Roaring ’90s: Trent Reznor continues to bring industrial rock to the mainstream

The world of mainstream music is constantly transforming as new artists, styles and trends are embraced with each passing year. In spite of these changes, some musicians have maintained their popularity across decades, reinventing their sounds and careers. Each week, A&E columnist Emily McCormick will discuss the evolution of ’90s artists who have carried the spirit of their decade into today’s music scene.

I was never allowed to listen to Nine Inch Nails as a kid.

I was born at about the time the band was having its heyday for the single “Closer,” but there was no way my parents were letting me anywhere near music whose most famous lyric was “I want to f— you like an animal.”

A parental advisory label, thankfully, wasn’t enough to stop Nine Inch Nails – the band of singer, composer and instrumentalist Trent Reznor – from becoming a ’90s phenomenon. It brought industrial rock to the public in all its screaming, thrashing and sometimes graphic glory. Reznor didn’t soften his sound for the sake of moms and pops listening to his songs on the radio, although a heavily cleaned-up version of “Closer” did have to be released for it to receive airtime.

From the start, the band unapologetically smashed instruments onstage, covered themselves in mud before his Woodstock ’94 appearance and put out NSFW music videos with blatant themes of masochism and destruction. And audiences ate it all up.

But while obscenity did comprise a great deal of its image, shock value in itself is not what made the band a lasting legend. The appeal of Nine Inch Nails’ music was that it was really just pop in a gristly package: The songs often followed the familiar verse-hook-refrain structure, and the choruses, though sonically gritty, were melodically catchy and featured danceable beats.

In one interview this year, Sean Beavan, who helped engineer Nine Inch Nail’s seminal 1994 album “The Downward Spiral,” told AV Club they were revolutionizing the industrial genre by using musical melodies instead of creating collages of noise. Bevan said Reznor was always most interested in creating lasting, memorable art.

And stand the test of time it did: Even two decades following “The Downward Spiral,” Reznor continues to be a newsworthy artist. His debut as a 2000s artist came with the 2005 release of his album “With Teeth,” which peaked at No. 1 on U.S. charts.

Although Nine Inch Nails proved its popularity across the millennium, Reznor has occasionally elected to divorce himself from the alternative name to explore other genres within the music industry. During each break away from the Nine Inch Nails name, Reznor actually managed to grow his portfolio career.

Incidentally, I first discovered Reznor during one of these hiatuses. While Nine Inch Nails was on the back burner, Reznor helped compose the music for “The Social Network.” Seeing the movie made me realize how powerful a soundtrack could be in setting the atmosphere for a film and it inspired me to dig up the rest of Reznor’s discography.

With or without lyrics, whether under the Reznor or Nine Inch Nails name, the music had an edge that spoke for itself.

I was a true fan of Nine Inch Nails by the 2013 release of “Hesitation Marks,” which signaled Reznor’s return to his notorious pseudonym and ’90s synth sound. Listening to bleak lyrics like “I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow,” I’d tend to agree with sources like Rolling Stone who feel this album secures Reznor’s place as an artistic icon.

As for today, Reznor, partnered with Apple Music, put out instrumental versions of his albums “The Fragile” and “With Teeth” this year, further eternalizing the collections’ place in the world of music.

The through line spanning Reznor’s career has been his devotion to his heavily distorted, machine-like musical style. Whether blasting profanities on a Nine Inch Nails track or composing a more minimalistic but nonetheless haunting soundtrack for a David Fincher film, Reznor has proven that he may have two names, but one distinct sound.

While the next project on the horizon for Nine Inch Nails is uncertain, I don’t think we’ve heard the last from the one-man show. Reznor has always managed to keep his listeners on edge, wondering just what he’ll pull out of his toolbox next.