Music Video
A music video was made for the "Clay" remix of this song. It was directed by Eric Zimmerman, released in March 1990 and later in 1997 on the Closure VHS. The video became popular on MTV and helped fuel NIN's early success. A slightly different edit of the video was also released for Flood's remix of the song, which is 17 seconds shorter than the "Clay" remix. The video features band members Trent Reznor, Richard Patrick and Chris Vrenna along with guest drummer Martin Atkins performing in a cage.
In the beginning of the video, a black and white sample of a person hopping on one foot while spinning a staff fades in and out against a background of "blurred colors." Clips of Reznor putting his head in a bucket of water, and an off-screen person using the same bucket to make Reznor wet, were taken by a video camera before filming a performance of the song from Nine Inch Nails as a live band.
The guitar Reznor used in the video is a Jackson Dinky. It is first seen in first chorus, when Reznor, appearing to be dirty like the other band members (He had long hair and wore gritty clothing during production), bangs his head twice while singing the song. He does not use the guitar for the climax of the video, where wires tied to him slowly pull him up, leaving the frontman spinning upsidedown insanely. At the same scene, Vrenna destroys his drum kit by throwing a bass drum of Atkins' drum kit torwards the object. At a shot occurring prior to that point, broken Zildjian cymbals and a drum machine can be seen as parts of Vrenna's kit. Reznor has used multiple other guitars, many of them which he destroyed. A Jackson guitar that Reznor broke at the end of a February 1991 concert was auctioned on eBay at the price of US$1,900 dollars, and was sold in early 2009. The guitars that he uses for the majority of Nine Inch Nails' music are manufactured by Paul Reed Smith Guitars. Patrick uses a similar guitar, eventually singing backing vocals for "Head Like a Hole's" second chorus in the video, though his voice is not heard in the final version. Danny Lohner also uses PRS Guitars.
There are images that are shown for a few frames like "HEAD," "16 SOUND START," "S M P T E UNIVERSAL LEADER" and "PICTURE." Other images included a white dot set againist a black background, a mirrored presentation showing the words "REEL № PROD № PLAY DATE" colored in yellow, one with the words "PICTURE START," and a frame consisting of "C C F F" placed near an outlined ring. The latter screen had an alternative version that was accompanied by a white number 3, also seen in the video. There are also visuals of four incomplete rotating mechanical models of human heads; one with film stills, another with a modified motherboard and other technology, the purple, wired, head with a blue screen showing an eye and various computer hardware, and the last containing blue skin, orange-pupil eyes, and a lightbulb. The former two were filmed in black and white, while the latter two in full color. All four are shown intercut with shots of people spinning baseball bats.
Read more about this topic: Head Like A Hole
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“As for the terms good and bad, they indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking, or notions which we form from the comparison of things with one another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him who mourns; for him who is deaf, it is neither good nor bad.”
—Baruch (Benedict)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video pastthe portrayals of family life on such television programs as Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)