WOAHHHHH how many of you piggies hear this song the way I do, and how many hear the downbeat differently? Thanks to @The Lame Gaming Channel and @Aaron Levy for bringing this to my attention. It's too late for me to hear the song with the shifted downbeat but this does bring up some interesting thoughts about meter. Pitches can be objective, but I think the "feel" of music can be subjective. Like..."Survivalism", "Big Man With a Gun", "With Teeth", and probably quite a few other NIN tracks. Anyway sorry if I'm wrong and this whole video is wrong ;) I love this interview segment with Dave Grohl where they're talking about rhythmic displacement, and specifically during recording drums for With Teeth! th-cam.com/video/L2VEk2fGHdg/w-d-xo.html I wasn't able to finish my piano cover in time for Tuesday due to feeling under the weather, but it will be coming later this week! This song means so much to me and I must do it justice! Really looking forward to reading your comments. LOVE ♥️
I'm really digging your in-depth studies of NIN tunes! I do agree with those that say the 16th snares are on the downbeat rather than being a pickup. I tried feeling it the way you have it notated and can NOT feel it. To me, the snare/kick rhythm--which carries the song from beginning to end--has a similar rhythm to Man in the Box (1, and-of-2, 4). A good indicator of where the downbeat is would be when a new section comes in or those moments when new layers are added. I find those to land on the downbeat. But I get if you have perceived a rhythm to be a certain way--especially for decades at this point--that it's VERY tough to perceive it a different way.
I hope you’re right or I’m going to question everything hahaha. With it as a pickup, the lower beat syncopates starting on a downbeat (1 + + 3). If it’s the snare on the downbeat then the lower beat starts on an upbeat (+ 2 + 4) which seems confusing since lower sounds usually ground the beat. I guess we need to ask Trent :)
The lyrics "I have lived so many lives all in my head" has always resonated with me with this song. Dreaming of being someone else, somewhere else, doing something else.
Yes! Yes yes! 🖤 I think I accidentally deleted a part of my video where I was describing how that snare hit at the end of the measure and the GAP feels like my heart stops...!
The lyrics to this song have always fascinated me. I've always thought of it as the stalemate and the turning point in the record. I hear the sung verses as the human part of him trying to hold in whatever it was that took hold of him in The Becoming, but he's really got nothing to look forward to by doing so but more misery, more days of staying in bed and fighting this losing battle. In the spoken word parts, despite being specifically addressed to another person, he's totally disconnected from them. He can't reach them beneath the waterfall of nothing (disconnection), and though they extend their hand to those who suffer, he cynically comes back with "like that means something," and then seems to me to be mocking the idea of therapy, like he's repeating the "therapist's" words back to them: "And oh so sick I am / and maybe I don't have a choice / or maybe that is all I have / and maybe this is a cry for help." The "I do not want this" prechorus sounds to me like the human part of him trying, however weakly, to grit its teeth and hold its ground against the change. But then in the chorus, he lashes out at the person trying to help him, far more forcefully than he does against the voices inside himself, who are gradually winning him over with the promise stated in the outro: you can know everything, you can be everywhere, you can fuck everyone in the world (literally or figuratively!), you can do something that matters (instead of staying inside your bed and living oh so many lives inside your head.) Losing your humanity and giving up your feelings will make everything clear! It'll be empowering! It'll be great! And there's cookies. :-)
Ooooops that was more long winded than I meant to be. This video just got me kind of amped! Love all of these analyses, and what you said about the piano part being kind of center-less and direction-less just nails home what the song is about to, me. Thanks so much!!
Probably the most ironic NIN track that I can think of. “Don’t you tell tell me how I feel” Well, with those tones and riffs and whatnot, you’re telling me what to feel, and for further irony, it gets us into your headspace, so we somewhat know how you feel.
Nothing sounded like this when it came out. It felt deeply personal because it didn’t fit anywhere except in the middle of this crazy and challenging record.
@@iximusic back when this album came out, I didn’t have as firm a grasp on theory as I do now, so I really was impacted by the beat. Even though it’s in 4/4, the way the beat is broken up and seems to start on the 1, but it’s offset by a beat was really disjointed. I still have trouble counting it unless I’m really paying attention. Then the dynamics of the parts were impactful to me, especially as the song gets towards the end. That beat gets drowned out by noise, but you can hear the beat coming through. Now that I do understand theory much better, I can grasp the intervals, but like you, I couldn’t make out the key. This album definitely was an exercise in dichotomy on so many levels, from production to composition, to sound design, to lyricism. Even now, in my own music, I can draw so much inspiration from TDS.
@@iximusic I’ve also only scratched the surface of what influences me with this song. My replies would be a book. Btw, this video serious is incredible.
Do you hear the downbeat with the snares or the kick? Seems I'm experiencing rhythmic displacement! But yes all of that is really cool to hear how it influenced you. That keyless feeling was so interesting to me. I think the piano in this song has started to influence my recent projects.
20 years later, I hear that final verse for what it probably is: over-inflating oneself so much in the pursuit of attention, respect and adoration from everyone on Earth , when all one really wants is to feel like they matter, wholely, to someone else.
Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. A lot of the lyrics are things we've all felt but didn't know how to put into words. I particularly like the simplicity of '...don't, tell me that you care...'.
I loved digging into a track that, to be honest, I don’t always vibe with. Never a skipper, but never the star. For the verse piano patterns, “chromatic” works, as it’s never fully any one thing. The floaty feel could be called an incomplete whole tone scale, from D to A#, kind of a lead up to a later theme in Reptile. It also has characteristics of a Lydian flat 7 or (as I’m learning now) an “acoustic” scale based on the overtones of E. The resolution of the G# to A makes both explanations messier. He’s breaking theory as only someone who truly understands it can. Guitarwise, the tone for the lead work at the end of the song is most likely a direct output from a very harsh digital effects unit harmonizing an octave above and below with moderate distortion by NIN standards. The balance of “wet” (the octave above and below) and “dry” signals (the played pitch) is obnoxiously even. Usually, you’d use the higher and lower voices as a slight bit of texture, much softer than the notes you’re trying to actually highlight. Here, everything’s up to 11 and also completely dry of reverb or delay. I imagine Trent laying it down himself in the control room, right when he had the idea. Lyrically, I feel there are two main themes that come out: solipsism and mania. He’s so locked within his own mind due to his troubles that he almost can’t believe there are other people or an outside world, but he realizes what he’s thinking is delusional. At the end, he finds an unhealthy resolve. His brain is telling him now that he wants to experience everything all at once. He’s hypersexual, but has other desires as well, and his mind is racing a mile a minute with all the possibilities. Most of all, he wants to make a mark on the world that proves he exists. So what does he do? He buys a gun.
I know right?! Most people who are NIN fans are Jane’s Addiction fans, and therefore PfP fans. Ixi, when you can, listen to some of PfP stuff, pretty sure you’ll enjoy.
This whole album feels like the journey from adolescence to adulthood. From an idealistic, hopeful nativity, to a pessimistic, angry, shameful frustration, then finally a jaded and yet hopeful understanding of reality.
the protagonist struggles to fight against his alter ego but he gives in and soon he will become a big man with a gun nothing can stop him now thank you for doing this analysis on one of the greatest albums ever made cant wait to see how you do your analysis on big man with a gun a warm place eraser reptile the downward spiral one of the most disturbing songs on the album itself and hurt
This song feels like someone treading water accepting they are to soon drown. It's not the distraction of sex or drugs and it's not the wallowing in self-destruction that depression forces one's thoughts into, it's a bit of clarity.. The lyrics also reflect this in 'Im always falling down the same hill, bamboo puncturing the skin, and nothing comes bleeding out of me, just like a waterfall I'm drowning in'.. and.. 'Two feet below the surface, I can still make out your wavy face, and if I could just reach you, maybe I could leave this place'. It makes me feel like I do when I listen to The Great Below, like succumbing to the reality of being tirelessly dragged to the bottom of the depths.
This is such a great interpretation. I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense to me. When I picture The Downward Spiral, I’m reminded of stretching a Slinky. There’s sharp drops/curves, then a relatively flat plain before it drops again. “Piggy”, “I Do Not Want This”, “A Warm Place” make me think of those flat stretches of the spiral. Maybe “Closer” could start from a flat plain in the spiral while the TDS theme at the end marks the beginning of another descent. It took me a long time to actually listen to The Fragile. I was I to producing Hip-Hop and Horrorcore beats at the time along with a Korn/Deftones obsession. I bought (Halo 13). I heard “The Day The World Went Away” and “Starfuckers, Inc.” and I said “Nope!” Where’s that TDS genius sound design? I wasn’t crazy about the chorus of “Starfuckers, Inc.” for some reason, it was the word incorporated that I didn’t like and the satire went over my head. I never bought the album and I’ve been kicking myself. 6-7 years later I bought the And All That Could Have Been and Beside You in Time DVDs and said “Oh dear God what have I done? These songs are genius!” Of the first song I heard in ‘99 had been “Somewhat Damaged” or “The Wretched” I would’ve been all over that. I recently saw or read an interview that The Fragile is coming back up from the conclusion of TDS and putting himself/protagonist back together. They’re not 100% successful, but it totally changed how I looked at that album and how personal some songs on it are like “The Great Below” and “I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally”. I agree with your comments on “The Great Below” with one caveat. I’m pretty sure The Great Below is about the depression of losing his grandmother so I’m with you there but there’s almost a sense of hope or faith in it how he still feels her presence in his life “I can still feel you, even so far away.” The next song is called “The Way Out is Through” so it’s like he’s pulled from the water after “The Great Below” while he sinks deeper after “I Do Not Want This.” I will say Trent has been my biggest musical influence and roadblock to writing music. He’s so incredibly talented that I feel I have no hope of coming close to writing one song half as good as his worst song. I’m going back to piano lessons as soon as I can in person.
@@justintonation9726 I hadn't considered that theme for The Fragile and it makes a lot of sense. From the opening track Somewhat Damaged to The Wretched, they sort of look at depression from a wider lens, like stepping back and looking at the pieces. Songs like The Way Out is Through and Pilgrimage and Into The Void and others perhaps nodding towards the journey he has ahead, while others like Fragile and I'm Looking Forward to Joining You Finally and The Great Below being a bit more of a mix of longing and despair, but as you say not purely about himself dying. I had always internalized The Great Below with my own romantic loss and depression but your words give it a nice new light for me.
Just started watching this one but Im not sure if you know this but you can listen to this song in two different ways. Displacing the rhythm by either havin the snare start on the down beat of 1... TATA DUN DUN TATA DUN DUN TA -- or having the kick on the down beat of 1... DUN DUN TATA DUN DUN TA TATA. =)
You executed this one SO well. When you paint the picture of what this song was like for you, it evokes so much of my own emotional memory. I remember being 15, feeling trapped in my own skin, and powerless. I thought to myself "This song is about me" (or people like me going through tremendous pain. In my old house, I carved lyrics from this song (can't remember which ones) and The Becoming "It won't give up, it wants me dead, God damn this noise inside my head" on the wooden part of my window. Lordy, the pain and angst of a teenager. Painful times, but simpler times.
Blues guitarist here, but NIN is easily Top 3 all time favorite bands. I was shown this channel by a friend and I absolutely love this channel. Subscribed, and sharing this with everyone I know. You deserve way more views and subscribers. Looking forward to future videos
The way trent makes music especially in this album always has a feeling of broken but still functioning human being. A distorted mental breakdown that embraces resentment in the form of loath and betrayal. The beauty within this album has everything from fragility, disgust and aggressive dissonance from humanity. The character in PHM is the same person in TDS to me. He opened himself up and became completely vulnerable to someone who ending up taking advantage of the character in PHM. The character realizes this in PHM but is still subconsciously in denial. TDS is the realization of PHM. Instead of comming to terms with what happened, the character fosters resentment for their betrayal. They hate that even through this betrayal there is still a part of them that loves the person that betrayed them and they can't stand it to the point its breaks them mentally. Maybe (and could be totally wrong) the fragile is the beginning of the new character of their attempt at suicide. They more or less move on but the scars are still healing. I like to think so anyways. Anyways that was long winded and could keep going but that's my opinion🤗😅
love reading how different people take the downbeat or pickups to be in different places. For me this shows Trent Reznor has done his job of suitably disorienting us and that's obviously a main vibe going on. The intensely beautiful yet unsettling piano melody just reminds me of floating in a lake at night or something, tranquil yet dangerously close to ... danger... then the rest of the song just goes off on one and.. well yeah... He's a master at this isn't he, I think we can all agree on that. Thank you for these videos. It's late and I'm still working and really enjoying being accompanied by them.
I always felt the cacophony of sound at 3.35 (timestamp on actual track) sounded like a tsunami of rage or violence toward the world and oneself. One of the most perfectly designed tracks of all time.
Thank you so fucking much for this. This is my all time favorite NIN song and seeing it analyzed in this way is just so fascinating and, quite honestly, emotional. You got a subscriber.
This song is very personal for me as well. I grew up in an area where NIИ fans were rare, not isolated or religious or anything, everyone just liked radio songs, so I felt like it belonged to me in a way
This album came out in my early 20s. I was pretty depressed at the time and used to fall asleep to this album each night. I think that it's dissonance and unease was almost comforting. But a lot of times I would wake up during this song at the moment all that compression happens and I would feel like I would emerge with the song. Almost as if I was buried or drowning and I would raise up with that mantra "I wanna do something that matters!". A lot of bands like NIN, Skinny Puppy, etc really used sound engineering Transport the listener to a different place rather than just depending on the lyrics.
You are very talented in dissecting what I would call emotional thought through music. It's something I would like to believe everyone has done and is doing constantly, but you put it into words that aren't trying to arouse some kind of fight or flight emotion. You are very straightforward, logical and precise (well as precise as you can be) while also simply enjoying the sonic assault for what it is. There's just no end to great things people make on youtube as a platform. There are many others like it. The difficulty is in finding the ones that resonate with you. Musical analysis of the songs that partly defined my life.. you will never find something like this on PBS or anywhere else. I know. I edit stuff for PBS. Ain't gonna happen.
Somewhat Damaged is anger that you're left behind and forgetten. But this song is more desperate to keep up when everyone is too fast. When they said that they care but left because you tried to collect yourself and they didn't bother to wait. It's a song I listen to quite frequently. And the piano adds comfort yet feels so mocking for thinking that it's comforting.
I love how you talk about the feelings this song gives you. So similar to my feelings with this song and the entire album. The whole thing just hit me at the right time. To feel so alone in my inner struggles, but then to find such a familiarity in experience and feeling with this album. This song and A Warm Place had such a similar aura. Like how they were almost their own little film score that didn't have to break into a pounding and instantly catchy hook that a lot of songs had. Almost like one element of a scene or feeling instead of an entire epic movie on it's own. Ugh, so good!
Damn, you totally messed with how I hear this song. But in a good way! I'd always heard those snares as the one, the downbeat. I tend to approach things from a metal perspective and that's a very metal thing to do, kinda stuttering on the downbeat like that. But NOW, I can also hear the whole damn song as syncopated. And I can shift it back and forth while I'm listening to it like I'm looking at an optical illusion with my ears. An audiollusion. And that's exactly the kind of thing Reznor would do, especially in a song about not being able find firm footing. Even if he didn't intend it, it still works because, like a lot of great art, this album is both extremely direct and wide open to interpretation. Great stuff, from you and from him.
Haha I had no idea I was hearing it displaced! I managed to listen once the "right" way but it took so much effort. It's cool that way too. I think I tend to hear syncopation more readily than stuff on the beat because of my own tendencies. Cool that you can switch back and forth 🙌 100% agree with the last part of your comment - he has to know how disorienting some of his songs are and how easy it is to interpret them multiple ways, like With Teeth, Survivalism, Big Man With A Gun and probably others!
@@iximusic Totally. Big Man With A Gun especially. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on that one. It (literally) screams to be heard as a hypermasculine electrometal fuckfest, but the more time I spend with this album (all your fault lol) and the story it seems to be telling, the more that song seems like the pivotal moment in this characters' journey. And it's deliberately obscured, like the last line in Hurt. I love it.
Your ability to put these songs into words, on top of your music breakdowns; put you among the best. Thank you so much for sharing your talents, NIN and downward spiral hold a special place inside me 👍✌️🤟🤘 .... I will mention the Fragile is my favorite!! 🤞😬
You notice the split rhythm of the drums, the snare in one ear is so harsh and relentless, the bass drum on the other channel feels more like a heartbeat...
I had the exact same experience with this album/ song. It kept me above water. I cannot put it into words. I tried at a concert in 2005 in DC. I was on the tour video but I just looked like an ass because I was drunk but what you didn’t see was me telling the person to let Trent know this exact thing. I lost everything and had to start over. Lost Job, the place I was living, fiancé all in a 6 month period. Moved back home got into drinking and partying and got pretty low. This album helped soooooooo much. I can relate completely.
As chaotic as this whole track is the piano parts always felt very comforting to me; like a hug trying to heal the hurt of the other assaulting sounds!! Always love your dissections, just when I think I’ve herd most of the sounds you show me something new!! I can’t wait for your other reviews, thank you and love!!
I wish I experienced music the way you do. And then to be able to communicate that so clearly and eloquently. I really do appreciate what you're doing.
Yea he does the same thing on Survivalism and Marilyn Mansons Organ Grinder. Same beat just a shift in accent. It’s kind of infuriating to listen to because it’s not an odd meter and it’s not a poly meter but it throws you off just as much if not more. Nice to hear it finally identified and validated. Love this channel. Love your analysis. Love the visual way you think of music. Love the technical proficiency. Love your playing. Love that it’s almost all NIN and when it’s not it’s Radiohead. New favorite channel, gonna binge for sure. Gonna shut up now.
So I have the downbeat wrong for I Do Not Want This, and I'm sorry to have misled y'all! I realized it after making the video :( But, here's a video about what's going on with Survivalism: th-cam.com/video/AkTnXgCkYgI/w-d-xo.html
oooh god you're getting into my fav part of the album, that fall from this on all my songs are in my head forever waiting for a Warm Place+Eraser damn...
I share your passion and I relate to everything you say in the beginning. That’s what’s so powerful about music. It hooks itself into your soul and becomes part of you. Nine inch nails is to music as David Lynch is to movies. Pure art and bliss
One of my favorites from TDS. I love the fact is named I dont want this but at the end in the song he tells what he really wants. And I think the song relates to any teenager or young adult, you dont know how I feel he said and I want everything in the world, I mean at that age who doesnt want that. Nice job! Greetings from Costa Rica
I’ve always wondered (personal and as audio engineer) how much of his compositions involved a deep understanding of psychoacoustics, binaural beats, and isochronic tones. He’s always able to stir up so many different emotions. Between the rhythms and frequencies he is able to completely take over ones mind. Thank you for sharing your personal emotions. My high school song was Something I can never have. It was the rawness of his vocals, the pain.
as far as that goes, it is rare that Trent uses or overuses reverb. he keeps everything pretty dry, so that your brain can easily isolate and pick out different parts on repeated lietens.
@@iximusic Isochronic tones are single tones that come on and off at regular, evenly spaced intervals. This interval is typically brief, creating a beat that’s like a rhythmic pulse. They’re often embedded in other sounds, such as music. Isochronic tones are used to stimulate and sync with your brain and for your brain waves to sync with the frequency that you’re listening to. Binaural beats are generated when two tones with slightly different frequencies are presented to each ear. The difference between these tones is processed inside your head, allowing you to perceive a specific beat. Monaural tones are when two tones of similar frequency are combined and presented to either one or both of your ears. Similar to binaural beats, you’ll perceive the difference between the two frequencies as a beat. The concept has been around a long time. It falls in line with things like biofeedback. The "why" certain sounds create different emotions and feelings. Really powerful stuff. They are just really starting to get a grip of it in the medical fields. I ramble. More than you were probably looking for. As an audio engineer I’ve found there is a lot more going on in music and sounds that I ever could have imagined. Mind Blowing.
I find this stuff fascinating so you're not rambling at all. Wowwwwow. I once read something about why bass drops in bass music affect us so much and their theory was that it excites our lizard brain, our fight or flight response, because in nature, frequencies that low are associated with natural disasters and dangers like avalanches, earthquakes, thunder, tornadoes, floods etc. Not quite what you're saying but that stuff fascinates me equally. I'm writing something ambient and hypnotic for a visual. Maybe I should try experimenting with binaural beats! Thank you 🙏
Thanks again for going so in depth on this track as well. I have always felt like this track didn’t fit into the album until the chorus and outro. It’s as if sonically he is trying to escape the downward spiral but just can’t. That is what the piano motifs and verse melody remind me of...
You have a rare knack of explaining the uncanny in music. I'm not a musician, but I regularly watch all your videos, some of them over and over. Cheers from the sunny South of France.
@@iximusic Back in 1996 I wrote a novel (published a few years later) listening to The Downward Spiral in a row for inspiration. It's available in french and german. If you read either of these languages, I'll gladly send it to you.
In the mid to late 90s, The Downward Spiral was the first "popular" album I ever listened to after being a purely classical and jazz band kid. I instantly knew there was something special about Trent and have been a fan since.
18:55 this gave me flashbacks. I am a dancer and it very specifically reminded me of a time I got off the music on some kind of travelling step and was trying to modify my pace to get back in time with everyone else but kept failing miserably... luckily it was just rehearsal.
The more I listen to nin the more I want to make my own industrial metal in a similar vein or pick his brain for how he did it, even watch his creative process unfold as he makes another soundtrack or something, it'd be a dream to make something and have him do the score for it!
I watched your reaction video of the HEALTH collaboration first and this automatically came on afterwards. As the song started playing I slipped my covers over my head and started slipping into that world. Then you started talking about tears streaming down your face as you listened on repeat. 100% same thing. Throughout my life I have hugged the speakers and sobbed to this song. It stimulates that reaction for sure and I think it's such a good thing!
Finished watching. I understood those other lyrics. To me it said "to fuck everyone in the world would be something that could matter to a desperate wretch who knows it all and has seen it all in their ego. Then .... he snaps! Big man with a gun
This is one of my favourite tracks off of this album! I love all these breakdowns you’ve been doing of NIN and the other artists you’ve analyzed, all of whom are some of my favourites!
Wow, you described what it does to me, gets me inside, my bones, entrails, and makes me feel. Beautiful painful chaos. Lyrically and musically it’s the song I relate to the most out of any.
Everyone I've met who considers this album as important as we do all seem to say the same thing - "I connected with The Downward Spiral at a very bad time in my teen years." And I don't mean for that to sound dismissive because I was fifteen when it came out and IT HAS EVERY BIT OF IMPACT ON ME NOW AS IT DID THEN.
A lot of the samples and noises on the album were sampled by Chris Vrenna from old movies. Im pretty sure the one at 24.40 is from the original Day The Earth Stood Still, for example.
I appreciate your passion, honesty and attention to detail so much. Thank you so much for making these videos. I'm taking my time getting through all these TDS ones because, you know, takes a lot of emotional energy. Again, thank you so much for these. I love hearing a fellow fan's perspective and how you dig into the details and break things down!
This song is my favorite off of the album. It’s really cool that you’re taking the time to analyze these songs. It helps me appreciate them more. Thanks!
I remember singing this song at the top of my lungs with the stereo blasting sometimes when my parents weren't home. That felt soooo gooood to do that. Or again when I got my first car and was driving by myself. So cool to hear the piano parts broken down. Seriously, they are so important in the song but I didn't understand what I was hearing so it was always in the peripheral. And I've never dissected the rhythm, so thank you thank you for this. Another great job ixi. Your delivery is awesome. What a good freakin song... btw Steven Perkins... I didn't know it was his sample. Yeah he was in P4P but he was first in JANES ADDICTION and just take the time to listen to his drumming on those songs I think you'll be stoked/impressed. Everyone in that band played such an awesome role, but Perkins was an animal! I saw NIN in Vegas a few years back and we came out of the show and Perkins was playing in a drum band right outside and it took my NIN show/night to 11.
Great breakdown as usual - and I really enjoyed the part where the imposing E was relentlessly marching forward. Just as with your other Downward Spiral videos, listening through this analysis was like experiencing the song with fresh ears again, which is so remarkable for something I've been listening to for over 25 years!
The piano melody never felt disorienting to me. The melody pins me down in place. It's the sound of anxiety in my chest. And the drums are pounding it even deeper. And when the wall of sound with the "Don't you tell me how I feel" part happens it's like I'm exploding and saying a big fuck you to everyone and everything, trying to beat this anxiety.
"Trentone" you make the coolest words :) -- such a good analysis ^_^ , love those deliciously haunting keyboard sounds u create! I also enjoyed the "BAM" 's lol
Late catching up on this episode, but just wanted to say that ixi's introduction is so relatable. Love this song a great deal, but certainly tied to some negative feelings at the same time. Gets me in the gut every time.
This song reconnects with something I naively thought only I experienced. That's the strenght of this piece of art. Just done for you, talking to you, only you. Moods and mental landscapes from the times I was listening to this, evasive and intimate sculptures I thought only idiosyncratic. It takes some deep genius to connect something that personal yet universal to such a point. Thanks for the analysis, always a special thing to dissect those layers that are like part of me.
This is my 'lying on the floor in my teenage bedroom' song - looking back I struggled with very poor mental health at that time in my life and this album dragged me through it, kicking and screaming. 20+ years later the downward spiral is still as raw and relevant as ever and dissecting it is very helpful. Hope you feel better @ixi music - always looking forward to your next vid or improv!
I love your channel. You’re incredible. You’re somehow putting into words a lot of things I have listened and felt by nin music that I never realized consciously.
I was really waiting for this one. This one always meant a lot to me growing up, and I always felt like it was underrated, or just not talked about as much as others. Thanks for another fantastic breakdown!
i have ALWAYS heard the drums starting on the 1. and i still do. i’ve never even considered that they were on the off beat, and no matter how hard i try, i still can’t hear it that way.
Yes this is quite the development! I've been able to hear it with the snares on the downbeat but it took intense concentration and counting and clapping. It sounded great, obviously a bit different and with less syncopation. I feel like they all had to recognize that common displacement. Feeling skeptical of how I hear Big Man With A Gun, now!
Disorienting? I've got to say that this track is where I'm most home in my life. I bought the Downward Spiral on the day it came out, after being mesmerized by Broken first and then Pretty Hate Machine. I was 16 and in a real bad spot, and I took a huge risk showing up to work an hour late so that I could buy this album. This track exactly describes how this world was beating me down. Now I know that this world wasn't beating just me down. This world beats everybody down. I knew that I wasn't special, but now I knew that I wasn't special about being beaten down either. Just knowing that I'm not the only one who thinks this way was what I needed. There was somebody out there that knows what it really feels like. Somebody who's had a taste, and that meant something.
You rock. This album made me become an audio engineer. The crazy part is when I worked with Bevan and Vrenna I used samples I made 16 (1994). #hardworkpaysoff
Likely my favorite on this song, followed closely by The Becoming. "I have lived so many lives all in my head" always resonated with me: because of my ADHD and anxiety, I overanalyze and mentally rehearse events and conversations to the point that I exhaust myself of following through with those experiences. And the purity of that frustration at the end: "I want to do something that matters." That always hits me when I'm struggling to deal with the impermanence of my daily grinding. These videos are excellent. You've become my tuesday evening routine. Being a musician so inspired by NIN and knowing so little about theory, it's really cool to see songs that are so important to me examined from an angle I would never have seen them from otherwise.
Maybe as something different and in the NIN style, pull chords from a classic horror/suspense movie soundtrack and see if you can arrange them into a NIN style composition? I remember reading a Keyboard magazine interview. It might have been Trent or Chris Vrenna. But there was talk of sampling or analyzing old suspense flicks.
Thank you ixi. When you talked about the tension of the sus 4, it crystallized something I've felt but haven't put in words. Sometimes a musician establishes a tonal center but floats around over that, between the 4th 3rd and 2nd. It feels like a scaled-down, more approachable, version of the floating disconnected feeling that Trent gets from his Trentones and the ambiguous melodic line in the verse of this song. Re: the melodic line, it's like it wants to 'get there' but isn't quite able. It feels like when I have something to say and I try but I'm somehow unable... but the melody's brevity and repetition tells me that the message here is both simple and very important. Whether it's vocabulary, confidence, trust or whatever it is that's missing, something is getting in the way of that all-important message being expressed and understood. This connects to my sense of the album's theme of how isolation and disconnection amplify and distort our suffering. At the exact same time as the piano plays this line, the lyrics are straightforwardly expressing the protagonist's pain. The combination is completely heartbreaking to me and really brought out my protective instincts when I first heard it. My reaction was a strong desire to want to offer care to the person who was suffering in this way. If our protagonist was able to feel understood and to receive care at this point, maybe their downward spiral could have been halted? p.s. speaking of care, you said you're not feeling well: get well soon! :)
@@iximusic ixi, that means a ton coming from you. I guess I just think about this stuff when I listen to great videos and discussions like these. I'll consider the idea! Thank you so much for the encouragement :)
This song and I go back a long ways....At the 3:00 mark to this day, puts me in a tornado of emotions. Even though my life is so wonderful. Retrospect is quite a thing. And at 4:10, the panning before He starts His mantra..... whewee... Thank you IxI this breakdown is so dope.
Definitely my favorite part in the song is the drums, the chorus, and the spoken word verses by Trent where it sounds like a sample from some movie or TV show even though it's just him talking which sounds really badass
WOAHHHHH how many of you piggies hear this song the way I do, and how many hear the downbeat differently? Thanks to @The Lame Gaming Channel and @Aaron Levy for bringing this to my attention. It's too late for me to hear the song with the shifted downbeat but this does bring up some interesting thoughts about meter. Pitches can be objective, but I think the "feel" of music can be subjective. Like..."Survivalism", "Big Man With a Gun", "With Teeth", and probably quite a few other NIN tracks. Anyway sorry if I'm wrong and this whole video is wrong ;) I love this interview segment with Dave Grohl where they're talking about rhythmic displacement, and specifically during recording drums for With Teeth! th-cam.com/video/L2VEk2fGHdg/w-d-xo.html
I wasn't able to finish my piano cover in time for Tuesday due to feeling under the weather, but it will be coming later this week! This song means so much to me and I must do it justice! Really looking forward to reading your comments. LOVE ♥️
Here's hoping you start to...'feeeel better'. ;-) i get my second shot tomorrow. Not looking forward to it.
Here's hoping you get better soon!
I'm really digging your in-depth studies of NIN tunes! I do agree with those that say the 16th snares are on the downbeat rather than being a pickup. I tried feeling it the way you have it notated and can NOT feel it. To me, the snare/kick rhythm--which carries the song from beginning to end--has a similar rhythm to Man in the Box (1, and-of-2, 4). A good indicator of where the downbeat is would be when a new section comes in or those moments when new layers are added. I find those to land on the downbeat. But I get if you have perceived a rhythm to be a certain way--especially for decades at this point--that it's VERY tough to perceive it a different way.
I hope you’re right or I’m going to question everything hahaha. With it as a pickup, the lower beat syncopates starting on a downbeat (1 + + 3). If it’s the snare on the downbeat then the lower beat starts on an upbeat (+ 2 + 4) which seems confusing since lower sounds usually ground the beat. I guess we need to ask Trent :)
th-cam.com/video/pPUN2OKMfaA/w-d-xo.html
Repeat.
Is there somewhere that I can sign a petition to let ixi interview Trent? I feel like that would be everyone's biggest dreams come true at this point!
That and releasing the full set from the Bridge School Benefit Concert.
I would love to know what he thinks of this analysis.
This is a great idea - would be fascinating!
My dude just start the petition yourself! You know we will sign it!! :)
It's not like he's being held against his will somewhere. Maybe reach out to a label or agent or something, try to get some contact info.
The lyrics "I have lived so many lives all in my head" has always resonated with me with this song. Dreaming of being someone else, somewhere else, doing something else.
I do want this
Bravo
Had to be done. 👏
The drums feels like a heart beat in a non stop panic attack
Damn, well put
Yes! Yes yes! 🖤 I think I accidentally deleted a part of my video where I was describing how that snare hit at the end of the measure and the GAP feels like my heart stops...!
yes omg thought i was the only one
The lyrics to this song have always fascinated me. I've always thought of it as the stalemate and the turning point in the record. I hear the sung verses as the human part of him trying to hold in whatever it was that took hold of him in The Becoming, but he's really got nothing to look forward to by doing so but more misery, more days of staying in bed and fighting this losing battle. In the spoken word parts, despite being specifically addressed to another person, he's totally disconnected from them. He can't reach them beneath the waterfall of nothing (disconnection), and though they extend their hand to those who suffer, he cynically comes back with "like that means something," and then seems to me to be mocking the idea of therapy, like he's repeating the "therapist's" words back to them: "And oh so sick I am / and maybe I don't have a choice / or maybe that is all I have / and maybe this is a cry for help." The "I do not want this" prechorus sounds to me like the human part of him trying, however weakly, to grit its teeth and hold its ground against the change. But then in the chorus, he lashes out at the person trying to help him, far more forcefully than he does against the voices inside himself, who are gradually winning him over with the promise stated in the outro: you can know everything, you can be everywhere, you can fuck everyone in the world (literally or figuratively!), you can do something that matters (instead of staying inside your bed and living oh so many lives inside your head.) Losing your humanity and giving up your feelings will make everything clear! It'll be empowering! It'll be great! And there's cookies. :-)
Ooooops that was more long winded than I meant to be. This video just got me kind of amped! Love all of these analyses, and what you said about the piano part being kind of center-less and direction-less just nails home what the song is about to, me. Thanks so much!!
Probably the most ironic NIN track that I can think of.
“Don’t you tell tell me how I feel”
Well, with those tones and riffs and whatnot, you’re telling me what to feel, and for further irony, it gets us into your headspace, so we somewhat know how you feel.
Nothing sounded like this when it came out. It felt deeply personal because it didn’t fit anywhere except in the middle of this crazy and challenging record.
There isn’t a bad song on this album, but this track and Reptile have had the most impact on me musically.
What parts of this song influenced you?
@@iximusic back when this album came out, I didn’t have as firm a grasp on theory as I do now, so I really was impacted by the beat. Even though it’s in 4/4, the way the beat is broken up and seems to start on the 1, but it’s offset by a beat was really disjointed. I still have trouble counting it unless I’m really paying attention. Then the dynamics of the parts were impactful to me, especially as the song gets towards the end. That beat gets drowned out by noise, but you can hear the beat coming through. Now that I do understand theory much better, I can grasp the intervals, but like you, I couldn’t make out the key. This album definitely was an exercise in dichotomy on so many levels, from production to composition, to sound design, to lyricism. Even now, in my own music, I can draw so much inspiration from TDS.
@@iximusic I’ve also only scratched the surface of what influences me with this song. My replies would be a book. Btw, this video serious is incredible.
This album is one of the few albums on my short list of perfect albums.
Do you hear the downbeat with the snares or the kick? Seems I'm experiencing rhythmic displacement! But yes all of that is really cool to hear how it influenced you. That keyless feeling was so interesting to me. I think the piano in this song has started to influence my recent projects.
That last line has always resonated with me... "I wanna do something that matters"
20 years later, I hear that final verse for what it probably is: over-inflating oneself so much in the pursuit of attention, respect and adoration from everyone on Earth , when all one really wants is to feel like they matter, wholely, to someone else.
Still blown away by the textures and audio fuckery and layers of this album.
Thank you for all of these videos
"audio fuckery" 👏
Jonathan Ink!
@@gigachad192 hello pal!
Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. A lot of the lyrics are things we've all felt but didn't know how to put into words. I particularly like the simplicity of '...don't, tell me that you care...'.
Yes, that one. The simple ones really cut to the core.
I loved digging into a track that, to be honest, I don’t always vibe with. Never a skipper, but never the star. For the verse piano patterns, “chromatic” works, as it’s never fully any one thing. The floaty feel could be called an incomplete whole tone scale, from D to A#, kind of a lead up to a later theme in Reptile. It also has characteristics of a Lydian flat 7 or (as I’m learning now) an “acoustic” scale based on the overtones of E. The resolution of the G# to A makes both explanations messier. He’s breaking theory as only someone who truly understands it can. Guitarwise, the tone for the lead work at the end of the song is most likely a direct output from a very harsh digital effects unit harmonizing an octave above and below with moderate distortion by NIN standards. The balance of “wet” (the octave above and below) and “dry” signals (the played pitch) is obnoxiously even. Usually, you’d use the higher and lower voices as a slight bit of texture, much softer than the notes you’re trying to actually highlight. Here, everything’s up to 11 and also completely dry of reverb or delay. I imagine Trent laying it down himself in the control room, right when he had the idea. Lyrically, I feel there are two main themes that come out: solipsism and mania. He’s so locked within his own mind due to his troubles that he almost can’t believe there are other people or an outside world, but he realizes what he’s thinking is delusional. At the end, he finds an unhealthy resolve. His brain is telling him now that he wants to experience everything all at once. He’s hypersexual, but has other desires as well, and his mind is racing a mile a minute with all the possibilities. Most of all, he wants to make a mark on the world that proves he exists. So what does he do? He buys a gun.
You are a Gift, ixi. 🖤
"...the drummer for Porno for Pyros - I haven't heard any of their music..."
Oh boy, you're in for a treat.
I know right?!
Most people who are NIN fans are Jane’s Addiction fans, and therefore PfP fans.
Ixi, when you can, listen to some of PfP stuff, pretty sure you’ll enjoy.
This whole album feels like the journey from adolescence to adulthood. From an idealistic, hopeful nativity, to a pessimistic, angry, shameful frustration, then finally a jaded and yet hopeful understanding of reality.
@skrapyard444 i missed a lot of things before I found this channel
the protagonist struggles to fight against his alter ego but he gives in and soon he will become a big man with a gun
nothing can stop him now
thank you for doing this analysis on one of the greatest albums ever made
cant wait to see how you do your analysis on
big man with a gun
a warm place
eraser
reptile
the downward spiral one of the most disturbing songs on the album itself
and hurt
Those Jazz type things coming in to "illustrate" the tension and broken feeling seems like the way Bowie used a similar idea in a lot of his songs
This song feels like someone treading water accepting they are to soon drown. It's not the distraction of sex or drugs and it's not the wallowing in self-destruction that depression forces one's thoughts into, it's a bit of clarity.. The lyrics also reflect this in 'Im always falling down the same hill, bamboo puncturing the skin, and nothing comes bleeding out of me, just like a waterfall I'm drowning in'.. and.. 'Two feet below the surface, I can still make out your wavy face, and if I could just reach you, maybe I could leave this place'. It makes me feel like I do when I listen to The Great Below, like succumbing to the reality of being tirelessly dragged to the bottom of the depths.
This is such a great interpretation. I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense to me. When I picture The Downward Spiral, I’m reminded of stretching a Slinky. There’s sharp drops/curves, then a relatively flat plain before it drops again. “Piggy”, “I Do Not Want This”, “A Warm Place” make me think of those flat stretches of the spiral. Maybe “Closer” could start from a flat plain in the spiral while the TDS theme at the end marks the beginning of another descent.
It took me a long time to actually listen to The Fragile. I was I to producing Hip-Hop and Horrorcore beats at the time along with a Korn/Deftones obsession. I bought (Halo 13). I heard “The Day The World Went Away” and “Starfuckers, Inc.” and I said “Nope!” Where’s that TDS genius sound design? I wasn’t crazy about the chorus of “Starfuckers, Inc.” for some reason, it was the word incorporated that I didn’t like and the satire went over my head. I never bought the album and I’ve been kicking myself. 6-7 years later I bought the And All That Could Have Been and Beside You in Time DVDs and said “Oh dear God what have I done? These songs are genius!” Of the first song I heard in ‘99 had been “Somewhat Damaged” or “The Wretched” I would’ve been all over that.
I recently saw or read an interview that The Fragile is coming back up from the conclusion of TDS and putting himself/protagonist back together. They’re not 100% successful, but it totally changed how I looked at that album and how personal some songs on it are like “The Great Below” and “I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally”.
I agree with your comments on “The Great Below” with one caveat. I’m pretty sure The Great Below is about the depression of losing his grandmother so I’m with you there but there’s almost a sense of hope or faith in it how he still feels her presence in his life “I can still feel you, even so far away.” The next song is called “The Way Out is Through” so it’s like he’s pulled from the water after “The Great Below” while he sinks deeper after “I Do Not Want This.”
I will say Trent has been my biggest musical influence and roadblock to writing music. He’s so incredibly talented that I feel I have no hope of coming close to writing one song half as good as his worst song. I’m going back to piano lessons as soon as I can in person.
Sorry this turned into a novella.
@@justintonation9726 I hadn't considered that theme for The Fragile and it makes a lot of sense. From the opening track Somewhat Damaged to The Wretched, they sort of look at depression from a wider lens, like stepping back and looking at the pieces. Songs like The Way Out is Through and Pilgrimage and Into The Void and others perhaps nodding towards the journey he has ahead, while others like Fragile and I'm Looking Forward to Joining You Finally and The Great Below being a bit more of a mix of longing and despair, but as you say not purely about himself dying. I had always internalized The Great Below with my own romantic loss and depression but your words give it a nice new light for me.
Just started watching this one but Im not sure if you know this but you can listen to this song in two different ways.
Displacing the rhythm by either havin the snare start on the down beat of 1... TATA DUN DUN TATA DUN DUN TA --
or having the kick on the down beat of 1... DUN DUN TATA DUN DUN TA TATA. =)
I've never tried it - will I be able to return? 👀
Dude you're right. I may have been hearing it "wrong" all along!
You executed this one SO well. When you paint the picture of what this song was like for you, it evokes so much of my own emotional memory. I remember being 15, feeling trapped in my own skin, and powerless. I thought to myself "This song is about me" (or people like me going through tremendous pain. In my old house, I carved lyrics from this song (can't remember which ones) and The Becoming "It won't give up, it wants me dead, God damn this noise inside my head" on the wooden part of my window. Lordy, the pain and angst of a teenager. Painful times, but simpler times.
Blues guitarist here, but NIN is easily Top 3 all time favorite bands. I was shown this channel by a friend and I absolutely love this channel.
Subscribed, and sharing this with everyone I know. You deserve way more views and subscribers. Looking forward to future videos
The way trent makes music especially in this album always has a feeling of broken but still functioning human being. A distorted mental breakdown that embraces resentment in the form of loath and betrayal. The beauty within this album has everything from fragility, disgust and aggressive dissonance from humanity. The character in PHM is the same person in TDS to me. He opened himself up and became completely vulnerable to someone who ending up taking advantage of the character in PHM. The character realizes this in PHM but is still subconsciously in denial. TDS is the realization of PHM. Instead of comming to terms with what happened, the character fosters resentment for their betrayal. They hate that even through this betrayal there is still a part of them that loves the person that betrayed them and they can't stand it to the point its breaks them mentally.
Maybe (and could be totally wrong) the fragile is the beginning of the new character of their attempt at suicide. They more or less move on but the scars are still healing. I like to think so anyways.
Anyways that was long winded and could keep going but that's my opinion🤗😅
Wait, what!?!?! That whole "horror movie" part...never noticed it!! wow!
love reading how different people take the downbeat or pickups to be in different places. For me this shows Trent Reznor has done his job of suitably disorienting us and that's obviously a main vibe going on. The intensely beautiful yet unsettling piano melody just reminds me of floating in a lake at night or something, tranquil yet dangerously close to ... danger... then the rest of the song just goes off on one and.. well yeah... He's a master at this isn't he, I think we can all agree on that. Thank you for these videos. It's late and I'm still working and really enjoying being accompanied by them.
Hints: Stephen Perkins is from Jane's Addiction also. Similar drum tones in "Three Days." Listen to the bridge.
"Three days" 😵😵😵... What a song!! 🙌🔥💕💞🔥💓!!
We'll make great pets
He actually played the drums for this song. Shown in the album booklet, he was credited for doing the drums on this track
I always felt the cacophony of sound at 3.35 (timestamp on actual track) sounded like a tsunami of rage or violence toward the world and oneself. One of the most perfectly designed tracks of all time.
My favourite part of the song and definitely one of the highlights on the entire album imo.
Thank you so fucking much for this. This is my all time favorite NIN song and seeing it analyzed in this way is just so fascinating and, quite honestly, emotional. You got a subscriber.
Why have I been checking in all day for this? Ixi. That's why.
Thank you for being patient :) ♥️
@@iximusic nah, Tuesdays are the new Christmas. I missed feeling this way.
Worth the wait!
This song is very personal for me as well. I grew up in an area where NIИ fans were rare, not isolated or religious or anything, everyone just liked radio songs, so I felt like it belonged to me in a way
This album came out in my early 20s. I was pretty depressed at the time and used to fall asleep to this album each night. I think that it's dissonance and unease was almost comforting. But a lot of times I would wake up during this song at the moment all that compression happens and I would feel like I would emerge with the song. Almost as if I was buried or drowning and I would raise up with that mantra "I wanna do something that matters!". A lot of bands like NIN, Skinny Puppy, etc really used sound engineering Transport the listener to a different place rather than just depending on the lyrics.
You are very talented in dissecting what I would call emotional thought through music. It's something I would like to believe everyone has done and is doing constantly, but you put it into words that aren't trying to arouse some kind of fight or flight emotion. You are very straightforward, logical and precise (well as precise as you can be) while also simply enjoying the sonic assault for what it is. There's just no end to great things people make on youtube as a platform. There are many others like it. The difficulty is in finding the ones that resonate with you.
Musical analysis of the songs that partly defined my life.. you will never find something like this on PBS or anywhere else. I know. I edit stuff for PBS. Ain't gonna happen.
Somewhat Damaged is anger that you're left behind and forgetten.
But this song is more desperate to keep up when everyone is too fast.
When they said that they care but left because you tried to collect yourself and they didn't bother to wait.
It's a song I listen to quite frequently.
And the piano adds comfort yet feels so mocking for thinking that it's comforting.
I love how you talk about the feelings this song gives you. So similar to my feelings with this song and the entire album. The whole thing just hit me at the right time. To feel so alone in my inner struggles, but then to find such a familiarity in experience and feeling with this album. This song and A Warm Place had such a similar aura. Like how they were almost their own little film score that didn't have to break into a pounding and instantly catchy hook that a lot of songs had. Almost like one element of a scene or feeling instead of an entire epic movie on it's own. Ugh, so good!
Damn, you totally messed with how I hear this song. But in a good way! I'd always heard those snares as the one, the downbeat. I tend to approach things from a metal perspective and that's a very metal thing to do, kinda stuttering on the downbeat like that. But NOW, I can also hear the whole damn song as syncopated. And I can shift it back and forth while I'm listening to it like I'm looking at an optical illusion with my ears. An audiollusion. And that's exactly the kind of thing Reznor would do, especially in a song about not being able find firm footing. Even if he didn't intend it, it still works because, like a lot of great art, this album is both extremely direct and wide open to interpretation. Great stuff, from you and from him.
Haha I had no idea I was hearing it displaced! I managed to listen once the "right" way but it took so much effort. It's cool that way too. I think I tend to hear syncopation more readily than stuff on the beat because of my own tendencies. Cool that you can switch back and forth 🙌
100% agree with the last part of your comment - he has to know how disorienting some of his songs are and how easy it is to interpret them multiple ways, like With Teeth, Survivalism, Big Man With A Gun and probably others!
@@iximusic Totally. Big Man With A Gun especially. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on that one. It (literally) screams to be heard as a hypermasculine electrometal fuckfest, but the more time I spend with this album (all your fault lol) and the story it seems to be telling, the more that song seems like the pivotal moment in this characters' journey. And it's deliberately obscured, like the last line in Hurt. I love it.
Your ability to put these songs into words, on top of your music breakdowns; put you among the best. Thank you so much for sharing your talents, NIN and downward spiral hold a special place inside me 👍✌️🤟🤘
.... I will mention the Fragile is my favorite!! 🤞😬
One of my favorites too!
This is my favourite song off of TDS...I love how the drum constantly varies throughout
It's in my top 2, I feel you. I love the drum variations too. No other song does that. Not like this one.
You notice the split rhythm of the drums, the snare in one ear is so harsh and relentless, the bass drum on the other channel feels more like a heartbeat...
I do not want any lipstick... he begins talking to 'Himself' again.
Stephen Perkins also from Jane's Addiction.
And don't you tell me how I feel!
And don't you tell me how I feel!
And don't you tell me how I feel!
YOU DON'T KNOW JUST HOW I FEEL!!!!!
I had the exact same experience with this album/ song. It kept me above water. I cannot put it into words. I tried at a concert in 2005 in DC. I was on the tour video but I just looked like an ass because I was drunk but what you didn’t see was me telling the person to let Trent know this exact thing. I lost everything and had to start over. Lost Job, the place I was living, fiancé all in a 6 month period. Moved back home got into drinking and partying and got pretty low. This album helped soooooooo much. I can relate completely.
🖤
As chaotic as this whole track is the piano parts always felt very comforting to me; like a hug trying to heal the hurt of the other assaulting sounds!!
Always love your dissections, just when I think I’ve herd most of the sounds you show me something new!! I can’t wait for your other reviews, thank you and love!!
Tritones really are the Trentiest thing on this album lol
I absolutely believe that those two notes you spoke of are an intentional motif. Like you said, Trent Reznor is a musical genius.
I always think in shapes, music and maths. I love that you speak in these terms
I wish I experienced music the way you do. And then to be able to communicate that so clearly and eloquently. I really do appreciate what you're doing.
Thank you for remind us to feel what we play ❤
Yea he does the same thing on Survivalism and Marilyn Mansons Organ Grinder. Same beat just a shift in accent. It’s kind of infuriating to listen to because it’s not an odd meter and it’s not a poly meter but it throws you off just as much if not more. Nice to hear it finally identified and validated. Love this channel. Love your analysis. Love the visual way you think of music. Love the technical proficiency. Love your playing. Love that it’s almost all NIN and when it’s not it’s Radiohead. New favorite channel, gonna binge for sure. Gonna shut up now.
So I have the downbeat wrong for I Do Not Want This, and I'm sorry to have misled y'all! I realized it after making the video :( But, here's a video about what's going on with Survivalism: th-cam.com/video/AkTnXgCkYgI/w-d-xo.html
oooh god you're getting into my fav part of the album, that fall from this on all my songs are in my head forever waiting for a Warm Place+Eraser damn...
I share your passion and I relate to everything you say in the beginning. That’s what’s so powerful about music. It hooks itself into your soul and becomes part of you. Nine inch nails is to music as David Lynch is to movies. Pure art and bliss
One of my favorites from TDS. I love the fact is named I dont want this but at the end in the song he tells what he really wants. And I think the song relates to any teenager or young adult, you dont know how I feel he said and I want everything in the world, I mean at that age who doesnt want that. Nice job! Greetings from Costa Rica
Amazing observation.
I’ve always wondered (personal and as audio engineer) how much of his compositions involved a deep understanding of psychoacoustics, binaural beats, and isochronic tones. He’s always able to stir up so many different emotions. Between the rhythms and frequencies he is able to completely take over ones mind. Thank you for sharing your personal emotions. My high school song was Something I can never have. It was the rawness of his vocals, the pain.
as far as that goes, it is rare that Trent uses or overuses reverb. he keeps everything pretty dry, so that your brain can easily isolate and pick out different parts on repeated lietens.
@@totalpartykill999 didn’t say anything about reverb…?
What are isochronic tones?
@@iximusic Isochronic tones are single tones that come on and off at regular, evenly spaced intervals. This interval is typically brief, creating a beat that’s like a rhythmic pulse. They’re often embedded in other sounds, such as music. Isochronic tones are used to stimulate and sync with your brain and for your brain waves to sync with the frequency that you’re listening to. Binaural beats are generated when two tones with slightly different frequencies are presented to each ear. The difference between these tones is processed inside your head, allowing you to perceive a specific beat. Monaural tones are when two tones of similar frequency are combined and presented to either one or both of your ears. Similar to binaural beats, you’ll perceive the difference between the two frequencies as a beat. The concept has been around a long time. It falls in line with things like biofeedback. The "why" certain sounds create different emotions and feelings. Really powerful stuff. They are just really starting to get a grip of it in the medical fields. I ramble. More than you were probably looking for. As an audio engineer I’ve found there is a lot more going on in music and sounds that I ever could have imagined. Mind Blowing.
I find this stuff fascinating so you're not rambling at all. Wowwwwow. I once read something about why bass drops in bass music affect us so much and their theory was that it excites our lizard brain, our fight or flight response, because in nature, frequencies that low are associated with natural disasters and dangers like avalanches, earthquakes, thunder, tornadoes, floods etc. Not quite what you're saying but that stuff fascinates me equally.
I'm writing something ambient and hypnotic for a visual. Maybe I should try experimenting with binaural beats! Thank you 🙏
Thanks again for going so in depth on this track as well. I have always felt like this track didn’t fit into the album until the chorus and outro. It’s as if sonically he is trying to escape the downward spiral but just can’t. That is what the piano motifs and verse melody remind me of...
You have a rare knack of explaining the uncanny in music. I'm not a musician, but I regularly watch all your videos, some of them over and over. Cheers from the sunny South of France.
Thank you, so kind of you to say and I'm really glad you're getting something of value out of the videos! 🖤🙏
@@iximusic Back in 1996 I wrote a novel (published a few years later) listening to The Downward Spiral in a row for inspiration. It's available in french and german. If you read either of these languages, I'll gladly send it to you.
It's interesting to hear your analysis of this song. It's the only track in the entire discography to date that I can't find a way to enjoy
In the mid to late 90s, The Downward Spiral was the first "popular" album I ever listened to after being a purely classical and jazz band kid. I instantly knew there was something special about Trent and have been a fan since.
18:55 this gave me flashbacks. I am a dancer and it very specifically reminded me of a time I got off the music on some kind of travelling step and was trying to modify my pace to get back in time with everyone else but kept failing miserably... luckily it was just rehearsal.
I make the same feel/fear error. Interesting!
Also, I hear the lyric "You don't know just how I feel" as "You don't know just how I *fell*"
One of the things I like about this song is how he adds and subtracts layers to the song during the course of it
The more I listen to nin the more I want to make my own industrial metal in a similar vein or pick his brain for how he did it, even watch his creative process unfold as he makes another soundtrack or something, it'd be a dream to make something and have him do the score for it!
That would be enlightening!
I watched your reaction video of the HEALTH collaboration first and this automatically came on afterwards.
As the song started playing I slipped my covers over my head and started slipping into that world. Then you started talking about tears streaming down your face as you listened on repeat.
100% same thing. Throughout my life I have hugged the speakers and sobbed to this song. It stimulates that reaction for sure and I think it's such a good thing!
Finished watching. I understood those other lyrics. To me it said "to fuck everyone in the world would be something that could matter to a desperate wretch who knows it all and has seen it all in their ego. Then .... he snaps! Big man with a gun
This is one of my favourite tracks off of this album! I love all these breakdowns you’ve been doing of NIN and the other artists you’ve analyzed, all of whom are some of my favourites!
Stephen Perkins is primarily known as the drummer for Jane's Addiction!
Wow, you described what it does to me, gets me inside, my bones, entrails, and makes me feel. Beautiful painful chaos. Lyrically and musically it’s the song I relate to the most out of any.
Everyone I've met who considers this album as important as we do all seem to say the same thing - "I connected with The Downward Spiral at a very bad time in my teen years." And I don't mean for that to sound dismissive because I was fifteen when it came out and IT HAS EVERY BIT OF IMPACT ON ME NOW AS IT DID THEN.
🖤
A lot of the samples and noises on the album were sampled by Chris Vrenna from old movies. Im pretty sure the one at 24.40 is from the original Day The Earth Stood Still, for example.
This video makes me love the song even more than I already did. I would not have survived without that whole fucking album.
This song is criminally underrated. Shit gets fucking insane from third minute onwards.
I appreciate your passion, honesty and attention to detail so much. Thank you so much for making these videos. I'm taking my time getting through all these TDS ones because, you know, takes a lot of emotional energy. Again, thank you so much for these. I love hearing a fellow fan's perspective and how you dig into the details and break things down!
This song is my favorite off of the album. It’s really cool that you’re taking the time to analyze these songs. It helps me appreciate them more. Thanks!
That's awesome, thank you for the comment 🖤
12:12 Reznor's signature suspension!!
I remember singing this song at the top of my lungs with the stereo blasting sometimes when my parents weren't home. That felt soooo gooood to do that. Or again when I got my first car and was driving by myself. So cool to hear the piano parts broken down. Seriously, they are so important in the song but I didn't understand what I was hearing so it was always in the peripheral. And I've never dissected the rhythm, so thank you thank you for this. Another great job ixi. Your delivery is awesome. What a good freakin song...
btw Steven Perkins... I didn't know it was his sample. Yeah he was in P4P but he was first in JANES ADDICTION and just take the time to listen to his drumming on those songs I think you'll be stoked/impressed. Everyone in that band played such an awesome role, but Perkins was an animal! I saw NIN in Vegas a few years back and we came out of the show and Perkins was playing in a drum band right outside and it took my NIN show/night to 11.
Great breakdown as usual - and I really enjoyed the part where the imposing E was relentlessly marching forward.
Just as with your other Downward Spiral videos, listening through this analysis was like experiencing the song with fresh ears again, which is so remarkable for something I've been listening to for over 25 years!
The piano melody never felt disorienting to me. The melody pins me down in place. It's the sound of anxiety in my chest. And the drums are pounding it even deeper. And when the wall of sound with the "Don't you tell me how I feel" part happens it's like I'm exploding and saying a big fuck you to everyone and everything, trying to beat this anxiety.
I always exhale sing to the oooohs and ahhhhs. Its a reflex
"Trentone" you make the coolest words :) -- such a good analysis ^_^ , love those deliciously haunting keyboard sounds u create! I also enjoyed the "BAM" 's lol
Thank you - seems you and I have a lot in common!
@@iximusic You are more than welcome ^_^ . I believe you're right!! I was just thinking that ^_^
Late catching up on this episode, but just wanted to say that ixi's introduction is so relatable. Love this song a great deal, but certainly tied to some negative feelings at the same time. Gets me in the gut every time.
This song reconnects with something I naively thought only I experienced. That's the strenght of this piece of art. Just done for you, talking to you, only you.
Moods and mental landscapes from the times I was listening to this, evasive and intimate sculptures I thought only idiosyncratic. It takes some deep genius to connect something that personal yet universal to such a point.
Thanks for the analysis, always a special thing to dissect those layers that are like part of me.
I love your channel!!! Looking forward for your next video. Thanks so so much!
This is my 'lying on the floor in my teenage bedroom' song - looking back I struggled with very poor mental health at that time in my life and this album dragged me through it, kicking and screaming. 20+ years later the downward spiral is still as raw and relevant as ever and dissecting it is very helpful. Hope you feel better @ixi music - always looking forward to your next vid or improv!
Thank you for making this channel! NIN is my favorite band of all time, fantastic work!
As always...great analysis!!!! So cool to hear you break the song down musically as well as what it means personally!
I love your channel. You’re incredible. You’re somehow putting into words a lot of things I have listened and felt by nin music that I never realized consciously.
Dude, thank you! I'm psyched to be Trentslating these works for y'all. 🙌
I was really waiting for this one. This one always meant a lot to me growing up, and I always felt like it was underrated, or just not talked about as much as others. Thanks for another fantastic breakdown!
I agree, no one talks about it. It's so important.
i have ALWAYS heard the drums starting on the 1. and i still do. i’ve never even considered that they were on the off beat, and no matter how hard i try, i still can’t hear it that way.
I’m the total opposite! I’m trying to hear the snare drum on the down beat since reading the comments, but it’s impossible for me. How interesting
Yes this is quite the development! I've been able to hear it with the snares on the downbeat but it took intense concentration and counting and clapping. It sounded great, obviously a bit different and with less syncopation. I feel like they all had to recognize that common displacement. Feeling skeptical of how I hear Big Man With A Gun, now!
@@iximusic i hear that one with the snares on the beats also. i’ve heard both songs that way for the last 27 years.
28:50 It also ties with Big Man With A Gun. Cuz it's delusional. It's the part of him that's an abuser. Me venting lol
I wish he played this live more often
Disorienting? I've got to say that this track is where I'm most home in my life.
I bought the Downward Spiral on the day it came out, after being mesmerized by Broken first and then Pretty Hate Machine. I was 16 and in a real bad spot, and I took a huge risk showing up to work an hour late so that I could buy this album. This track exactly describes how this world was beating me down.
Now I know that this world wasn't beating just me down. This world beats everybody down. I knew that I wasn't special, but now I knew that I wasn't special about being beaten down either. Just knowing that I'm not the only one who thinks this way was what I needed. There was somebody out there that knows what it really feels like. Somebody who's had a taste, and that meant something.
Perkins was in Jane's Addiction too
I have not heard your take on this song, which is my favorite on this album, but I've been waiting for this one! Going to listen at work. Can't wait!
I looove this song
That "whoosh" loop at 20:47 reminds me of an airplane engine before takeoff or after landing.
This video is just the best
You rock. This album made me become an audio engineer. The crazy part is when I worked with Bevan and Vrenna I used samples I made 16 (1994). #hardworkpaysoff
Likely my favorite on this song, followed closely by The Becoming. "I have lived so many lives all in my head" always resonated with me: because of my ADHD and anxiety, I overanalyze and mentally rehearse events and conversations to the point that I exhaust myself of following through with those experiences. And the purity of that frustration at the end: "I want to do something that matters." That always hits me when I'm struggling to deal with the impermanence of my daily grinding.
These videos are excellent. You've become my tuesday evening routine. Being a musician so inspired by NIN and knowing so little about theory, it's really cool to see songs that are so important to me examined from an angle I would never have seen them from otherwise.
Maybe as something different and in the NIN style, pull chords from a classic horror/suspense movie soundtrack and see if you can arrange them into a NIN style composition? I remember reading a Keyboard magazine interview. It might have been Trent or Chris Vrenna. But there was talk of sampling or analyzing old suspense flicks.
Thank you ixi.
When you talked about the tension of the sus 4, it crystallized something I've felt but haven't put in words. Sometimes a musician establishes a tonal center but floats around over that, between the 4th 3rd and 2nd. It feels like a scaled-down, more approachable, version of the floating disconnected feeling that Trent gets from his Trentones and the ambiguous melodic line in the verse of this song.
Re: the melodic line, it's like it wants to 'get there' but isn't quite able. It feels like when I have something to say and I try but I'm somehow unable... but the melody's brevity and repetition tells me that the message here is both simple and very important. Whether it's vocabulary, confidence, trust or whatever it is that's missing, something is getting in the way of that all-important message being expressed and understood. This connects to my sense of the album's theme of how isolation and disconnection amplify and distort our suffering.
At the exact same time as the piano plays this line, the lyrics are straightforwardly expressing the protagonist's pain. The combination is completely heartbreaking to me and really brought out my protective instincts when I first heard it. My reaction was a strong desire to want to offer care to the person who was suffering in this way. If our protagonist was able to feel understood and to receive care at this point, maybe their downward spiral could have been halted?
p.s. speaking of care, you said you're not feeling well: get well soon! :)
You should start your own blog/podcast/TH-cam with this quality analysis! 🖤🙌
@@iximusic ixi, that means a ton coming from you. I guess I just think about this stuff when I listen to great videos and discussions like these. I'll consider the idea!
Thank you so much for the encouragement :)
In an amazing twist of irony, I actually wanted this quite a lot!
This song and I go back a long ways....At the 3:00 mark to this day, puts me in a tornado of emotions. Even though my life is so wonderful. Retrospect is quite a thing. And at 4:10, the panning before He starts His mantra..... whewee... Thank you IxI this breakdown is so dope.
Definitely my favorite part in the song is the drums, the chorus, and the spoken word verses by Trent where it sounds like a sample from some movie or TV show even though it's just him talking which sounds really badass
“Hey, kid! You wanna try some tritones? First one is free.” -Trent Reznor, probably.
😂