Nine Inch Nails were formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 as an industrial rock band.

The founder of the band, Trent Reznor, is its principal member and does most of the work on Nine Inch Nails albums; when the band plays live he is joined by a full line-up which has rotated considerably since the band's formation. Reznor's creative control over the band's output is reflected by the statement "nine inch nails is trent reznor" included in the credits on all of their albums.

Their first album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), went triple platinum in the US. It produced the singles "Head Like A Hole," "Down In It" and "Sin." Music videos were made for "Head Like A Hole" and "Down In It".

The second major Nine Inch Nails release is Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks and two hidden tracks. The song "Wish" won a Grammy, oddly enough, in the "metal" category. The music video for "Happiness In Slavery" was universally banned. The video featured performance artist Bob Flanagan strap himself to a machine that subsequently rapes and kills him. A full length video entitled Broken - The Movie was also made but has not seen an official release. Reznor has stated in interviews that "It makes \'Happiness In Slavery' look like a Disney movie", and generally bad quality copies of the video can be found on fan sites and file sharing systems as MPEGS. An album of remixes from Broken, entitled Fixed, is also available.

The second album, The Downward Spiral, was released in 1994 and went quadruple platinum. It helped the band to much greater prominence, especially through the second single from the album, "Closer." The first single from the album was "March of the Pigs". Music videos were made for both singles, with the video for "Closer" being edited for MTV. The album's final track, "Hurt", would be quite successful when covered by Johnny Cash in 2003. Like Broken, The Downward Spiral produced a remix album, this one entitled Further Down the Spiral. The Downward Spiral powerfully evokes images of both aggressive and depressive states, and many people find it unlistenable. Others consider it to be Reznor's finest work. Reznor has publicly stated that he has suffered from depression, and has been reported as suffering from bipolar disorder.

Considerably different versions of this album were released in the UK and the US.

There was a long gap before the release of the next album, The Fragile (1999). It produced three singles, one released in the US ("The Day The World Went Away"), one in the UK ("We're In This Together") and one in Japan and Australia ("Into The Void"). Like the previous two albums, it was followed by a remix album, entitled Things Falling Apart. Music videos for "We're In This Together" and "Starfuckers Inc." were aired in the US.

Each Nine Inch Nails release is given a matrix number using the form: Halo x, where x is a positive integer. Many independent and new wave records follow similar numbering schemes. The currently releases are as follows:

The most famous NIN moment is probably their disastrous, mudsoaked performance at Woodstock 1994.

Reznor also recorded the background music for the id software computer game Quake, released in 1996, but this is not considered a canonical Nine Inch Nails release. Reznor was also put in charge of compiling the soundtrack to the film Natural Born Killers. Some of the tracks on the soundtrack to the David Lynch film Lost Highway are credited to Reznor alone, in addition to it featuring the Nine Inch Nails track "The Perfect Drug." Reznor also contributed the track "Deep" to the soundtrack for the movie Tomb Raider.

Trent has collaborated with such artists as Tori Amos, adding backing vocals to "Past the Mission" from Under the Pink. He has also worked with David Bowie, Pigface, Marilyn Manson, The Neptunes, 1000 Homo DJs, and Peter Gabriel. TapeWorm is Reznor's own collaborative band, with a rather enigmatic line-up, tentatively featuring Danny Lohner and Maynard James Keenan of Tool. The general audience has yet to hear any official release from the band, outside of a live performance of a single TapeWorm song (Vacant) which A Perfect Circle has arranged for its own 2001 live tour, to the initial irritation of Trent Reznor.

Non-NIN albums that NIN has also appeared on

  • David Bowie
    • I'm Afraid of Americans (1997)
    • Best of Bowie (2002)
    • Best of Bowie (Bonus CD) (2002)
    • Best of Bowie (DVD) (2003)
  • KMFDM
    • Light (1994)
  • Meat Beat Manifesto
    • Pro.File, Vol. 1: Remix Collection (2002)
  • The Orb
    • Auntie Aubrey's Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty, Pt. 2 (2001)
  • Soundtracks
  • Various Artists
    • Woodstock 94 (1994)
    • Oliver Stone Connection (1998)
    • Triple J Hottest 100, Vol. 5 (1998)
    • Sanctuary (1998)
    • Art of Darkness (1998)
    • Industrial Strength Machine Music: Framework of Industrial Rock 1978-1995 (1999)
    • Shockwave (1999)
    • Electric Ballroom Presents: Full Tilt, Vol. 3 (2001)
    • Remix Album, Vol. 2 (2002)
    • Triple J Hottest 100, Vol. 2
    • Hot Wired Monstertrux

External links and references