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Leading
man, creator and visionary of successful
group Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor—why
is he the most controversial figure
in all of goth/industrial? More
importantly, who cares? |
A
recent thread that passed through the
DarkSonus Forums has caused me to finally
write this article and hopefully raise
a few points about the "most controversial
man in the gothic-industrial world."
This is only my opinion on the subject—and
I'm quite sure I'll take a lot of shit
for this article. Nonetheless, I feel
that there are some issues that need
to be addressed about Trent and Nine
Inch Nails in general.
Trent
Reznor, who essentially is Nine Inch
Nails, is an amazingly popular musician
who has sold countless albums, built
his own successful record label (Nothing),
and has generally made his impressive
career from very non-mainstream images,
lyrics and music. However, among the
goth-industrial elite Trent Reznor is
almost universally loathed and despised,
considered a "sell-out"; all
of which are a far cry from NIN's humble
beginnings in the early 90's when they
were considered one of the few vital
alternative acts in the electronic scene.
The
first strike against Trent, and the
first subject to be discussed, is the
overwhelming (although somewhat waning)
popularity of Nine Inch Nails. Does
popularity take away from an artist's
integrity? Myself, I think not. A musician
cannot control WHO likes their music
anymore than a football team can control
who likes them—however, one can
argue that the manner in which a musian
promotes themselves is indicative of
the type of audience they are seeking
to appeal to. Let's analyze some of
the marketing strategies of NIN:
He
wants to fuck you like an animal
and feel you from the inside....
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First,
NIN was for the first three or four
years of their existence primarly a
"word of mouth" band. Other
than a few small articles here and there,
NIN went unnoticed by the musical mainstream
until his second album "The Downward
Spiral" was released to the broad
acclaim of music critics everywhere.
Before that point, Nine Inch Nails primary
form of advertisement was the strength
of their live shows—such as when
they "stole" the first Lollapalooza
from many long-established, more popular
acts. When "grunge rock" hit
the scenes, did Trent eschew his synths
and pick up a Fender Mustang dropped
down to D tuning? No, he recorded "Broken"
and "The Downward Spiral"
instead. Did NIN recieve a lot of Mtv
exposure in those early years? I don't
remember seeing a single video myself
personally, although I know that they
exist ("Down In It" video).
Trent didn't become a major player on
Mtv until LONG after he was an established
star without Mtv. As I see it,
Mtv catered to him... not the other
way around; in fact, most of his videos
were unreleasable for Mtv's standards
and were never shown, or if they were
they were edited to an extreme amount.
Secondly,
NIN is often considered to not be "true"
industrial. The funny thing here is
that I can never remember Trent calling
himself industrial—much less the
"god of industrial" music
that so many of his fans have made him
out to be. Herein lies the problem for
Mr. Reznor, his fans are largely his
biggest enemy of gaining any widespread
acceptance in the gothic-industrial
genre. But then again, why should he
give a damn about a genre that he doesn't
purport himself to be a part of?
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God
money I'll do anything for you....
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It
doesn't seem that the problem is with
Trent and Nine Inch Nails regarding
the phenomenon of NIN being classified
as "industrial music." It
appears that the people who have the
problem are those that have classified
THEMSEVES as performing "industrial
music" or "gothic music"
that have a huge issue with NIN being
considered goth-industrial. I suppose
that having a well-known and mainstream
act 'robs' the industrial tag from some
of its underground credibility and certainly
disrupts the weird-out factor for bugging
your neighbors, teachers and co-workers.
However, this begs the question of what
kind of loser gives a shit about that
anyway? I mean, seriously—if your
music tastes are dictated by the want
to annoy people, "frighten"
people or otherwise be a nuisance you
have serious, serious problems with
your own self-identity. I thought the
idea was to like the music you thought
was good, by whatever standard that
you qualify "good music" as?
Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems so
fashionable to like or dislike
something based on its popularity or
lack of popularity, or to like or dislike
something because of a music media invented
tag like "industrial music."
And
here I thought, all these years, that
people that dug underground music liked
it because it was intellectually provocative
and opposed the herd mentality. Looks
like I was wrong on that count.
He
was up above it, but now he just
digs it.
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Another
allegation, even verified by Trent Reznor
himself, is that he copies other noteworthy
gothic and industrial bands, most notably
Skinny Puppy's "Dig It" song
and video. Strangely enough, Trent doesn't
deny that he stole a large amount of
material from Skinny Puppy—including
elements of his image and style. Generally,
I have gotten the impression that Trent
Reznor was influenced by a lot of the
music he heard in the clubs in Cleveland
and managed to borrow elements of the
gothic scene and wed them to components
of industrial music. Whether or not
he did this unknowingly or consciously
probably doesn't matter in the grand
scheme of things. NIN is what it is...
like it or hate it. Last time I checked
there wasn't a single musician that
didn't exhibit some form of twisted
influence that could be construed as
plagarism if you dug deep enough.
And
truth be told, to my standards—and
I don't even really care for NIN—I
think that Trent makes the music he
wants to without any artistic compromise.
I may not like it myself much, but I
think he has at least that level of
integrity. I mean, would a sell-out
actually record half of the non-commercial
stuff on "The Fragile?" In
some ways, Nine Inch Nails has served
as a good "gateway drug" to
introduce people to bands like Skinny
Puppy, Funker Vogt, Cabaret Voltaire,
Saint Etienne and a whole host of other,
lesser known acts that deserve more
attention.
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This,
my friend, is what a sold-out,
mainstream artist looks like.
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Sometimes
I wonder what's worse: NIN fans that
won't shut up about Trent Reznor -OR-
people that won't shut up about how
much they hate him. I mean, quit obsessing
about him! It doesn't make you "more
elite" or "more different"
to dislike NIN or consider Trent Reznor
a poser. Instead, tell me about the
bands that you DO like; maybe I haven't
heard of them and would like them to.
Or better yet—make your own music
and quit obsessing about Nine Inch Nails'
popularity. At the very least, be original
and start bad mouthing more obscure
bands (to show how uber-elite you are)
like Das Ich, Clock DVA or Sutcliffe
Jugend. Trust me, it is a lot more interesting
than discussing the merits or flaws
of Trent Reznor's music career.
In
general, it's my opinion that Trent
Reznor's PERCEPTION, largely
fostered by his more vocal fans and
the hype-crazed, money hungry music
media, paints him to be much more than
he bandies himself. Do I consider NIN
industrial or gothic? No more so than
he himself considers Nine Inch Nails
to be industrial or gothic. And what
is "industrial" or "gothic"
music precisely anyway? Is it yet another
tag created by the music media in which
to sell albums, make news headlines
about the corruption of our youth and
the dissolution of our society? Do we
really have to buy into these labels?
Are you going to let simple arithmatic
determine who you are going to like
or dislike, and is there a formula that
I can borrow to determine when I should
start disliking Front 242 or Skinny
Puppy because they've "sold too
many albums" or that "2.5%
of their audience are now obnoxious
fratboys that listen to Dave Matthews?"
If anyone has these things, I'd be interested,
because I'M DIFFERENT GODDAMNIT,
I LISTEN TO WHAT LESS THAN 0.52% OF
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC LISTENS TO!
Being
an individual should never be that complex.
-James Meeker
