It's Official - Rebel Reznor Goes Hollywood Mainstream with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Industrial legend Trent Reznor already reinvented--capitalized--on his dark side when he won the 2010 Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 83rd Academy Awards for Social Network. Although the 84th Oscars ceremony February 26, 2012, has yet to come, Reznor's latest scoring effort for The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo will certainly be in the running.
Dragon Tatoo is all over the media, not to mention Reznor on the cover of the Dec. 23, 2011 issue of Hollywood Reporter. A running theme is how Reznor seems to be desperately clinging to his dark side, a side that built a monumental career for over 20 years via Reznor's band, Nine Inch Nails. The commercialization of rebellion once again hits Main Street, and Reznor is just going to have to admit, as Hollywood's latest "darling," that darkness sells...big time.
Allegedly clean and sober, Reznor tries to shake the rebel tree by denouncing his Grammy wins, claiming that while moving from house to house over the last couple of years, he lost them. Sorry, but as the top Industrialist millionaire heads for his 2nd Oscar, his dismissal of the Grammys seems to be disingenuous. Awarded a paltry $2.9 million (not including interest) in a suit against his former manager, John Malm, combined with his NIN income, payments from the Quake video game, and whatever he got for the Social Network score, his 2007 attack on Universal and Interscope now seems more of a ploy that a genuine statement on the state of the music industry. With all that mainstream money, no wonder he could afford to tell fans to go ahead and "steal" copies of his album, something I don't think he'll be too keen on happening with the Dragon Tatoo soundtrack.
Fans and artists alike have been decrying "sell out" since corporations started sponsoring concerts in the 70s. Isn't it time creators and fans accept that "Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll" as a mantra for rebellion is as mainstream as apple pie, Mickey Mouse and the American Flag? It's the commercialization of non-commercialization. Underground scenes are nothing more than seed beds for cultural uprisings. All it takes is one artist or a hit song to emerge from the cultural abyss and suddenly wearing earrings in your nose and purple hair is the latest fashion statement.
There is a real disconnect between what fans consider rebellious fodder and the mainstream technology used to market and distribute the Anti-Christ. This anti-socialism is always a function of youth and no one buys into it more than the young...until they grow up.
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