"Art" is defined as the use of the imagination to produce things of beauty, and for many who think Reznor's music is immoral and insane, this definition proves incontrovertibly that NIN is not art. However, the term "beauty" is a subjective one, and despite the definition should not be considered the beginning and the end of the concept. A play is not beautiful in the same sense as a painting, and yet drama is considered art. The same goes for literary works. Art can also be the skillful ordering of sounds or pictures in order to create certain feelings in the viewer, feelings that the artist wishes to create. In light of that, then, is Nine Inch Nails art?
The answer is a resounding "yes." From pretty hate machine through the downward spiral, Reznor uses his music and lyrics to craft images and evoke emotions one would not think possible in his listeners. The albums each have a running theme and several motifs. The theme is invariably pain and suffering, caused by love lost and the loneliness that results when one realizes that a relationship is broken beyond repair. The motifs include rebellion against God, loss of self, and the drowning of sorrow in sex, to name a few. Although none can know for sure, the conventional wisdom has held that NIN's music is based on its creator's firsthand experiences. Reznor is no scattershot artist; every word, every note is designed to convey something to the listener. There is no mindless profanity or blasphemy, only that designed to show the listener Reznor's inner turmoil.
From the first moment that the CD begins to play, the listener is transported into Reznor's world, a world of hurt and the rage that it causes. His work speaks to the part of us that we wish to forget, the part that has suffered due to loneliness, the part that renounces God, the part that craves sex for its own sake. Reznor's music drags up bad memories and evil thoughts, and manipulates our emotions. Listeners whose lives are fine, who have stable relationships and strong faith in God, have been so completely caught up in its pathos that they have cried with Reznor, hated and felt suicidal with him.
Before a critic seizes on this statement and mounts a national compaign to declare NIN's music full of subliminal suicidal messages, it must be said that there is a peculiar quality to nine inch nails, the quality the ancient Greeks called "catharsis." After listening to Reznor snarl about the demise of love, the capriciousness of God, and the temptation of suicide, one always feels cleansed. Cleansed, more specifically, of their own feelings of pain and their consequent self-hate. NIN brings those dangerous sentiments out into the open, speaks about them, and thereby takes the hurt away from the listener. How many suicides has NIN prevented? We will never know. Some have even characterized Reznor as a sort of Christ-figure, bearing in his pain the pain of us all.
The masterful use of music and lyrics to evoke feelings that we try our hardest to bury: the relentless rehashing of those feelings and memories...the ordering of them into a psychological journey spanning three full-length albums...the unabashed questioning and upbraiding of so-called "good" and "loving" Supreme Powers...the examination of sex as cure-all...and finally, after we have been fully transported into the world Reznor has created for us, the cleansing of our minds and hearts by his brave portrayal of the darkest sides of human thought and human relations. Can there be any doubt that this is as worthy to be called art as the plays of Edward Albee or the books of Oscar Wilde?
Though the "experts" may focus on the profanity, blasphemy, sex, violence, and morbidity of Nine Inch Nails, their fatal mistake lies in failing to see the goal of Reznor's work. Castigating the music is a useless exercise that neither enhances it nor destroys it. For those who still regard Trent Reznor as an unbalanced timebomb, the music awaits your objective listening. Allow your feelings to flow freely; deny nothing, for Reznor denies nothing in his work. Let the music work its effects on you, and there will be no doubt in the end that Trent Reznor is a consummate artist, and that Nine Inch Nails is without a shadow of a doubt, pure art.
-- the last knight