Songfacts®:

• Often interpreted as a scathing and vitriolic attack on the alternative music industry, this song provoked much debate and controversy with some believing the song may even be directed at Courtney Love and other alternative music idols such as Billy Corgan and Fred Durst. The music video reiterates this view including scenes where plates featuring the faces of famous musicians (Corgan, Durst and Marilyn Manson) are broken, and CDs by Manson and even NIN are thrown into a toilet. The video also features an obese Courtney Love, who used to date Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, being dunked into a waste tank. Speaking with NME, Reznor said, "It's about everybody that I thought was full of s--t at that time. There's bit of those guys in there, of course, but it wasn't solely meant to be a 'F--k You Manson' kind of song. It was also meant to be tongue-in-cheek and ridiculous and have a sense of humor."
• The clean version of this song is called "Starsuckers, Inc.", which is how it is titled for the video.
• Nine Inch Nails isn't the first to title a song "Starf--ker." The Rolling Stones released a song with that title in 1973, which is about groupies. The clean version of their song was called "Star Star." Tori Amos also put "Starf--ker" in the lyrics of her 1996 song "Professional Widow."
• The video, directed by Marilyn Manson and Robert Hales, marked the renewed friendship between Reznor and Manson (Manson having been somewhat of a belligerent protégé in the past). This reconciliation would be short-lived, as Reznor and Manson soon had another falling out.
• This got a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2000, but lost out to the new version of "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.