Editing Down in It

{{short description|Nine Inch Nails song}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = Down in It
| cover      = Nin-down_in_it.jpg
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Nine Inch Nails]]
| album      = [[Pretty Hate Machine]]
| released   = September 15, 1989
| recorded   = 1989
| studio     =
| venue      =
| genre      = {{flatlist|
*[[Hip hop music|Hip hop]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/album-review/6289149/nine-inch-nails-pretty-hate-machine-at-25-classic-track-by|title=Nine Inch Nails' 'Pretty Hate Machine' at 25: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review | magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] | date=November 10, 2014|access-date=2017-05-16|author=Partridge, Kenneth|df=mdy}}</ref>
*[[Industrial dance music|industrial dance]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://loudwire.com/best-nine-inch-nails-songs/ | title=10 Best Nine Inch Nails Songs | magazine=[[Loudwire]]|access-date=2017-05-16|author=Childers, Chad}}</ref>
*{{nowrap|[[rap rock]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://exclaim.ca/music/article/an_essential_guide_to_nine_inch_nails|title=An Essential Guide to Nine Inch Nails|last=Krajewski|first=Jill|work=[[Exclaim!]]|date=June 7, 2016 |access-date=2017-05-16}}</ref>}}
}}
| length     = 03:46
| label      = [[TVT Records|TVT]]
| writer     = [[Trent Reznor]]
| producer   = {{flatlist|
* Trent Reznor
*[[Adrian Sherwood]]
*[[Keith LeBlanc]]
}}
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = [[Head Like a Hole]]
| next_year  = 1990
| misc       = {{Extra chronology
 | artist     = [[Nine Inch Nails discography#Chronology|Halo numbers]]
 | type       = studio
 | prev_title =
 | prev_year  =
 | title      = Halo 1
 | year       = 1989
 | next_title = [[Pretty Hate Machine|Halo 2]]
 | next_year  = 1989
}}
}}

"'''Down in It'''" is the debut [[single (music)|single]] by American [[industrial rock]] band [[Nine Inch Nails]], released on September 15, 1989. Taken from the band's debut album ''[[Pretty Hate Machine]]'', it was the first song ever written by frontman [[Trent Reznor]].

==Production==
The song's [[Conclusion (music)#Outro|outro]] contains lyrics referencing the nursery rhyme "[[Rain Rain Go Away]]". Similarities to the song "[[Dig It (Skinny Puppy song)|Dig It]]" from [[Skinny Puppy]]'s 1986 album ''[[Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse]]'' were noted shortly after the single's release.<ref name="Single review (syndicated to multiple papers)">{{cite news |last=Carey |first=Jean |date=19 January 1990 |title=Sound Bites |work=St. Petersburg Times |location=Florida |publisher=[[Times Publishing Company|Times Publishing Co]] |page=17 |quote=Reznor apparently likes Dig It so much that he decided to include the song on his album. Problem is, Reznor has changed the title of the song to Down In It and fails to credit the members of Skinny Puppy as the tune's authors. Yes, the ripoff really is that blatant. |id={{ProQuest|262717500}}}}</ref> Reznor later admitted his original demo version was "a total rip-off."<ref name="Holland interview">{{cite AV media |date=September 1991 |title=Nine Inch Nails performance from {{ill|Ein Abend In Wien|nl}} plus interview with Trent Reznor |lang=nl, en |location=Rotterdam |publisher=[[VPRO]] |type=radio broadcast |quote=The original version I did was about half speed of the one on the record and it was a total rip-off of "Dig It" by Skinny Puppy. I'll admit to that now. |transcript=Transcript via NINhotline ("The Holland Interviews) |transcript-url=https://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/display/580}}</ref>

==Release==
Initially released only on [[gramophone record|vinyl]], a [[CD]] version of the single was later created after the success of the album. The first track on the single edition, "Down in It (Skin)", is the mix found on ''Pretty Hate Machine''. The cover art is very similar to [[Joy Division]]'s first album ''[[Unknown Pleasures]]'', with Joy Division always being cited as an influence by Reznor, and Nine Inch Nails later covered the Joy Division song "Dead Souls" on the soundtrack to the 1994 film ''[[The Crow (1994 film)|The Crow]]''.

==Promotion==
Around the time of the single's release, the band lip-synced a performance of the song on the dance music show ''[[Dance Party USA]]''.<ref name="danceparty">Battan, Carrie. ''[http://www.pitchfork.com/news/45955-watch-rare-amazing-footage-of-nine-inch-nails-performing-on-dance-party-usa-in-the-late-1980s Watch Rare, Amazing Footage of Nine Inch Nails Performing on Dance Party USA in the late 1980s].'' [[Pitchfork Media]]. Retrieved 2011-30-03</ref> The footage, originally thought to be lost, was rediscovered in 2012 and went viral after being uploaded to [[YouTube]]. Reznor responded to the video on his [[Twitter]] account, stating that the band had decided to appear on the show after deciding it was "the most absurd choice [they] could come up with at the time" for a television program on which they would be interested in performing, but were surprised when they were actually booked to appear on the program.<ref name="danceparty"/>

===Releases===
*[[TVT Records]] TVT 2611 – 12" Vinyl
*[[TVT Records]] TVT 2611-2 – CD

The single was included in the 2015 [[Record Store Day]]–[[Black Friday (shopping)|Black Friday]] exclusive box set ''[[Halo I–IV]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://consequence.net/2015/10/nine-inch-nails-releasing-halo-i-iv-vinyl-box-set-for-record-store-day-black-friday/ | title=Nine Inch Nails releasing Halo I-IV vinyl box set for Record Store Day Black Friday | magazine=[[Consequence of Sound]] | date=October 28, 2015 | access-date=October 28, 2015 | author=Kaye, Ben}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.spin.com/2015/10/nine-inch-nails-vinyl-box-set-halo-i-iv-record-store-day-black-friday/ | title=Nine Inch Nails to Release Vinyl Box Set, 'Halo I-IV,' for Record Store Day Black Friday | magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] | date=October 28, 2015 | access-date=October 28, 2015 | author=Grebey, James}}</ref>

==Music video==
A [[music video]] for "Down in It", filmed on location in the [[Fulton River District, Chicago|Warehouse District]] of [[Chicago]], was released in September 1989. It was produced by Jim Deloye and directed by Eric Zimmerman and Benjamin Stokes for [[H-Gun|H-Gun Productions]].<ref name="Billboard Trax"/> Special effects were applied to scenes such as a television set falling down forwards and backwards, writing in lights, and strobe flashing. In the video, Reznor runs to the top of a building while [[Chris Vrenna]] and [[Richard Patrick]] follow him. The original version of the music video ended with the implication that Reznor's character had fallen or jumped off the building, seen lying on the ground with a [[pallor mortis|deathly pallor]] created by applying starch powder to his face.<ref name="Washington Post">{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=13 September 1990 |title=No Murder, Just a Rock Video |work=[[Washington Post]] |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=The Washington Post Company |id={{ProQuest|307331239}}}}</ref> [[MTV]] edited the scene out of all airings.<ref name="AP90">{{Cite magazine|title = Getting Down in It|date=March 1990|magazine = [[Alternative Press (magazine)|Alternative Press]]|issue = 27}}</ref> To film the ending of the video, Zimmerman and Stokes used a camera tied to a balloon, with ropes attached to prevent it from flying away. Minutes after they started filming, the ropes snapped and the balloons and camera flew away; eventually landing in a cornfield in [[Michigan]].<ref name="Washington Post"/> The farmer later handed it to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], who began investigating whether the footage was a [[snuff film]] portraying a person committing suicide.<ref name="Convulsion">{{cite magazine |first=Jon |last=Bains |title=Nine Inch Nails Lollapalooza 1 Summer 1991 |date=November 1991 |magazine=Convulsion |location=Edinburgh |url=https://bak.spc.org/obsolete/convulsion/interviews/convulse/frames.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927045622/http://www.obsolete.com/convulsion/interviews/convulse/1.5.html |archive-date=2007-09-27 |access-date=2008-04-12}}</ref><ref>''Welcome to the Machine'' ([http://theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=536 transcript]). ''Industrial Introspection'' (June 1991). Retrieved 2011-06-18.</ref> The FBI identified Reznor,<ref>Huxley (1997), p. 40</ref> who later remarked, "Somebody at the FBI had been watching too much [[Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock]] or [[David Lynch]] or something."<ref name="Select 1991">{{cite magazine|last=Perry|first=Neil|date=March 1991|title=Hard As Nails|magazine=[[Select (magazine)|Select]]|location=London}}</ref> 

Reznor stated the following in an interview with ''Convulsion'' Magazine:<blockquote>There was a scene w[h]ere I was lying on the ground, appearing to be dead, in a ''[[Lodger (album)|Lodger]]''-esque pose and we had a camera with a big weather balloon filled with helium hooked up to it ... the first one we did, we started the film, I was laying on the ground and the ropes that were holding the balloon snapped, the camera just took off into the atmosphere ... the camera landed two hundred miles away in a farmer's field somewhere. He finds it and takes it to the police, thinking that it's a surveillance camera for marijuana, they develop the film and think that it's some sort of snuff film of a murder, give it to the FBI and have pathologists looking at the body saying, 'yeah, he's rotting,' (I had corn starch on me, right) 'he's been decomposing for 3 weeks.' You could see the other members of the band walking away and they had these weird outfits on, and they thought it was some kind of gang slaying.<ref name=Convulsion/></blockquote>

Police distributed flyers asking for leads and were contacted by an art student who worked for H-Gun and recognised the image from the video.<ref name="Washington Post"/><ref name="Convulsion"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/548360/nine-inch-nails-trent-reznor-fbi-murder-investigation-down-in-it|title=When the FBI Investigated the 'Murder' of Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor|date=2018-06-22|access-date=2018-07-19|language=en}}</ref> Establishing Reznor was alive and well, in September 1990 the [[Chicago Police Department]] told reporters, "The bottom line is we don't have a body and we don't have mystery or homicide."<ref name="Washington Post"/> The story was covered by the television news magazine show ''[[Hard Copy]]'' on their March 3, 1991 episode,<ref name="Hard Copy">{{cite web | url=http://vimeo.com/channels/prettyhatemachine/17037838 | title=NIN "Down In It" report on "Hard Copy," March 3rd 1991 | date=20 November 2010 | publisher=[[Vimeo]] | access-date=March 11, 2013}}</ref> which Reznor called, "Total junk gossip exploitative journalism. That was the icing on the cake: getting on the worst TV show in America."<ref name="Select 1991"/> Despite the sensationalist tone of the report, which likened "Down In It" video footage to a "satanic ritual" of "cult-like murder", the band's label used the controversy as a promotional tool, with clips from the Hard Copy interview included on an Island Records press kit for the UK release of [[Pretty Hate Machine]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NILCexAnPKk| title=Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine Island Records Electronic Press Kit (EPK) |minutes=6:45 |format=video |publisher=[[Island Records]] |via=[[YouTube]] |date=19 October 2019 |access-date=24 May 2025}}</ref>

At least two versions of the music video exist - one around 3:50 in length using the "Skin" remix also found on the ''[[Pretty Hate Machine]]'' album<ref>{{cite AV media |title=Nine Inch Nails: Down In It (1989) |url=https://vimeo.com/3608189 |publisher=Nine Inch Nails |date=13 Mar 2009 |access-date=25 May 2025 |via=[[Vimeo]]}}</ref> and a longer 6:58  edit using the "Shred" remix.<ref name="Billboard Trax"/>

==Critical reception==
At the time of release, [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] described the 12-inch single as an "Aggressive midtempo technonumber with an industrial edge that is easily accessible."<ref>{{cite magazine |editor-last1=Coleman |editor-first1=Bill |date=30 September 1989 |title=Single Reviews: Dance: Recommended |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |location=New York |publisher=P-MRC |volume=101 |issue=39 |page=75 |id={{ProQuest|1438701228}}}}</ref> The single edition of the song was largely panned by [[AllMusic]] reviewer Christian Huey, who described the two remixes included as inferior to the original. Since all three tracks were later released on the "[[Head Like a Hole]]" single, he labeled the "Down in It" single as "completely superfluous and useful only to NIN completists".<ref>[{{Allmusic|class=album|id=r182172|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic Review: Down in It]</ref>

Describing the 6:58 version of the music video in a ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' review segment for "club-oriented artists", Bill Coleman said,  "Hard, funky techno number drives even harder with an appropriate clip that rams the point home with fast editing of potent industrial scenes and images,"<ref name="Billboard Trax">{{cite magazine |last=Coleman |first=Bill |date=28 October 1989 |title=Dance Trax: Video Reviews |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |location=New York |publisher=P-MRC |volume=101 |issue=43 |page=35 |id={{ProQuest|1438697398}}}}</ref> later simply calling it a "fab video".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Coleman |first=Bill |date=25 November 1989 |title=Dance Trax: New Music On Alternative Tip Sparks The Scene |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |location=New York |publisher=P-MRC |volume=101 |issue=47 |page=31 |id={{ProQuest|1438703165}}}}</ref>

==Covers, soundtrack appearances and legacy==
A remix of "Down in It" was used in an early 1990s [[Gatorade]] [[television]] [[advertisement]]. Originally, "[[Steppin' Out (Joe Jackson song)|Steppin' Out]]" by [[Joe Jackson (musician)|Joe Jackson]] was to be featured in the commercial, but Jackson declined the offer. Reznor unsuccessfully [[Lawsuit|sued]] the production company who created the commercial for [[copyright infringement]] after he saw it in 1993, accusing them for illegal use of the song without permission.<ref>Berger, Joshua and Lengvenis, Eric. ''[http://nothing.nin.net/int10.html NINE INCH NAILS: AN INTERVIEW WITH TRENT REZNOR]''. ''[[Plasm (magazine)|Plasm]]'' (1994). Retrieved 2011-06-04.</ref>

==Track listing==
All tracks remixed by [[Adrian Sherwood]] and [[Keith LeBlanc]].
{{tracklist
| title1  = Down in It
| note1   = skin
| length1 = 3:48
| title2  = Down in It
| note2   = shred
| length2 = 6:56
| title3  = Down in It
| note3   = singe
| length3 = 7:03
| total_length = 17:47
}}
== Year-end charts ==
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (2001)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)<ref>{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020726120310/http://jamshowbiz.com/JamMusicCharts/2001_singles2.html|archivedate=July 26, 2002|url=http://jamshowbiz.com/JamMusicCharts/2001_singles2.html|title=Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001|website=[[Jam!]]|accessdate=March 28, 2022}}</ref>
|185
|}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

;Bibliography
* {{cite book|last=Huxley|first=Martin|title=Nine Inch Nails: Self Destruct|date=September 1997|publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]]|isbn=0-312-15612-X|via=[[Internet Archive]]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/nineinchnailssel00huxl}}

==External links==
*[http://www.nin.com Nine Inch Nails' official site]
* {{Discogs master|3373|type=single}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20061123201225/http://www.nincollector.com/archive/releases/halo_01/halo01.htm ''Halo 1'' at NINCollector.com]}}

{{clear|right}}

{{Nine Inch Nails}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:1989 debut singles]]
[[Category:Nine Inch Nails songs]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Keith LeBlanc]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Adrian Sherwood]]
[[Category:Songs written by Trent Reznor]]
[[Category:TVT Records singles]]
[[Category:Fiction about snuff films]]
[[Category:1989 songs]]
[[Category:American hip-hop songs]]
[[Category:Rap rock songs]]