on film soundtracks. Along with Atticus Ross, Reznor has composed the score for ''[[The Social Network]]'', for which the duo won an [[Academy Award|Oscar]] for Best Original Music Score, and 2011's ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]''. ([[He Also Did|Reznor also provided the soundtrack]] to ''[[Quake (Video Game)|Quake]]'' and recorded tracks for ''Doom 3'' that didn't make it into the final game (although they can still be found in the game files)). That said, he has revealed in interviews that he will spend much of 2012 writing material for Nine Inch Nails, so the project should return in some form in the near future.

* [[Bowdlerise]]: In the music video and radio edit versions, "Starfuckers, Inc." became "Star''suckers'', Inc."

* [[Call Back]]: "In This Twilight" calls back to "Survivalism:" "...the world we set on fire..."

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: "Survivalism", "We're in This Together".

* [[Fading Into the Next Song]]: Used frequently, especially on ''The Downward Spiral'' and ''The Fragile''.

* [[Fan Disservice]]: "Closer", "Happiness in Slavery".

* [[Gorn]]: The ''Broken movie''. Textbook Gorn. Also "Happiness in Slavery," to '''extremes'''.

* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: "Deep".

* [[Mind Screw]]: "The Perfect Drug", "Help Me I am in Hell".

* [[The Oner]]: "March of the Pigs".

=== Tropes that generally apply to NIN: ===

 

* [[Addiction Displacement]]: After finally getting clean of drugs and alcohol, Reznor became a weight-lifting enthusiast.

* [[Alone in A Crowd]]: "All the Love in the World."

* [[Canon Dis Continuity]]: Any release without a Halo number. Most of these were forced by the record company. Reznor is very open about how he feels about that.

* [[Careful With That Axe]] + [[Metal Scream]]: One must admit Trent's got a great voice for [[Industrial Metal]].

** ''Especially'' live.

* [[Concept Album]]: ''The Downward Spiral'', ''Year Zero''.

** This friendship spanned earlier than that; they became friends as teenagers, owing to the fact that they grew up within fifty miles (90 km) of one another (Vrenna is originally from Erie, Pennsylvania; Reznor is from a town called Mercer, about forty minutes south).

** Lately, he seems to be developing this type of relationship with Atticus Ross.

* [[Important Haircut]]: Trent cut his trademark long, messy hair sometime after getting over his addiction problems and recording ''With Teeth''. He's had a buzz cut ever since.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: This gem from "The Only Time": ''My moral standing is lying down'' (geddit?).

* [[Intentionally Awkward Title]]: Despite various apocryphal origin stories, Trent's basic story on how he came to "Nine Inch Nails" as the band name is simple: it sounded cool and abbreviated easily.

* [[Intercourse With You]]: So many of their songs.

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: "Everyday is Exactly the Same" is one of NIN's softer and, quite frankly, more "mainstream" songs. It's also one of the most [[Tear Jerker|depressing]].

* [[Madness Mantra]]: "Echoplex".

** Song-to-song transition example: on ''The Downward Spiral'', the noisy and hyper-aggressive "Big Man with a Gun" is followed by the calm ambient soundscapes of "A Warm Place," which is then followed by the slow-burning aggression of "Eraser."

** Which is ''then'' followed by the pulsing, ripping sound of "Reptile."

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: The character in ''[[Concept Album|The Downward Spiral]]'', to the point of [[God Is Dead|actually quoting him]]. Trent himself had moments like these in earlier interviews.

* [[Obligatory Bondage Song]]: Subverted by "Happiness In Slavery".

* [[Pop Star Composer]]

* [[Product Placement]]: Could easily be a coincidence, but in [[Millennium Trilogy|a film that Reznor worked on the soundtrack for]] a character is seen wearing a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt.

** Also, "Starfuckers Inc." itself counts as one (possibly also at [[Courtney Love]], though it's also said to be directed at [[Limp Bizkit|Fred Durst]] and [[Marilyn Manson]] as well- [[Take That|it even imitates Manson's apparent habit of having to record vocals in MANY takes...]] Funnily enough, he later [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|joined Reznor on stage to perform it]].)

** Those songs only really count as this outside the context of the albums they're part of (with the exception of You Know What You Are?", which does not come from a concept album). Within the context of the albums to which they belong, they mostly just reinforce said concept and are (or seem) much less directed at any one person...

* [[Recycled Trailer Music]]: Quite a few action movies use NIN songs in their trailers nowadays.

* [[Religion Rant Song]]: "Heresy" and "Ruiner" from ''The Downward Spiral'', "Terrible Lie" from ''Broken'', and judging by [[Word of God]], "Capital G" from ''Year Zero'' as well.

** An expansive list can be found [http://www.ninwiki.com/Samples_In_NIN_Songs here]. The most unusual samples on the list include Saddam Hussein's trial verdict and a ''[[YouTube]] video of [[Bio Shock]] cosplay.''

* [[Self Backing Vocalist]]: Virtually all of the background vocals on Trent's songs are...well, Trent. The only songs with audibly non-Trent contributions from the band's entire career are "La Mer" (which is instrumental apart from Denise Milfrot's French mumbling) and "Pilgrimage" (which is instrumental with indistinct militaristic chanting in the background).

* [[Take That]]: Quite a few.

** The "eat your heart out, Steve" whisper at the start of "Physical" is directed at Steve Gottlieb, the head of TVT Records who tried to interfere with the recording of ''Broken'' and prevent Trent from moving to Interscope.

* [[Testosterone Poisoning]]: "Big Man With a Gun".

* [[Textless Album Cover]]: ''The Fragile'' (only a portion of the NIN logo is visible), ''Year Zero'', and ''The Slip''.

* [[The Plan]]: The entire game leading up to the release (and beyond) of ''Year Zero''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_timeline_of_the_Year_Zero_alternate_reality_game It's complicated].

* [[Title Track]]: ''The Downward Spiral'' and ''With Teeth'' are straight examples. ''Ghosts I-IV'' takes this trope to its [[Logical Extreme]]: ''every single song on that album'' (yes, all [[Ending Fatigue|36]] of them) are titled with their track number, the word "Ghost" and either I, II, III, or IV.

* [[Uncommon Time]]: The verses of "March of the Pigs" are three bars of 7/8 followed by one bar of 8/8. Similarly, most of "The Becoming" takes the form of a bar of 7/4 followed by a bar of 6/4.