by Carr, Daphne
17 Many thanks to Karen Collins, who explored the parallels between industrial music and dystopia in her dissertation “The Future Is Happening Already: Industrial Music, Dystopia, and the Aesthetic of the Machine” (University of Liverpool, 2002).
18 Eric Weisbard. “Sympathy for the Devil.” Spin, March 1996, pp. 34–42, 96.
19 For general Cleveland rock history see John Gorman and Tom Feran, The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio, a Memoir. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Co., 2007. See also Carlo Wolff, Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories: True and Tall Tales of the Glory Days, Told by Musicians, DJs, Promoters, & Fans Who Made the Scene in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, 2006.
20 This was the proverbial “sissy band” Reznor later decried to a journalist who sought to debunk his gothic gloom by recalling Reznor’s early new wave days.
21 “Chris Vrenna: Confessions of an Audio-Addicted Tweaker.” audiohead.net, site maintained by Steph Jorgl.
22 Greg Rule, “Trent Reznor.” Keyboard, April 1994.
23 Steve Dougherty, Tom Alexander, Tom Nugent, and John Hannah, “The Music of Rage.” People, February 6, 1995.
24 Vintage Synth Explorer, “Oberheim Xpander.” vintagesynth.com
25 Trent Reznor, “Subject: NIN—FIXED AT LAST.” Trent Reznor’s Posts on Prodigy, December 12, 1992, archived on The NIN Hotline.
26 Stacey Sanner. “Portrait of a Nine Inch Nail.” Alternative Press, issue 31, July 1990.
27 Michael Fiscus, “One of the First NIN Interviews Ever!” AM Publishing, February 1996.
28 Jim Greer. “Nine Inches of Love.” Spin Magazine, March 1992, pp. 38–43.
29 There has yet to be a good general or critical historical text on the popular music genres of the “alternative” era, but Joshua Clover’s 1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About (University of California Press, 2009) is a great place to start. See especially his writing on the British rave scene, which Reznor very explicitly aligned himself against due to its “mindless hedonism,” although the futurist themes and technologies were similar.
30 Michael Azerrad, “Nine Inch Nails.” Rolling Stone, February 22, 1990, p. 30.
31 ITT has a sordid history and was used as an early example of how multinational corporations use their economic power to subvert national government (Sampson, 1973). In the 1960s ITT tried to buy the network ABC but was subject to antitrust action, and engaged in numerous hostile takeovers. According to State Department documents of CIA activity in Chile, ITT was potentially funding the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile (Hinchey Report 2000).
32 “Religion: The Jesus Evolution.” Time. September 24, 1973.
33 These festivals, some grassroots like Watson’s and others organized by large evangelical organizations, helped develop the Christian music industry into a major economic and cultural force in the 1980s, and their music crossed over into mainstream pop and rock in the 1990s.
34 David Kushner, “Trent Reznor’s Pretty Hate Machines.” salon.com, September 17, 2002.
35 Ann Powers, “In Defense of the Nasty.” Village Voice, September 22, 1995. Martin Huxley discusses Powers’s article in his book Nine Inch Nails: Self-Destruct. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997, pp. 210–11.
36 William Shutes, “Reznor Critic Missed Point of School Award.” Sharon Herald, June 5, 2006.
37 Reznor was listed as one of the “Others of note” in the article “Famous Mercer Countians: The Top 10 Mercer Countians Who Made a Mark on the World.” Sharon Herald, June 23, 2006.
38 Brown & Root, a Texas company that were pioneers in offshore drilling, were acquired by Halliburton in 1962 and built Naval infrastructure during the Vietnam War. This was the first time the US Military gave large scale contracts to private companies rather than having combat engineers and Seabees do the work (Pratt 1997) and earned the company the nickname Burn & Loot during anti-war protests.
39 A weather balloon tied to a camera used to film the “Down In It” video blew away and the footage was found by police in Michigan, who suspected it to be evidence of a murder because it showed Trent lying motionless on the ground covered in cornstarch. The case was covered by Hard Copy on March 5, 1991. Reporter Rafael Abramovitz called Reznor, “A man with a flare for wearing jewelry … in his nose … and who has total disregard for what police have to go through every day of their lives.”
40 Steel Town, from United Film Presentation, The American Scene Series (U.S. Office of War Information—Overseas bureau, 1945).
41 Harold L. Ickes, “The Place of Housing in National Rehabilitation.” The Journal of Land & Public Utility Economics, 1935.
42 Letter to Youngstown, directed by Robert Welchans. Youngstown Sheet and Tube, 1961.
43 Jefferson R. Cowie and Joseph Heathcott, Beyond the Ruins: The Meanings of Deindustrialization. Ithaca: ILR Press, 2003, p. 6.
44 Alexander Chytra, home movie of Campbell Works mills. Filmed June 7, 1987 and October 25, 1989.
45 James M. Perry, “Down and Out: Idle Mills, a Dearth of Hope are Features of Ohio’s Steel Towns.” The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 1983, p. 14.
46 WCI Steel. Promotional film, 1994.
47 Mark C. Peyko and John Rose, “Time Runs Out for Jeannette Blast Furnace.” The Metro Eye, November 1993, with updates October 1996.
48 Tyler Clark, “Interview: Donna DeBlasio on Steel Museum and Applied History at YSU.” Youngstown Renaissance, June 3, 2009.
49 David Grann, “The City that Fell in Love with the Mob: Crimetown USA.” The New Republic, July 10, 2000.
50 Mary Jordan, “The Man, the Rug and the Red Carpet.” The Washington Post, September 7, 2009.
51 David Skolnick, “Poorest Midsize U.S. City?” The Vindicator, August 29, 2007.
52 Youngstown Planning Department, “The Vision.” Youngstown 2010.
53 Steven High and David W. Lewis, Corporate Wasteland: The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007.
54 Meathead is a well-respected NIN Hotline cartoon satirist who ran a column called “The Meathead Perspective” between 1999 and 2009. An archive of his articles, cartoons, and animations can be found online at http://www.theninhotline.net/fmeatpers/html/archive.html
55 Carol Poh Miller and Robert Anthony Wheeler, “Cleveland: A Concise History, 1796–1996.” The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997, p. 164.
56 Todd M. Michney, “Race, Violence, and Urban Territoriality: Cleveland’s Little Italy and the 1966 Hough Uprising.” Journal of Urban History (32) 2006, pp. 404–428.
57 “Races: The Jungle & the City.” Time, July 29, 1966.
58 Tom Lash, interview with the author, June 2006.
59 Mark Reynolds, “Gerald Levert and the Black Pop Nobody Knows, but Should.” Negritude 2.0, Pop Matters, December 4, 2006.
60 Ted Diadiun, “Response to Levert Stories Illuminated our Differences.” Plain Dealer, November 26, 2006, p. A2.
61 Rich Exner, “Metro Cleveland is 3rd Nationally in Population Loss: Search the Latest Numbers.” cleveland.com, March 19, 2009.
62 Reznor has admitted to serious drug use during the Pretty Hate Machine era, but the song most frequently associated with his drug use is “Sanctified.”
63 Marky Ray, interview with the author, June 2006.
64 Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 2001, pp. 57–8.
65 The film 1991: The Year Punk Broke (Markey 1992) follows Nirvana and Sonic Youth on their European tour in the midst of the commercial breakthrough for post-punk after a decade of underground obscurity.
66 Jean E. Palmieri, “Hot Topic Goes Platinum.” DNR, June 28, 1999, p. 4.
67 John Sonderegger, “Mall Store Selling ‘Satanic Material’ Sparks Controversy Among Officials.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 9, 1997, p. 1.
68 Kathleen Pender, “Hot Topic Proves to be a Hot Stock.” The San Fr
ancisco Chronicle, December 6, 2001, B1.
69 Ellen Willis, “Women and the Myth of Consumerism.” Ramparts, 1969. Thanks to Robert Christgau for bringing this essay to my attention in his touching tribute to Ellen Willis at the EMP Pop Conference in 2007. Before Willis was a political writer, she was a pioneer of popular-music criticism. An anthology of her music writing came out in 2011: Out of the Vinyl Deeps (University of Minnesota Press).
70 If you’re curious about the queer imagination for Reznor, search out the slash fiction devoted to erotic encounters with or inspired by Trent. See especially “Magnolia” (Aquandrian, 2006).
71 “Americans Agree their Local Shopping Centers and Malls Are Focal Points of their Communities and Solid Community Partners, a New Study by the International Council of Shopping Centers Shows.” PR Newswire US, April 19, 2007.
72 The survey was called “Teenagers as Customers: Singing a Different Tune,” and it was released in July 1997. Details about the survey were reported in “Teens Buck Stereotype by Spending Big Buck$ at Malls—Not Just Hangin’ Out: Retails Are Seeing Green.” Business Wire, July 21, 1997.
73 Wilson, Marianne. “Kids Shop Where It’s Hot.” Chain Store Age. June 1997, p. 31.
74 Todd C. Frankel, and Derek Kravitz, “Teens, Better Bring Mom.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 25, 2007, A1.
75 Is it a coincidence that rock critic Robert Christgau called 1994 both the “triumph of a subculture and a generation—the nationwide postpunk bohemia” and the “sorriest year for black music in Pazz & Jop history”?
76 Palmieri, 1999, p. 4.
77 Ibid.
78 Russ Jimenez, interview, April 2007.
79 Pender, 2001, B1.
80 Palmieri, 1999, p. 4.
81 Dan Padavona, “Is Hot Topic Hot Stuff?” The Motley Fool, March 12, 2001.
82 Merchandise from the rap artists from Interscope can now be found at Spencer’s.
83 Tracie Rozhon, “The Race to Think Like a Teenager.” The New York Times, February 9, 2003.
84 Kate Berry, “Hot Topic Cools Down after Pink Becomes the New Black.” Los Angeles Business Journal, July 12, 2004, p. 33.
85 Tom Van Riper, “Last Hurrah for Specialty Retailers?” forbes.com, April 10, 2007.
86 All information is taken directly from the website of C28.com. See www.c28.com and follow the links Company/FAQ for information on the contradictions in evangelical teaching and youth retailing.
87 C28 Licensing, “Franchise Requirements.” http://www.c28.com/franchising/requirements.asp
88 Kamau High, “Teen retailer Hot Topic Expands Music Focus.” Billboard, December 7, 2008.
89 James Montgomery, “Weird Web Trail: Conspiracy Theory—Or Marketing for Nine Inch Nails LP?” MTV News, February 15, 2007.
90 Jon Savage laid out the five elements of industrial in 1983 as being 1) organizational autonomy, 2) information war, 3) synthesizers and “anti-music,” 4) non-musical elements like literary techniques, and 5) shock tactics. So really, it took NIN almost two decades to fulfill all the criteria—and they never had all the elements at one time (Juno and Vale, 1983).
91 Eliot Van Buskirk, “Nine Inch Nails Album Generated $1.6 Million in First Week.” Wired Magazine: Listening Post, March 13, 2008.
92 Robert Levine, “A Digital Music Store that Sells More than Just MP3s,” The New York Times, June 30, 2008.
93 High, 2008.
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