Nine Inch Nails

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• clean-cut
• toned down
• gothic
• aggro

• industrial
• electronic music
• fad
• instrumental

• angst
• pump iron

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Plenty of bands make a few albums, earn a ton of money, and then disappear. Or they keep making music, but it all sounds the same. Only some artists stay on the scene for many years and continue to develop as musicians.

Trent Reznor has been making music and producing music for two decades now. His band Nine Inch Nails first became popular in the 1990s with an industrial sound. Since then, he’s not only continued to make albums, but also influenced younger musicians like Marilyn Manson.

Whether or not you like NIN’s mix of heavy metal and dark electronic music, it’s pretty clear that they’re more than just a passing fad. In 2008, Reznor released two new albums, The Slip and Ghosts I-IV, which is 36 instrumental tracks. The band asked fans to make YouTube videos to go with the songs, and so far, more than 2000 people have. Listen to Mason and Devan talk about how Nine Inch Nails has evolved over the years.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Devan

Mason:  I saw a picture of Trent Reznor. He’s been pumpin’ iron. He’s like…He’s got biceps like my quads right now. And he’s all clean-cut.

Devan:  He toned down the gothic look sort of, or…?

Mason:  He went like Henry Rollins on the world. So his aggro, really awesome electronic music has a whole new layer of depth. Because it’s not angsty, it’s angry.

Devan:  That’s crazy. So their music has totally changed? What does the new album sound like?

Mason:  I’m more of a layman when it comes to Nine Inch Nails, so it more or less sounds like the same old stuff, but just he keeps getting more sophisticated with it. It’s that same kind of drum and bass kind of thing, with rattling chains, and…uh…screaming.

Devan:  I heard they were doing some contest…Or maybe it wasn’t a contest, but they were just telling their fans to make videos for the songs on the new album, did you hear about that?

Mason:  Yeah, that’s part of the thing, is he’s really getting the fans working for him and getting people involved in the process…It’s not really about he goes away and makes an album and then you go and buy it. It’s this collaborative process between the artist and the fans.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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