Miley Cyrus covers Nine Inch Nails classic Head Like A Hole in Black Mirror

By Scott Munro
published

Lyrics to the Pretty Hate Machine track were altered for the hit Netflix show with the blessing of Trent Reznor

Miley Cyrus and Trent Reznor (Image credit: Karwai Tang, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic - Getty)

The fifth season of Black Mirror is currently being streamed on Netflix, with the third episode titled Rachel, Jack And Ashley Too featuring Miley Cyrus.

The episode centres around a lonely teenage girl who becomes obsessed with a robot doll based on her pop idol Ashley O, who is played by Cyrus. And in the hour-long show, Cyrus can be heard singing a version of Nine Inch Nails classic Head Like A Hole with some new lyrics.

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker reports that Trent Reznor was fully behind the project when he approached the vocalist with the idea.

He said at a press event (via iNews): “Trent got it straight away. It was via email and he was really happy pretty quickly. He wanted to see the script and I got to re-write his lyrics in a chirpy way.

“I’m not the best lyricist in the world, in the first song she’s singing: ‘I’m stoked on ambition and verve’ instead of ‘You’re gonna get what you deserve’.”

Black Mirror executive producer Annabel Jones added: “He thought it was very funny, he found the dark comedy very entertaining. There are lots of dark concepts in the film and we just enjoy that sort of childish subversion of them.”

To mark the news, Nine Inch Nails are selling a Black Mirror t-shirt featuring some of the new lyrics on their website.

Scott Munro
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.