NIN - Closer

"Closer" is perhaps Nine Inch Nails' most well-known song. The song's chorus includes the famous line "I want to fuck you like an animal," requiring the profanity to be censored for radio play despite its prominent placement in the song.
"Closer" has been covered by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, The Galan Pixs, Eric Gorfain, Maroon 5, Maxwell, Nine Inch Richards, Frank Rogala, Rosetta Stone, Ark Sano, S.I.N.A., Spiralmouth and Transient. "Weird Al" Yankovic included a polka version of the song in "Alternative Polka" from his album Bad Hair Day.
An edit of the remix "Closer (precursor)" is present in the opening credits of the movie Se7en.

The music video was directed by Mark Romanek and first aired on May 12, 1994. The video was popular and helped bolster the success of the band. It was also somewhat controversial due to its imagery which included a nude woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, and diagrams of vulvas. Many think these images were inspired by the art of Joel-Peter Witkin. Scenes that had to be removed were replaced with a title card that said "Scene Missing" (this was done to make sure the flow of the song was not affected). The video also has a stylized, old-film look. The video is one of two directed by Romanek that the Museum of Modern Art has added to its permanent collection.

In mid-2002, the full-on unedited version of this video was aired on MTV2 as part of a special countdown showing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV. This countdown was only shown late at night because of the graphic imagery of "Closer" and several other videos on the countdown.