It’s certainly not everyday the lead vocalist of a rock band transitions into becoming one of the great movie composers of our time, but Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have done so with their careers in music. While the musicians initially gained fame for being Nine Inch Nails, since 2010, they’ve been scoring tons of movies, from The Social Network to two great 2024 movies, Challengers and Queer. While talking about their recent work, Reznor got honest about why he prefers making music for movies.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have managed to balance their work in Nine Inch Nails with their work in movies over nearly 15 years. Here’s what Reznor said about why he has a clear favorite between the music and movie industry:
What we’re looking for [from film] is the collaborative experience with interesting people. We haven’t gotten that from the music world necessarily, for our own choice. You mentioned disillusionment with the music world? Yes. The culture of the music world sucks. That’s another conversation, but what technology has done to disrupt the music business in terms of not only how people listen to music but the value they place on it is defeating. I’m not saying that as an old man yelling at clouds, but as a music lover who grew up where music was the main thing. Music [now] feels largely relegated to something that happens in the background or while you’re doing something else. That’s a long, bitter story.
While speaking to Reznor, IndieWire shared his frustration for the music industry, which has certainly changed quite a bit in the age of the internet and social media. The 59-year-old recalls a time when the music industry was centered on the art itself, but no longer feels that way anymore. While he ultimately deflected diving deeper into his thoughts on the topic, he clearly isn’t high on the state of things considering his flat-out “the music world sucks” comments.
While Reznor may feel out of place in the music industry, his and Atticus Ross’ work in Hollywood has definitely paid off. They’ve become well-known for their unconventional movie scores, such as for The Social Network which won Best Original Score in 2011. Reznor and Ross also earned their second Oscar in the category for Soul in 2021.
When it comes to their latest works, both in Luca Guadagnino films, Challengers is especially in conversation during awards season and could make for the team’s fourth nomination in the category of Best Original Score. When speaking about the making of it, Reznor said this:
With Challengers, it was much more, right off the bat, he came to us and said, ‘I think music should be a character in the film. It should be unavoidable. It should be propelling. I want the audience to feel like they can dance in their seats to the whole thing like it’s a fucking rave. I want it to be aggressive. I want to make the movie fun.’ OK, let’s see what happens.
By the time Challengers was brought to Reznor and Ross, the duo had worked with the director once before on 2022’s Bones And All. They said that along with Guadagnino wanting the movie’s bold music to be a character in the movie, he also directed them to club music out of Berlin to inform his vision. Considering our Challengers review and the score’s current momentum to go down as one of the best scores of 2024, we’d say it worked!
Reznor and Ross’s latest collaboration with Luca Guadagnino has arrived, with the Queer release date now here. Check it out in theaters and stream Challengers with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.