Hurt by Nine Inch Nails Lyrical Analysis
Lyrical Analysis: “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails
Have you ever had something beautiful in your life once, but someone tore it away from you, and destroyed it? You ever have the feeling that nothing matters to you anymore?. If you have ever had this experience, All you get is the memory, and the hurt. This song is what it’s all about, the memories that haunts you; and you only have only one way to escape, and that is, focusing on physical pain. Physical pain is the not only a way to relieve you from your memories. The song starts off introducing what Trent’s problems are, and that is the memories of his troubled past. “The old familiar sting”(6) “Try to kill it all away”(7) “But I remember everything”(8) I believe that this is the familiar sting is a metaphor for unwanted memories. He tries to block them out because, at one point, they were so beautiful but now they're simply a painful reminder. Or, not even beautiful, just painful. And he doesn’t want to remember anymore by hurting himself, but he can't help himself, and the memories always comeback. He tries to “kill it all away”(7) by hurting himself to relieve the pain, with actual pain. The pain only lasts so long until he again begins to remember.
When Trent says he has an empire of dirt, and wears a crown of shit; he means to say there were things that were once beautiful, or at least valuable, but now worthless. You can have them all but they don't mean anything to him anymore.
And then there are the references to another person, “You are someone else”(23) “I am still right here”(24). He’s talking about someone I'm sure he was once close to, but who is now moving on with his/her life, but while him/her move on, he is “still right here"(24), as if he was abandoned by the person. He then ends with “If I could start again”(33) “A million miles away”(34) “I would keep myself”(35) “I would find a way”(36). He wishes to start over; to create
Have you ever had something beautiful in your life once, but someone tore it away from you, and destroyed it? You ever have the feeling that nothing matters to you anymore?. If you have ever had this experience, All you get is the memory, and the hurt. This song is what it’s all about, the memories that haunts you; and you only have only one way to escape, and that is, focusing on physical pain. Physical pain is the not only a way to relieve you from your memories. The song starts off introducing what Trent’s problems are, and that is the memories of his troubled past. “The old familiar sting”(6) “Try to kill it all away”(7) “But I remember everything”(8) I believe that this is the familiar sting is a metaphor for unwanted memories. He tries to block them out because, at one point, they were so beautiful but now they're simply a painful reminder. Or, not even beautiful, just painful. And he doesn’t want to remember anymore by hurting himself, but he can't help himself, and the memories always comeback. He tries to “kill it all away”(7) by hurting himself to relieve the pain, with actual pain. The pain only lasts so long until he again begins to remember.
When Trent says he has an empire of dirt, and wears a crown of shit; he means to say there were things that were once beautiful, or at least valuable, but now worthless. You can have them all but they don't mean anything to him anymore.
And then there are the references to another person, “You are someone else”(23) “I am still right here”(24). He’s talking about someone I'm sure he was once close to, but who is now moving on with his/her life, but while him/her move on, he is “still right here"(24), as if he was abandoned by the person. He then ends with “If I could start again”(33) “A million miles away”(34) “I would keep myself”(35) “I would find a way”(36). He wishes to start over; to create