The Genius of Trent Reznor

I'm here to talk to you today about someone who I feel has gotten a bad rap. When I talk to my friends about Nine Inch Nails, I tend to find myself just talking about Trent Reznor, to which I almost inevitably get the response "Who's that?"
In this information age, it's easier for me to be lazy and repost the most current wikipedia snippet about Reznor instead of just explaining his career to you, the reader.

Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Founder of the industrial rock musical project known as Nine Inch Nails, he was previously associated with the bands Option 30, Exotic Birds, and Tapeworm, among others. Reznor left Interscope Records in 2007, and is now an independent musician.

Reznor has often been cited as one of the most influential figures in music, and is often credited with bringing industrial music to the attention of the mainstream media, which thankfully never latched on like they did with most other types of music they find.

All I can say at this point is poor Trent Reznor. For all of his genius (which I'll get to in just a bit, don't worry) he is constantly associated with Hot Topic kids, spending their parent's money on t-shirts and black eye liner while pacing the halls of your local mall spreading their teenage angst as far as the eye can see.

Hopefully this stigma will evaporate once Reznor really comes into his own as a renegade musician, who has thrown off the chains of dependancy and can really serve as a model for independent musicians everywhere.

Anyways, I'm sick of talking in generalities about Reznor, and it's time to get to the nitty-gritty specifics of his genius. As far as I can see, there are two main reasons for really following and admiring Reznor; his musical genius, and the way he has broken from the music industry to provide a model for how a musician can survive in a radically different, post-industry business.

1.Musical Genius
I realized the genius of Nine Inch Nails back when I was in high-school. This was around the time when music had become boring, and flat. I gave up on radio and stopped buying CD's. Then Nine Inch Nails came out with Year Zero and the whole game changed. Just try listening to tracks like "Great Destroyer" and tell me that this isn't amazing. This song is actually revolutionary for one important reason, it accurately and effectively brought electronic music aesthetics to a relatively mainstream audience . I say relatively mainstream because this is a post 90's NIN, one that has to manage the burden of the stigma that has been placed upon it by Hot Topic and associates. This song, namely the second half of this song, introduces electronic music as a medium for understanding music as sound in time and not any combination of melody, harmony, or rhythm. Granted, these elements of modern music do appear in the song, but the most important part of the song are its sounds not its melody.

Another great way to describe this is with a more recent Reznor release. Trent Reznor recently scored the music for the new movie The Social Network and this article by Pitchfork has a streaming example of why Trent Reznor should be considered a musical genius.

For the movie, Reznor covered the famed classical piece "In The Halls of the Mountain King," a piece that almost everyone has heard. Up until this point, I had never really listened to the piece, however, Reznor's industrial-electronic aesthetic really brings the piece alive for me. The ways that the classical atmosphere of the piece "degrades" (or transcends depending on your position, I guess) into a bit-reduced, frantically panning, filtered masterpiece really changed my life and the way I view music. This is also one of the asthetic elements that really gets me excited for the new Tron movie, but I'll talk about that later on in the year. Anyways, I encourage everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, to check out this song, and the article that goes along with it.

In The Halls of the Mountain King


2.Model for a Post-music-industry World
My realization of Trent Reznor's brilliance in terms of the music business began around the same time as Year Zero came out. First of all, the promotion for Year Zero was my first introduction into the realm of viral marketing. Reznor concocted all of these websites that fit into the concept album's story line, and would leave USB drives with info pertaining to the album in various venues he played. That being said, his marketing plan for the album was amazing, but he really began to shine after October of 2007, when Reznor broke with Interscope Records and entered the realm of independent music. The next couple of NIN releases, Ghosts I-IV and The Slip were both released on the internet. As far as I can remember, they came out for free (or pay as you like) and were available for download online. Next came Reznor's new side project which I've just started listening to. It's called How To Destroy Angels, and is a collaboration between Trent Reznor and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig. The EP they released, which is self titled, is pretty good, and is available for download on their website for free.

The route Reznor has taken, both musically and professionally, prove that once you have enough people watching, you don't need the industry to back you. And with the advent of the internet, I start to wonder if the industry is even necessary at all. If all music could be self-produced, managed, and distributed via the internet, then what's the point of giant record labels?