AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Nine Inch Nails

Artist:Nine Inch Nails

Song:Closer

Album:The Downward Spiral

Nine Inch Nails (NIN) took the industrial rock sound of Joy Division and New Order mainstream in the 90s. They are mainly an album and touring band but some singles like Closer charted. Closer is probably their signature song. Trent Reznor is the leader of Nine Inch Nails. He does everything himself in the studio and hires musicians for tours. Reznor was living in Cleveland in 1987 and playing keyboards for the synth pop band The Exotic Birds. He also worked as an assistant engineer at a recording studio. He was allowed to use the studio to record demos between bookings. When he couldn't find musicians to play his songs, Reznor played all the instruments himself. He released a single that got him a record deal with TVT Records. He released the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine. Reznor chose the band name Nine Inch Nails because it is easy to abbreviate. I think what really helped NIN even in their early days is all of their videos went into heavy rotation on MTV. They toured and Reznor started smashing his equipment while on stage. TVT wanted a follow up album but they wanted it to be more commercial. His response was he wanted his contract terminated. Reznor's plan was to release his music under a different name on his own label Nothing Records. Interscope's Jimmy Iovine intervened and acquired Reznor's contract from TVT. Reznor was unhappy at first but Iovine said he would leave him alone. The 1992 single Broken was released and NIN won a Grammy for Best Metal Pweformance for the Single Wish. The EP had a harder sound influenced by their live performances. The 1994 album The Downward Spiral is NIN's biggest seller. The album reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 200 and it was certified 4XPlatinnum. The single Closer reached #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Again, I credit a lot of the success to MTV. NIN would not release another album until Fragile in 1999. The album did OK but I think the delay hurt it. And then he released the next album in 2005. Then he got into a dispute with Interscope over the release of the 2007 album Year Zero. Normally I would recommend a NIN comp. But there isn't one meaning Reznor won't allow it. The Downward Spiral is available on CD. Nine Inch Nails still releases music on their own label. Of course they aren't as successful as they were in the 90s. But who is? They had a pretty good mostly thanks to MTV. Here's the video for Closer by Nine Inch Nails. This is the uncensored version and is NSFW. The video is on Vevo but is age restricted so I can't post it on the blog. Fortunately, it is on Vimeo.  

Nine Inch Nails: Closer (Uncensored) (1994) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.