Nine Inch Nails “Big Man With A Gun” portrays a negative character in order to question the media-saturation and gangsta-rap glamorization of gun violence and straight, white violent masculinity, highlighting the use and abuse of firearms in America. In spite of this, the song and Nine Inch Nails’ music in general, would stand accused of directly inspiring and causing gun violence in the form of the Columbine High School shooting of April 20, 1999.
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BIG MAN WITH A GUN– How Nine Inch Nails Took On Censorship and US Gun Culture – And Lost – Pt I
On Big Man With A Gun Nine Inch Nails presented the negative side of guns in America — gross and grotesque, violent and vulgar — another painful reality which some of its citizens prefer not to see. As the narrative voice behind The Downward Spiral album Trent Reznor is forever torn between running away and confronting the issue head-on.
[Breaking The Spiral] – Netflix Documentary Reveals How Trent Reznor wrote ‘Hurt’ and The Downward Spiral Broke Into The Mainstream
Reznor had his doubts about Hurt, conscious that even though it is not explicitly about suicide, perhaps a death revisited, it might still allow people to wallow in its mood long enough to fantasise about their own passing. Even though Hurt perhaps offers a glimpse of hope, it remains mired in realisation perhaps too late, and this distanced perspective can become appealing if it is allowed to be romanticised into the idea of being ‘in a better place’.
Nin-spirational Music Books
A list of some of my favourite writing about music, books that inspire and make you think differently about music which provided both inspiration and research for my book Into The Never: Nine Inch Nails And The Creation Of The Downward Spiral. If you’d like to see more of the research material used in theContinue reading “Nin-spirational Music Books”
WATCH – Nine Inch Nails – Mini HBO Documentary
In this short film a range of musicians pay tribute to Nine Inch Nails as part of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.