Award Date

12-1-2021

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Committee Member

Jarret Keene

Second Committee Member

Jessica Teague

Third Committee Member

Megan Becker-Leckrone

Fourth Committee Member

Timothy Jones

Number of Pages

64

Abstract

With the humanities becoming progressively more open to interdisciplinary studies, there exists a space for music to be part of the discourse surrounding literature. One of the most important developments for music was the rise of the concept album, a medium where the individual tracks are defined by a larger theme or a unifying narrative. The concept album first emerged in the 1960s and became a method for musicians to experiment with expanded storylines and lyrical motifs that overthrew classical models of music albums. One of the most

influential concept albums, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, which came out in 1994, is noteworthy due to its nuanced exploration of subject matter like mental illness, addiction, and skepticism toward authority. This is all filtered through an unnamed protagonist who is based off the personal life of Trent Reznor, the creator and frontman of Nine Inch Nails. The protagonist is forced to confront the harsh nature of his existence, which leads him down a path of nihilistic despair, echoing a literary conversion narrative, with the album making explicit references to both existentialist and postmodern philosophy.

This interdisciplinary thesis aims to explore the gap between the study of music and literature by positioning the concept album as a postmodern literary artifact, using The Downward Spiral as the basis for a critical examination. By using a combination of texts from postmodern authors Chuck Palahniuk and David Foster Wallace as well as lyrical analysis of

select tracks from the album, this thesis will demonstrate that the concept album belongs to the postmodern literary genre because of its contradiction of musical conventions and through Reznor’s lyrics and recording methods, the concept album also engages in establishing aesthetic discontinuity and transgression, which shares a direct lineage within the postmodern literary tradition.

Keywords

Concept Album; Music; Nine Inch Nails; Postmodern; Postmodern literature

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Music

File Format

pdf

File Size

552 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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