Trent Reznor Fights Apple Over NIN iPhone App Rejection

Just weeks after Trent Reznor launched the new Nine Inch Nails iPhone application, an updated version of the app was rejected by Apple because of "objectionable content." What did Apple find NSF-iPhone? Trent Reznor's "The Downward Spiral." According to Reznor, who posted on the NIN message board about his current clash with Apple, it's not even the album The Downward Spiral, which housed the controversial "Closer," that's causing the problems. It's the title song, which was only heard within the app's podcast feature. "You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can't allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it," Reznor wrote. "Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck's sake get your app approval scenario together."

It's pretty amusing that Apple finds the updated NIN application has "objectionable content" when you compare it to the Eminem's violent Relapse iPhone game that's in the works. Plus, you can download a new app for your iPhone called iSnort, which allows users to cut and snort digital cocaine on the touchscreen of their gadgets. Suddenly, The Downward Spiral doesn't seem that offensive at all.

In happier NIN news, Reznor is reportedly engaged to his girlfriend, West Indian Girl singer Mariqueen Maandig. The news comes straight from West Indian Girl's official band Website, who fittingly accompanied their congratulatory post with a stream of NIN's The Fragile track "We're In This Together." Recently, Reznor appeared on the red carpet at the Star Trek reboot premiere holding hands with Maandig.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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