Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor is the single mind behind the band Nine Inch Nails, and I hold him in the highest regard. He has singlehandedly created some of the most incredible pieces of musical work that I've ever heard. He coudl have been a concert pianist, and it shows in some of his songs, where beautiful piano melodies contrast with background grunge guitar and countless other instruments and sounds coming together. He could have been a great composer, but instead decided to do this. I am glad he did. I first heard Nine Inch Nails back in 8th Grade. Chris Faurot brought The Downward Spiral CD to school, and we listened to it in the band room at school, which has a CD player, repeating track 5 over and over (those of you who have the CD know what I'm talking about). My attention was caught by the CD, and upon reading Trent Reznor's bigraphy later, I noticed one line he said about the song Closer, which we had listened to so many times, that made sense of why I bothered to listen to the rest fo the CD and end up getting it.

"I think Closer is a good song, even though it's been stereotyped as being one of those 'bad influence on children songs.' Right off in the chours, it says the F-Word. It shocks you. Not like 'jump out of a window' shock, but more of a 'hey, pay attention' shock."

So, I guess I payed attention. I really like emotional music, which is one of the main reasons I was attracted to Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor, when writing the songs that he put on the CDs, was afraid that he'd been too open to show this the public. Well, I'm glad he released it, because I really enjoy that CD, and the others I have. I shouldn't really be referring to Nine Inch Nails as a they, that much, because it's really only one person: Trent Reznor. He only has other people with him when he plays concerts.

Anyway, the music also had a really neat sound to it, a kind of daring: "Yeah, I'm here, listen to me if you want, then I'll give you something. If not, okay, get out of here, you bother me." Trent Reznor tried to break out of the Industrial Genre stereotype, and I'd guess he did a pretty good job, because I have never heard any other music that sounded like his. I liked the constant variety of different sounds, the shrieking crescendos of different machines and keyboards, the overlapping and quieter audio tracks that added to his voice as he sang. It was just something different, and I like different.

Despite some of the bands I like, I don't get a kick out of hearing a guy swear in a song. It's kind of funny, kind of pathetic how quickly popular the Limp Bizkit song "Break Stuff" became, which he swears constantly in. The first Nine Inch Nails album that came out: "Pretty Hate Machine," he swore twice. The second big one, "Broken," was over 15 to 20 times. The Downward Spiral had a Parental Advisory on it. His most recent one, "The Fragile," has a Parental Advisory, even though he only swears a few times.

I've been asked why I like Nine Inch Nails. "They guy is obviously messed up." Well, duh. Yeah, he messed up, but by no reason should I not listen to him because of that. I like his music, so I shall listen to it. Just because this guy's odd isn't going to make me shun him, and just because he sings about things that a lot of people don't want to hear shouldn't change my opinion. And it doesn't.