For such an abrasive album, how did it get so popular?
I understand Closer and Hurt were pretty accessible, but the rest of the album was some really cutting-edge shit compared to almost of the mainstream rock music at the time.
Of course, it's not quite Swans or even Sonic Youth in terms of abrasiveness. But for a quadruple-platinum album, it's pretty goddamn abrasive.
edgy teens could relate to the lyrics
>>61195138
Trent had already gained a ton of momentum off Pretty Hate Machine and Broken by this point and Closer being a massive hit on top of that pretty much guaranteed this albums success.
>>61195138
i've commented on that too.
On a related note, it always made me want to respect Marylin Manson for doing something similar and more thoroughly cracking into the mainstream. Only real difference being that manson sucked.
>>61195138
Old man here. "Alternative" and mainstream were closer together in those days, especially after the arrival of Nirvana.
MTV was also pretty much the only music taste maker on television in those days, and they weren't afraid to play underground fare, especially shows like 120 minutes and later AMP.
>>61195263
I think Manson's popularity happened only because of how edgy his whole act was. People love to be shocked. People love to piss off their parents. He was a performance-based artists, and I'm not talking just about live shows. It was his aesthetic that appealed to the masses.
Nine Inch Nails weren't like that. There music was edgy for sure, but there was a lot more to it that made them sell so many records.
>>61195349
performance-based artist*
their music*
Jesus Christ, I'm tired.
>>61195332 summed it up well, for me Kool Thing's popularity is more surprising, not really sure how that got onto the radio
>>61195382
don't worry about typos on here man
I've fretted a bit over them before then realized how little I cared when not even acknowledging them when others make them
>>61195138
The thing about what Trent Reznor did with this album, he took all these concepts and ideas that have already been done in the underground, just took all the best elements of these various underground styles and cliches, and just brought to use all them meshed together into very well written, coherent, and memorable pop anthems. His lyrics and themes are very simple and universal, suffering and angst of the human condition, backed up by groovy perverse, exotic, and alienating sound
NIN = ((prince-(funk/2)) + distortion)
Does Eraser give anyone else the chills? Edgy as fuck, but it's spooky
>>61195714
It's a really badass buildup with all the intense drums and ayy lmoa dmt buzzing sounds
>>61195138
3 words
Mel O Dy
You can get away with just about any amount of abrasiveness as long as you still have those tasty pop hooks to grab people and have them keep coming back.
avant garde and experimental music is interesting, but it's really nice when some of those techniques and ideas are implented coherently, and refined into actual pop music, that's what TDS did.
I never thought I'd defend Marilyn Manson but Antichrist Superstar is a pretty fantastic album in spite of its spooooky edge. Especially when viewed as mainstream hard rock/metal's ebb before the crashing wave of shitty nu-metal.
>>61196129
Honestly it does the spooky edge thing pretty good as well, way better than most other nu metal shit
