Miley does 'Head Like a Hole' better than NIN, claim YouTubers after 'Black Mirror'

June 6, 2019

Black Mirror‘s fifth season premiered on Netflix yesterday and the episode getting the most attention is “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” which stars Miley Cyrus as pop star Ashley O who comes out with a virtual toy version of herself (that’s the “Ashley Too”) and starts to doubt her career path. Her big hit in the episode is “I’m on a Roll” which is Nine Inch Nails‘ “Head Like a Hole” turned into a pop song with new lyrics like “Yeah I can take it / don’t you fake it / I know your love’s my destiny” and puts a more positive, empowering spin on the “get what you deserve” line. The song is probably the cleverest part of the episode that doesn’t really do enough with its premise, but needless to say the versions of the song in the episode probably introduced a lot of people to Nine Inch Nails’ 30-year-old single. Some of them have taken to the YouTube comment section of the NIN song to let folks know Miley did it better, which unsurprisingly made a lot of NIN fans upset. Luckily, being YouTube, they all agreed to disagree. Where do you fall? Listen to the original and one of Miley’s versions, below (and we don’t want to give any more spoilers, so watch the episode for another).

Black Mirror definitely takes a rockist stance to current pop music, with one of the characters telling the Ashley Too toy that her favorite bands are Pixies, Sonic Youth, IDLES and Savages. Nine Inch Nails once dipped their toes in teen stardom, appearing on Dance Party USA to play “Down in In” and you can watch that below too.

Also below: a picture of a new t-shirt Nine Inch Nails is selling to celebrate the collaboration. It’s funny, but we can’t help but wonder if Trent’s aunt had something to do with it…