Trent Reznor is angry – abandons twitter

First, it’s about damn time Trent Reznor abandoned the twitter nonsense. Nothing good was going to come of it, and this is certainly proof of that.

So, Reznor posted a long diatribe on NIN.com about his experiment these last few years in the world of Web 2.0. Many of us agree that breaking down the normal wall of communication that exists between artist and fan was very neat and exciting, but it was going to go awry. In what I can only attribute to his being new to the internet, Reznor was surprised that unruly people would come and trash on his interactive paradise. NIN.com is a moderated community, so those people are easily dealt with; but twitter and the like are agents of chaos over which Reznor can exert no control. No sir, he doesn’t like it.

He claims he is abandoning Web 2.0 because of these unsavory elements outside of his handling. Before parting, however, he made it a point to totally rip into people who are obviously paying fans of his and tell them just how to cut themselves. To be frank, this is fucked up and really just wrong of him to say. Then again, this is to be expected of the man who wrote The Downward Spiral – no matter what he says about his growth since ‘94.

There are people who are somehow surprised that Reznor is bitter and angry, not to mention willing to bite off the heads of people with whom he disagrees. I don’t get it. By listening to a bulk of his musical catalogue, it’s clear that the man is suffering from some sort of disorder – be it mood or personality. That’s why we love his music. It lets you experience the mind of someone disorganized. At the very least, this authenticates his work. He wasn’t lying when he presented himself as an angry and destructive individual. But now it’s time for him to shut the hell up.

Trent and Marilyn’s Downward Spiral Friendship

As my brother pointed out, Trent Reznor said some unsavory things about his former friend Marilyn Manson. Reznor isn’t late to the party, as this has been an off and on thing for these guys for years. Sometime between NIN’s tour for The Downward Spiral and The Fragile’s release, Reznor and Manson managed to find hate for each other and then a reason to come together, resulting in the awesomeness of surprising concert-goers during Fragility 2.0 with Manson appearing during “Starfuckers, Inc.” and flowing into “The Beautiful People”.

It doesn’t surprise me that something has happened to their friendship within the past 10 years. Maybe Manson really is so screwed up that Reznor simply cannot stand him any longer. Trent has supposedly overcome his demons and found something in which to believe. He is moving in a positive direction and doesn’t wish to be dragged down by crap.

But on the other hand, it’s obvious that there’s been a change in the public persona of Trent Reznor. He is less private, more jovial, and definitely forthcoming with his opinions. He is publicly admitting his recent engagement to a hot model, and he mentioned a while ago that Nine Inch Nails would “disappear” for a while. Effectively, he’s retiring. In the article he says that even though these things would suggest he’s losing his edge, he’s still a prick.

I think what’s really happening is that he’s becoming smug. Knowing that he will be fading from the media spotlight in a while, he’s making sure to snipe people while his opinion counts. Then he can dive into the trenches without having to worry about backlash. He’s accomplished quite a bit in his 20 year career, including a movement toward freeing music from corporate tyranny and making the fans feel involved in the music itself. Now he’s the cranky old man who feels like he can get away with pissing on these people’s lawns because, well, he won’t be around after another year. I’m not a fan of people taking potshots like that, but what can you do?

Meanwhile, Manson proved himself to me a while ago with the interview featured in Bowling for Columbine. I can tell exactly what Reznor means by his once being the smartest kid in the room. Since then, Manson has had nothing worthwhile to say. It would have been great had he been a clever shock rocker, but he didn’t go that path. He’s been annoying. To say he’s a “dopey clown” is a bit of an understatement. He’s an annoying asshat who has managed to somehow squeeze the life out of his 15 minutes of fame. The fact that he has yet another album out amazes me. Even more amazing is the fact that there are people who still care. Maybe we are all stars in the dope show…

Twitter drama

Trent Reznor, I look up to you, so don’t be that guy. Seriously, don’t be someone who proves to me that Twitter is just the latest fad taken up by emotionally unstable people who feel the need to broadcast themselves to feel more worthwhile. LiveJournal used to be the source of internet drama, allowing people to whine about posts from people they had never met. MySpace let people violate each other’s walls and pseudo-stalk their lives by looking at their pictures. (Oh god, why is my ex with my old best friend!) I doubt I need to say much about Facebook and its broadcasting of people’s relationships. But now Twatter improves the drama with immediacy.

Reznor hasn’t done anything too bad, but he’s fed into one of those emotionally unstable attention whores. His latest twat on the service (don’t click the username) calls out an AndreaUrbanFox, saying that she sucks. Basically, UrbanFox is an internet troll. Scrolling through her twatting on the service as well as checking out her MySpace page has told me more than enough about her, and that is her relishing in pissing people off and drawing attention to herself. (She even has a MySpace blog post about being “butthurt” by the Fox, which especially irks me because I loathe that West Coast expression for being offended.) By responding to her in Twitter, Reznor unintentionally advertised for her. Even if it brought with it the ire of his fanbase, it gave her hits and made her feel more important. No offense, Mr. Reznor, but you must be new to the internet. We don’t feed the trolls.

The history of this futile drama is what I posted previously of Reznor’s drawing attention to a man in need of a heart transplant. Fox decided that this was a matter of his expressing the needs of the few over the needs of the many, as there are many homeless in Brazil due to a flood. She also accused Reznor of not investing his own money in the heart transplant for the person. So Reznor responded by linking her and saying she sucks. What could he have done better? Try linking to the charity (and she couldn’t even provide a direct link herself…) and not mentioning her at all.

Us nobodies with blogs, however, can take shots at her for you. But to be fair, her misguided heart is actually in the right place. Kinda.

His Violent Heart

I’m purposely slaughtering a Nine Inch Nails song title to bring to light one of the reasons why I continue to love Trent Reznor outside of his music – his activism.  In one of the latest NIN updates, Trent discusses the case of Eric De La Cruz and his failing heart.  The man keeps getting rejected for heart transplants through Nevada Medicaid because, well, there are no transplant centers in Nevada.  Trent offers fans the opportunity for a meet and greet with him before shows for donations to Eric’s cause.  Or there’s the option of a flat $10 donation.

A link to the letter from Trent and the donation links can be found here.

Note to the government: “You can label us a consequence of how much you have to learn.”

NIN iPhone application update rejected

Nine Inch Nails’ iPhone application was released to rave reviews about its features, notably that it took advantage of almost all that the iPhone had to offer.  It is software that literally connects you to other Nine Inch Nails fans.  It takes advantage of the phone’s GPS abilities to literally locate the other fans closest to you.  How cool is that?

The recent update was rejected, presumably, for the fact that it streamed content from the album The Downward Spiral.  Trent Reznor is not happy about this, as you can read here.  I have to agree, though, that this level of censorship is crap.  Especially bothersome is the vagueness used by Apple in discussing why they rejected the update.  Simply saying The Downward Spiral does not actually state what to fix, and it’s even worse if it’s about content that’s streamed to the application and not content on the application itself.  I am none too keen on the iPhone as it is, and this just makes Apple look all the worse in my eyes.

Is it possible to make Twitter sound any less cool?

Trent_Reznor: Kutcher / King / DiddyDumDum on CNN doing everything in their power to make Twitter seem as un-cool as possible.

I wish I had some sort of direct link to Trent Reznor so I could share this personally (and because I bet he’s an amazing conversationalist), but Twitter doesn’t need help being uncool.  It’s a social networking microblog that mostly caters to iPhone- or Blackberry-toting hipsters and emo kids seeking relevance in their lives via the constant exchanging of vapid thoughts about the current moment.  While some people actually have something to say within the 140 character limit, most don’t.  The same people used to frequent blogs/LJs/etc., but those things are somehow less annoying to me due to the fact that they don’t focus on immediacy and urgency.  I wouldn’t put it past twatters to share with their friends that they just had the most amazing poo ever.

Trent Reznor on Digg’s Dialogg

If you have 40 minutes to spare, I think this is more than worth watching.  Trent Reznor talks about the music industry, the gaming industry relative to the movie industry, and even working with a Scientologist in his band (not a big deal).  It simply feels right that a musician I’ve been listening to for over a decade now has similar opinions to my own.

Who will shoot Amanda Palmer?

Trent Reznor likes to say that Amanda Palmer is “fighting the good fight” because of her recent letter to the Lefsetz Letter blog. Can’t say that I necessarily agree, although it’s obvious that I’m in favor of cutting down the involvement of the labels in the music industry. After all, what is more pure than cutting them out entirely, advertising yourself to your more obsessive fans through Twitter, and receiving money directly from fans at shows?

The immediate concern for me is artist safety. Amanda Palmer isn’t nearly as big a name as Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Britney Spears, etc., etc., and so on. She can get away with it at this stage in her career, although it is not recommended. People are crazy, and agreeing to meet with hundreds of them at a park somewhere could possibly invite trouble. Having fans house your backup dancers could cause problems for your dancers. While we like to think of the possibility of a community based around our favorite artists, it’s not unwise to think that some people in that community are potentially unsafe to be around.

The other thing that comes to mind for me is that passing around a hat at shows is like passing around a collection plate at places of worship. I’m not in favor of people treating their music like it is their religion. It’s strange to me when people act that way, and this furthers such an image for them. Worshipping at the alter of Amanda Palmer probably is not as bad as worshipping at the altar of Marilyn Manson, though.

On the other hand, I do like the idea of the music artist in the position of the beggar. We always hear about the starving artist, but such a thing doesn’t seem to exist. The artist who doesn’t sell is either supported by someone or has another job. But the artist who has no choice but to take money directly from fans is very real, and it provides a deeper connection between fan and artist. Some fans have this sick thought that they can’t survive without an artist’s music. It’s an interesting twist to be involved in a situation where the fans can see that the artist literally can’t exist as an artist without them.

Still, I can’t support a system that potentially jeopardizes the safety of an artist or anyone attached to said artist. That may work fine in Australia, but I doubt it would work so well in America – especially anywhere near Los Angeles or New York City.

I also can’t support a system that speaks so fondly of Twitter. I’d like nothing more than for twatters to stop, even if it means less “direct” communication from people in the entertainment industry. I know I can survive it. Twattering fans will just have to find something to do other than stare at their phones all day.

Nine Inch Nails + Jane’s Addiction = NINJA

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails announced a while back that after the current tour his band will “disappear” for a while. For those of us who waited years for the release of The Fragile and then years after for the release of any new album, we are all too familar with this practice. Anyway, Reznor ranted in a NIN.com entry about his displeasure with corporate rock but how much he loves the band Jane’s Addiction after all these years. So he invited the explosive act to come out with him on this finale tour. The simple advertising, though, has my adolescent fancy sold.

I love Nine Inch Nails and ninjas, so I’m an easy mark for this.

The Free Music Cure

If not for having siphoned a bit from my brother’s music collection some odd time ago, I would probably have disregarded the entirety of The Cure’s discography due to a handful of unmemorable songs I heard in the way back. Now I am in love with “Friday, I’m in Love”. The rest of their work doesn’t quite resonate with me, but I can see in there something with which I could understand others wanting to connect.

My only other real dealing with the band is through South Park’s referencing Robert Smith in their “Giga-Streisand” episode. They respect Robert Smith of The Cure despite the fact that they generally don’t respect anything. The Cure can’t be all that bad.

Recently on The Cure website, their beloved front man released a commentary about his lack of support for Radiohead’s move to give away their last album for free, or for donations. Robert Smith of The Cure then followed up with a more in-depth commentary about why he doesn’t support the approach of giving away music for free (of which I caught a wiff via Stereogum). Even though his caps-heavy, poorly formatted, possibly drunkenly written text is slightly difficult to handle, he makes a few good points.

The most important observation he has made is that artists who give away their work for free are usually in the position to do so, and it tends to help in expanding the brand further. Radiohead is a Grammy Award winning band with an incredibly huge fanbase. A free album posted online was guaranteed to produce revenue based on the fact that the fans are accustomed to giving them money. The upside is that the fans would then share the MP3s with their own friends and explain that the band is not only great musically but also because they are willing to give fans something for free. This creates more fans who may turn around and donate, buy old albums, and attend concerts (which, I might add, are almost never free).

Nine Inch Nails gave away the latest (and last for a while) album The Slip for free last year, and prior to that released the first set of tracks from the album Ghosts I-IV for free online as well. Similarly, Nine Inch Nails is a long running, Grammy Award winning band with a fairly fervent fanbase. Both albums were also released in stores at a later date, published by Null Records – a label of Trent Reznor’s own creation. Just as in the above example, those accustomed to purchasing Nails albums would definitely do so (I certainly did) and spread the more positive word that would likely spur sales of older titles and push concert sales.

Robert Smith of The Cure would be quick to point out that the artists were in a position to do what they did because of the labels with which they were associated. Only after you become a mainstream name, thanks to some help, can one bash the labels and move to a non-traditional model. After all, who cares that you exist when you’re still a nobody? Robert Smith of The Cure is justified in his saying that this model isn’t the wave of the future.

At least not yet. I can’t help but to say that the old model is still the preferred model due to conservative reasoning. There simply cannot be newer, better schemes without the desire and support for those methods. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are in a position to draw attention to other methods for music distribution that cuts the corporate entities out and makes room for many other artists to get their names out there. History has shown that new worlds see initial settling due to a desire to escape the old rules, but then more people follow suit after it is demonstrated to them that one can live successfully in that environment. The question then becomes are you an innovator or a follower?

Robert Smith of The Cure, which one are you? It is easy to attack your position, what with your being a long established artist with quite a few “Best of…” compilations in your band’s wake and $80+ per seat for your rare concerts, but I can do better than accuse you of being a corporate shill. You’re an artist, but you ironically lack vision. Maintaining the status quo is just easier because it’s proven that it can work, and a new method is too experimental to attempt. It is not a matter of valuing art in any way. Painters and sculptors were originally commissioned to create, and they were pleased with their art being available thereafter because they valued it and enjoyed its being freely available to the masses. I know that was a different time period and a different kind of art, but “value” is such an interestingly broad word. Does valuing art mean that you think it deserves an established form of monetary feedback or that you think it stands well enough on its own regardless of compensation?

But Robert Smith of The Cure has a point nonetheless. It’s easy enough to say it’s a viable platform when two very established acts have decided to pursue it, but will it provide a living for newer acts? Right now it won’t. Only the visionaries take it seriously enough, and we’re an underwhelming minority of people. It requires that other people be willing to take a chance in order to really move it forward. I’m on the side of innovation, but I sure as hell can’t make it work alone.