A promotional single provided by the label to radio stations included both long and short vocal-censored (i.e. silenced profanity) versions.

[4] Although the song addresses themes such as self-hatred and obsession, its sexually aggressive chorus led to widespread misinterpretation of the song as an anthem of lust, which helped it become Nine Inch Nails' most successful single up to that time and cemented Trent Reznor's status as an industrial rock icon.

Censored versions of the song and its Mark Romanek-directed music video received substantial airplay on radio and MTV.

[16] The production features sound effects such as a bass squelch, synth echo, and feedback growl.

[17] Radio edits of "Closer" were created by muting the vocal track for the duration of each deleted obscenity.

[8] Lyrically, "Closer" is a song about self-hatred and obsession; to Reznor's dismay, the song was widely misinterpreted as a lust anthem due to its chorus, which famously includes the lines "I wanna fuck you like an animal / I wanna feel you from the inside".

[19] Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, said of the song, "Come on dude: 'I wanna fuck you like an animal'?

Debuting near the bottom spot of the Billboard Hot 100, it barely missed the top 40, peaking at No.

[25] Although "Closer" did not initially appear on Canada's official music chart during its original release, it reached a peak of No.

[32][33] The music video was directed by Mark Romanek and first aired on May 12, 1994, having been filmed in April of that year.

Several sections of the video were shot inside the then-abandoned Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles.

Set in what appears to be a 19th-century mad scientist's laboratory, the video's imagery involves religion, sexuality, animal cruelty, politics, and terror, including: Several times, Reznor, wearing leather pants, floats and rotates through the air, suspended by invisible wires.

There are also scenes of Reznor being blown back by a wind machine while wearing aviator goggles.

Romanek has stated: We made prints, and I personally spent a couple of days dragging them around the parking lot and spraying aerosol shellac and holding lighters under them.

We were just making it for art's sake, and YouTube didn't exist then, so it was a pretty ballsy and extravagant thing for Trent to do.

[41]These images were inspired by the work of Joel-Peter Witkin,[38] as well as by the Brothers Quay's animated short film Street of Crocodiles.

[42] Other artworks visually referenced in the video include Man Ray's Object to Be Destroyed, Francis Bacon's Figure with Meat, and photos by James Van Der Zee.

For the television version, certain removed scenes were replaced with a title card that read "Scene Missing," and the instances of the word fuck being edited out were accompanied by a stop in the video motion, making it appear as if the stop was a result of defective film (this was supposedly done to make sure the flow of the song was not affected).

This countdown was only shown late at night due to the sexually explicit imagery of "Closer" and several other videos.

Behind-the-scenes footage with commentary by Romanek is included in Closure (DVD) and Directors Label.

[8] In addition, the U.S. CD single contains five guest remixes of "Closer", a remix of its fellow The Downward Spiral track "Heresy", an instrumental track "March of the Fuckheads" (unrelated to "March of the Pigs"), and a cover version of Soft Cell's song "Memorabilia", from their 1982 EP Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing.