Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and film score composer. He is best known as the founder, primary musician, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until adding long-time collaborator Atticus Ross as a permanent member in 2016. His first release under the Nine Inch Nails name, the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine, was a commercial and critical success. He has since released eight Nine Inch Nails studio albums. He left Interscope Records in 2007 and was an independent recording artist until signing with Columbia Records in 2012.

Reznor was associated with the bands Option 30, The Urge, The Innocent, and Exotic Birds in the mid-1980s. Outside of Nine Inch Nails, he has contributed to the albums of artists such as Marilyn Manson and Saul Williams. He and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, are members of the post-industrial[6][7] group How to Destroy Angels, with Atticus Ross and long-time Nine Inch Nails graphic designer Rob Sheridan.[6][8]

Reznor and Ross scored the David Fincher films The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014), winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They scored the Netflix's release of Bird Box along with a 10-track album. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music".[9]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Music career 2.1 Early musical projects 2.2 Nine Inch Nails 2.3 Collaboration with other artists 2.4 How to Destroy Angels 2.5 As an independent artist 2.5.1 Video games 2.5.2 Film composition 3 Business activity 3.1 Suit and counter-suit with John Malm 3.2 Beats Music 4 Criticism of the music industry 4.1 Return to major labels 5 Musical style and influence 6 Awards 7 Personal life 8 Discography 8.1 With Nine Inch Nails 8.2 With How to Destroy Angels 9 References 10 External links Early life

Michael Trent Reznor was born on May 17, 1965,[10] in New Castle, Pennsylvania,[11] the son of Nancy Lou (née Clark) and Michael Reznor.[12] He has German and Irish ancestry[11] and is a descendant of businessman George Reznor, who founded the heating and air conditioning manufacturer The Reznor Company in 1888.[12] Reznor grew up in Mercer, Pennsylvania. After his parents divorced, he lived with his maternal grandparents from the age of six, while his sister Tera lived with their mother.[13] He began playing the piano at the age of 12 and showed an early aptitude for music.[14] His grandfather, Bill Clark, told People magazine in February 1995 that Reznor was "a good kid ... a Boy Scout who loved to skateboard, build model planes, and play the piano".[14] He stated, "Music was his life, from the time he was a wee boy. He was so gifted."[14] His former piano teacher, Rita Beglin, said that he "always reminded of Harry Connick, Jr. when he played".[14]

Reznor has acknowledged that his sheltered life left him feeling isolated from the outside world. In a September 1994 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he referred to his choices in the music industry:

“ I don't know why I want to do these things, other than my desire to escape from Small Town, U.S.A., to dismiss the boundaries, to explore. It isn't a bad place where I grew up, but there was nothing going on but the cornfields. My life experience came from watching movies, watching TV and reading books and looking at magazines. And when your culture comes from watching TV every day, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you.[15] ”