Trent Reznor Talks Scoring 'The Social Network,' Oversharing
By Antony Bruno for Billboard on September 28, 2010
Trent Reznor is back in the music news circles again, but this time it's not for any particularly forward-thinking new media initiatives. Rather, it's for his contribution to the soundtrack of "The Social Network," the movie about the formation of social networking powerhouse Facebook.
Reznor scored the movie entirely, which is said to be an examination of the darker side of Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg, and social networking in general. In an interview with Mashable, Reznor says his aim in creating "The Social Network" score was to "make it something that inched up the drama a little bit. And darkened the mood. Because I think there's a great sense of betrayal and greed that runs through this film that I kind of wanted to play up."
I'm very proud of the results and how it turned out," Reznor adds. "I think it really helped congeal the movie into something that subtly pushes it along and changes the presentation in a cool way."
Reznor also shares his thoughts on using social media after his well-publicized abandonment of Twitter. "I can't participate as a civilian because I have a level of celebrity that makes me not able to use Facebook in the way that someone who's not a celebrity can use it," he says. "I watch people, friends of mine, and see how they portray themselves online and I find interesting that it's kind of a hyper-real version of yourself, how you'd like to be seen, in a way. And I question the generation or two coming up who are used to engaging people in that format and wonder what the repercussions will be down the road -- how human relationships will differ in an age of oversharing."
"The Social Network," which also co-stars Justin Timberlake in the role of Napster founder-turned-Facebook president Sean Parker, hits theaters nationwide on Friday (Oct. 1).