EP · Nine Inch Nails
Broken by Nine Inch Nails
Broken is an EP by Nine Inch Nails, released in 1992. 4 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 10 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Happiness in Slavery”, on 4 lists with a best position of #46.
Broken, the Nine Inch Nails EP released on September 22, 1992, is Trent Reznor torching the synth-pop sheen of Pretty Hate Machine. After a falling-out with TVT over how the debut was promoted, the band moved to Interscope, and Reznor came back co-producing with Flood on eight brand-new songs that swap the dancefloor for the grinder: guitars like sheet metal, drums like a stamping press, a voice spitting pure bile. "Wish", "Happiness in Slavery", "Physical" and "Suck" land like a string of punches to the gut.
Videos were shot for five of the songs and censored for their violence, and a companion short film never got an official release, living on only as a bootleg. None of that slowed it down. It went to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, went platinum, won Grammys for Best Metal Performance with "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery", and cleared the road straight to The Downward Spiral.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Broken on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Happiness in Slavery | 4 | #46 | – | 1992–1999 | |
| 2 | Wish | 3 | #344 | – | 1999–2005 | |
| 3 | Physical | 2 | #52 | – | 1992 | |
| 4 | Suck | 1 | #53 | – | 1992 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.