While Nine Inch Nail’s song ‘March of the Pigs’ doesn’t have a largely unorthodox structure, the contrast between sections and the use of dynamics and tension is very strange for such a popular song within the band’s catalogue.
The song starts with a drum beat consisting of 3 bars of 7/8 and a bar of 8/8 and after 2 loops of this is joined by the bass for another 2 loops of this time signature switch. This could be considered the intro as after these 4 repetitions the guitar and vocals enter for a verse. The verse feels frantic with lyrics about ‘losing it’ and talking pieces of something. After this comes a pre chorus which goes half time from the 269 bpm of the verse. The use of dynamics here is crucial to the structure as the pre chorus feels more steady, the instrumentation goes back to just the drums and bass in 4/4 now with a 8th note riff on the bass and a quarter note kick pattern. The chorus then hits, being the greatest dynamic shift in the song. The instrumentation strips back to just piano and vocals, as the piano plays three jazz inspired chords over 2 bars. The lyrics here are at odds with the frantic and uneasy verse, singing ‘doesn’t it make you feel better’. This verse/pre chorus/chorus structure repeats again after a few seconds of rest, however the second chorus is extended with the jazzy chords playing 3 times more this time.
While nothing here is individually that odd, it’s a polar opposite use of this structure than the usual in a pop song. Rather than having a sparse verse, a dramatic pre chorus that builds up and a huge anthemic chorus, this song goes in reverse with a hard & fast verse, a less dramatic pre chorus and an anti-climactic almost non-chorus of just a few seconds. Despite this the song still works as intended, working as a metaphor for a high and a subsequent come down. The verse is almost incoherent, while the pre chorus strips back and the chorus has the most clarity to any section, telling a story not only through the lyrics but through the structure and production of the track.
I’d like to try a song similarly structured, with hard dynamic shifts from section to section and instrumental switch ups out of nowhere. Similarly using production and songwriting as tools to add to a narrative is a fascinating idea i’d like to study and implement in my own songwriting.
Krovatin, C. (2019) Nine inch nails’ March of the pigs is still as intense as ever, Kerrang! Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/remembering-nine-inch-nails-march-of-the-pigs-25-years-later (Accessed: 02 December 2023).