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The genius that is Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails
26 May 2007, 01:02
Year Zero.
A frightening concept, borne of Orwell's "1984", Huxley's "Brave New World", Gibson's cyberpunk and Bush's USA. A USA where, despite constitutional strictures, church and state have melded into an unholy conglomerate, controlling the poulation through drugs added to the water, internal security forces, g*d fearing military units and government agencies such as the Board of Morality.
Reznor's dark vision of a future America where the lunatic religious right have moved beyond merely buying politicians and lobbying as it does now, but has actually taken the reins of power is, to an observer outsdie the USA, not far from the current truth, but at the right distance to strike a chord of fear because it could become so.
The industrial thump, the distortions and the angst laden, tortured vocals of NiN are all still there, but Year Zero is more melodic than previous NiN offerings. The intellectual acuity, social obseervations and the sheer cleverness are omnipresent, and the presentation of the music on a concept album strengthens the messages.
I would buy the cd for the music. I'm not a particualr fan of industrial, but as is invariably the case, the best of any genre is rewarding. Reznor is the industrial master. Nihilism never sounded so good as when Reznor gets behind the desk.
What makes Reznor a genius is not the music, but the packaging and communication. Tied into the album is an online ARG (Alternative Reality Game). A series of websites expanding and expounding the themes of the music that one follows by gathering and solving clues and puzzles. Some have been found on mp3 players "left" in bathrooms at concerts, others are revealed by stripping back the code on a webpage, running an image through a spectrometer or filtering the noise out of hiss.
Music used to make a difference. Music used to be able to change the way we thought, from the heyday of the emergence of pop, to it's manifestation as a voice of social change and protest in the late 60s, to the appeals of the 80s. In the 90s through to the present only the sub-genres managed to do this. Pop is cynical product, driven by companies that rely on blockbusters that no longer can exist in todays mp3, P2P file sharing, MySpace, YouTube driven culture. Music exists on the internet, on hard disks dumped wholesale on to a friend's mp3 player. The product is dead in the water as 1's and 0's disgorge themselves out of our broadband pipelines and into the aural receptors of the consumer.
Reznor's music has meaning. It has a message. It is a true communication media where the nature of the music reinforces the message rather than merely appears as a passive carrier. Year Zero, as a complete project, is complete genius. George Bush and his fundamentalist christian flunkies who not only pervert the USA, but then spread that perversion at the end of a gun will never hear nor understand.
My way of thinking is that, unless you want to live in fear of the "new christian right", unless you want to live in a world like bible belt USA, but more so, unless you want to live in a world of censorship, betrayal, perversion and complete lack of civil liberties, you want to buy this album.
Even without all of the other reasons for getting it, the album is worth it for the music, and that is a part of what it is all about. Music for the head? You bet!
Nine Inch NailsYear ZeroTrent Reznorindustrialmetal[event=]Year Zero[/event]Year ZeroYear Zero ARG
A frightening concept, borne of Orwell's "1984", Huxley's "Brave New World", Gibson's cyberpunk and Bush's USA. A USA where, despite constitutional strictures, church and state have melded into an unholy conglomerate, controlling the poulation through drugs added to the water, internal security forces, g*d fearing military units and government agencies such as the Board of Morality.
Reznor's dark vision of a future America where the lunatic religious right have moved beyond merely buying politicians and lobbying as it does now, but has actually taken the reins of power is, to an observer outsdie the USA, not far from the current truth, but at the right distance to strike a chord of fear because it could become so.
The industrial thump, the distortions and the angst laden, tortured vocals of NiN are all still there, but Year Zero is more melodic than previous NiN offerings. The intellectual acuity, social obseervations and the sheer cleverness are omnipresent, and the presentation of the music on a concept album strengthens the messages.
I would buy the cd for the music. I'm not a particualr fan of industrial, but as is invariably the case, the best of any genre is rewarding. Reznor is the industrial master. Nihilism never sounded so good as when Reznor gets behind the desk.
What makes Reznor a genius is not the music, but the packaging and communication. Tied into the album is an online ARG (Alternative Reality Game). A series of websites expanding and expounding the themes of the music that one follows by gathering and solving clues and puzzles. Some have been found on mp3 players "left" in bathrooms at concerts, others are revealed by stripping back the code on a webpage, running an image through a spectrometer or filtering the noise out of hiss.
Music used to make a difference. Music used to be able to change the way we thought, from the heyday of the emergence of pop, to it's manifestation as a voice of social change and protest in the late 60s, to the appeals of the 80s. In the 90s through to the present only the sub-genres managed to do this. Pop is cynical product, driven by companies that rely on blockbusters that no longer can exist in todays mp3, P2P file sharing, MySpace, YouTube driven culture. Music exists on the internet, on hard disks dumped wholesale on to a friend's mp3 player. The product is dead in the water as 1's and 0's disgorge themselves out of our broadband pipelines and into the aural receptors of the consumer.
Reznor's music has meaning. It has a message. It is a true communication media where the nature of the music reinforces the message rather than merely appears as a passive carrier. Year Zero, as a complete project, is complete genius. George Bush and his fundamentalist christian flunkies who not only pervert the USA, but then spread that perversion at the end of a gun will never hear nor understand.
My way of thinking is that, unless you want to live in fear of the "new christian right", unless you want to live in a world like bible belt USA, but more so, unless you want to live in a world of censorship, betrayal, perversion and complete lack of civil liberties, you want to buy this album.
Even without all of the other reasons for getting it, the album is worth it for the music, and that is a part of what it is all about. Music for the head? You bet!
Nine Inch NailsYear ZeroTrent Reznorindustrialmetal[event=]Year Zero[/event]Year ZeroYear Zero ARG
Accepted Submissions
Music for the headComments
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AppleKabukiSuri wrote:
Reznor is the industrial master
I could not more strongly disagree -
gwynfor wrote:
On what basis? Along with Ministry and Black Flag he just about defined the genre beyond the depths of the sub-culture. He avoided being a peon of the major labels. I guess that, like many acts that become bigger outside of the small pool of the sub-genre they sprang from (or in Reznor's case, helped create) he is accused of not being true to the genre and of selling out.
As for progressing the genere, with the interactivity of the ARG and the complete media approach, using the fanbase rather than the crude, cynical psycho-social manipulations of a marketing team (don't get me started on street teams, artificially bumped up MySpace hits or jumping in bed with MTV) and coupling it with successful tours in an age where the average music fan now only attends 1.5 gigs a year (based on the figures quoted by industry stalwart, Bob Lefsetz) I would argue that he is an Industrial Rock icon and master still. Others may be more hardcore. Others may be cooler in their little sub-culture. However, others don't have the cache or track record of Reznor. Without Reznor, the others don't have a sub-genre to exist in. -
AppleKabukiSuri wrote:
I'm not a particualr fan of industrial
This may explain why you have no idea what you’re talking about.
(or in Reznor's case, helped create) he is accused of not being true to the genre and of selling out.
Saying NIN helped create Industrial is the same as saying Green Day helped create Punk.
He has never made Industrial music so accusing him of selling out would be ridicules. He simply made alternative rock with a strong new wave influence and was mislabelled Industrial by the media.
However, others don't have the cache or track record of Reznor. Without Reznor, the others don't have a sub-genre to exist in.
Okay lets look at the members of Throbbing Gristle (you know that band that invented Industrial and broke up all before Trent Reznor was out of high school {who clearly had Reznor to thank for having a sub-genre to exist in})
- Genesis P-Orridge went on to form Psychic TV and invent acid house and produce countless great albums.
- Peter Christopherson after a short while in PTV formed Coil and produced brilliant music up until Jhonn Balance’s untimely passing a couple of years back
- Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter went on to form Chris and Cosey, a highly innovative group which was one of the first to explore the possibilities of electro-acoustic music.
TG reformed recently and put out possibly the album of the year on April Fools day this year.
Or how about Nurse With Wound who have been continuously putting out quality albums since 1979?
Or how about Death In June who from the depths of the industrial scene (which of course didn’t exist because Reznor hadn’t yet formed NIN) created the Neo-Folk Industrial sub-genre?
Or what about Boyd Rice who started creating noise recordings as early as 1975 and embraced turntablism techniques years before any dance music or hip hop artists.
I could go on and on.
The fact that none of these artists I’ve mentioned have the public profile of Reznor means absolutely nothing. Industrial music has always been anti-rock star and Trent is as rock star as they come. Everything the genre is meant to be about either musically or aesthetically Trent fails to represent. Put it simply he has and never has had anything to do with Industrial Music or its sub-culture. He is a product of generation-X period MTV and just another music industry pawn. His music has as much meaning as P!nk or Green Days or any other popular acts who exploit the trendy anti-american atheistic.
