10 Movies You Didn't Realise Inspired Songs
6. Fight Club
Artist & Song: Nine Inch Nails – "Only"
Nine Inch Nails released "Only" on their fourth album, and the song quickly rose the charts to take the number one spot on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, which it held for seven weeks. "Only" was the second of the band's songs to become a hit in the United Kingdom, and it's a fan-favorite.
It's often played during the band's live performances, and while it's certainly well-known by NIИ fans, the track's inspiration came from the movie Fight Club. Thematically, this makes sense, as the song deals with many of the issues from the film, but there's more to it than that.
"You were never really real to begin with, I just made you up to hurt myself" features heavily in the song. That line isn't a direct quote from Fight Club, but it summarizes the plot rather succinctly.
Another hint that Fight Club inspired "Only" stems from its music video. In it, objects in an executive office come to life through the song, which also touches on the themes of the film, but there's one more hint to the video that points directly to Fight Club; both the movie and music video were directed by David Fincher.