2020 Inductees Nine Inch Nails
Oct 23 2020

Inductee Insights

Nine
Inch
Nails

Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor combined the sounds of the underground while challenging the status quo with a deeply personal ferocity. Every time the mainstream seems to catch up to them, Nine Inch Nails push the bar even further.

Inductee Insights: Nine Inch Nails

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Inductee Insights: Nine Inch Nails

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Inside the Episode

Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor combined the sounds of the underground while challenging the status quo with a deeply personal ferocity. Nine Inch Nails began in Cleveland in the late 1980s as Trent Reznor’s studio project, but grew into a fearsome live act once he took the project on the road. He mixed the sounds of the underground together, merging the production and intensity of Ministry and Skinny Puppy with the visual theatrics of KISS.

Nine Inch Nails saw massive success in 1989 with the song “Head Like a Hole” from their debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. The emotion and rage of Pretty Hate Machine was wrapped in a pop music package, breathing life into an emerging underground generation.

The 1994 breakthrough album The Downward Spiral launched industrial rock into the mainstream, merging intense machine sounds with great pop melodies. Reznor’s genius confronted social norms in religion, government, and sexual taboos, relating them to personal experiences that fans could relate to – something not yet seen from his industrial predecessors. Because of this, the album spawned a top 40 hit with the song, “Closer.”

The Downward Spiral launched industrial rock into the mainstream

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash later covered the song “Hurt,” proving that underneath the studio wizardry of a Nine Inch Nails song was a timeless piece of music with great lyrics at the center.

 

Several months after the release of The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails made history with a mud-splattered performance at Woodstock ’94. This singular performance catapulted the band to the arena level and landed them a slot on David Bowie’s 1995 US Tour. Reznor’s impact ignited Bowie’s 90s renaissance and spawned a remix of the track “I’m Afraid of Americans,”

 

Nine Inch Nails saw continued success through the remainder of the 90s as Reznor experimented with giant, thematic soundscapes on the tracks “The Day the World Went Away” and “We’re in This Together.” The 2000s brought some of the group’s greatest hits, including the intensely introspective “Every Day Is Exactly the Same,” which featured Dave Grohl on drums, and “The Hand that Feeds.”

The Closing

After three decades, Reznor and Nine Inch Nails continue to express creative freedom and innovation, never resting on their success. Reznor has stood firm in his support of independently released and free-to-download music, seen with the 2020 release of the ambient albums Ghosts V and VI. With Atticus Ross, Reznor has produced multiple critically acclaimed soundtracks for television and film, including The Social Network, Gone Girl, and the 2019 series, Watchmen.  

Reznor’s work has inspired artists from David Bowie and Marilyn Manson to Evanescence and Lil Nas X. Every time the mainstream seems to catch up to them, Nine Inch Nails push the bar even further.

This Is Nine Inch Nails