Broken is the first extended play (EP) and second major release by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

The record was promoted with music videos for five of the eight songs which were censored due to their violent content, as well as a short film of the same name, which was never officially released, but was later leaked as a bootleg.

The recording helped to propel Nine Inch Nails into mainstream popularity, and later received two Grammy Awards (both for Best Metal Performance) for the songs "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery".

Steve Gottlieb, the CEO of TVT Records, was insistent that he would not release anything other than an album very similar to Pretty Hate Machine.

Reznor demanded his label terminate his contract, due to their restriction of his creative control of the Nine Inch Nails project.

"[10] The instrumental break of "Physical" (at 3:49) features a half-speed recording of Reznor's dog, Maise, barking, and Sean Beavan's line, "Ow!...fucker!

[5] Heavier than Pretty Hate Machine, Broken takes influences from industrial metal bands such as Ministry and Godflesh.

[15][page needed] In the liner notes, Reznor credited the 1991 Nine Inch Nails touring band as an influence on the EP's sound.

It features a series of short, ascending, distorted guitar power chords and a collage of atmospheric loops, including a reversed sample of David Bowie's "It's No Game" (which is not credited in the artwork for Broken).

Broken was originally packaged in a trifold-out digipak, containing the six tracks on a regular compact disc and an additional three-inch mini CD with the two remaining songs, covers of Adam and the Ants' "Physical" and Pigface's "Suck".

The two bonus cuts were issued on a 7-inch single given away inside the EP in a white die-cut sleeve (an unusual method for packaging an album on the vinyl format).

After a long list of credits, the packaging reads, "no thanks: you know who you fucking are" followed by "the slave thinks he is released from bondage only to find a stronger set of chains.

"[9][18] These comments are likely directed towards TVT Records' Steve Gottlieb, who refused to let Reznor out of his contract, sparking legal battles between the two parties.

[20] The "no thanks" part may be a response to the liner notes of Ministry's Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs album, which featured a cryptic "no thanks, you know who you are.

Visually, in a music video for "Gave Up", the monitor of a Mac computer running Pro Tools reads "fuck you steve".

People listed in that portion include Jimmy Iovine, Ros Earles, Island Records, Eric Greenspan, Rick Rubin, Joe Mcewen, Seymour Stein, Susie Tallman, Mark O'Shea, Ian Copeland, Kevin Westenberg and Sheroa Rees-Davies.

Reznor says he came in at the end of the Gub recording session, when time was running out, sang the lyrics for "Suck" over the leftover drum snippets they had, threw it together and said it was done.

"[33] "Beats are hammered home with the gleeful force of a dentist's drill", said Peter Kane in Q, "while layers of rabid guitars and Reznor's spiteful voice pile on the nihilistic agony.

"[37] Writing for The Baltimore Sun, J. D. Considine stated: "Harder than Ministry, hookier than Nitzer Ebb, this EP is everything industrial music should be.

"[39] The EP was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 18, 1992,[40] despite a complete absence of touring in support of it.

The first promotional single, "Happiness in Slavery", received moderate airplay, but its video's depiction of Bob Flanagan being pleasured, tortured, and killed on a device led to MTV banning it outright.

Due to the graphic substance of "Gave Up", an alternative version of the music video consisting of the song being performed at Le Pig studios by Reznor, a young Marilyn Manson, Richard Patrick and Chris Vrenna was released to MTV.

[43] Broken has not been given an official commercial release (according to Reznor, because they wanted to avoid the film overshadowing the prominence of the music),[44] thus adding to its mythological status in alternative culture.