This is what war is all about

Originally posted by mlandman
Nine Inch Nails is one guy on a computer and keyboard and drum machine, even though he makes a good attempt at dispelling this image by bringing out people with guitars at his "live shows", and also giving them credit on liner notes of his albums. Computer generated music 100%.

I thought that might be what you were getting at, and since you've now said it, allow me to say this:

That comment reeks of ignorance.

No offense, and I hope none taken. But you are, quite frankly, wrong.

Let me clarify a bit.

Back in 1988, Nine Inch Nails was one Trent Reznor with drummer Chris Vrenna and guitarist Richard Patrick (of Filter) as backup. Chris Vrenna played real drums. Richard Patrick played real guitar. Incidentally, so did Trent. This is Pretty Hate Machine era Nine Inch Nails.

Broken era Nine Inch Nails is mainly Trent. Drum machines were used but the guitar is still real.

Downward Spiral era Nine Inch Nails consisted mostly of Trent Reznor again, but help is enlisted from Adrian Belew and Chris Vrenna. Danny Lohner also makes his first appearance on The Downward Spiral. Drums and guitars are, for the most part, real.

Fragile era Nine Inch Nails is where things really start to change. Trent Reznor, being "the man" behind Nine Inch Nails, retains absolute control over everything that is produced, but he lets other people play. Jerome Dillon takes Chris Vrenna's place on drums after a schism between Vrenna and Reznor and later becomes involved with the guitar. Danny Lohner picks up bass and guitar. Charlie Clouser does a lot of the keyboards and post-processing. This is the most "real" album to date - it is more guitar and less machine. It is real music.

Now. The music is indeed post-processed in computers. Changes are made. Music is tweaked. It is distorted. It may sound completely different when you hear it than it did when it was recorded. It is true that computers are used. But it is insulting to the hard work of the musicians involved in the creations of Nine Inch Nails seventeen "halos" to call their art "computer generated". It is computer enhanced, yes. But most of it is generated the good old-fashioned way - with a pick and a guitar and a set of drums.

It is <b>not</b> "computer generated music 100%". That statement is based upon your ignorance of the way Nine Inch Nails creates their music.

Launching into the main stream via a cover song

I'm curious as to why you mention this in a discussion about Nine Inch Nails. While Trent has done covers of Soft Cell and Adam Ant (to name a couple), his launch into the mainstream was "Head Like A Hole", which was written and performed entirely by Nine Inch Nails.

Leave the computer geeks out of it.

The fact of the matter is that computers afford you an opportunity to enhance your music. If you don't like it, that's fine - don't use it. I'm sure your music is just swell without it. But don't dog people that do. Simply put, you're no better than they are. Your elitism, in calling their music fake (in so many words) and dubbing them "computer geeks" is not going to get you anywhere and, in truth, it makes you look like an ignorant asshole. Who are you to say whether or not someone can make music that way? Guitars were new once too. I'm sure "traditional" musicians at the time thought lowly of them too. Now they're a part of what I'm sure you would consider "real" music. Consider this: All new truths begin as heresy.

When we get down to it, what's great about music is that the artist was able to take something that was in their head and make it enjoyable for others. It's not a guitar or a drum or a computer or a box filled with rice (as was used by Nine Inch Nails on "Pilgrimage", track 9 on the Left side of The Fragile) - music is in your head. It doesn't matter how you realize the effort of making it audible to others - what matters is that you succeeded in doing so.