We Hope Your Rules and Wisdom Choke You: The Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails debate

So I think technically I am a little late on commenting on this, but in the two weeks since I encountered Wired Magazine’s Reznor v. Radiohead voting exercise (for lack of better description), I’ve turned this little one-sided mini-fued over and over in my mind and found myself more and more annoyed.

The Facts:

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails (which is really just Trent Reznor at this point) have both ceased to use record labels. Radiohead opted not to renew their contract with EMI Recordings after their 6-album deal expired following 2003’s Hail to the Thief. NIN… well, I’m not really sure when Trent Reznor stopped using a label, but he most certainly made a big stink about it when it happened. Both entities have also had strong web presences for many years — NIN used its website to hype up The Fragile, their 2000 double-disc; Radiohead’s website has been a confounding and intriguing maze since 1997’s OK Computer, and actually became central to the experience and marketing of 2000 and 2001’s Kid A and Amnesiac. Both bands are very creative and considered to be cutting edge; both bands have fanatical followings; both bands are often critical darlings whose magazine tongue baths are rarely reflected on the mainstream music charts.

I also have had, and still do have, pretty intense obsessions with both. My high school years were pretty much evenly split between the two. I have all but one of the Nine Inch Nails halos (which is what they called their released material — and this includes the two-part visual halo 12, which I believe I own in VHS so hey, let me date myself there…); I have all of Radiohead’s LPs, all of their EPs, a large number of foreign and domestic singles, live recordings, bootlegs of concerts I’ve attended, copius sheet music, posters, autographs, insane tales.. and, frankly, a look at the list of albums under “Radiohead” on my iPod is almost embarassing in its quantity (computer problems have stranded some of my Radiohead recordings — especially the rarer singles — on the hard drive of my old and now very dead desktop, but the current count of Radiohead songs on my iTunes is over 200 and that’s all you need to know, ok?)

What I’m trying to say is that I have loved, intensely, them both. And in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I feel that I grew out of Nine Inch Nails at some point — the lyrics tended to be rather navel-gazing and goth and I just… I grew up. I’m not that person anymore. And while I really do still love some of their stuff, I don’t keep on NIN like I do with Radiohead. I am still an absolute Radiohead fanatic. My answer to the question “What is the greatest band of your lifetime/generation?” is always and absolutely Radiohead. I thought it only be fair that you know I am slightly biased towards them; but I want to stress that I am not biased against NIN. Follow? Cool.

The Immediately Preceding Circumstances:

In 2007, Radiohead annouced that it was releasing its 7th full length album in a mere two weeks. Holy shit! said the world, We didn’t even know you were recording! And, hey, don’t you not have a record label anymore? Wait! How am I gonna get this album?!
Never fear! answered Radiohead (decked out in superhero costumes and standing in front of a glorious sunset with the perfect wind ruffling their hair, of course), It shall be available online! Through our website!
Oy! said the world, Won’t that be expensive?
No! replied Radiohead, It shant! You shall pay whatever you want
The world responded with dumb silence.

Ok, that may have been a slight dramatization of what actually happened, but it’s only slight. Music critics hunched feverishly over their iBooks (I use a PC thanksverymuch), tappity-tapping away in amazement. Industry execs prompty lost their shit, then got it back and started scoffing in the band’s face. You’ll never make any money, they chided, No one willingly pays for money anymore.

But ha ha, ha-ha ha ha. They were wrong. People downloaded in droves, and the pay-what-you-want system worked. The band made millions (though have refused to release an exact figure). People payed anywhere between $0 and $200 USD for it (I paid 4 GBP or 8 USD, out of love and respect for the band). The album debuted at number 1 or something like that – I don’t know, I just know it was a success. Then, at the beginning of 2008, they released it as an CD in record stores. And you could buy a special $80 USD set that gave you the CD, a CD of B-Sides from the album, two vinyl records, and a special art book. I bought that, too.

The Beginning of the Battle:

Apparently, all this success rankled Trent Reznor. Trent, you see, had been working on an epic 4-part amorphous online album that was 36 songs long and instrumental. (My gut, by the way, just did the “pretentious” roll, but I remind myself here to let musicians be musicians and if they want to indulge, by god indulge!) And the (albiet smaller) NIN fan community was super psyched by it. He released Ghosts I-IV at the beginning of March, 2008. The pricing worked this way: $5 for a stream; $10 for a double-CD; $75 for a set with bonus visual content; and a crazy-ass box set for $300 (obvs, being as he is American, all those prices are USD). But unlike Radiohead, who made headlines for their move, Reznor’s album was (sadly) largely ignored. And that got him pissed.

The Comment:

NME first reported the burgeoning fued in March of 2008, a week after Reznor released his album, and right when he announced his sales figures (as Radiohead chose not to):

However, speaking on the subject of Radiohead to American TV Network ABC, Reznor said: “What they (Radiohead) did was a cool thing. But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream. There’s nothing wrong with that – I but don’t see that as a big revolution [that] they’re kinda getting credit for.”

Reznor added: “What they did right: they surprised the world with a new record, and it was available digitally first. What they did wrong: by making it such a low quality thing, not even including artwork … to me that feels insincere.”

Ok, biatch. It’s on now.

Wired Gets Involved:

The internets, being what they are, kinda exploded with rage from both sides. Yeah! said NIN fans who felt stiffed by the lack of attention, Radiohead totally waited and saved the good recordings to make you buy them on CD!
Um, screw you said Radiohead fans, I got this shit for FREE, LEGALLY.

Being the most credible technology and culture magazine with a website, Wired got involved. This little feature was set up to compare and contrast the strategies of the two bands and have people vote on them to determine who is more, I don’t know, futuristic and cool or something. The way things look now, they’re basically tied (by category, at least).

My Two Cents

Dude, Trent Reznor, SHUT THE FUCK UP. First of all, it’s missing the point to call the release of In Rainbows a “bait and switch” situation. I have IR in both its downloaded and CD formats (thx, box set!), and the quality difference between the two is there, but it is negligable. My download sounds great. When I burned one of the songs onto a mix CD, it sounded great. In fact, it sounds like all the songs I ripped off CDs. I feel no desire and/or need to go to the store to buy the CD to recifty an imagined quality gap. I don’t know a single other person who has expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of their download and subsequently bought the CD. In fact, all the people I know who somehow have an IR CD, have it because they got the awesome box set. Which, may I add, cost $220 less than yours. And each was made to order. So they couldn’t run out. Suck it.

Second, the argument you make about lack of visual content, while interesting, is somewhat irrelevant. IR is among the least artwork-oriented Radiohead albums, ever. In fact, they’ve become increasingly less art-oriented since Kid A and Amnesiac. Hail To The Thief had beautiful oil paintings associated with it, but I think the band realized that with the increase of online music buying, the importance of album art was waning. Now their website and their merchandise carry the work of their incredble artistic partner, Stanley Donwood. But, frankly, downloading lots of album art with my music just mucks up my iTunes. Again, this is why I bought the IR box set. (Also, props to Wired for pointing out that Kid A offered music and videos as iBlips in 2001. So they got you by 7 years, Trent.)

Third, if we’re comparing music and what’s being offered here, I think you need to look into why your album is 36 songs long. I understand the desire to shatter the concept of the album, but this looks to be — to me — an example of very poor self-editing. The Fragile was only two discs and it could’ve used some serous editing. I can’t imagine this is any better. Also, I like words. Give me lyrics! Give me singing!

I think most of my ire here comes from knowing that Radiohead released the better album, the better music, and that really makes Reznor’s comment sound like sour grapes. He didn’t get to be the first to do the online format thingie, the critics didn’t fall all over themselves to lavish him with praise when Ghosts was released, and so he lashed out and insulted Radiohead and their technique. Of course, Radiohead has remained silent and focused on their upcoming world tour which will completely dominate the summer music scene. They’ve earned the right to be above this fray, and so far they have been. Good on them. I hope that Reznor can swallow his pride and admit that Radiohead’s strategy, its subsequent interaction with their fans (their music video contest comes with a $10,000 prize, and they’ve recently offered up stems for remix purposes), and its success with IR was just better than theirs. It doesn’t always have to be a contest.

But if you’re gonna throw barbs like that at the best thing to happen to pop and rock music since The Beatles, you better be ready to back it up with something fierce.

–Sara