Nine Inch Nails gives birth to a new culture
Ξ June 23rd, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |
Quoted from http://www.wtfsrsly.com/yz.php:
Nine Inch Nails gives birth to a new culture
4/16/2007
Whenever there’s a truly remarkable fresh twist in hypes, trends and jokes on the net (like with all the 300 rage) WTFsrsly documents it. And something pretty remarkable has been going on the past month… A full leak of the new Nine Inch Nails album found its way to the web some time ago (you can also legally listen to it on the Year Zero site) and it generated online community activity like nothing else. And the hype is not stopping now that the album is finally officially released.
Every day music leaks online illegally before it is even available in stores, but what has happened to Nine Inch Nails’ new concept album Year Zero hasn’t really happened before. At least 3 tracks of the album have intentionally been leaked throughout the past month and every time it happened it generated an enormous amount of forum talk and often also scored a Digg top #10 item. The main reason this happened was the elaborate Alternate Reality Game that was set up for the album and which is still evolving even now after the album’s release. They set up a bunch of websites that look like they are run by people, organizations, freedom fighters, churches etc from this alternate reality in which the concept of the album takes place (i.e. http://www.iamtryingtobelieve.com). The websites are filled with secrets and subtle references to the album and all the hardcore fans immersed themselves in it and spent many hours a day exploring the secrets and mysteries of the concept through the game.
But what happened now with the album finally available in its entirety is even more amazing. Year Zero’s dystopian alternate reality draws a lot of parallels with real world problems such as the ‘War on Terror’ and global warming and this has inspired fans to go further than simply discussing these ideas on forums. It seems like there’s a genuine Year Zero ‘movement’ (and even sub-movements) coming about, fans are taking action to prevent the world from evolving to the in many aspects realistic grim future that is being portrayed on the album. Organizations like FightYearZero.org are being formed and fans are coming together online and in real life to think and talk about what they can do to change the world for the better.
Open Source Resistance (OSR) could be seen as the ‘main hub’ of these organizations and is being led by the band (and 42 Entertainment). OSR has already organized a real life gathering and defines itself as “an attempt to start a grass-roots information militia, so ordinary people can fight to prevent a world where civil rights AND natural resources are both being strip-mined for the convenience of multinational corporations and People Who Know They Are Right.” These fans mean serious business, and it could be the start of a new culture. Just like Minor Threat inspired the birth of the straight edge movement, it’s starting to look like Nine Inch Nails is giving birth to the Year Zero movement: people not bound simply by a certain style or a strict code but by their motivation to change the world for the better in whatever way possible and to fight the power when needed. The question is whether it will evolve further on its own or will it fade away as the hype around the album dies…
