Title: Trent Reznor; The man behind Nine Inch Nails. An overview of Trent Reznor plus information on the background of industrial music. The conlusion sucks, I rushed it a the last minute.

Essay by abera_cadaverHigh School, 11th gradeB, July 2002

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TRENT REZNOR : THE MAN BEHIND NINE INCH NAILS

Trent Reznor (b. 17 May 1965, Mercer, Pennsylvania, USA), is the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and creative force behind Nine Inch Nails.Reznor trained as a classical pianist during his small-town Pennsylvania childhood, but his discovery of rock and early industrial bands, despite his dislike of the " industrial' tag, changed his musical direction completely.

The concept of "industrial music" emerged during the late 1960s and early 1970s with such groups as Throbbing Gristle, Eisturzende Neubauten, Can, and Kraftwerk. These early bands, hardly within the all-consuming "rock and roll" culture, found their inspiration in the "cut-up" techniques of William Burroughs, the musique concrete experiments of Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Gesang der Junglinge," and (of course) John Cage - all of whom rethought the concept of "music" by incorporating into their compositions the industrial noises of cars, airplanes, and other machines; the multi-tracking (cut and paste) effects ; and the eerie sounds of early synthesizers.

This style of music is clearly evident on Reznors early works such as the Broken ep ( Reznors dog barking features on the track ' Physical' and on the album The Downward Spiral .

The original intentions of industrial music was to shock and provoke the audience into listening to the sounds of a culture's excesses, and (perhaps) to provoke thoughts on the role such excesses play in the social control of human beings in mainstream society. Trent Reznors inspiration was influenced onmodern culture and society in general so it made sense to incorporate everyday sounds of modern life into his music. From this Reznors one man band (except during live shows) Nine Inch Nails was born , along with an ever increasing cult following , who often scrutinize every release ,every lyric produced by Trent Reznor.

Following a...