Songfacts®:

• This is the opening song from the soundtrack to the 2010 movie The Social Network. The dark ambient music was penned by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and his longtime collaborator, English composer Atticus Ross.
• This was Reznor's first foray into the world of soundtracks, and he told The Quietus it was a rejuvenating experience after years of frustration with the music industry: "[It was interesting] watching how the music we made transformed this film from the rough cut we saw, which had no music, when the film felt a certain way, to seeing this whole different impression of the film come out. At first, the film felt comfortable and familiar, college kids doing their thing, f---ing people over, but when we put 'Hand Covers Bruise' in there it felt completely different. It felt that there was something going on under the surface, it felt that there was a frailty and vulnerability to it, and I was blown away at how music could do that."
  
  He added: "I knew it could, but I hadn't been involved in putting the ingredients together and making it happen. It seemed to make people respond positively to the film and our work in it, and it has felt flattering, it has felt good, it has felt energising and I get goosebumps when I think about it. It was a nice charge that I needed - music is a powerful thing, and sometimes I forget that in my day job. It has been a great inspiration and I'm sure it'll transfer into what we'll do next, because it feels as if we've been recharged now."
• Here's a bit more information about Atticus Ross. The well-connected English musician was an Eton contemporary of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and was in the same boarding house as London mayor Boris Johnson and Lady Di's brother, Earl Spencer. His father, Ian, was co-founder of the pirate radio ship Radio Caroline.Ross has a teenage son from his relationship with Mick Fleetwood's daughter, Amy, and he subsequently married Claudia, who is the daughter of Sixties pop star Mike Sarne (Come Outside).Ross first came to notice in the mid-1990s as a programmer for Tim Simenon's Bomb the Bass. Since moving to the United States in 2000, he has been credited as a producer and/or programmer on four Nine Inch Nails albums: With Teeth, Year Zero, Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. In May 2010, Ross was named as a member of a Reznor's How To Destroy Angels project. Ross's work in film music began in 2004 when he scored the Hughes Brothers' TV series Touching Evil, with his wife, Claudia Sarne, and brother, Leopold Ross. He subsequently provided music the Hughes Brothers' feature film The Book of Eli, (2010) starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
• The Social Network soundtrack won the Best Original Score award at the 2011 Oscar ceremony. Reznor said backstage regarding his first venture into scoring a film: "A side of my music with Nine Inch Nails was going instrumental so it was not a huge leap or stretch to try this. The biggest challenge was working with a picture. [Director] David Fincher knew exactly what he wanted. It was one of the best experiences of my life from start to finish."
  
  He added, "[Inception] composer, Hans Zimmer, who I've been battling at awards shows all year, told me, 'In a lot of ways, I hope you win because it's helped open up the field a bit for texture of what film scores can be.'"
• Reznor was the second Rock band frontman to win the Oscar for original score, joining Talking Heads' David Byrne, who took home the trophy for The Last Emperor in 1987.