Nine Inch Nails member Trent Reznor recently talked about the mainstream pop music and how he, ultimately, opened up to it.
During his recent appearance in Rick Rubin’s podcast Tetragrammaton With Rick Rubin, he said that initially he thought that “it sucks” but he came to a point where he teared up listening to Dua Lipa.
Trent Reznor teared up listening to Dua Lipa
While discussing the projects that he worked on in recent years and his experiences with them, Reznor came back to making original music and said (via Music Radar). He then spoke about listening to Dua Lipa which made him tear up.
He went on to say:
“I’ve got five kids now. And it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I know that’s a thing to say but it’s radically shaped every bit of who I am and what I do. The reason I mention that is for a while I’ve kept them in a hermetically sealed way from pop music because I think it sucks generally — I have thought that, for whatever reason. And then I realized about a year ago that’s not fair.
“And they’re not away from it, I’m just not playing it at breakfast. In the car I don’t have on radios stations. And I heard my daughter, who is six, have Dua Lipa on. She’s so into it and was so cool – this is her music, this is her thing.”
Despite initially thinking that it “sucks,” Reznor admits that he listened to Dua Lipa and actually “teared up” while getting into her music:
“And I’ve kind of immersed myself in what is happening out in culture now… It really reminded me of the art of writing a well-crafted song. I’ve teared up listening to a Dua Lipa track the other day because it was just a really well-done piece of music – it’s clever, good, and if I was in the demographic… it’s a difficult thing to do.”
He also added that he can’t really do that — create music for the “demographic”:
“I don’t know how to do that. Because when I’m trying to think of what to say and how to say it, I’m saying it from the unvarnished me. That requires me thinking about who I am and where my position is now. And all of that together becomes… it feels the stakes are higher.”
