Taken from my daily music dose journal @ BUZZNET.

I’ve been a fan since the early ’90’s when I was in high school, and later ran a NIN fan art based site that allowed me to connect with other devout “NINians”. I could probably write an entire biography on his work, but I’ll leave that to wikipedia and the major NIN fan sites out there. While he may not be in favor of the hardcore Fall Out Boy fangirl, one thing is undeniable: his body of work and aesthetic appeal in musical talent are unmatched. He’s shaped a musical sound since 1989 that has influenced a thousands of bands/artists sound, everyone from the amazing band Muse to AFI to The Birthday Massacre to even the late Johnny Cash.

From 1989’s groundbreaking Pretty Hate Machine to 1994’s controversial and brilliant The Downward Spiral , Trent has tested musical boundaries with major label record companies and has never been one to back down with his artistic integrity. To make this as condensed as possible, nothing like Pretty Hate Machine had been done before. Not with emotionally raw lyrics, that is. The other factor that plays a huge part of influence in Reznor’s work. The honestly of his lyrics, covering everything from heartache to isolation to even suicide and back to hope again in such songs as the well known “Hurt”: And you can have it all/my empire of dirt/I will let you down/I will make you hurt to the lesser known “Even Deeper” (in which Dr. Dre co-produced): I woke up today/to find myself in the other place/with a trail of footprints/from where I ran away.

The versatility of change came in 1992’s Grammy Award winning Broken, which Reznor described himself as “An ultra-fast chunk of death.” And it is; you’ll never quite hear guitars in that manner, that hard on any other album by any other artist. With 1994’s The Downward Spiral, you have a concept album of a man stripping away the elements of his life by breaking them down and nearly himself. With its musical highs and lows, you’re never bored or left with “filler” tracks, and you’ll hear some of the most intricate and gritty sounds to pierce your ear. The critically acclaimed 2-disc set The Fragile is a good, strap-your-headphones-on, 2 hour experience with the likeness to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, combining layered textures of sound with organic instruments such as the mandolin, the oboe, upright pianos, the cello along with electronics. Who else can do that and honestly pull it off?

Following a 5 year hiatus of sobering himself up, Reznor went on to produce 2005’s amazing With Teeth, featuring Dave Grohl on drums and 2007’s visionary, apocalyptic Year Zero. He left Interscope records and independently released a 4-part series of musical landscapes known as Ghosts 1-4 as well as last year’s The Slip. I highly recommend all of these albums. His versatility in his catalogue range from the calm beauty of “La Mer” (from The Fragile) to the hard hitting “March of The Pigs” (from The Downward Spiral) to the dark ambience of “Me, I’m Not” (from Year Zero). His work is just that amazing.

Might I add that if you have not experienced Nine Inch Nails live, it’s just that: an experience. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them 5 times live since I was a junior in high school, and each time was different and equally mind blowing both musically and visually (The first time I saw NIN live was in 1996, when I was 16. He was onstage with David Bowie, and let me just say-that is a memory I’ll never forget).

So the long and short of it? If you’re not familiar with NIN, educate yourself. You’re seriously missing out! This is your time to learn about who some of your favorite bands were taking notes from.

Key Tracks:

(I’m not going to give you all obvious tracks, you can find those out on your own. Rather I’ll give you ones that are quite important that show the versatility of his work-and provide you with some videos too). Honestly? It’s so hard to choose!

“Wish” (from Broken
“The Becoming” (from The Downward Spiral)
“Head Like A Hole” (from Pretty Hate Machine)
“Just Like You Imagined” and/or “La Mer” (from The Fragile)
“The Perfect Drug” (from The Lost Highway Soundtrack)
“Hurt” (from “The Downward Spiral”)
“In This Twilight” (from “Year Zero”)

Video Fun with NIN, kids!

“The Perfect Drug” (directed by the visionary Mark Romanek & inspired by artist Edward Gorey-google him.)

“The Day The World Went Away” (very beautiful song)

“Wish”

“La Mer” (live from the 2000 fragility tour-watch the beautiful giant screens in the background)

Closer (live from the 2000 fragility tour)

“March of The Pigs” (because you love it…you know it)

Tags: buzznet, music, music review, nine inch nails