Pretty Hate Machine

33⅓ Main Series #78

by Daphne Carr

What is the world that Nine Inch Nails made, and what was the world that made Nine Inch Nails? These are the questions at the heart of this study of the band's 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine .
The album began as after-hours demos by mercenary new wave keyboardist Trent Reznor, and was disciplined into sparse industrial dance by a handful of the UK's best industrial producers. Carr traces how the album became beloved in the underground, found its mass at Lollapalooza, and its market at the newly opened mall store Hot Topic. For fans, Nine Inch Nails was a vehicle for questioning God, society, the family, sex, and the body. In ten raw, heartbreaking oral histories woven through the book, fans living in the post-industrial Midwest discuss the successes and failures of the American dream as they are articulated in Nine Inch Nails' music. Daphne Carr illuminates Pretty Hate Machine as at once singular and as representative of how popular music can impact history and change lives.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Journalism, The United States Of America, Pop Culture, Essays

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2011

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. The title not withstanding, infuriatingly little material regarding PHM is contained herein (and even less regarding the writing and recording of the album). Instead, ten oral histories constructed around some pet angry white men, whom it seems the author has been collecting (mostly via online forums) over her years of NIN fandom, make up the bulk of this book. That there was a bit of early Reznor biography included is the only reason that this isn't a one-star review. From page one, the author comes off as a know-it-all graduate student writing her senior thesis. More galling, though, is the intro chapter relating NIN to the "trench coat mafia" of Columbine notoriety. Give me a fucking break. How trite and contrived could a book idea possibly be? Wacky concept: instead of forcing a clichéd frame onto the material, why not simply write about the music itself?

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracing NIN's career arc is like trying to map the trajectory of an angry star that burns and burns until finally transforming itself into a nightlight.

It's kind of a sad story and one that comments on the trajectory of this country, maybe. At least some aspects of the story goes like this:

You are a product of your environment. You hate your environment. You rebel against constraints. You feel things other people don't. You express yourself uniquely. Most people aren't geniuses and most people's self-expression comes out sounding like shit, but yours doesn't. People relate to you, even to your unrelatability. You become popular. You become a Voice. You make fucking brilliancy. You get a lot of money and you like what money can afford you. You are good at business. You turn your art into a business. You become the thing you hate. You water yourself down to market yourself to more people. Business translates your creativity into dollar signs. You write about that. You become more and more of a commodity. People feed off you. You can't feel anything genuinely anymore. You make soundtracks to movies about social networks. You disappear off the face of the earth.

The Downward Spiral is probably one of my top ten favorite albums of all time, but I wouldn't want to see NIN in concert because they have become a thing. They have become part of the environment.

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Something strange happens on page 107: the author actually (briefly) returns to discussing Trent Reznor as a musician, something abandoned back on page 38. Most of the book consists of exhaustive histories of three cities (Mercer, PA, Youngstown, OH and Cleveland, OH) and aimless, unlinked introductions to ten Nine Inch Nails fans who freely share private details from their lives. (The last fan is the only one with anything remotely insightful to say about Pretty Hate Machine. You know, the album that gives this book its title?) With both the former and the latter, there are only a few moments that link these ancillary subjects to the band's music. Fellow Goodreads member Chris says it succinctly in his own one-star review: "this would have actually been interesting had there been ANY history on the making of the record. why else would someone have a desire to read a book about a record?"*

Disclaimer: It's been a long time since I have been resentful of a book.

I respect that the author (overly) researched every conceivable angle in creating this book and what an enormous labor of love this must have been...though to what exactly, I'm clueless. It argues Pretty Hate Machine's importance, but is completely unsuccessful because it never offers any analysis of, or insight into, the album itself, not mention speaking of its wide influence on anything other than Hot Topic sales. Speaking to fellow audiophiles, this book reads like bootleg albums sound. This messily pasted together book has a tone more befitting of an Angelfire page created by a fanatic pathetically begging to be understood. Coincidentally, the author credits most of the ten white males interviewed by the Internet handles they use on the Nine Inch Nails fan forums online. As a result, the book is a blurry tribute to inarticulate fandom, a terribly boring premise best articulated in the book by someone other than the author, quoting one of the aforementioned forums: "(1) You're a dime a dozen. (2) Lyrics you found personal and make you feel somewhat unique to comprehend are rather well-acknowledged." (15)

These are not the only points that make the book so baffling. Take for example the biggest hurdle the book trips over: Pretty Hate Machine's inferiority to future albums (the most widely revered being The Downward Spiral), a view that seems to be held by the vast majority of the ten people interviewed and one that the author openly admits to sharing. So why write a book about Pretty Hate Machine at all? In another example, the author chooses, in the opening pages, to make an isolating and head-scratchingly weak argument linking Nine Inch Nails fans to the media's misrepresentation of the music and fashion choices of the Columbine killers. The author states her hope to "reclaim" the phrase "trenchcoat mafia" for Nine Inch Nails fans. (8) ("Reclaiming," when used respectfully and appropriately, is when members of oppressed groups aim to remove the power from certain words and phrases--hate speak that has been wielded like weapons during periods of oppression--by using the words and phrases in new contexts unaffiliated with oppression.) Thankfully, this absurd notion that "trenchcoat mafia" is a phrase that needs "reclaiming" was never touched upon again. By book's end I was wondering (a) how anyone could say something so ignorant and (b) why it was given such a weighted significance in the opening chapter if only to be forgotten.

* Notice how I referenced a semi-anonymous person in a way that was actually relevant to my point?

- - -

Because I am a loving person who usually avoids making sharp criticisms in public forums, I feel obligated to point out something positive in the book:
The most insightful section describes the birth and rise of the mall chain, Hot Topic. (133-139) It reminded me of how hard it was to find band t-shirts or hard-to-find releases before mainstream options like Hot Topic and today's online vendors. While the chain was started as an answer to this problem, it explains why everyone pre-Hot Topic sees it as something for poseurs who didn't have to work for it and only follow music for fashion. It goes on to say that, even in the internet age, the chain will be valued: "The good thing for Hot Topic is that as long as there are suburbs, there will be malls and angry 13-year-olds." (139)

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daphne Carr thanked Daphne Brooks - inception! I loved that in the acknowledgments because they're both talking about two of my favourite musicians Trent Reznor and Jeff Buckley. That was a high-level nerd out for me. The Jeff Buckley's Grace edition of 33 1/3 is one of the editions I plan to read again quite soon. I bought it years ago and I definitely want to re-read it now.

ANYWAY, getting into this edition of the series on Pretty Hate Machine, I loved that this focused on the elements of Trent Reznor as an artist and as a younger man that drew people to Nine Inch Nails. I've loved NIN beginning from my transition from middle school going into high school and honestly, I think it's tragic that she didn't get more ethnically and regionally diverse perspectives on what Trent Reznor means to people outside of like Ohio and a few other places.

I love this take on the series too because it's less about the production of the music, which is a feature of most 33 1/3s, and more about what the music means to the listeners and to the culture on a whole. I love that take.

I know what NIN represented for me. They were one of the first heavy bands I got into in my early teens and though I didn't know everything about Trent and the fan base, I clearly and deeply related to the music, it's multilayered industrial madness and the visceral lyrical content of both Pretty Hate Machine and my tie for an absolute favourite NIN album, The Fragile. I remember my mom first listening to my copy of Pretty Hate Machine, music explorer that she is, and realizing that I had complex feelings. She didn't even know what to say to me about why I related to and loved this music but she was like - yo Chantel, this is dark, but this is good (and this is too old for you but it's whatever).

I love that Daphne Carr captured those relational feelings arising in the listeners. I'm just mad as fuck that it's only a specific type of listener that she captured.

I also like the fact that she highlighted Trent Reznor's involvement in the black community and working with diverse artists to produce music not typically listened to by his own listeners. It speaks to the universality of the man, regardless of the assumed fake-homogeny of the listeners.

I liked that she explored the elements of sex and repression held in NIN's music as well as lots of discussion around the duality and conflicting morality of Catholicism and Christianity, that many including Trent struggle with. I related to that segment because it was also around that time where I started questioning things in my Catholic upbringing and realizing that a majority of the teachings are just hacky b/s.

All in all, this was a strong effort - great in its relatability and angle and terrible in its limited inclusivity.

[Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brilliant framework (PHM as a product of/compensation for rust belt collapse) that would have been better served by more sociological analysis, less ethnography. Perhaps Carr wished to be kind to the young white men she interviews, allowing their consumption/identification with NIN to stand as is. However, this too easily reads as bad cultural studies: letting people identify with pop culture without a more direct critique of the socioeconomic lack that produces that identification.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this. Instead I found myself actually just wanting to talk about the album with my friends who loved it with me when it came out.

[Łukasz Langa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this. As much as a maniac I am about NIN, I find this book light on background information on PHM and NIN.

The bulk of it is spent on "interviews" with random people about what NIN means for them. I say "interviews" in quotes as they're formatted as monologues, it's hard to say to what extent the content was edited by the book author after the fact. I'll say I can relate to what they say, if not through my first-hand experience, then through the life stories of some of the friends I had in my high-school years. I can see how angry music can be a poor man's therapist. I appreciate that the interviewees were Ohio or Pennsylvania locals, making their perspective unique in the sense that Trent was literally an everyman for them. They could see themselves in him. None of them knew him though.

The author also makes herself one of those protagonists, talking about her particular experiences in a very similar light. Unlike the other interviewees, she can articulate her thoughts very well and some of her observations around the Rust Belt, Youngstown, and Cleveland are pretty interesting. However, this isn't what I expected from a 33 1/3 book. I mean, I read many of them at this point, and sure, there isn't a blueprint on how to write a successful one. But when you pick up a 33 1/3 book, you do have some expectations. Most of those books go deep into the "moment in time" that lead to the particular album, they talk at length about recording, production, and the compositions. They talk about the other people involved. They talk about the publishing side of things. Some analyze the music in great detail, some analyze the lyrics. Some look forward and discuss how the particular album in question lay foundations for future work of the same artist.

There is very little of that here. Instead, you have interviews that by the fifth or sixth start being pretty repetitive. Another person from a broken family, an aspiring unsuccessful musician with a history of mental illness and/or drug addiction. Another story on how "Terrible Lie" is their favorite track and how they're not religious but, actually, they are. Then some comments about how shutting down the steel mills was an orchestrated operation to fuck everybody over. Then some comments about how Trent later sold out and the interviewee never listened to "The Fragile" in its entirety. Maybe some criticism of Trent's lyrics. And finish it off with some incel self-loathing or a comment on how NIN is no longer who you are.

Each interview is titled after a track from PHM but the connection there is pretty light. The interviewees talk more about TDS, "Wish" and "Terrible Lie" than the track in question. And when they do go there, they don't have much to say. I don't want to dunk on those people, I don't want to dislike them. But I *do* because they're just wasting my time.

The book covers "Hot Topic", a retail chain specializing in counterculture clothing and accessories. There's at length discussion of how it's profit-driven, non-genuine, finicky in what it promotes, and how its customers are poseurs. This would be interesting as a paragraph or two. Instead, we get an entire chapter on it. It's puzzling like the Volkswagen commercial section of the "Pink Moon" 33 1/3.

Still giving it ★★★☆☆ because I enjoyed the parts where Daphne speaks in her voice. The background discussion of the time and place in which PHM was created was valuable to me. I wish for a version of this book with the interviews cut down to short quotes, and the rest of the reclaimed space spent on direct analysis of PHM, maybe an interview with Trent and other musicians involved in the album. Like, Flood and John Fryer would be awesome to hear from.

What are some good 33 1/3 books then? Let me recommend three that are absolutely not alike but each one presents fantastic insight into the work in question. "Selected Ambient Works, Volume II" is probably my favorite. "Murmur" is very good too, closer in genre to what we're discussing here. Finally, "Bitches Brew" is a riveting narrative on an album that I'm not even that fond of.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

In one sense I can fully understand why this may not be for everyone, but I got a lot out of this. Coming in at over 150 pages this is a candidate for the longest in the series, but also one of the most interesting. This takes the most creative and original approach I have come across so far, and from the opening page this screams quality.

Carr sets the scene really well by painting the background of Ohio and to a lesser extent western Pennsylvania, one of disinvestment, chronic industrial decline and lack of opportunities leading to crime, poverty and illness, one such scene which is all too common throughout so much of America today.

There’s some really nice touches in here, like the inclusion of a map, which I've never seen in this series before. Carr has collected a selection of snapshots from the lives of various NIN fans and brought them together, showing the many ways the music influenced and helped them in their life at times. Carr also ensures to get people who have outgrown their phase and are able to have a bit more balance and reflection about Reznor and his lyrics etc, which prevents this from being too panegyrical.

Marrying the darker yet more melodic moments from mid-period Depeche Mode and New Order along with a pinch of Ministry, Trent Reznor really hit a sweet spot with PHM. Although his sound would grow hard and harsher down the line, this caught the man in a very interesting period, where we could still find some, dare I say poppier moments along with the synth and guitars to create a lovely balance of synth driven poppy darkness, with occasional grinding guitars.

Personally I think this is easily NIN's best album and aside from a little naivety and rawness, has aged pretty well, its short enough to keep you wanting more but long enough to hit the spot. “Head Like A Hole” remains a classic single and there are many other highlights tucked away in this fine debut.

[elif sinem · Rating 2 out of 5]

So a discussion of the album this is not. Like not at all. Past the point of the Youngstown chapter it's a good insight into the Rust Belt, its history, and current culture, plus the genesis of NIN at the start was very interesting. But the people interviewed in the first half especially when they're younger sound so alike and never have anything of value to say - it's very amusing. Also not sure if I enjoyed the Hot Topic chapter. It was a good essay but maybe not... needed here?
Shame. I think this record would have made a good musical analysis, especially with its marriage of the white industrial scene and the hip hop approach of sampling (and rapping, and also its blunt penmanship).

[Jesska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, 33 1/3 editors, contact me to write the book on Broken. THX

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 33 1/3 title I've read. I'm not sure if oral history/fan interview is the norm for the series? It was interesting, seeing how NIN fans' interest changed or evolved over the years and why they found the band - and Pretty Hate Machine - so entrancing in the first place.

I picked this volume in the series because a) I could see it on the library shelves and b) I recognized the album title (and c) I needed a non-fiction book about music for the SRC). I was never a NIN fan, but I liked the way Reznor put the beats, samples, and melodies together. I didn't quite get a lot of the lyrics (I still don't) but to each their own.

Definitely will pick up other 33 1/3 entries in future.

[matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carr takes an interesting approach to PHM, connecting the geography of where the record was made--and its economic collapse--to the very specific type of fandom that made NIN a early-mid 90s phenomenon. The sparse page count doesn't always provide its complex subject matter justice and some of the interviews are bogged down by very similar narratives but overall one of the most ambitious entries in this series I've read thus far.

[Reid Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish i could give a 3.5/5 but you cant on here and giving it a 3 felt more of a crime than a 4.

Disclaimer: NIN has been more or less my favorite band for about 13 years now, i do not think this book is worth it if you arent at least very acquainted with the PHM record, if not NIN overall. But knowing PHM at least is essential to an enjoyable reading of this. If you havent heard it, do yourself a gigantic favor and give it a spin. Hopefully it changes your life like it did and continues to do so for me.

2nd disclaimer: The 33 and 1/3rd series is a bit misleading, as some of these books arent actually all, or even mostly about the album or artist mentioned in the title. With that being said, the sections that do not focus on the artist, lets say not the "behind the scenes" style passages, still manage to do magic with putting into words the emotional, social, and cultural phenomenon caused by the artist in name. Each 33 and 1/3rd book has a different author, premise and writing style from my understanding.

Carr says she was inspired by a book about Springsteen fans in the late 80's for this one, where a lot of it is focuses on interviews and analyzing how this release impacted peoples lives and how it reflected struggles/events around the time it was released.

A lot of these fans have astonishing eloquence, and I found myself dumbfounded realizing despite me listening to this record a million times and feeling what theyre feeling, i could never quite grasp with words what Reznors music was doing to me, at least not like some of these fans.

With that being said, i believe if you are a long time NIN fan, whether youve distanced yourself from your fandom or not, there's a lot here to make you appreciate NIN more. And again its not just the technical aspects of his music, more so the emotional power it has had on many listeners.

What makes these fan testaments all the more powerful is the multiple passages we get about Ohio/Pennsylvania history, as this is where our chad frontmon Tront came from.

What i didnt expect is the use of a very intersectional analysis to be woven into Reznors rise to stardom as well as why this music sat well (and didnt) with so many people of those states. The closure of steel mills, loss of jobs, rise in suicide and divorce, rise of spousal abuse, segregated housing, segregated music cultures, rise of the suburbs, of the shopping mall, the book really NAILS the fact that its difficult for art to ever be divorced from the political reality in which it came from. A lot of these topics i wouldnt have thought would be a foundation for Trent's attitude and success, but its hard to not see his legacy now, reading this, as something other than a reaction to a lot of the trends under neoliberal capitalism. Our homes and communities have been turned into cookie cutter development projects, which displace more meaningful centers of community we had. We are now supposed to get more of our sense of meaning from consuming, rather than producing something of our own. Suburbia, shopping malls, economic distress, the widespread alienation of the American people as they realize the American dream is now the American nightmare. NINs music reflects the nihilism instilled in us from the system that makes everything seem meaningless, the anger for being invalidated in our grief over this change, and a desperation that perhaps we can find salvation/rescue from this capitalist hellscape whether its through religion, drugs, or sex and romance.

A lot of people complaining that this book was too focused on elements that dont directly concern NIN/Reznor and how that makes this book worse. While i did wish for a bit more of that, on the contrary, the concept of this book being about the emotional impact of NIN has a more important place in public discourse than simply discussing Reznors skillset/gear/compositions or whatever. What this book told me is that a strong dedicated fandom is hard to come by, and is a precious thing that should be cherished and cannot be taken for granted. Much like a good friend can be hard to come by, so can a fandom and having the privilege/pleasure to enjoy an artist so much. Its easy as an art nerd of whatever form to think everyone has "their thing" but go ahead and have a music convo with those around you in your life and chances are unless you hang out with musicians, it will quickly reveal your relationship with music is a more special one than most have. Not that youre better because of it, it just is, and should be nurtured and celebrated for the joy and whatever else it brings to you.

I can safely say this book has some very wholesome discourse on fandoms and community and made me be happier to indulge in them. Being a fan after all is a big part of identity, and identity is a big part of something humans often seek to confirm/discover .

Kinda wanted a bit more technical/gear and production talk here, but even though that is what i came for, i certainly was still impressed. Overall kind of felt like i went to a NIN/alt/goth group therapy kind of thing that made me feel rejuvenated and more comfortable with myself and my passions.

[Ross Bonaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a throwaway line in Daphne Carr's "Pretty Hate Machine" book that feels very eye-opening in regards to what this book is trying to do. In the passage, Carr mentions that she was working on a book on the Midwest and the crumbling cities that fell apart due to economic hardships. But then her friend told her about the 33 1/3 book series and it really seems like instead of making a book specifically about Nine Inch Nails's debut album, she reformatted her book that she was working on into a book that is only kind of about "Pretty Hate Machine"?

This book is trying to do a lot of things and therefore not doing much very well. At times, Carr is trying to place Trent Reznor almost as the Midwest version of Bruce Springsteen, a champion of the middle class that that area can look up to. As someone who has listened to Nine Inch Nails for decades, I’ve never even once considered music and style to be part of any one location, let alone placing himself as an icon of Midwest. It’s an odd choice that never quite makes sense.

This also comes up because the majority of Carr's book is reliant on interviews with fans of Nine Inch Nails all from around the area where Reznor grew up. For some strange reason, Carr has also only interviewed white male fans of Nine Inch Nails who she primarily met online. And while she says this is because that is the predominant audience for Nine Inch Nails, that doesn’t necessarily make these interviews interesting. So many of them fall into the same trajectory: a white dude who didn’t feel like they fit in, but listened to Nine Inch Nails and felt like they belonged a little bit more than they previously. We get 10 of these interviews, and unfortunately, none of them ever quite stand out. Carr mentions that each interview ties into a different song on "Pretty Hate Machine", but that never really coalesces into anything interesting.

Even stranger is how most of these subjects don’t seem particularly that interested in "Pretty Hate Machine" to begin with. Someone will talk about how it was their introduction to NIN or how they appreciate songs like "Head Like a Hole" or "Terrible Lie," the most popular songs on the album, the ones that we all know, but these fans are very clearly more interested in "The Downward Spiral" than this album. Which, once again, makes this feel like Carr trying to shoehorn this album into her discussion of Midwest economics, which almost always feels out of place in this book.

Again, this feels like so many clashing ideas that don’t really tie together into a compelling book, especially one supposedly about this one specific album. The only time it really works is when Carr decides to explore the legacy of Reznor's family history where he grew up, but Carr leans into this discussion of Resor as the Midwest personified in a way that just never clicks.

By the end of the book when the interviews are done and Carr has had her say on the Midwest, the book ends with a chapter about the relationship between Nine Inch Nails and Hot Topic of all things. It doesn’t so much seem like this has anything to do with "Pretty Hate Machine", but rather Nine Inch Nails and their attempt to be a commodity as opposed to a band. Carr traces the history of Hot Topic and it’s rise and fall, as well as how the store grew up alongside Nine Inch Nails. And maybe the idea of tracing Nine Inch Nails from underground success to millionaires doing things their own way through the economic freedom that money provides would be interesting, but like feels like a tacked-on chapter that isn’t discussing anything that came before it. An odd choice in a book comprised primarily of odd choices.

I think one of the worst things the 33 1/3 book installment can do is have the writer sort of get lost in what they wanna talk about, rather than making the album the focal point. Well, I don’t mind that this book would explore the economic history of where residents grew up and how that might’ve inspired him to become who he is and the people who are still in that region who connect with Reznor's music, but it’s handled in such an awkward way within this book which doesn’t even feel like it’s all that focused on "Pretty Hate Machine" to begin with, even though that’s the damn title of this book. I want to go into these books in the series and come out with a greater understanding of the album at hand. With "Pretty Hate Machine," I feel like I come away from this book without any deeper insight to an album that should be fascinating to delve into.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been an at-a-distance fan of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails since the mid 90s. Definitely one of my inspirations to play rock-based keyboards in my free time. I'll finally be seeing them live in a couple days for the first time. They have some hilarious music videos (one of my favorite directors David Fincher got his start here!) and I'm particularly a fan of the soundtrack work that Trent has been doing. However, I never really GOT that band, and I'm far from an obsessive super fan, of which they have millions. After reading this book, I get them only slightly better...

This book has a very bizarre structure. The first 25% is similar to the other 33 1/3 books I've read, giving a history and biography on Reznor and the origins of the band, with some song analysis. But then the mid 50% are solely fan mail, with the decision to ONLY take essays from fans who live in the same Cleveland-Youngstown-Pittsburgh region where Reznor grew up (and then quickly moved away from once he reached success) giving a special emphasis over and over on what a shithole rust belt that area is, as if it was trying to make some point (as if NIN can't also have fans who didn't also grow up in his back yard?) The last 25% is the most bizarre of all, since it turns into a literal history of Hot Topic, the mall store where NIN was their best seller for a while, which really served no point at all and never gets back to the music.

I've seen much much better from this label, and I seriously question what this book was actually trying to accomplish!

[Lisa Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not about the album. If you can let go of that complete mismatch between the promise and the actual content, it's pretty good.

Carr mostly discusses the cultural context of the Mercer / Cleveland area in the 1980s. Personally, that really worked for me - as a Brit in my late thirties, who became a fan around 2000, I enjoyed learning about this Rust Belt history that I was previously totally unaware of. Those chapters were fascinating, insightful and very well written. But we can't run away from the fact that this book promises to be about a band and an album.

The fan interviews were just alright, if taken as additional context for the regional and its socio-economic situation in the late 2000s. I was disappointed that quite a few of the fans interviewed didn't really seem to be fans anymore though.

I didn't connect with the chapters on mall culture and Hot Topic - the author is hinting at some sort of symbiosis between the band and the store, but any conclusions weren't very clear to me. Perhaps because I've got the hindsight of how the following 15 years played out, as I read this in 2025.

Overall, I found this a very enjoyable book, because I let go of my desire for it to be about the music, and enjoyed it as a collection of writings vaguely circling on the broader context of the band. From that perspective, it's a good read.

[Shadow Government · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this context, the movement from the demos heard on Purest Feeling to Pretty Hate Machine was away from the musical restrictions of Cleveland’s white new-wave scene and toward the black pop scene Reznor heard in the studio and on the radio with Prince and Public Enemy. Pretty Hate Machine’s use of sampling, drum sounds, and new synth technologies make NIN as materially kin to eighties black pop music as much as it makes Trent’s music industrial; the album’s near-raps, funk vocal flourishes, frank discussions of sex, and sparse, electro production tie PHM to larger trends in the era’s black music culture. Its relentlessly melodic vocals place it solidly within both black and white new waves. That the album is remembered for the shards of harsh guitar and growled vocals that point to industrial rock is itself an erasure. To subsequently hear PHM as rock, one is aided by the facts that Reznor spent the nineties surrounded by a coterie of misanthropic white men like himself, that NIN was contextualized into alt. rock , and that the band moved toward dissonant textures and away from funky, dark, and danceable beats.

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm officially hooked on the 33 1/3 books.

I took Carr's recommendation and listened to each track before its chapter, and I am a default shuffler; I haven't listen to Pretty Hate Machine all the way through, in the order it was printed, probably since the first time I listened to it (which was way, way later than everyone else). The interactive experience was thoroughly enjoyable, and this entire deep dive into the personal stories around NIN fans, Trent biography, geographical snapshots, and retail history (the Hot Topic chapter!), was a great way to leave 2020 and enter 2021.

Plus I accidentally bought myself some killer headphones so can suddenly hear all the things Carr points out about the music. Going to finish the night listening to the rest of the NIN catalogue.

[Courtru · Rating 4 out of 5]

FINALLY read this in honor of PHM's 30th anniversary. I don't think I would have appreciated the ethnographic approach when it first came out. But she did a pretty good job of explaining why she chose to pair the basic examination of PHM and Trent Reznor with the larger story/history of the post-industrial Midwest. Thus, I enjoyed the oral histories more than I thought I would even if it was often from a perspective and relationship with the music that's very different than my own. Still, the Hot Topic stuff at the end wasn't exactly non sequitur, but it was a total stretch that strayed too far from the rest of the book. She's a really great writer, though.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book and a bit of a bait-and-switch: it's less about Nine Inch Nails and Pretty Hate Machine and more about the context that allowed Trent Reznor to achieve mainstream success in the 90s. The book consists mostly of interviews with NIN fans from various backgrounds and at different stages in their lives, but it also includes histories of Mercer, Youngstown, and Cleveland, and it ends with a long essay on Hot Topic. This isn't a great book, but I admire its scope. Were the author to undertake this project today (instead of 10+ years ago), it probably would have been a successful podcast series instead.

[Caleb Sommerville · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.
By this point, it's my fault for hoping that a 33 1/3 book about an album is ACTUALLY ABOUT THE ALBUM, but I'm still disappointed.
I want, and I know this is asking a lot, a book about the making of and effects of a particular album. That's it. I do not want a bizarre connection to Columbine, I do not want more than half the book taken up by other people's vaguely related anecdotes about listening to Nine Inch Nails in general (and to varying levels of quality), I do not want the last chapter to be about Hot Topic.
Seriously.
Carr is not a good writer, and her lack of research is blatant. She likes this album (I think) and cobbled together this mess of nothing.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this far reaching and accessible book. The author comes right out and says that Trent Reznor wasn’t going to be a source so she takes the book in the other direction. What did fans think? It made the album bigger as in the audience and the times. Yet, the album was small enough that each person interviewed saw it as their own.
There was culture, music scene, and Reznor’s life all portrayed in the book. It turned out to be a really good book.

[Devin]

The bulk of this book is a series of interviews with superfans from the greater Cleveland area (where NIN started), regarding their connection to the album. It's lighter on production/recording details than I would have liked, but does an excellent job of de-mythologizing Reznor's pre-NIN years in the local music scene. The final chapter, on the rise and fall of Hot Topic, is a worthwhile curveball which I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Todd · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the heck was this? Was looking forward to reading about one of my favorite albums of all time, NIN's Pretty Hate Machine. Instead a read a long essay about some kids who were fans, Cleveland , and freaking Hot Topic? The first 15% of the book or so is the only thing worth reading because it actually talks about the band, Trent Reznor and a little about the album. Absolutely horrible.

[eat your heart out · Rating 1 out of 5]

More of a discussion of nin’s environmental influences and how their early work generally influenced the people from Trent’s specific town- the interviews are insanely repetitive (though some of them have interesting parts) and make up the majority of the book (some of them seem to not even like the album that much). This book is a slog to get through.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essay about album released in 1989, a world before mass internet access, that brought comfort to thousands of young misfits, who tell their stories amid a social history of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The author puts the album in context well, with a fine genealogy of Trent Reznor.

[Bob Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have said it's very light on actual info about the album. I don't care why random people from Ohio like the band or how they sold their shirts in malls. Feels like a bait and switch. Also very pretentious.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars

There's more here about Hot Topic, dying rust belt steel towns, the trenchcoat mafia, and NIN-fan LiveJournaling than there is about the album or the life of Reznor.

[Wes K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather interesting ethnography of the white, working class male via alternative rock fandom.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. less a study of the album, more a social history of outcast kids living through the deindustrialisation of the midwest in the second half of the twentieth century. nonetheless pretty interesting