Nine Inch Nails Music Featured in U.S. Senator’s Campaign Ad

Ed Markey is a career politician who has been serving the people of Massachusetts since 1976, first as a member of the House of Representatives for nearly four decades and most recently as a Senator since 2013. I’m admittedly not very familiar with Markey’s track record, but he strikes me as the kind of no-compromise fellow cut from the Bernie Sanders cloth who has stuck to his guns and refused to sell out or back down. Any New Englanders reading this should feel free to correct me if that’s not the case.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for the campaign ad he just put out. In the ad, Markey, who is running for reelection to the Senate this year, touts his career accomplishments and paints himself as a progressive who has aligned himself with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, for example.

And the soundtrack for the clip? Nine Inch Nails!

No, it’s not “March of the Pigs,” but the instrumental “34 Ghosts IV” from the band’s 2008 album, Ghosts I-IV. I doubt Reznor would object to having his music included in the ad (he was likely even in on it), but I do wonder how the collaboration came about: whose idea was it to include this particular, fairly obscure track in a friggin’ campaign ad? The inclusion of “All Along the Watchtower” in the ad’s back half at least makes some sense because of its association with protests in the ’60s. [Update: It’s been pointed out to us that the same NIN song was sampled in and provided the base music track for Lil Nas X’s smash hit “Old Town Road,” so it’s certainly not obscure. Let it never be said we’re experts on pop music. -Ed.]

Have a look at the three minute clip below. If nothing else, the guy’s New England accent is absolutely adorable!

Thanks: MetalGF