Broken
Encyclopedia
Broken is an extended play
release by American industrial rock
act Nine Inch Nails
, released on September 22, 1992. Produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor
and Flood, the EP is considerably heavier
and takes influence from industrial metal
and noise rock
, rather than the primitive electronica
style in Pretty Hate Machine
, which was oriented towards synthpop
.
Promotion of the EP was troubled. The music videos that accompanied 5 of the 8 total tracks were widely cluttered from television
airplay due to their disturbing content. Nevertheless, "Wish
" won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
and "Happiness in Slavery
" in 1995. As part of the act's elevation to mainstream success, Broken debuted to generally positive reactions, and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard 200
chart. A companion remix
EP, Fixed, was released in late 1992.
(1989), TVT Records
, the first record label to sign the band, pressured Trent Reznor
to record a similar album that had potential successful singles. Steve Gottlieb, the CEO
of TVT Records, was insistent that he would not release anything other than an album much like Pretty Hate Machine. Reznor demanded his label terminate his contract, due to their hindering control over his creativity of the Nine Inch Nails project, but they ignored his plea.
He then objected to the label's attempted interference with his intellectual property. This much-publicized feud with TVT led Reznor to use a variety of monikers for the production of his next studio release. Reznor later said that he hated TVT, somewhat due to their classification of Nine Inch Nails as a synthpop
band, and reached a deal with the record label that he'd sign to Interscope Records
:
" and "Terrible Lie", the first two tracks on Pretty Hate Machine
(1989), returned to work in 1992 on the EP for "Wish," "Last," and "Gave Up."
Reznor preferred to use a Zoom pedal for his Jackson
guitar at nearly all times. He would convert these recordings into audio files via a Digidesign
program on a Macintosh
computer. As Reznor explains in retrospect: "Broken [...] had a lot of the super-thick chunk sound, and almost every guitar sound on that record was [tapes consisting of] me playing through an old Zoom pedal and then going direct into Digidesign's TurboSynth [software in a Macintosh computer]. Then I used a couple of key ingredients to make it [be heard as being] unlike any 'real' sound."
Reznor's dog
, Maise, was invited to the production of the EP. Her barking was recorded, along with Sean Beavan
's line, "Ow!...fucker!", after Maise bit him. After being owned by Reznor for over three years, she died after jumping onto a railing of a three-story balcony to leg injuries and a cancellation of a concert, during the Self Destruct Tour
.
Development on the record was done at seven studios, Hell at New Orleans, Louisiana
, Royal Recorders at Lake Geneva
, South Beach Studios at Miami, Florida
; Village Recorder and A&M Studios at Los Angeles, California
, and Le Pig at Beverly Hills, California
. The last two studios were later used during the production process for The Downward Spiral
(1994). Tom Baker mastered the EP at Futuredisc. Following this step, Reznor presented the recording to Interscope Records
on September 1992, and signed to the record label, making Broken Nine Inch Nails' major label debut.
Heavier than Pretty Hate Machine
, Broken obviously takes influences from heavy metal
groups such as thrash metal
champions Metallica
, groove metal
fathers Pantera
, and industrial metal
bands such as Ministry
and Godflesh
. There are louder
mixes and more distortion
on every instrument, including a classic Mellotron MKIV
that was originally owned by The Beatles
' deceased frontman John Lennon, heard most particularly on "Gave Up". Reznor said he wanted the album to be "an ultra-fast
chunk of death
" for the listener, something that would "make your ears a little scratchy". In the liner notes
, Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band
as an influence on the EP's sound.
The lyrics are a critique on society
, the majority of its themes involve angst
, control
and dependency
struggles. For example, the lyrics for "Happiness in Slavery
" involve a nameless criminal, referred to in the song as "slave," who vandalizes crime
policies at the risk of submission, and destroys security equipment. The second single from the EP, "Wish
", includes the expletive fuck
thrice, used on the lines "Now there's nothing more fucked up I could do," "I'm the one without this soul/I'm the one with this big fucking hole" and "Gotta listen to your big time hard line bad luck fist fuck
."
Clocking at roughly 1 minute, "Pinion" is the shortest Nine Inch Nails song, in contrast to the longest song from the act, Further Down the Spiral
(1995) track "Self Destruction, Final". Another achievement is found in Broken: At 288 beats per minute, "Gave Up" is the fastest
Nine Inch Nails song ("Wish"'s tempo is 270 BPM), a record the opposite of the act's slowest song, the title track to The Downward Spiral
, set in the 50 BPM range. "Pinion" features a series of short, ascending, distorted guitar power chord
s and a collage of atmospheric loops, including a reversed sample of David Bowie
's "It's No Game
" (which is not credited in the artwork for Broken). A portion of this is used as one of the guitar riffs in "Wish", one of the two commercially released singles from the album. "Help Me I Am in Hell," another instrumental, ends with another uncredited sample, this time from The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
There are two bonus songs, which follow 91 silent, one-second tracks (numbered 7 through 97) on most CD copies, but were included as a separate 3" CD
or 7" record with early pressings. "Physical" is a cover of the Adam and the Ants
song "Physical (You're So)", originally released on the Kings of the Wild Frontier
LP." In 1995, Nine Inch Nails performed "Physical" live with Adam Ant
for two nights in a row. After Reznor introduced Ant and Marco Pirroni
on the second night, Ant proclaimed to the audience, "It's nice to be on stage with the best fucking band in the world." "Suck" was written by Pigface
, whose ever-changing lineup once included Reznor. The slower, sparser, radically different original version appeared a year earlier on Pigface's Gub
album. In live performances, Pigface usually plays a version similar to Nine Inch Nails' cover, as evident by the super-group's various live recordings like "Welcome to Mexico, Asshole" and "Glitch". However, their interpretation emphasizes the bass, de-emphasizes keyboards and computer effects, and lacks Reznor's "I am so dirty on the inside" break down. Reznor's version also does include Pigface's shout of "Suck! Suck! Suck!" after "How does it feel?", except it is faintly whispered on the cover version.
. Uppercase letters N
and backwards N are mocked by lowercase letters, while letter I
remains in uppercase. This aspect is featured twice: Its orange (colour)
front cover is satirized by two other versions, while misinterpretations of its lyrics in the artwork are accompanied with black backgrounds accompanying the N, whilst the reversed N lowercase letters on the disc art uses capital letter I. The simple back cover has no color, printed exclusively to the black
and white
format. The names of both the group and EP are in black font, while the notes in yellow
and highlights in red
. The two "hidden" songs are not listed with tracks 1 through 6 on the EP packaging. They are referred to as "7" and "8" in smaller text beneath the copyright information.
All copies include the logo of Nothing Records
, a first for the works of Reznor, making the EP itself Nothing's first album
. The vanity
record label was founded by Reznor along with John Malm, Jr.
, who was his manager at the time, when he had involvement in a feud with TVT Records. It had a short lifespan (Nothing Records existed for nearly 15 years); the label was created in 1992, as Reznor signed to Interscope before TVT entered into a joint venture with that major record label, where he mailed parts culled from his publishing rights to TVT Music, in exchange for the freedom of having his own imprint. A lawsuit from Malm allegedly forced Reznor to file a responding counter-suit charging Malm with fraud and breach of fiduciary duties, that Reznor won with a US$
2,950,000 award given to him in 2005 ($5 million in 2011 dollars), causing Nothing to cease to exist largely in 2004, then declared extinct following the February 2007 inclusion of the Beside You in Time
home video
, a Live: With Teeth 2006 concert tour documentary
, in markets.
The influence of Reznor's conflict with his former label, TVT, is evident in multiple aspects of the EP. After a long list of credits, the packaging reads, "no thanks: you know who you fucking are" followed by "the slave thinks he is released from bondage only to find a stronger set of chains." These comments are likely directed towards TVT Records' Steve Gottlieb, who refused to let Reznor out of his contract, sparking legal battles between the two parties. The "no thanks" part may be a response to the liner notes of Ministry
's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs
album, which featured a cryptic "no thanks, you know who you are."
Aurally, at the beginning of "Physical," Reznor whispers, "eat your heart out, Steve." Visually, in a music video for "Gave Up," the monitor of a Macintosh
computer running Pro Tools
reads "fuck you steve".
Despite the addition of "no thanks: you know who you fucking are," there is a "Thank You" section. People listed in that portion include Jimmy Iovine
, Ros Earles, Island Records
, Eric Greenspan, Rick Rubin
, Joe Mcewen, Seymour Stein
, Susie Tallman
, Mark O'Shea
, Ian Copeland
, Kevin Westenberg and Sheroa Rees-Davies.
Broken was originally packaged in a trifold-out digipak
, containing the six tracks on a regular compact disc
and an additional three-inch mini CD
with the two remaining songs, covers of Adam Ant
's "Physical" and Pigface
's "Suck". Due to the high cost of producing a two-disc EP, only 250,000 copies were released with the mini CD, subsequently Broken was re-released as one CD on October 1992, having the bonus songs heard on tracks 98 and 99 respectively, without any visual notice except for the credits, and tracks 7-97 each containing a second of silence
. The cassette release featured tracks 1-6 on side one, with "Physical" and "Suck" appearing at the tail end of side two, after approximately 15 minutes of silence.
The United Kingdom vinyl
release was pressed onto a one sided 12" which featured the six main tracks. The two bonus cuts were issued on a 7" single
given away inside the EP in a white die-cut sleeve (this is a unusual method for packaging an album on the vinyl
format).
The writing credit for "Suck" caused a minor controversy. Whereas the Pigface albums list all contributors to each of the songs, in this case "Atkins/Rieflin/Barker/Reznor" as listed on Gub
, the credit on Broken states "written by t. reznor/pigface". On the later Pigface release Truth Will Out
, the writing credit for the song is "whatever trent says – really – no shit".
being pleasured, tortured, and killed on a device led to MTV
banning the video outright. This stunted the single's growth, but the single "Wish" was much more successful with an aggressive live performance on the music video, then later winning a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Reznor commented about winning the Grammy that on his gravestone, he wanted it to read "Said Fist Fuck, Won a Grammy."
The companion EP Fixed included six remixes of material from Broken and was released three months later, in December 1992.
musical film
also named Broken was created during and after the production of the EP. It was rumored to be a snuff film
with all of its songs with the exception of "Last," "Physical," and "Suck" playing to a scene. This movie was directed by Peter Christopherson
of Throbbing Gristle
fame. A music video
for "Gave Up" would prove to be part of the film, as well as the videos for "Happiness in Slavery" and "Wish". Portions of Broken would, however, be released as part of the "Closure" VHS, which was released after The Downward Spiral
. Due to the graphic substance of "Gave Up", an alternative version of the music video consisting of the song being performed at Le Pig studios by Reznor, a young Marilyn Manson
and Richard Patrick
was released to MTV
. Much of the cast, aside from Bob Flanagan
in "Happiness in Slavery", and the band itself in "Wish", is unknown. The film is generally credited to be directed by Peter Christopherson
, although the music videos themselves were directed by various other people: "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am in Hell" is credited to Eric Goode
and Serge Becker, while "Happiness in Slavery" is credited to Jon Reiss
.
A music video for "Happiness in Slavery" was universally banned, though a few attempts to air it were successful. A episode of Raw Time aired "Happiness in Slavery" at 3:00 AM to unanimously positive response from viewers. Another program, Music Link, broadcasted the video at midnight.
Broken has not been given an official commercial release (according to Reznor, because they wanted to avoid the film overshadowing the prominence of the music), thus adding to its mythological status in alternative culture
. The original hand-dubbed tapes were distributed by Reznor to various friends with dropouts at certain points so he could know
who distributed any copies that might surface. Reznor, commenting in the "Access" section of the NIN website, implied that Gibby Haynes
was responsible for the most prominent leak. This copy was traded on VHS tapes for years (resulting in many poor-quality, high-generation copies), and was later encoded in MPEG
and AVI
formats and distributed extensively through peer-to-peer
networks and Nine Inch Nails fan websites. These are generally not of the highest quality, as they are not first-generation copies.
|style="text-align:center;"|1993
|"Wish
"
|rowspan="2"|Best Metal Performance
|
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|1996
|"Happiness in Slavery
"
|
|-
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
release by American industrial rock
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
act Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, released on September 22, 1992. Produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
and Flood, the EP is considerably heavier
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
and takes influence from industrial metal
Industrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...
and noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
, rather than the primitive electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
style in Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
, which was oriented towards synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
.
Promotion of the EP was troubled. The music videos that accompanied 5 of the 8 total tracks were widely cluttered from television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
airplay due to their disturbing content. Nevertheless, "Wish
Wish (song)
"Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. The most successful song from the EP, "Wish" cemented Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" won the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Reznor later joked that his epitaph should read:...
" won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for works containing quality performances in the heavy metal music genre...
and "Happiness in Slavery
Happiness in Slavery
"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by the American act Nine Inch Nails. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to Story of O. It is available on the Broken EP and was also released as a 12" promotional single in November 1992. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S...
" in 1995. As part of the act's elevation to mainstream success, Broken debuted to generally positive reactions, and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart. A companion remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
EP, Fixed, was released in late 1992.
Background
After the commercial and critical success of Pretty Hate MachinePretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
(1989), TVT Records
TVT Records
TVT Records was an independent US record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 25 year history the label released some 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Underworld, The KLF, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and...
, the first record label to sign the band, pressured Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
to record a similar album that had potential successful singles. Steve Gottlieb, the CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of TVT Records, was insistent that he would not release anything other than an album much like Pretty Hate Machine. Reznor demanded his label terminate his contract, due to their hindering control over his creativity of the Nine Inch Nails project, but they ignored his plea.
He then objected to the label's attempted interference with his intellectual property. This much-publicized feud with TVT led Reznor to use a variety of monikers for the production of his next studio release. Reznor later said that he hated TVT, somewhat due to their classification of Nine Inch Nails as a synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
band, and reached a deal with the record label that he'd sign to Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
:
We made it very clear we were not doing another record for TVT. But they made it pretty clear they weren't ready to sell. So I felt like, well, I've finally got this thing going but it's dead. Flood and I had to record Broken under a different band name, because if TVT found out we were recording, they could confiscate all our shit and release it. Jimmy IovineJimmy IovineJames "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
got involved with Interscope, and we kind of got slave-traded. It wasn't my doing. I didn't know anything about Interscope. And I was real pissed off at himCriticismCriticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...
at first because it was going from one bad situation to potentially another one. But Interscope went into it like they really wanted to know what I wanted. It was good, after I put my raving lunatic act on.
Recording
Reznor secretly made the then untitled recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference. English record producer Flood, who produced "Head Like a HoleHead Like a Hole
"Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails. A song influenced by industrial metal group Ministry, it was released as the second single from the group's debut album Pretty Hate Machine...
" and "Terrible Lie", the first two tracks on Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
(1989), returned to work in 1992 on the EP for "Wish," "Last," and "Gave Up."
Reznor preferred to use a Zoom pedal for his Jackson
Jackson Guitars
__FORCETOC__Jackson is a renowned brand of electric guitar that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson.-Early years:Grover Jackson obtained ownership in Charvel's Guitar Repair of Glendora, California in the 1970s with a promise to bolster Charvel's business...
guitar at nearly all times. He would convert these recordings into audio files via a Digidesign
Digidesign
Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...
program on a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer. As Reznor explains in retrospect: "Broken [...] had a lot of the super-thick chunk sound, and almost every guitar sound on that record was [tapes consisting of] me playing through an old Zoom pedal and then going direct into Digidesign's TurboSynth [software in a Macintosh computer]. Then I used a couple of key ingredients to make it [be heard as being] unlike any 'real' sound."
Reznor's dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, Maise, was invited to the production of the EP. Her barking was recorded, along with Sean Beavan
Sean Beavan
Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, and audio engineer best known for his work with Guns N Roses, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer...
's line, "Ow!...fucker!", after Maise bit him. After being owned by Reznor for over three years, she died after jumping onto a railing of a three-story balcony to leg injuries and a cancellation of a concert, during the Self Destruct Tour
Self Destruct Tour
Self-Destruct Tour was a concert tour in support of industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral album, which took place in early 1994, running until mid-1996, and was broken into 8 legs....
.
Development on the record was done at seven studios, Hell at New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Royal Recorders at Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
, South Beach Studios at Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
; Village Recorder and A&M Studios at Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and Le Pig at Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. The last two studios were later used during the production process for The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records. It is a concept album detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his "downward spiral" to his climactic attempt at suicide...
(1994). Tom Baker mastered the EP at Futuredisc. Following this step, Reznor presented the recording to Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
on September 1992, and signed to the record label, making Broken Nine Inch Nails' major label debut.
Music and lyrics
Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released October 20, 1989, on TVT Records. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of reworked tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after its recording...
, Broken obviously takes influences from heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
groups such as thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
champions Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, groove metal
Groove metal
Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. It was often used to describe Pantera and Exhorder.- Characteristics and origins :Pantera's Cowboys from Hell album from 1990 was described as "groundbreaking" and "blueprint-defining" for the groove metal genre...
fathers Pantera
Pantera
Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. Formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell in 1981, bassist Rex Brown would join in late 1981 with vocalist Terry Glaze. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera had Terry replaced in 1987 with Phil Anselmo as...
, and industrial metal
Industrial metal
Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...
bands such as Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
and Godflesh
Godflesh
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham, England. Originally known as Fall of Because, they formed in 1988 by Justin K. Broadrick and G.C. Green and disbanded in 2002. Godflesh's innovative music is widely regarded as a foundational influence on industrial metal and post-metal...
. There are louder
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
mixes and more distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
on every instrument, including a classic Mellotron MKIV
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
that was originally owned by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' deceased frontman John Lennon, heard most particularly on "Gave Up". Reznor said he wanted the album to be "an ultra-fast
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
chunk of death
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
" for the listener, something that would "make your ears a little scratchy". In the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
, Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band
Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series
Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series was a series of tours in support of Nine Inch Nails' debut album Pretty Hate Machine. The series took place over much of North America and Europe from 1989 to 1991...
as an influence on the EP's sound.
The lyrics are a critique on society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
, the majority of its themes involve angst
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
, control
Control (management)
Controlling is one of the managerial functions like planning, organizing, staffing and directing. It is an important function because it helps to check the errors and to take the corrective action so that deviation from standards are minimized and stated goals of the organization are achieved in...
and dependency
Behavioral addiction
Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on drugs or alcohol. Increasingly referred to as process addiction or non-substance-related addiction ) behavioral addiction includes a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences...
struggles. For example, the lyrics for "Happiness in Slavery
Happiness in Slavery
"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by the American act Nine Inch Nails. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to Story of O. It is available on the Broken EP and was also released as a 12" promotional single in November 1992. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S...
" involve a nameless criminal, referred to in the song as "slave," who vandalizes crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
policies at the risk of submission, and destroys security equipment. The second single from the EP, "Wish
Wish (song)
"Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. The most successful song from the EP, "Wish" cemented Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" won the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Reznor later joked that his epitaph should read:...
", includes the expletive fuck
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
thrice, used on the lines "Now there's nothing more fucked up I could do," "I'm the one without this soul/I'm the one with this big fucking hole" and "Gotta listen to your big time hard line bad luck fist fuck
Fisting
Fisting is a sexual activity that involves inserting a hand into the vagina or rectum. Once insertion is complete, the fingers either naturally clench into a fist or remain straight. In more vigorous forms of fisting, such as "punching", a fully clenched fist may be inserted and withdrawn slowly...
."
Clocking at roughly 1 minute, "Pinion" is the shortest Nine Inch Nails song, in contrast to the longest song from the act, Further Down the Spiral
Further Down the Spiral
Further Down the Spiral is a remix album by Nine Inch Nails, and was released on June 1, 1995. It is the tenth official Nine Inch Nails release and is the companion remix disc to The Downward Spiral...
(1995) track "Self Destruction, Final". Another achievement is found in Broken: At 288 beats per minute, "Gave Up" is the fastest
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
Nine Inch Nails song ("Wish"'s tempo is 270 BPM), a record the opposite of the act's slowest song, the title track to The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records. It is a concept album detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his "downward spiral" to his climactic attempt at suicide...
, set in the 50 BPM range. "Pinion" features a series of short, ascending, distorted guitar power chord
Power chord
In music, a power chord is a chord consisting of only the root note of the chord and the fifth interval, usually played on electric guitar, and typically through an amplification process that imparts distortion...
s and a collage of atmospheric loops, including a reversed sample of David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "It's No Game
It's No Game
"It's No Game" is a song written by David Bowie for the 1980 album Scary Monsters , featuring lead guitar played by Robert Fripp...
" (which is not credited in the artwork for Broken). A portion of this is used as one of the guitar riffs in "Wish", one of the two commercially released singles from the album. "Help Me I Am in Hell," another instrumental, ends with another uncredited sample, this time from The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
There are two bonus songs, which follow 91 silent, one-second tracks (numbered 7 through 97) on most CD copies, but were included as a separate 3" CD
Mini CD
Mini CDs, or “pocket CDs” are CDs with a smaller diameter and one third the capacity.-Formats:Amongst the various formats are the* Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD singles in certain regions , much like the old vinyl single...
or 7" record with early pressings. "Physical" is a cover of the Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era...
song "Physical (You're So)", originally released on the Kings of the Wild Frontier
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Kings of the Wild Frontier is a New Wave album by Adam and the Ants, released in 1980 . This album introduced the new Burundi drum sound. After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren, who used them to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier...
LP." In 1995, Nine Inch Nails performed "Physical" live with Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
for two nights in a row. After Reznor introduced Ant and Marco Pirroni
Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni is an English guitarist, songwriter and record producer...
on the second night, Ant proclaimed to the audience, "It's nice to be on stage with the best fucking band in the world." "Suck" was written by Pigface
Pigface
Pigface is an industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.-History:Pigface was formed from Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste tour, which produced the In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up live album and video. For the tour, Al Jourgensen brought...
, whose ever-changing lineup once included Reznor. The slower, sparser, radically different original version appeared a year earlier on Pigface's Gub
Gub
Gub is the second release and first LP by Pigface. It is notable for featuring contributions from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails before Nine Inch Nails achieved mainstream success....
album. In live performances, Pigface usually plays a version similar to Nine Inch Nails' cover, as evident by the super-group's various live recordings like "Welcome to Mexico, Asshole" and "Glitch". However, their interpretation emphasizes the bass, de-emphasizes keyboards and computer effects, and lacks Reznor's "I am so dirty on the inside" break down. Reznor's version also does include Pigface's shout of "Suck! Suck! Suck!" after "How does it feel?", except it is faintly whispered on the cover version.
Packaging
The packaging for Broken is a parody of the official Nine Inch Nails logo, created by Gary TalpasGary Talpas
Gary Talpas is an American art director and photographer. Talpas worked as designer and art director for Nine Inch Nails on Pretty Hate Machine, "Head Like A Hole", The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral. Talpas also worked on Smells Like Children for Marilyn Manson.-References:...
. Uppercase letters N
N
N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet...
and backwards N are mocked by lowercase letters, while letter I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
remains in uppercase. This aspect is featured twice: Its orange (colour)
Orange (colour)
The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB colour space, the expression of which is the RGB colour wheel. The...
front cover is satirized by two other versions, while misinterpretations of its lyrics in the artwork are accompanied with black backgrounds accompanying the N, whilst the reversed N lowercase letters on the disc art uses capital letter I. The simple back cover has no color, printed exclusively to the black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
and white
White
White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
format. The names of both the group and EP are in black font, while the notes in yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
and highlights in red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
. The two "hidden" songs are not listed with tracks 1 through 6 on the EP packaging. They are referred to as "7" and "8" in smaller text beneath the copyright information.
All copies include the logo of Nothing Records
Nothing Records
Nothing Records was an American record label, specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992...
, a first for the works of Reznor, making the EP itself Nothing's first album
Nothing Records catalog
This is a catalog for Nothing Records, organized alphabetically by catalog number:-Catalog:...
. The vanity
Vanity label
A vanity label is an informal name given sometimes to a record label founded as a wholly or partially owned subsidiary of another, larger and better established record label, where the subsidiary label is controlled by a successful recording artist, designed to allow this artist...
record label was founded by Reznor along with John Malm, Jr.
John Malm, Jr.
John Malm Jr. is the former manager of Trent Reznor and his band Nine Inch Nails . He was also a co-founder, along with Reznor, of Nothing Records.-Early career and collaboration with Trent Reznor:...
, who was his manager at the time, when he had involvement in a feud with TVT Records. It had a short lifespan (Nothing Records existed for nearly 15 years); the label was created in 1992, as Reznor signed to Interscope before TVT entered into a joint venture with that major record label, where he mailed parts culled from his publishing rights to TVT Music, in exchange for the freedom of having his own imprint. A lawsuit from Malm allegedly forced Reznor to file a responding counter-suit charging Malm with fraud and breach of fiduciary duties, that Reznor won with a US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2,950,000 award given to him in 2005 ($5 million in 2011 dollars), causing Nothing to cease to exist largely in 2004, then declared extinct following the February 2007 inclusion of the Beside You in Time
Beside You in Time
Beside You in Time is a live home video release by Nine Inch Nails, issued in Europe on February 26, 2007, and the United States on February 27, 2007. Beside You in Time is also the title of a track on the NIN album With Teeth. The video documents NIN's 2006 Live: With Teeth tour, and is available...
home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
, a Live: With Teeth 2006 concert tour documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
, in markets.
The influence of Reznor's conflict with his former label, TVT, is evident in multiple aspects of the EP. After a long list of credits, the packaging reads, "no thanks: you know who you fucking are" followed by "the slave thinks he is released from bondage only to find a stronger set of chains." These comments are likely directed towards TVT Records' Steve Gottlieb, who refused to let Reznor out of his contract, sparking legal battles between the two parties. The "no thanks" part may be a response to the liner notes of Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs
Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs
-Samples:Samples.N.W.O.*"All right! It's all right!" - Apocalypse Now*"What we are looking at is good and evil, right and wrong." "A new world order!" "We're not about to make that same mistake twice." "God bless America! [crowd cheering]" "Wait...watch and learn." "I believe in freedom." -...
album, which featured a cryptic "no thanks, you know who you are."
Aurally, at the beginning of "Physical," Reznor whispers, "eat your heart out, Steve." Visually, in a music video for "Gave Up," the monitor of a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer running Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
reads "fuck you steve".
Despite the addition of "no thanks: you know who you fucking are," there is a "Thank You" section. People listed in that portion include Jimmy Iovine
Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
, Ros Earles, Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, Eric Greenspan, Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin is an American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin was the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings...
, Joe Mcewen, Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard magazine in 1958. Stein is a vice president of Warner Bros...
, Susie Tallman
Susie Tallman
Susie Tallman is a singer and recording artist known for recording children's music.Tallman graduated UCLA with a B.A. in voice performance. Tallman then spent several years in Europe, singing with a number of choirs in Paris...
, Mark O'Shea
Mark O'Shea
Mark O'Shea is a herpetologist, photographer, author, lecturer, and television personality.Originally from Wolverhampton, Mark O'Shea moved to Shropshire in 2001...
, Ian Copeland
Ian Copeland
Ian Adie Copeland was a pioneering American music promoter and booking agent who helped launch the New Wave movement in the United States....
, Kevin Westenberg and Sheroa Rees-Davies.
Broken was originally packaged in a trifold-out digipak
Digipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
, containing the six tracks on a regular compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and an additional three-inch mini CD
Mini CD
Mini CDs, or “pocket CDs” are CDs with a smaller diameter and one third the capacity.-Formats:Amongst the various formats are the* Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD singles in certain regions , much like the old vinyl single...
with the two remaining songs, covers of Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
's "Physical" and Pigface
Pigface
Pigface is an industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.-History:Pigface was formed from Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste tour, which produced the In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up live album and video. For the tour, Al Jourgensen brought...
's "Suck". Due to the high cost of producing a two-disc EP, only 250,000 copies were released with the mini CD, subsequently Broken was re-released as one CD on October 1992, having the bonus songs heard on tracks 98 and 99 respectively, without any visual notice except for the credits, and tracks 7-97 each containing a second of silence
Silence
Silence is the relative or total lack of audible sound. By analogy, the word silence may also refer to any absence of communication, even in media other than speech....
. The cassette release featured tracks 1-6 on side one, with "Physical" and "Suck" appearing at the tail end of side two, after approximately 15 minutes of silence.
The United Kingdom vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
release was pressed onto a one sided 12" which featured the six main tracks. The two bonus cuts were issued on a 7" single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
given away inside the EP in a white die-cut sleeve (this is a unusual method for packaging an album on the vinyl
Vinyl
A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group ,which are derivatives of ethene, CH2=CH2, with one hydrogen atom replaced with some other group...
format).
The writing credit for "Suck" caused a minor controversy. Whereas the Pigface albums list all contributors to each of the songs, in this case "Atkins/Rieflin/Barker/Reznor" as listed on Gub
Gub
Gub is the second release and first LP by Pigface. It is notable for featuring contributions from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails before Nine Inch Nails achieved mainstream success....
, the credit on Broken states "written by t. reznor/pigface". On the later Pigface release Truth Will Out
Truth Will Out
-Personnel:* Martin Atkins* Genesis Breyer P-Orridge* Boozie* Gooch* Jim Marcus* Flour* En Esch* Barb Ruchoft* Nivek Ogre* Andrew Weiss* Hope Nicholls* Matt Schultz* Fil* William Tucker* Jolly* Theo Van Rock-External links:...
, the writing credit for the song is "whatever trent says – really – no shit".
Release and reception
The EP sold well upon release, and eventually went platinum despite a complete absence of touring in support of Broken. The lead single "Happiness in Slavery" received moderate airplay, but its music video, which depicted Bob FlanaganBob Flanagan
Bob Flanagan was an American performance artist, comic, writer, poet, and musician.-Early life:...
being pleasured, tortured, and killed on a device led to MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
banning the video outright. This stunted the single's growth, but the single "Wish" was much more successful with an aggressive live performance on the music video, then later winning a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Reznor commented about winning the Grammy that on his gravestone, he wanted it to read "Said Fist Fuck, Won a Grammy."
The companion EP Fixed included six remixes of material from Broken and was released three months later, in December 1992.
Music videos
Not long after the EP's release, a short horrorHorror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
also named Broken was created during and after the production of the EP. It was rumored to be a snuff film
Snuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
with all of its songs with the exception of "Last," "Physical," and "Suck" playing to a scene. This movie was directed by Peter Christopherson
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....
of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
fame. A music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Gave Up" would prove to be part of the film, as well as the videos for "Happiness in Slavery" and "Wish". Portions of Broken would, however, be released as part of the "Closure" VHS, which was released after The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral
The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released March 8, 1994, on Interscope Records. It is a concept album detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his "downward spiral" to his climactic attempt at suicide...
. Due to the graphic substance of "Gave Up", an alternative version of the music video consisting of the song being performed at Le Pig studios by Reznor, a young Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
and Richard Patrick
Richard Patrick
Richard Patrick is an American rock musician. He is the frontman for the band Filter, a founding member of the supergroup Army of Anyone, and has served as a touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails....
was released to MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. Much of the cast, aside from Bob Flanagan
Bob Flanagan
Bob Flanagan was an American performance artist, comic, writer, poet, and musician.-Early life:...
in "Happiness in Slavery", and the band itself in "Wish", is unknown. The film is generally credited to be directed by Peter Christopherson
Peter Christopherson
Peter Martin Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy was a musician, video director and designer, and former member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis....
, although the music videos themselves were directed by various other people: "Pinion" and "Help Me I Am in Hell" is credited to Eric Goode
Eric Goode
Eric Goode is an American hotelier, restaurateur, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist. He is best known as the creator of the nightclub Area and B Bar in New York City, and more recently of the Bowery Hotel.-Biography:...
and Serge Becker, while "Happiness in Slavery" is credited to Jon Reiss
Jon Reiss
Jon Reiss is an award-winning producer and director, named one of "10 Digital Directors to Watch" by Daily Variety. His work has screened at prestigious film festivals around the world, including Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Tribeca, Los Angeles, Rotterdam, Seattle, New Directors/New Films, and Sao...
.
A music video for "Happiness in Slavery" was universally banned, though a few attempts to air it were successful. A episode of Raw Time aired "Happiness in Slavery" at 3:00 AM to unanimously positive response from viewers. Another program, Music Link, broadcasted the video at midnight.
Broken has not been given an official commercial release (according to Reznor, because they wanted to avoid the film overshadowing the prominence of the music), thus adding to its mythological status in alternative culture
Alternative culture
Alternative culture is a type of culture that exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures...
. The original hand-dubbed tapes were distributed by Reznor to various friends with dropouts at certain points so he could know
Canary trap
A canary trap is a method for exposing an information leak, which involves giving different versions of a sensitive document to each of several suspects and seeing which version gets leaked....
who distributed any copies that might surface. Reznor, commenting in the "Access" section of the NIN website, implied that Gibby Haynes
Gibby Haynes
Gibson Jerome "Gibby" Haynes is an American musician, radio personality, and painter, and the lead singer of the group Butthole Surfers.-Early life and career:...
was responsible for the most prominent leak. This copy was traded on VHS tapes for years (resulting in many poor-quality, high-generation copies), and was later encoded in MPEG
Moving Picture Experts Group
The Moving Picture Experts Group is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 by the initiative of Hiroshi Yasuda and Leonardo Chiariglione, who has been from the beginning the Chairman...
and AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
formats and distributed extensively through peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
networks and Nine Inch Nails fan websites. These are generally not of the highest quality, as they are not first-generation copies.
Track listing
Album personnel
- Trent ReznorTrent ReznorMichael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
– writing, performance, production - Flood – production
- Martin AtkinsMartin AtkinsMartin Clive Atkins is an English drummer and session musician, best known for his work in post-punk and industrial groups including Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface, and Killing Joke...
– drums on "Wish" - Chris Vrenna – drums on "Gave Up"
- Tom Baker – mastering
Album
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
18 |
| The Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
7 | |
| 1993 | New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
46 |
Singles
| Year | Song | US Alt. |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | "Happiness in Slavery Happiness in Slavery "Happiness in Slavery" is a song by the American act Nine Inch Nails. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to Story of O. It is available on the Broken EP and was also released as a 12" promotional single in November 1992. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S... " |
13 |
| 1993 | "Wish Wish (song) "Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. The most successful song from the EP, "Wish" cemented Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" won the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Reznor later joked that his epitaph should read:... " |
25 |
Certifications
| Country | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|
| Canada Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
Platinum |
| United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
Platinum |
Grammy awards
|-|style="text-align:center;"|1993
|"Wish
Wish (song)
"Wish" is the second promotional single from Nine Inch Nails' Broken. The most successful song from the EP, "Wish" cemented Trent Reznor's image as a rage-fueled star to the public. "Wish" won the Best Metal Performance in the 1993 Grammy Awards. Reznor later joked that his epitaph should read:...
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|rowspan="2"|Best Metal Performance
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|style="text-align:center;"|1996
|"Happiness in Slavery
Happiness in Slavery
"Happiness in Slavery" is a song by the American act Nine Inch Nails. The song takes its title and refrain from Jean Paulhan's preface to Story of O. It is available on the Broken EP and was also released as a 12" promotional single in November 1992. The song peaked at number 13 on the U.S...
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External links
- Broken at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Album Review at The Daily Collegian (Penn State)
- Album Review at Entertainmentopia
- Halo 5 at NINCollector.com