Motif from Nine Inch Nails' album The Downward Spiral. Occurs in the following songs, in the following contexts:

Piggy:

nothing can stop me now
cause i don't care anymore

Ruiner:

you didn't hurt me, nothing can hurt me
you didn't hurt me, nothing can stop me now

Big Man with a Gun:

me and my fucking gun
nothing can stop me now

Alluded to in `We're In This Together' from The Fragile:

you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow

The implied meaning of Reznor's lyrics is that feelings of invinsibility often ironically cause self-destruction.
  • In "Piggy", the words are sung in an almost calm, aloof manner. Reznor suggests that, while apathy may make one impervious to pain, it often transforms into anger or low self-esteem, much more dangerous emotions.
  • In "Ruiner", Reznor repeats the words over and over, as if in an attempt to fool himself into believing that he has not been hurt. The lyric is cut brutally short at "nothing can stop..." suggesting that he has been "stopped" after all.
  • In "Big Man With A Gun", Reznor's character is on a manic ego-trip, feeling all-powerful but dangerously out of control. The words are screamed, but by this point in the concept album, Reznor's character knows it is a lie, and that his world is about to come completely crashing down on him.

The phrase and theme are also revisited in the printed lyrics for "La Mer", another song in which Reznor deludes himself into thinking that everything is going to turn out fine.

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