David Bowie is a musician who has been active since the 60s. He has traversed through many genres, one of which is industrial. In support of his Outside album, he co-headlined the Outside tour with Nine Inch Nails, who played the Dissonance side.
Bowie is an idol of Trent Reznor, who has cited his favorite Bowie albums as Low (1997) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980). Reznor said in interviews that he played Low constantly during the recording of The Downward Spiral for inspiration. Incidentally, Reznor has been accused of having ripped off Bowie's 1980 single "Crystal Japan", since NIN's 1994 song "A Warm Place" bears a striking resemblance to it.
In 2005, Bowie wrote about NIN in "The Immortals" for Rolling Stone, a list of the 100 greatest rock & roll artists of all time (NIN was #94):
- ...In making The Downward Spiral, [Reznor] encouraged the computer to misconstrue input, willed it to spew out bloated, misshapen shards of sound that pierced and lacerated the listener... [1]
Remixes
- Reznor remixed Bowie's 1995 single "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" (Alt. Mix).
- Nine Inch Nails (Reznor, Charlie Clouser, Keith Hillebrandt, Dave Ogilvie, Danny Lohner) made 5 remixes for Bowie's 1997 single "I'm Afraid of Americans" (V1, V2, V3, V4, V6). Reznor starred in its music video as a stalker.