How Trent Reznor learned to love The Beatles
The Beatles may as well be a part of rock and roll’s DNA. Although the band might not have started the genre by any stretch, they helped perfect the sounds that music would take in the future, from diving into the realm of psychedelia to eventually branching out into classic pieces that have become standards in rock. Music isn’t always about looking to the past, and Trent Reznor was ready to tear down the Fab Four when he was starting out in the business.
When breaking onto the scene with Nine Inch Nails, Reznor originally formed his new outfit as something far-removed from what The Beatles had once done. Once the project started to get off the ground, Reznor had some unkind words for The Beatles, saying in a Plazm interview: “I hate to think in a retro mindset. You know, ‘The Beatles were the best thing…’. Fuck The Beatles, I hated people who were always going on about the fuckin’ Beatles. They’re dead. They’re ugly now. Get them out of my sight”.
Then again, that mindset wasn’t all that different from what Reznor felt about himself at the time. After finishing up the album Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor wanted to go even darker on the next handful of albums when he started to formulate a concept about a man nullifying his life to the point where he snaps and kills himself. The end product was The Downward Spiral, which set the bar for Nine Inch Nails records, being equal parts off-putting, disturbed, and just catchy enough to be played on the radio.
Once Reznor started to get acquainted with different styles, though, he began to better appreciate what The Beatles did. When speaking to Rolling Stone, Reznor thought that his original hatred was unjustified, thinking that it was the result of the popular crowd liking The Beatles, saying, “When I was growing up, the people who liked The Beatles, I didn’t like, so I didn’t pay attention to them. Around The Downward Spiral, I really started digging White Album-era Beatles, and it expanded outward from there. They were so far ahead of the game, it’s just not fair”.
Out of the 1990s invasion of alternative bands, though, Reznor wasn’t the only one developing a soft spot for the band. When starting out, Kurt Cobain cited The Beatles as a primary influence, using John Lennon as a reference when recording his vocals. Dave Grohl was equally influenced by The Beatles, both developing his melodic style based on the band and playing what suited the song in the style of Ringo Starr.
Although Reznor might have taken a long time to come around to The Beatles, the road from hating them to respecting them wasn’t always easy. To be fair, Reznor is much more inclined to go back to music with a darker tinge, like The Cure or Depeche Mode. Then again, when talking about specific subsections of rock and roll, no one is currently making pop music that hasn’t tried out an idea that The Beatles helped invent.
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