I wanted to share a selection of Pretty Hate Machine era photos (and a video) today!
The early years of Nine Inch Nails were chaotic, intense and full of youthful rage. Trent was finally spreading his wings for the first time after living in Mercer Pennsylvania for most of his life. I'm not massively clued in about American geography but from what I've read it's a small town in the bible belt so definitely not an accepting or interesting place for a person like Trent to grow up in. He always knew he was an outsider who was capable of so much more.
I see this time of his life as him breaking out of the generational expectations of what he should be and becoming his truest, most liberated self. I see the photos of him shirtless as symbols of his new found confidence and an exploration of his sexual identity. They are a vulnerable look into the deepest, previously unseen parts of himself both literally and metaphorically.
Not to make it too personal but I live in a small religious village in the countryside, it can be very isolating when you know you want more of what life has to offer experience wise. I just wanted to add this because I can relate to Trent in a lot of ways.
Here's a little info from the man himself about his experience:
Reznor has acknowledged that his sheltered life left him feeling isolated from the outside world. In a September 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he said of his career choices, "I don't know why I want to do these things, other than my desire to escape from Small Town, U.S.A., to dismiss the boundaries, to explore. It isn't a bad place where I grew up, but there was nothing going on but the cornfields. My life experience came from watching movies, watching TV and reading books and looking at magazines. And when your culture comes from watching TV every day, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you."However, in April 1995, he told Details (i think thats a magazine?) that he did not "want to give the impression it was a miserable childhood".
I've made some similar observations before but I wanted to expand on them a little bit. Please excuse any weird grammar.
