Just when Will, Lucas and LP 101 make themselves look like complete tits, Dean comes along and emerges as a new contender to their crown. Trent Reznor...not a genius? Come on now Dean. Wrong doesn't even begin to describe it.
I don't really mind if people don't like NIN. An opinion is an opinion, and your opinion on musical tastes isn't going to change my opinion of my taste, nor my opinion of you (maybe). I will go out to say that, although I can act like a NIN Elitist (unintentionally) sometimes, I really hate that attitude. It ran rampant in the Saul Williams forum when NiggyTardust! came out, and sometimes the arguments on echoingthesound make my IQ drop in all the elitist glory. NIN fans are assholes, and that's almost what turned me off to NIN when I started getting into them. The reason why I'm such a big fan of TR is because what he's been doing for his whole musical career is fucking inspiring. As a guy who is a musician/composer (or tries to be), Trent Reznor's body of work, and knowing that he did it all himself, is something to look up to. That and I love how he gives a big 'fistfuck' to record labels.
Oi Daniel count me in! I'm not a NIN fan but I don't hate the band either. The reason I'm not a fan is because I find their sound too distorted and blunt. However, I give props to Trent Reznor for single handedly keeping this band alive and kicking. He deserves respect for this sheer fact.
I like Nine Inch Nails, but I don't agree with all the Trent-Reznor-is-God hub bub that gets posted around here and on other places. Nine Inch Nails has some good stuff, but there's just as much bad -- it's not like Trent can do no wrong (remember With Teeth?). I think some of his hardcore fans agree now, too. When With Teeth came out, everyone had massive hard-ons for it, then a month later people realized it was just average.
Uhm, let me put it bluntly since I was kept up until 5 in the morning from a fire alarm pull in our dorm, and I don't think I can be eloquent. I can't be on team superior musical taste, I listen to ICP. I kid, I kid. I know some albums suck *cough Pretty Hate Machine cough Fixed cough With_Teeth cough Ghosts* but I like what Trent represents in music: change, an alternative route to getting what you want in music, and angst with pretty hair That being said, ETS members make me realize we NIN fans are jackasses, generally.
I thought NIN was okay 3 years ago, now I just don't like it anymore. I guess it was my teen music of that time. I can't give a really good reason, I just don't really like it anymore, it's all distorted and I don't feel it, and no, Trent is not a god nor a genius.
I will admit though, some albums by NIN just suck. With_Teeth, Pretty Hate Machine... yeah. Although W_T is catchy, it just doesn't feel right. Pretty Hate Machine is dated. And... I've never actually been able to sit through The Downward Spiral in one go. YEAH, you read correctly. Deal with it.
Every band has its faults. NIN is no exception (even though a lot of fans will argue they are flawless). I've always had Nine Inch Nails in my collection of music but it wasn't until With_Teeth was about to come out that I really got back into them. Trent has a very creative mind and I think it's hard to debate that he doesn't, which is why when he starts things like the ARG for Year Zero or the USB Leaking of his own album, it's easy to call him a genius. If you take a look at any band, you will find fans that completely overrate the music of the artist they worship. If you went on the LPU back in 2004 and said Meteora sucked, you would get backlash like no other because a lot of Linkin Park fans back then couldn't see any faults with the band. So in a way, every band that's hit it big could be considered overrated because there is a portion of their fanbase that would consider them flawless when it's not true about any band.
I think the fact that Trent Reznor IS Nine Inch Nails explains a lot of the "genius" comments thrown about. I mean, I can think of three musicians I would call geniuses, and those are Daniel Gildenlow of Pain of Salvation, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. And that is because they are all really the central members of the band to an amazingly high degree. They are all lyricists, multi-intrumentalists, composers, etc. I think that is part of what inspire NIN fans to praise Trent...because they know he deserves almost all the credit. As for why NIN are popular in the first place...I would say it is probably because of the fact that they have come to be THE band of the industrial genre. As Linkin Park were to Nu Metal or My Chemical Romance were to Emo, NIN are to Industrial. They introduce people to a sound they haven't heard before, so they appear even more original and talented then they really are. Combined with how NIN are talented and such in their own right, I believe it is easy to see how they can be inflated to God-like proportions. Also, Trent takes a step beyond the music with things like the ARG. If you look at AFI, another band who did an ARG, they also have one of the most loyal fan bases around. Trent also mimics the "fuck you" a lot of fans feel to the RIAA, which helps them agree with him on personal issues too. Also, he makes his views on things like religion clear, which can also make people who agree with his opinions see him as a genius.
Trent Reznor isn't a musical genius. He's a marketing genius. He knows how to suck his hardcore fans into something (6 year wait from The Fragile to With Teeth, the ARG for Year Zero, releasing 1 album out of a combined 4 for free, etc). I'll be the first to admit alot of things with Nine Inch Nails are flawed. For one, the early music of NIN... not so great, but it did come from a angsty young adult that was influenced by the forefathers of industrial: Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Coil, Einstuerzende Neubauten, etc. Combine that with his angsty (and i'll admit, cliche) songwriting, and you have something either everyone is going to love, or everyone is going to hate. Honestly, I don't know how many people have heard it, but the demo album for Pretty Hate Machine ("Purest Feeling") was alot more likable to me than the final product. It was slightly depressing, but with an upbeat feel to it. Two totally different records. I know alot of musicians have done what he's done. Radiohead was one of the first big bands in recent memory to offer a studio album for free on the internet (keep in mind, i'm talking a relevant mainstream band). NIN had the idea before that (see: Williams, Saul), but took it for their own album(s) and perfected it in such a way that many people are calling it the future of music distribution. I'm sorry, but you don't see people saying things like that about fuckin' Van Halen or whatever else people on these boards conisder geniuses. They might be able to write a good song and some good riffs, but can they market the music to the masses like Reznor has done with an INSTRUMENTAL album? And make as much as he did in a few days? If your answer is "yes", then you'd be wrong. I sound like such a Nine Inch Nails fanboy, but let me repeat this: Trent Reznor isn't a musical genius. He's a marketing genius.
As far as I'm concerned, he's the only artist doing anything original for years now. There's bands like Linkin Park, Dream Theater, etc, who, in my opinion, are almost perfect in the genres they play, but in the end, they aren't original. Trent is. And that's his genius.
McDonalds should employ Trent, with his marketing genius and all. Trent Reznor says "Big Mac, Please"
Aye. That's true. Although maybe my post was a sign. A sign that I'm not who I say I am. I sign that I am actually Trent Reznor himself.