10 Best Music Videos Of The 90s
3. Closer - Nine Inch Nails
Sometimes, the best and most enduring images that stay in the public psyche are those that are the most disturbing. If this is true, then Closer by Nine Inch Nails is one of the greatest examples of this.
Directed by Mark Romanek, the video is both extremely graphic and evocative. Inspired heavily by American photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, who's work often deals with themes of death, corpses and people with dwarfism, transgender and intersex persons, along with people with disabilities, along with the short film Street of Crocodiles by the Brother's Quay.
The video depicts Trent Reznor in various fetishistic outfits and positions, along with bisected animal corpses, a monkey tied to a crucifix and a pig's head on a twisting device, the video cemented the band's popularity and helped to spread their success.
The video has of course been heavily edited when it comes to airing it on television, with several scenes being lifted altogether, replaced with a 'scene missing' title card. The frequent use of the F word with blocked out by having the video itself stop moving for that beat, so that the flow of the video would not be affected by the cut.
Reznor reflected on the power of the music video. He said that it was one of the few times that he felt the song itself was improved by the visuals created by Romanek, something he was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to find.