History Music / NineInchNails

* ExcitedShowTitle: "''HYPERPOWER!''"

** "La Mer" and "Into the Void" both share basslines, though on "La Mer," it's not the main riff.

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: With his elegant features, rail-thin physique, razor-sharp cheekbones and long black hair, Trent absolutely epitomized this look in the '90s. This changed in the 2000s when he took up bodybuilding.

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: With his elegant features, rail-thin physique, razor sharp cheekbones and long black hair, Trent in the 90's absolutely epitomized this trope. This changed in the 2000's when he took up bodybuilding and is now very much a Main/Hunk with shades of Main/SilverFox thrown in for good measure as he gets older.

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Trent
** TheLancer: Robin
** TheSmartGuy: Alessandro
** TheBigGuy: Ilan
** [[SixthRanger Fifth Ranger]]: Atticus

* ''Hesitation Marks'' (2013)

* ''[[Music/GhostsIToIV Ghosts I-IV]]'' (2008)

* AddictionDisplacement: After finally getting clean of drugs and alcohol, Reznor became a weightlifting enthusiast.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Trent's sobriety and newly founded family have seemingly made him a much happier individual compared to ''The Downward Spiral'' era. The angst factor has significantly dropped because of it. This however divides the fans of the group even to this day, with one side preferring the "old Trent" and the other preferring the "new Trent."

* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** Trent had this kind of relationship with Chris Vrenna until 1997. They became friends as teenagers, owing to the fact that they grew up within fifty miles (90 km) of one another (Vrenna is originally from Erie, Pennsylvania; Reznor is from a town called Mercer, about forty minutes south).
** Trent with Atticus Ross from the 2000s on, to the point where he officially made Atticus the only other full member of Nine Inch Nails in 2016.

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Trent was most definitely this in the 90's with his long black hair, delicate features and rail-thin physique. This changed after he got clean when he cut his hair short and took up weightlifting.

* NiceGuy: Trent in all his glory. When you ''don't'' provoke him or piss him off, he comes off as approachable, well spoken and friendly. Which makes it shocking considering all the music he creates.

* WhenHeSmiles: Trent's so well-known for making extremely angry/sad music that it's treated as a genuine CueTheFlyingPigs moment whenever a picture surfaces of him happy.

-->--'''Trent Reznor'''

NIN is somewhat unusual in that for nearly three decades, [[IAmTheBand it was essentially one man]], Trent Reznor, who was doing everything. The first official member to be added to the lineup since the project's inception was long-time collaborator Atticus Ross, who was inducted in late 2016. Most members have come and gone, occasionally contributing to albums but mostly staying for the live shows. (One such member, Richard Patrick, struck out on his own and formed a little band you might've heard of called Music/{{Filter}}.)

* ''Ghosts I-IV'' (2008)

[[caption-width-right:350:[[RecoveredAddict "I am home...]] [[ReformedButNotTamed I believe."]][[note]]Ross on the left, Reznor on the right.[[/note]]]]

** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. Most NIN albums have sections with significant amounts of dynamics, but Reznor also likes to boost the levels on the loudest parts to the extent that they clip (and, like many artists who do this, it has gotten progressively more pronounced on later releases -- just compare the mastering on ''Broken'' to that on ''The Downward Spiral'', or the latter to that on ''The Fragile''). This is usually the case even on the vinyl editions.

** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. Most NIN albums have sections with significant amounts of dynamics, but Reznor also likes to boost the levels on the loudest parts to the extent that they clip (and, like many artists who do this, this has gotten progressively more pronounced on later releases -- just compare the mastering on ''Broken'' to that on ''The Downward Spiral'', or the latter to that on ''The Fragile''). This is usually the case even on the vinyl editions.

** ''Hesitation Marks'' was released in an "audiophile edition" which turned out not to be much more dynamic than the CD, though the vinyl had a decent range in comparison.

* LoudnessWar: {{ZigZagged|Trope}}. Most NIN albums have sections with significant amounts of dynamics, but Reznor also likes to boost the levels on the loudest parts to the extent that they clip (and, like many artists who do this, this has gotten progressively more pronounced on later releases -- just compare the mastering on ''Broken'' to that on ''The Downward Spiral'', or the latter to that on ''The Fragile''). This is usually the case even on the vinyl editions.
** ''Hesitation Marks'' was released in an "audiophile edition" which turned out not to be much more dynamic than the CD, though the vinyl turned out to have decent range in comparison.

* LoudnessWar: {{ZigZagged|Trope}}. Most NIN albums have sections with significant amounts of dynamics, but Reznor also likes to boost the levels on the loudest parts to the extent that they clip (and, like many artists who do this, this has gotten progressively more pronounced on later releases -- just compare the mastering on ''The Fragile'' to that on ''The Downward Spiral,'' or the latter to that on ''Broken''). This is usually the case even on the vinyl editions.

** Two songs on ''Broken'' feature the album's title by containing a reference to a ''broken'' machine. "Happiness in Slavery" features the lyric "Just some flesh caught in this big ''broken'' machine" and "Gave Up" features the lyric "Still cannot fix this ''broken'' machine."

* TheBackwardsR: The Cyrillic И is often used for the second N in the band's abbreviation, NIN, often used to make the initials symmetrical.

* AlbumTitleDrop: Done twice on ''Broken.''
-->'''"Happiness in Slavery:"''' Just some flesh caught in this big ''broken'' machine.\\
'''"Gave Up:"''' Still cannot fix this ''broken'' machine.
** ''Almost'' done in "Less Than":
-->Shut up, silence, ''add'' a little ''violence''
* AllLowercaseLetters: Most, if not all, of their liner notes.
* AloneInACrowd: "All the Love in the World."

* ArcWords: "Nothing can stop me now."

* TheBackwardsR: The Cyrillic И, often used to make the initials symmetrical.

** ''Fixed'' (1992): RemixAlbum of ''Broken.''

** ''Further Down the Spiral'' (1995): RemixAlbum of ''The Downward Spiral.''
** ''Closure'' (1997): Video album featuring music videos of songs from ''The Downward Spiral'' and previous albums, and recordings from live concerts in the Self Destruct Tour.

* ''[[Music/TheFragile1999 The Fragile]]'' (1999)
** ''Things Falling Apart'' (2000): RemixAlbum of ''The Fragile.''

** ''Still'' (2002): A companion compilation album to ''And All That Could Have Been'' featuring a mix of brand new studio tracks and LighterAndSofter arrangements of old songs.

** ''[=Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D=] (Year Zero Remixed)'' (2007): RemixAlbum of ''Year Zero.''

* ''With Teeth'' (2005)

* ''Pretty Hate Machine'' (1989)

The NIN discography, once a noisy gauntlet of '90s industrial rock, has become exceedingly varied over the years, ranging from ear-destroying screaming guitar death on ''Broken'' to beautiful, mellow piano pieces on ''Still'' to the groovy sound of bass and saxophone that lines much of ''Hesitation Marks'' and all kinds of twisted sounds in between, but a general tone of [[TrueArtIsAngsty angst, darkness and world-weariness]] has proven a strong through line. Their visuals are also known for being similarly free-spirited, with their music videos classifiable as everything from politically subversive to the sort of video which answers the question, "What if ''Film/{{Hostel}}'' had been a set for music videos?"