![]() The challenge with The Downward Spiral was the risk of Reznor giving too much of himself away and being exposed through his lyrics. ![]() ![]() And I don’t know if I want people in my head that much, but I’ve chosen to give that out because I realized that’s what made the strongest statement, that was the most honest art I could make.” Reznor said to Details magazine in 1995: “Every day I’m saying the most personal thing I could ever say. Cobain sang from the perspective of his emotionally and financially deprived background Billy Corgan and Jonathan Davies sang about childhood abuse and bullying, all producing directly ‘issue’-driven songs that were transgressive in bringing harsh realities to light.īut The Downward Spiral went much further into the abyss than many of NIN’s contemporaries who used anger solely as an undercurrent of energy, whereas Spiral exposes and expresses the experience and repercussions of emotional pain and negativity, through its fundamental concern of remaining human in an often cruel and chaotic world, and the consequences of losing this empathy for others. NIN along with groups such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Korn openly expressed dissent at being sidelined out of mainstream American life and its uniform system of values. Fans responded to the power of expression and Reznor’s lyrics confessional edge. Reznor referred to “nakedness of emotion” as an important arbiter of honesty in his work. The act of trying to rid yourself of these demons, to prepare yourself for the worst, is a positive thing.” While this process can be disturbing and destructive it also offers perspective, Reznor said: “I think the very act of wanting to discover and uncover unpleasant things is itself positive. Reznor presented the therapeutic aspect of his music as a form of rough dredging towards a confrontation with the self, music that both listens and reflects, forcing up repressed emotional difficulties. It was good knowing that someone else was feeling the same way I did.” Reznor would carry this nostalgic appreciation for difficult and challenging music for difficult and challenging times into The Downward Spiral, he told Hot Metal in 1994: “The idea was to try and make something that was a bleak chunk of work that, for the right mood, might be the perfect thing.” THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL – DEPRESSION, ADDICTION, SUICIDE Reznor perhaps voiced this best when looking back on his own teenage years and how music gave him its own form of optimism through belonging, telling Live Wire in 1995: “When I was feeling depressed, certain records made me feel better, stuff like Pink Floyd and old Cure. Many fans have commented on how the music of NIN, The Downward Spiral in particular, made them feel less alone with their mental health challenges. However, The Downward Spiral story reflected genuine experiences of depression, self-loathing and mental pain of many, Reznor’s story was one among thousands experiencing a withdrawal with life and expressions of inner hurt expressed as external rage. But this can also spill over into narcissistic wallowing, to be in love with your own sadness as a failure to outgrow or to transcend some of the more teenage expressions of these feelings is one of the common criticisms of the album, it allows for too much self-pity and negativity as to become a dirge. There is comfort and security in having your sadness reflected back to you, confirming that it is ok, normal even, which encourages others to talk more openly. The 90s would continue to develop into an era in which mental health awareness and treatment in the US walked a knife-edge between positive intervention, although with increasing reliance upon medication, and music that openly asserted the right of a generation to express negative feelings, taking pride in their right to be openly fucked-up. By the time of The Downward Spiral Reznor presents many of his ‘masculine’ traits as flaws, feeling himself wounded and inherently damaged. On Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor’s observations on masculine success as identity are grounded in inferiority complex, tied to romantic failure. But perhaps it is no accident that many of their fans felt the same way. This harsh introspection sometimes tipped over into self-loathing and addiction issues where the initial empathy of up and coming musicians became reserved for their rock star lifestyles, failing to highlight and attack wider social concerns as the root cause of their own unhappiness. Alexander Reed noticed how a wealth of bands from the early 1990s, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains et al, presented themselves as these same “damaged hollow men”. ![]() In his history of industrial music, Assimilate!, S. ![]()
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