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{{Short description|Music genre}}
{{Mergefrom|Chicago Industrial|date=March 2007}}
{{Distinguish|Industrial musical}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name = Industrial
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| cultural_origins = Early-to-mid-1970s, United Kingdom and Germany
| derivatives = *]
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| subgenrelist = List of industrial music genres
| subgenres = *]
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| regional_scenes = *Australia
*Germany
*United Kingdom
*United States (])
| other_topics = *]
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{{Electronic music top}}
'''Industrial music''' is a genre of ] that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive, or provocative sounds and themes. ] defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of ] and ]" that was "initially a blend of ] electronics experiments (], ], ], ]s, ]s, etc.) and ] provocation."<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=style|id=ma0000002658|pure_url=yes}}|title=Industrial|work=AllMusic|publisher=All Media Network|access-date=2017-05-05|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of ] by members of ] and ]. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in the United States and other countries.


The first industrial artists experimented with ] and aesthetically controversial topics, both musically and visually, such as ], ], and the ]. Prominent industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle, ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=Handbook>V.Vale. '']'', 1983.</ref> On Throbbing Gristle's 1977 debut album, '']'', they coined the slogan "industrial music for industrial people." The industrial music scene also developed strongly in ], with the city's ] at one point leading the industrial music scene. The precursors that influenced the development of the genre included 1940s musique concrète and varied ] sources in addition to rock-era acts such as ], ], ], and ]'s '']'' (1975). Musicians also cite writers such as ] and ] and artists such as ] as influences.
{{genrebox|name=Industrial
|color=silver
|bgcolor=black
|stylistic_origins=], ] , ], ], ], ]
|cultural_origins=Early ]; ], ], ], ]
|instruments=] - ] - ]s - ]s - ] - ]s - ] (in latter incarnations were added ] - ] - ])
|popularity= Underground since its creation, a moderate peak during the mid-1990s
|derivatives=] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ] - ]
|subgenrelist=List of electronic music genres
|subgenres=
|regional_scenes=
|other_topics=] - ] - ]}}
'''Industrial music''' is a loose term for a number of different styles of electronic and experimental music. First used in the mid-] to describe the then-unique sound of ] artists. Since then, a wide variety of labels and artists have since come to be called "Industrial."


While the term was self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records in the late 1970s, it was broadened to include artists influenced by the original movement or using an "industrial" aesthetic.<ref>"... journalists now use 'industrial' as a term like they would 'blues.'"—Genesis P-Orridge, ''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 16.</ref> Over time, the genre's influence spread into and blended with styles including ], synth music and rock such as ], ], ], and ], acts associated with the ]-based ] imprint. ] music is a primary subgenre that developed in the 1980s, with the most notable bands in the genre being ] and ]. The two other most notable hybrid genres are ] and ], which include bands such as ], ], ], and ], the first three of which released a platinum-selling album each in the ].
The first industrial artists experimented with varying degrees of noise, production techniques and what, at the time, were considered controversial topics. Their production was not only limited to musical output but also mail art and installation pieces.<ref name=Handbook> V.Vale. '']'', 1983.</ref>


==History==
Originally, the term solely referred to music created by Industrial Records and related artists. As time progressed, the term began to refer to artists either directly influenced by the original movement, artists using an "industrial" aesthetic such as imagery devised around mechanical objects and industry itself and, more distantly, artists who were sometimes only minimally influenced or insipred by the Industrial Records roster and other related artists. The evolution of industrial music has led to numerous sub-genres and lines of influence.


===Precursors===
''Industrial'' was a term was meant by its creators to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation of people, previous music being more "agricultural." Specifically, it might have referred to the streamlined process by which the music was being made, although many people now interpret the word as a poetic reference to an "industrial" aesthetic, recalling factories and inhuman machinery. On this topic, ] of Industrial Records once remarked, "the original idea of Industrial Records was to reject what the growing ] was telling you at the time what music was supposed to be."{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
Industrial music drew from a broad range of predecessors. According to the '']'', the genre was first named in 1942 when '']'' called ] 1927 ] "the high tide of 'industrial music'."<ref name=OED1>{{Cite OED|term=Industrial}}</ref> Similarly, in 1972, '']'' described works by ] (especially 1935's ''A Symphony in Steel'') as part of "his 'industrial music' genre called on such instruments as four pairs of shoes, two brooms, a locomotive bell, a pneumatic drill and a compressed-air tank".<ref name="NYT1">{{cite journal |last1=Henahan |first1=Donal |title=Limned the Landscape |journal=] |date=April 4, 1972 |page=46 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/04/archives/limned-the-landscape.html |access-date=November 17, 2018}}</ref> Though these compositions are not directly tied to what the genre would become, they are early examples of music designed to mimic machinery noise and factory atmosphere. Early examples of industrial music are arguably found in ]'s 1940s ] and the tape music of ], the former of which is akin to the aesthetics of 1970s industrial music, while artists such as early 20th century Italian ] ] laid the groundwork for the genre with his book and work '']'' (1913), reflecting "the sounds of a modern ]".<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/942398 | jstor=942398 | last1=Brown | first1=Barclay | title=The Noise Instruments of Luigi Russolo | journal=Perspectives of New Music | year=1981 | volume=20 | issue=1/2 | pages=31–48 | doi=10.2307/942398 }}</ref>


] assessed 1960s English experimental group ] as originators of the genre, as well as to ], ] and ], writing that the "experimentation in sonic assault, noise, and ] (including ])" on their debut album ''AMMMusic'' (1967) would "reach the rock fringes in the work of industrial groups like ]".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Olewnick |first1=Brian |title=Ammmusic Review by Brian Olewnick |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/ammmusic-mw0000026381 |website=AllMusic |access-date=23 August 2022}}</ref> ]'s album '']'' (1969) has been cited by AllMusic's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing industrial, ] and ], with the track "Caledonia" resembling "a ] or ] recording from 1989".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Henderson |first1=Alex |title=Orgasm Review by Alex Hederson |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/orgasm-mw0000619006 |website=AllMusic |access-date=23 August 2022}}</ref> The 1970 album '']'' by ] band ] has also been called an early precursor of industrial music.<ref>{{Cite web |title=KLUSTER - Forced Exposure |url=https://www.forcedexposure.com/Artists/KLUSTER.html |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=www.forcedexposure.com}}</ref> In 1981, music critic ] referenced "the Sounds of the Junkyard" (1964), an album made up of industrial ] released by ], in his guide to "horrible noise".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lester Bangs–A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise |url=https://markharrisstudio.com/lester-bangs-a-reasonable-guide-to-horrible-noise/ |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=Mark Harris |language=en-US}}</ref>
==History==
===Early influences===
]'s 1913 work ''The Art of Noises'' is often cited as the first example of the industrial philosophy in modern music. After Russolo's ''musica futurista'' came ] and ], and this gave rise to early industrial music, which was made by manipulating cut sections of recording tape, and adding very early sound output from analog electronics devices.


] and ] in 1975, cited as inspirations by Herman Taylor]]
Also important in the development of the genre was the ] art movement, and later the ] art movement.
In the book ''Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK'', Alexei Monroe argues that ] were particularly significant in the development of industrial music, as the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into nonacademic electronic music."<ref name=monroe>Monroe, p. 212</ref> Industrial music was created originally by using mechanical and electric machinery and later advanced synthesizers, samplers and electronic percussion as the technology developed. Monroe also argues for ] as an influential contemporary of industrial musicians.<ref name=monroe/> Groups cited as inspirational by the founders of industrial music include ], ], and ].<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 11–12.</ref> ] of ] had a cassette library including recordings by ], ], ], and ].<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 19.</ref> P-Orridge also credited 1960s rock such as ], ], ], ], and ] in a 1979 interview.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=225}} The dissonant electronic work of ] groups like ] and ] was an influence on industrial artists.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p17471|pure_url=yes}} |title=Faust |publisher=] |access-date=1 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=says |first=M. |date=2008-04-10 |title=Klaus Dinger : 1946-2008 |url=https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2008/04/10/klaus-dinger-1946-2008/ |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=Aquarium Drunkard |language=en-US}}</ref>


] also enjoyed and found inspiration in ] and ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=227}} ] was influenced by the music of '60s ] and ].<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 67.</ref> ] cited Christopher Tree (Spontaneous Sound), ], ], ], ], and Captain Beefheart, among others together with ], ], ], ], and ] as influential in his artistic life.<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 117</ref> Cabaret Voltaire cited ] as their initial forerunners, as well as Kraftwerk's '']''.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=154, 159}} Cabaret Voltaire also recorded pieces reminiscent of '']'' and composers such as ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=156}} ] cited ] of obscure ] and ] as recommended listening.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=242}} ] borrowed from ] and Miles Davis's '']''.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=243}} Many industrial groups, including ], took inspiration from ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=485}}
] was also a major pioneer in electronic music. His composition ''Poème électronique'', for example, debuted at the ] in the ].


Many of the initial industrial musicians preferred to cite artists or thinkers, rather than musicians, as their inspiration. ] declares that "Being a Throbbing Gristle fan was like enrolling in a university course of cultural extremism."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/sonic-youth-underground-influences|title=Sonic Youth are caught under the influence|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|date=April 7, 2009|work=The Guardian |publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> ] was an initial inspiration for Throbbing Gristle.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=226}} SPK appreciated ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ], as well as being inspired by the manifesto of the eponymous ].<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 97–105.</ref> Cabaret Voltaire took conceptual cues from Burroughs, ], and ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=154–155, 171}} ] and ] dedicated some of their work to the ]; the latter also took impetus from the ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=242}}
]'s 1975 record ] is widely considered in the industrial community the first actualized and successful Industrial album.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}


Another influence on the industrial aesthetic was Lou Reed's '']''. ''Pitchfork Music'' cites this album as "inspiring, in part, much of the contemporary avant-garde music scene—noise, in particular."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6690-lou-reed/ | author=Petrusich, Amanda | title=Interviews: Lou Reed | website=] | date=September 17, 2007 | access-date=April 16, 2010 | archive-date=August 23, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823033630/http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6690-lou-reed/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> The album consists entirely of guitar feedback, anticipating industrial's use of non-musical sounds.'']'' described American ] ] as having "presaged forms of punk, new wave and industrial music".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/obituaries/hardy-fox-dead.html|title=Hardy Fox, of the Avant-Garde Band the Residents (Maybe), Dies at 73|last=Slotnik|first=Daniel E.|website=]|date=November 3, 2018|access-date=April 27, 2020}}</ref>
===Industrial Records===
]'' by ] featured contrasting imagery. The back cover features what appears to be the same image in black and white. A closer look reveals a nude male corpse now lying in the grass in front of the band.]]
''Industrial Music for Industrial People'' was originally coined by ]<Ref name=Industrialpeople> TG CD I liner notes. P. Orridge states: "Monte Cazazza suggested our business slogan should be INDUSTRIAL MUSIC FOR INDUSTRIAL PEOPLE." </ref> as the strapline for the record label ] (founded by British art-provocateurs ], the musical offshoot of performance art group ]).


===Early years===
The first wave of this music appeared in 1977 with ] and ]. These releases often featured tape editing, stark percussion and loops distorted to the point where they had degraded to harsh noise. Vocals were sporadic, and were as likely to be ] as they were to be abrasive polemics.
]'' collected numerous interviews from various artists involved in circle surrounding Industrial Records.]]


{| class="wikitable sortable"
Early industrial ] often involved ]-breaking, provocative elements, such as ], ] elements and ] imagery or symbolism.
|+ First studio EP or LP albums by early industrial bands
|-
! Band
! Country
! class="unsortable" |Studio album
! Album date
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1977
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1979
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| '']'''''*'''
| 1979
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1979
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1980
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1980
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1980
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|West Germany}}
| ''Stahlwerksynfonie''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|West Germany}}
| '']''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Australia}}
| '']''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Belgium}}
| ''Suffering''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| ''Tissue of Lies''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| '']'''''*'''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Australia}}
| '']''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| ''Production and Decay of Spacial Relations''
| 1981
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Belgium}}
| '']''
| 1982
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| ''Physical Evidence''
| 1982
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1982
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| ''Speak in Tongues''
| 1982
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1982
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| ''Action and Reaction''
| 1983
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| ''Basic Pain Procedure''
| 1983
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United States}}
| '']''
| 1983
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1984
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| '']''
| 1984
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Japan}}
| ''Take Back Your Penis!''
| 1984
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|West Germany}}
| '']''
| 1984
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|Canada}}
| '']''
| 1984
|-
| ]
| {{flagicon|United Kingdom}}
| ''Ecstacy Under Duress''
| 1984
|- class="sortbottom"
| colspan=4 style="text-align: center;" | '''*'''earlier albums not industrial
|}


====Industrial Records====
Swedish rock act ], were signed to Industrial Records in 1978, being the first non-TG/Cazazza act to have an IR-release. Their only IR-release, Slow Death EP (IR 007, nov '79), rapidly climbed the alternative charts in the UK and was on power play on the influential John Peel BBC1 radioshow for two weeks in December '79.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
''Industrial Music for Industrial People'' was originally coined by ]<ref name="Industrial Records at Brainwashed" /> as the strapline for the record label ], founded by British art-provocateurs Throbbing Gristle.<ref name="Kilpatrick, Nancy 2004, p. 86">]. ''The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined''. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004, {{ISBN|0-312-30696-2}}, p. 86.</ref> The first wave of this music appeared with Throbbing Gristle, from London; Cabaret Voltaire, from Sheffield;<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 42–49.</ref> and Boyd Rice (recording under the name NON), from the United States.<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 50–67.</ref> Throbbing Gristle first performed in 1976,{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=224}} and began as the musical offshoot of the ]-based ].<ref name="research pg17">''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 17.</ref> COUM was initially a psychedelic rock group, but began to describe their work as ] in order to obtain grants from the ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=226}} COUM was composed of P-Orridge and ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=226}} Beginning in 1972, COUM staged several performances inspired by ] and ]. These included various acts of sexual and physical abjection.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=227}} ], an employee of commercial artists ], joined the group in 1974, with Carter joining the following year.<ref name="research pg17"/>


The group renamed itself Throbbing Gristle in September 1975, their name coming from a northern English slang word for an erection.<ref name="research pg17"/> The group's first public performance, in October 1976, was alongside an exhibit titled ''Prostitution'', which included pornographic photos of Tutti as well as used tampons. Conservative politician ] declared that "public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society" and blasted the group as "wreckers of civilization."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=229}} The group announced their dissolution in 1981, declaring that their "mission" has been "terminated."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=240}}
Bands like ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ] soon followed. Blending electronic ]s, guitars and early samplers, these bands created an aggressive and abrasive music fusing elements of rock with experimental electronic music. Artists often used shock-tactics including explicit lyrical content, graphic art and ] imagery; at the forefront of this were ] and ]. Industrial Records experienced a fair amount of controversy after it was revealed that it had been using an image of an ] ] as its logo for a number of years.


====Wax Trax! Records====
Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In ], shock/performance artist ] (often collaborating with ] and ]/SRL) began working with harsh atonal noise. ] (aka ]) released several more albums of ], with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds. In ], experimental / art rock groups sprouted from the underground such as ], ], ], Ministry of Compulsory Joy and ].
{{Main|Wax Trax! Records}}
Chicago record label Wax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music received starting in the early 1980s. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. The label's first official release was an EP in 1980 entitled ''Immediate Action'' by ]. The label went on to distribute some of the most prominent names in industrial throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Wax Trax! also distributed industrial releases in the United States for the Belgium record label Play It Again Sam Records, and had opened a North American office dubbed Play It Again Sam U.S.A. as a division of Wax Trax!. Wax Trax! was subsequently purchased by ] in 1992 who closed the independent Chicago label in 2001. Jim's Daughter, Julia Nash, resurrected Wax Trax! Records in 2011 with a 3-day charity event titled Wax Trax! Retrospectacle - 33 1/3 Year Anniversary. Julia officially released new material in 2014 under the Wax Trax! imprint and continues to run the record label from Chicago.


===Expansion of the scene===
In the rest of Europe, particularly in Italy, work by ]/M.B./Sacher-Pelz at the end of 1979/beginning of 1980, with some electronic/radiographic extreme works edited in a very limited edition ("Cainus", "Venus", "Cease To Exist", "Velours", "Mectpyo Blut" cassette-tapes, and "Symphony For A Genocide", "Menses", "Neuro Habitat" LPs).


The bands ],<ref>{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p3923/biography|pure_url=yes}} |title=Clock DVA Biography |last=Ankeny |first=Jason |work=AllMusic |publisher=Rovi Corporation |access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p19609|pure_url=yes}}|title=Nocturnal Emissions Biography|last=Torreano|first=Bradley|work=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p21413|pure_url=yes}}|title=Whitehouse Biography | last=Schaefer | first=Peter |work=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> ],{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=241}} and ]<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, pp. 92–105.</ref> soon followed. Whitehouse intended to play "the most brutal and extreme music of all time", a style they eventually called ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=240}} An early collaborator with Whitehouse, Steve Stapleton, formed Nurse with Wound, who experimented with noise sculpture and sound collage.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=241–242}} Clock DVA described their goal as borrowing equally from ] and "nervous energy sort of funk stuff, body music that flinches you and makes you move."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=243}} 23 Skidoo, like Clock DVA, merged industrial music with African-American dance music, but also performed a response to world music. Performing at the first ] in 1982, the group likened themselves to Indonesian ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=243–244}} Swedish act ] were signed to Industrial Records in 1978, being the first non-TG/Cazazza act to have an IR-release.<ref name="Industrial Records at Brainwashed">{{cite web |url=http://www.brainwashed.com/tg/industrial.html |title=Industrial Records |publisher=] |access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> Their singles eventually received significant airplay in the United States on ].<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p18847/biography|pure_url=yes}}|title=Leather Nun Biography | last=Sutton | first=Michael | work=AllMusic | publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref>
In France, early artists influenced by Industrial Records included ], ], ], ], Le Syndicat and Die Form.
]'' reference guide to the philosophy and interests of a flexible alliance of "deviant" artists<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 2.</ref>]]


Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In San Francisco, performance artist ] began recording ].<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, pp. 68–81.</ref> Boyd Rice released several albums of noise, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds.<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, pp. 50–67.</ref> In Boston, ] and other artists from ] began experimenting with a mixture of powerful noise and early forms of ]. In Italy, work by ] at the beginning of the 1980s also shared this aesthetic.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p56542|pure_url=yes}}|title=Maurizio Bianchi Biography|last=Torreano|first=Bradley|work=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten mixed metal percussion, guitars, and unconventional instruments (such as ]s and bones) in stage performances that often damaged the venues in which they played.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4174/biography|pure_url=yes}}|title=Einstürzende Neubauten Biography|last=Huey|first=Steve|work=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 28, 2009}}</ref> Blixa Bargeld, inspired by ] and an enthusiasm for ], also originated an art movement called Die Genialen Dilettanten.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=484}} Bargeld is particularly well known for his hissing scream.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=484}}
In Germany, ] were performing daring acts, mixing metal percussion, guitars and unconventional "instruments" (such as ]s) in elaborate stage performances that often damaged the venues they were playing in.


In January 1984, Einstürzende Neubauten performed a ''Concerto for Voice and Machinery'' at the ] (the same site as COUM's ''Prostitution'' exhibition), drilling through the floor and eventually sparking a riot.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=486}} This event received front-page news coverage in England.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=486}} Other groups who practiced a form of industrial "metal music" (that is, produced by the sounds of metal crashing against metal) include ],<ref name="Test Dept at AllMusic">{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p5621|pure_url=yes}}|title=Test Dept. Biography|last=Bush|first=John|work=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi Corporation|access-date=October 27, 2009}}</ref> ],<ref>Monroe, p. 222.</ref> and ], as well as Z'EV and SPK.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=485}} Test Dept were largely inspired by ] and toured to support the ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=489}} ] embraced a variety of industrial forefathers and created a lurching, impalatable whole from many pieces. ], from New York City, also practiced a metal music aesthetic, though reliant on standard rock instrumentation.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=487}} Laibach, a ]n group who began while ] remained a single state, were very controversial for their iconographic borrowings from ], ], ], ], and Russian Futurist imagery, conflating Yugoslav patriotism with its German authoritarian adversary.<ref>Monroe, p. 96.</ref> ] has defended Laibach, arguing that they and their associated ] art group practice an overidentification with the hidden perverse enjoyment undergirding authority that produces a subversive and liberatory effect.<ref>Slavoj Žižek, ''M'ARS'' 3–4, 1993, pp. 3–4.</ref> In simpler language, Laibach practiced a type of agitprop that was widely utilized by industrial and punk artists on both sides of the Atlantic.
===Post-industrial developments===


Following the breakup of Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge and Christopherson founded ] and signed to a major label.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=474}} Their first album was much more accessible and melodic than the usual industrial style, and included hired work by trained musicians.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=474–475}} Later work returned to the sound collage and noise elements of earlier industrial.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=480–481}} They also borrowed from funk and ]. P-Orridge also founded ], a quasi-religious organization that produced ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=476}} Psychic TV's commercial aspirations were managed by Stevo of ], who released many of the later industrial musicians, including Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and Cabaret Voltaire.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=477}}
Throughout the early to mid 1980s, the ] movement began to emerge around the world. Taking influence from the harsh experimentation of the original foundation-laying artists, these bands began to forge the recognisable musical frames that industrial music exists in today. Skinny Puppy from Vancouver Canada (debuting with Back and Forth in 1984), KMFDM from Germany (debuting with Opium in 1984), Front 242 from Belgium (debuting with Geography in 1982) and Foetus from Australia (debuting with Deaf in 1981) are some of the most notable second-wave artists who helped popularise and redefine the genre amongst underground music culture (and laying the foundations for most future sub-divisions of the genre). Although notable artists Ministry were active at the time (releasing their debut With Sympathy in 1983), their evolution to legitimate industrial music did not take place until their second release, Twitch in 1986 - at which point they became one of the most influential artists to the later emerging coldwave scene.


Around 1983, Cabaret Voltaire members were deeply interested in funk music and, with the encouragement of their friends from ], began to develop a form of dark but danceable ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=478}} Christopherson left Psychic TV in 1983 and formed ] with ]. Coil made use of gongs and bullroarers in an attempt to conjure "Martian," "homosexual energy".{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=481–482}} ], a friend of Coil's, formed ], alongside ] of ], ] and Fritz Catlin of ]; both Coil and Current 93 were inspired by amphetamines and LSD.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=482}} ], a co-producer with Coil, developed a version of ] in industrial music, borrowing from ] as well as noise and ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=483}} In the early 1980s, the Chicago-based record label ] and Canada's ] helped to expand the industrial music genre into the more accessible ] and ] genres.<ref name="Kilpatrick, Nancy 2004, p. 86"/>
In the early 1980s the Chicago-based record label Wax Trax! helped to forge the industrial music genre. At the forefront of this explosion of musical exploration were bands such as Chicago's ], ] ], ] and ]. Wax Trax was one of the first labels to carry this new strain of Industrial music. It was one of the most widely respected labels of the genre.


==Characteristics and history==
By the late 80s, the scene had grown considerably as the music became a staple of the club scene - artists were emerging from all over the world and record sales of key artists were increasing rapidly. One of the most important albums in the genre's development was ]' comparatively commercially-structured ], released in 1989. NIN performances began breaking the style into mainstream rock culture at that point. ]'s influence on the newer incarnations of the genre has led to controversy from those who feel that NIN's frontman Trent Reznor essentially diluted the deliberate anti-mainstream aesthetics of older, more original industrial music. Ultimately his accomplishments, alongside the likes of Ministry, led to the further development of not only the style as a whole, but of a number of industrial/rock fusion subgenres to later emerge.
The birth of industrial music was a response to "an age the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power."<ref name="ReferenceA">The Secret History of Rock: The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard by Roni Sarig</ref> At its birth, the genre of industrial music was different from any other music, and its use of technology and disturbing lyrics and themes to tear apart preconceptions about the necessary rules of musical form supports the suggestion that industrial music is modernist music.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The artists themselves made these goals explicit, even drawing connections to social changes they wished to argue for through their music.


The Industrial Records website explains that the musicians wanted to re-invent rock music, and that their uncensored records were about their relationship with the world.<ref name="industrial records"/> They go on to say that they wanted their music to be an awakening for listeners so that they would begin to think for themselves and question the world around them. Industrial Records intended the term ''industrial'' to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation, with previous music being more ''agricultural'': P-Orridge stated that "there's an irony in the word 'industrial' because there's the music ''industry''. And then there's the joke we often used to make in interviews about churning out our records like motorcars —''that'' sense of industrial. And ... up till then the music had been kind of based on the ] and slavery, and we thought it was time to update it to at least Victorian times—you know, the ]".<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, pp. 9–10.</ref>
The genre enjoyed relatively popular mainstream attention throughout the mid ]. Thanks to the charting success of albums such as Ministry's ] and ]' ], eventually leading to the multi-million selling releases of NIN's ] and even ]'s ], which was by no means industrial, but somewhat influenced by it in a roundabout way. Soon thousands of new industrial influenced musicians came onto the scene. They came to be popularly called simply industrial, though they may have shared nearly nothing in style or execution with the original string. Subsequently, numerous new industrial labels appeared to accommodate the blossoming market, such as ], ] and ]. However, like many of the artists (often solo-musician projects who aimed to emulate Nine Inch Nails' commercial success), these labels were short lived and by 2000 most had ceased to exist.
], a conceptual inspiration for the industrial musicians]]
Early industrial music often featured tape editing, stark percussion and loops distorted to the point where they had degraded to harsh noise, such as the work of early industrial group ], which journalist Simon Reynolds described as characterized by "hissing high hats and squelchy snares of rhythm-generator."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=168}} Carter of Throbbing Gristle invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played by Christopherson, which comprised a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=228}}


Traditional instruments were often played in nontraditional or highly modified ways. Reynolds described the Cabaret Voltaire members' individual contributions as " Watson]]'s smears of synth slime; Mallinder]]'s dankly pulsing bass; and Kirk]]'s spikes of shattered-glass guitar."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=168}} Watson custom-built a fuzzbox for Kirk's guitar, producing a unique ].{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|pp=169–170}} Carter built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=227}} Tutti played guitar with a slide in order to produce ], or pounded the strings as if it were a percussion instrument.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=230}} Throbbing Gristle also played at very high volume and produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies in an attempt to produce physical effects, naming this approach as "metabolic music."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=235}}
Once again, most likely attributed to the influence of NIN, a number of bands took industrial's abrasive electronics and incorporated them into a mainstream metal or hard-rock format, thus artists such as ], ], ] and ] were able to ride the industrial wave to stardom with their commercial song-writing sensibilities—not considered industrial by fans of the genre, but marketed as such to some extent to the general public. By 2007, the majority of remaining artists and smaller label rights have been acquired by ], now the largest industrial label in the world.


Vocals were sporadic, and were as likely to be ] as they were to be abrasive ]s. Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder's vocals were electronically treated.{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=170}}
==Post-industrial genres and related styles==
{{main|List of post-industrial music genres and related fusion genres}}


The purpose of industrial music initially was to serve as a commentary on modern society by eschewing what artists saw as trite connections to the past.<ref name="industrial records">{{cite web | url=http://brainwashed.com/tg/industrial.html | title=Industrial Records: Industrial Music for Industrial People | publisher=Brainwashed Inc. | access-date=April 16, 2010}}</ref> Throbbing Gristle opposed the elements of traditional rock music remaining in the ] scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music."{{sfn|Reynolds|2005|p=230}} Early industrial performances often involved ]-breaking, provocative elements, such as ], ] elements and ] imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse,<ref name="RE/Search #6/7, p. 5">''RE/Search'' #6/7, p.&nbsp;5.</ref> such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience.<ref name="ford 8.10">Ford, 8.10</ref>
Over the years, the term 'post-industrial' has come to not only refer to music having the industrial aesthetic such as ] and ], but also more broadly as an umbrella term for genres that combine some elements of the original form of industrial music or one of its successors with other genres, such as ], ], ], ], ] and ].


Industrial groups typically focus on ] subject matter. In his introduction for the '']'' (1983), ] considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music."<ref name="RE/Search #6/7, p. 5"/> Furthermore, an interest in the investigation of "]s, wars, psychological techniques of persuasion, unusual murders (especially by children and ]), ], ], ] behavior, the history of ] and insignia" and ]'s '']'' was present in Throbbing Gristle's work,<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 9.</ref> as well as in other industrial pioneers. Burroughs's recordings and writings were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in the ] and noise as a method of disrupting societal control.<ref>"These ideas contributed some of the theoretical mise-en-scène for emergent Industrial groups such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, all of whom experimented with cut-up sound and re-contextualised ambient recordings." Sargeant, Jack, "The Primer: William S. Burroughs," ''The Wire'' 300, February 2009, p. 38.</ref> Many of the first industrial musicians were interested in, though not necessarily sympathetic with, fascism.<ref>''RE/Search'' #6/7, p. 105</ref> Throbbing Gristle's logo was based on the ] of the ],<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_CXXIpfFbgC&q=throbbing+gristle+British+Union+of+Fascists&pg=PA80 | title=Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music | author=Webb, Peter | chapter=Neo-Folk or Postindustrial Music | page=80 | publisher=Psychology Press | year=2007 | access-date=January 30, 2011 | isbn=978-0-415-95658-1}}</ref> while the Industrial Records logo was a photo of ].<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHP-r9-eqdAC&q=throbbing+gristle+logo&pg=PA780 | title=Alternative Rock | author=Thompson, Dave | chapter=Industrial Records | page=780 | publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation | year=2000 | access-date=January 30, 2011 | isbn=978-0-87930-607-6}}</ref>
==References==

{{reflist}}
]]]

===Expansion and offshoots (late 1980s and early 1990s)===
{{See also| List of industrial music genres}}
As some of the originating bands drifted away from the genre in the 1980s, industrial music expanded to include bands influenced by ], ], ], ], ], and ], sometimes incorporating pop music songwriting.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_7wN22l43MC&pg=PT42|title=Industrial Index|last=Woods|first=Karen|magazine=]|date=March 1992|volume=7|issue=12|page=43}}</ref> A number of additional styles developed from the already eclectic base of industrial music. These offshoots include fusions with noise music, ], ], ] and ], as well as other mutations and developments. The scene has spread worldwide, and is particularly well represented in North America, Europe, and Japan. Substyles inspired by industrial music include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].

===Mainstream success (1990s and 2000s)===
{{multiple image
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In the 1990s, industrial music broke into the mainstream. The genre, previously ignored or criticized by music journalists, grew popular with disaffected middle-class youth in suburban and rural areas. By this time, the genre had become broad enough that journalist ] called it "the kind of meaningless catch-all term that new wave once was".<ref name=spin>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_7wN22l43MC&pg=PT42|title=Nine Inches of Love|last=Greer|first=Jim|author-link=James Greer (writer)|magazine=]|date=March 1992|volume=7|issue=12|pages=36–43}}</ref> A number of acts associated with industrial music achieved commercial success during this period including ], ], ] and ].
{{multiple image
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Through the 1990s, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson had several albums and EPs certified platinum by the ], including Nine Inch Nails' '']'' (1992),{{Certification Cite Ref|title=Broken|artist=Nine Inch Nails|region=United States|type=album}} '']'' (1994){{Certification Cite Ref|title=The Downward Spiral|artist=Nine Inch Nails|type=album|region=United States}} and '']'' (1999){{Certification Cite Ref|title=The Fragile|artist=Nine Inch Nails|type=album|region=United States}}, and Marilyn Manson's '']'' (1996){{Certification Cite Ref|title=Antichrist Superstar|artist=Marilyn Manson|type=album|region=United States}} and '']'' (1998).{{Certification Cite Ref|title=Mechanical Animals|artist=Marilyn Manson|type=album|region=United States}}


==See also== ==See also==
* ] *'']''
* ] *]
* ] *]
* ] *]
* ] *]
*]
* ]
*]
* ]
* ] *]
* ]
* ]


==External links== ==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
*

*
==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book|first = Simon|last = Ford|title = Wreckers of Civilization|publisher = London: Black Dog Publishing|year = 1999|isbn = 1-901033-60-0|author-link = Simon Ford|oclc=473269351}}
* {{Cite book|last = Monroe|first = Alexei|title = Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK|publisher = Cambridge: The MIT Press|year = 2005|isbn = 0-262-63315-9|ref = Monroe|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/interrogationmac0000monr|oclc=1150047415|via=the Internet Archive}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Hanley|first1=Jason J.|date=Spring 2004|title='The Land of Rape and Honey': The Use of World War II Propaganda in the Music Videos of Ministry and Laibach|journal=American Music|volume=22|issue=1|pages=158–75|jstor=3592974|doi=10.2307/3592974}}
* {{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=S. Alexander|title=Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music|year=2013|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199832606|oclc=1147729910|via=the Internet Archive|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/assimilatecritic0000reed}}
* {{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|title=Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984|url=https://archive.org/details/ripitupstartagai00reyn|url-access=registration|publisher=Faber and Faber|location=London|year=2005|isbn=0571215696|oclc=1036851652|via=the Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Vale |editor1-first=V. |editor2-last=Juno |editor2-first=Andrea |year=1983 |title=Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook|url=https://archive.org/details/ReSearchIndustrialCultureHandbook |location=San Francisco, CA|publisher=RE/Search Publications|isbn=0-940642-07-7|via=the Internet Archive}}
* Ballet, Nicolas. (2023) ''Shock Factory: Culture visuelle des musiques industrielles (1969-1995)'' Les presses du réel, Music & Sound Arts, ISBN 978-2-37896-222-7
{{Refend}}


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Latest revision as of 18:04, 16 December 2024

Music genre Not to be confused with Industrial musical.

Industrial
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsEarly-to-mid-1970s, United Kingdom and Germany
Derivative forms
Subgenres
Fusion genres
Regional scenes
  • Australia
  • Germany
  • United Kingdom
  • United States (Chicago)
Other topics
Electronic music
Experimental forms
Popular styles
Other topics

Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive, or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments (tape music, musique concrète, white noise, synthesizers, sequencers, etc.) and punk provocation." The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by members of Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in the United States and other countries.

The first industrial artists experimented with noise and aesthetically controversial topics, both musically and visually, such as fascism, sexual perversion, and the occult. Prominent industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, SPK, Boyd Rice, Cabaret Voltaire, and Z'EV. On Throbbing Gristle's 1977 debut album, The Second Annual Report, they coined the slogan "industrial music for industrial people." The industrial music scene also developed strongly in Chicago, with the city's Wax Trax! Records at one point leading the industrial music scene. The precursors that influenced the development of the genre included 1940s musique concrète and varied world music sources in addition to rock-era acts such as Faust, Kraftwerk, the Velvet Underground, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music (1975). Musicians also cite writers such as William S. Burroughs and J. G. Ballard and artists such as Brion Gysin as influences.

While the term was self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records in the late 1970s, it was broadened to include artists influenced by the original movement or using an "industrial" aesthetic. Over time, the genre's influence spread into and blended with styles including ambient, synth music and rock such as Front 242, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and Sister Machine Gun, acts associated with the Chicago-based Wax Trax! Records imprint. Electro-industrial music is a primary subgenre that developed in the 1980s, with the most notable bands in the genre being Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy. The two other most notable hybrid genres are industrial rock and industrial metal, which include bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Rammstein, and Fear Factory, the first three of which released a platinum-selling album each in the 1990s.

History

Precursors

Industrial music drew from a broad range of predecessors. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the genre was first named in 1942 when The Musical Quarterly called Dmitri Shostakovich's 1927 Symphony No. 2 "the high tide of 'industrial music'." Similarly, in 1972, The New York Times described works by Ferde Grofé (especially 1935's A Symphony in Steel) as part of "his 'industrial music' genre called on such instruments as four pairs of shoes, two brooms, a locomotive bell, a pneumatic drill and a compressed-air tank". Though these compositions are not directly tied to what the genre would become, they are early examples of music designed to mimic machinery noise and factory atmosphere. Early examples of industrial music are arguably found in Pierre Schaeffer's 1940s musique concrète and the tape music of Halim El-Dabh, the former of which is akin to the aesthetics of 1970s industrial music, while artists such as early 20th century Italian futurist Luigi Russolo laid the groundwork for the genre with his book and work The Art of Noises (1913), reflecting "the sounds of a modern industrial society".

AllMusic assessed 1960s English experimental group AMM as originators of the genre, as well as to electronica, free improvisation and noise music, writing that the "experimentation in sonic assault, noise, and chance sound (including transistor radios)" on their debut album AMMMusic (1967) would "reach the rock fringes in the work of industrial groups like Test Dept". Cromagnon's album Orgasm (1969) has been cited by AllMusic's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing industrial, noise rock and no wave, with the track "Caledonia" resembling "a Ministry or Revolting Cocks recording from 1989". The 1970 album Klopfzeichen by krautrock band Kluster has also been called an early precursor of industrial music. In 1981, music critic Lester Bangs referenced "the Sounds of the Junkyard" (1964), an album made up of industrial field recordings released by Folkways Records, in his guide to "horrible noise".

Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart in 1975, cited as inspirations by Herman Taylor

In the book Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK, Alexei Monroe argues that Kraftwerk were particularly significant in the development of industrial music, as the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into nonacademic electronic music." Industrial music was created originally by using mechanical and electric machinery and later advanced synthesizers, samplers and electronic percussion as the technology developed. Monroe also argues for Suicide as an influential contemporary of industrial musicians. Groups cited as inspirational by the founders of industrial music include the Velvet Underground, Joy Division, and Martin Denny. Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle had a cassette library including recordings by The Master Musicians of Joujouka, Kraftwerk, Charles Manson, and William S. Burroughs. P-Orridge also credited 1960s rock such as the Doors, Pearls Before Swine, the Fugs, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa in a 1979 interview. The dissonant electronic work of krautrock groups like Faust and Neu! was an influence on industrial artists.

Chris Carter also enjoyed and found inspiration in Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream. Boyd Rice was influenced by the music of '60s girl groups and tiki culture. Z'EV cited Christopher Tree (Spontaneous Sound), John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Tim Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, and Captain Beefheart, among others together with Tibetan, Balinese, Javanese, Indian, and African music as influential in his artistic life. Cabaret Voltaire cited Roxy Music as their initial forerunners, as well as Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. Cabaret Voltaire also recorded pieces reminiscent of musique concrète and composers such as Morton Subotnick. Nurse with Wound cited a long list of obscure free improvisation and Krautrock as recommended listening. 23 Skidoo borrowed from Fela Kuti and Miles Davis's On the Corner. Many industrial groups, including Einstürzende Neubauten, took inspiration from world music.

Many of the initial industrial musicians preferred to cite artists or thinkers, rather than musicians, as their inspiration. Simon Reynolds declares that "Being a Throbbing Gristle fan was like enrolling in a university course of cultural extremism." John Cage was an initial inspiration for Throbbing Gristle. SPK appreciated Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Gilles Deleuze, as well as being inspired by the manifesto of the eponymous Socialist Patients' Collective. Cabaret Voltaire took conceptual cues from Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and Tristan Tzara. Whitehouse and Nurse with Wound dedicated some of their work to the Marquis de Sade; the latter also took impetus from the Comte de Lautréamont.

Another influence on the industrial aesthetic was Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. Pitchfork Music cites this album as "inspiring, in part, much of the contemporary avant-garde music scene—noise, in particular." The album consists entirely of guitar feedback, anticipating industrial's use of non-musical sounds.The New York Times described American avant-garde band the Residents as having "presaged forms of punk, new wave and industrial music".

Early years

First studio EP or LP albums by early industrial bands
Band Country Studio album Album date
Throbbing Gristle United Kingdom The Second Annual Report 1977
Cabaret Voltaire United Kingdom Mix-Up 1979
Chrome United States Half Machine Lip Moves* 1979
Nurse With Wound United Kingdom Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella 1979
Clock DVA United Kingdom White Souls in Black Suits 1980
Killing Joke United Kingdom Killing Joke 1980
Whitehouse United Kingdom Birthdeath Experience 1980
Die Krupps West Germany Stahlwerksynfonie 1981
Einstürzende Neubauten West Germany Kollaps 1981
Foetus Australia Deaf 1981
The Neon Judgement Belgium Suffering 1981
Nocturnal Emissions United Kingdom Tissue of Lies 1981
The Residents United States Mark of the Mole* 1981
SPK Australia Information Overload Unit 1981
Z'EV United States Production and Decay of Spacial Relations 1981
Front 242 Belgium Geography 1982
NON / Boyd Rice United States Physical Evidence 1982
Psychic TV United Kingdom Force the Hand of Chance 1982
Sleep Chamber United States Speak in Tongues 1982
Zoviet France United Kingdom Garista 1982
Attrition United Kingdom Action and Reaction 1983
Nitzer Ebb United Kingdom Basic Pain Procedure 1983
Swans United States Filth 1983
Coil United Kingdom How to Destroy Angels 1984
Current 93 United Kingdom Nature Unveiled 1984
Hanatarash Japan Take Back Your Penis! 1984
KMFDM West Germany Opium 1984
Skinny Puppy Canada Remission 1984
Test Dept United Kingdom Ecstacy Under Duress 1984
*earlier albums not industrial

Industrial Records

Industrial Music for Industrial People was originally coined by Monte Cazazza as the strapline for the record label Industrial Records, founded by British art-provocateurs Throbbing Gristle. The first wave of this music appeared with Throbbing Gristle, from London; Cabaret Voltaire, from Sheffield; and Boyd Rice (recording under the name NON), from the United States. Throbbing Gristle first performed in 1976, and began as the musical offshoot of the Kingston upon Hull-based COUM Transmissions. COUM was initially a psychedelic rock group, but began to describe their work as performance art in order to obtain grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain. COUM was composed of P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Beginning in 1972, COUM staged several performances inspired by Fluxus and Viennese Actionism. These included various acts of sexual and physical abjection. Peter Christopherson, an employee of commercial artists Hipgnosis, joined the group in 1974, with Carter joining the following year.

The group renamed itself Throbbing Gristle in September 1975, their name coming from a northern English slang word for an erection. The group's first public performance, in October 1976, was alongside an exhibit titled Prostitution, which included pornographic photos of Tutti as well as used tampons. Conservative politician Nicholas Fairbairn declared that "public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society" and blasted the group as "wreckers of civilization." The group announced their dissolution in 1981, declaring that their "mission" has been "terminated."

Wax Trax! Records

Main article: Wax Trax! Records

Chicago record label Wax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music received starting in the early 1980s. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. The label's first official release was an EP in 1980 entitled Immediate Action by Strike Under. The label went on to distribute some of the most prominent names in industrial throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Wax Trax! also distributed industrial releases in the United States for the Belgium record label Play It Again Sam Records, and had opened a North American office dubbed Play It Again Sam U.S.A. as a division of Wax Trax!. Wax Trax! was subsequently purchased by TVT Records in 1992 who closed the independent Chicago label in 2001. Jim's Daughter, Julia Nash, resurrected Wax Trax! Records in 2011 with a 3-day charity event titled Wax Trax! Retrospectacle - 33 1/3 Year Anniversary. Julia officially released new material in 2014 under the Wax Trax! imprint and continues to run the record label from Chicago.

Expansion of the scene

The bands Clock DVA, Nocturnal Emissions, Whitehouse, Nurse with Wound, and SPK soon followed. Whitehouse intended to play "the most brutal and extreme music of all time", a style they eventually called power electronics. An early collaborator with Whitehouse, Steve Stapleton, formed Nurse with Wound, who experimented with noise sculpture and sound collage. Clock DVA described their goal as borrowing equally from surrealist automatism and "nervous energy sort of funk stuff, body music that flinches you and makes you move." 23 Skidoo, like Clock DVA, merged industrial music with African-American dance music, but also performed a response to world music. Performing at the first WOMAD Festival in 1982, the group likened themselves to Indonesian gamelan. Swedish act Leather Nun were signed to Industrial Records in 1978, being the first non-TG/Cazazza act to have an IR-release. Their singles eventually received significant airplay in the United States on college radio.

Industrial Culture Handbook reference guide to the philosophy and interests of a flexible alliance of "deviant" artists

Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In San Francisco, performance artist Monte Cazazza began recording noise music. Boyd Rice released several albums of noise, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds. In Boston, Sleep Chamber and other artists from Inner-X-Musick began experimenting with a mixture of powerful noise and early forms of EBM. In Italy, work by Maurizio Bianchi at the beginning of the 1980s also shared this aesthetic. In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten mixed metal percussion, guitars, and unconventional instruments (such as jackhammers and bones) in stage performances that often damaged the venues in which they played. Blixa Bargeld, inspired by Antonin Artaud and an enthusiasm for amphetamines, also originated an art movement called Die Genialen Dilettanten. Bargeld is particularly well known for his hissing scream.

In January 1984, Einstürzende Neubauten performed a Concerto for Voice and Machinery at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (the same site as COUM's Prostitution exhibition), drilling through the floor and eventually sparking a riot. This event received front-page news coverage in England. Other groups who practiced a form of industrial "metal music" (that is, produced by the sounds of metal crashing against metal) include Test Dept, Laibach, and Die Krupps, as well as Z'EV and SPK. Test Dept were largely inspired by Russian Futurism and toured to support the 1984-85 UK miners' strike. Skinny Puppy embraced a variety of industrial forefathers and created a lurching, impalatable whole from many pieces. Swans, from New York City, also practiced a metal music aesthetic, though reliant on standard rock instrumentation. Laibach, a Slovenian group who began while Yugoslavia remained a single state, were very controversial for their iconographic borrowings from Stalinist, Nazi, Titoist, Dada, and Russian Futurist imagery, conflating Yugoslav patriotism with its German authoritarian adversary. Slavoj Žižek has defended Laibach, arguing that they and their associated Neue Slowenische Kunst art group practice an overidentification with the hidden perverse enjoyment undergirding authority that produces a subversive and liberatory effect. In simpler language, Laibach practiced a type of agitprop that was widely utilized by industrial and punk artists on both sides of the Atlantic.

Following the breakup of Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge and Christopherson founded Psychic TV and signed to a major label. Their first album was much more accessible and melodic than the usual industrial style, and included hired work by trained musicians. Later work returned to the sound collage and noise elements of earlier industrial. They also borrowed from funk and disco. P-Orridge also founded Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, a quasi-religious organization that produced video art. Psychic TV's commercial aspirations were managed by Stevo of Some Bizzare Records, who released many of the later industrial musicians, including Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and Cabaret Voltaire.

Around 1983, Cabaret Voltaire members were deeply interested in funk music and, with the encouragement of their friends from New Order, began to develop a form of dark but danceable electrofunk. Christopherson left Psychic TV in 1983 and formed Coil with John Balance. Coil made use of gongs and bullroarers in an attempt to conjure "Martian," "homosexual energy". David Tibet, a friend of Coil's, formed Current 93, alongside Douglas P. of Death In June, Steven Stapleton and Fritz Catlin of 23 Skidoo; both Coil and Current 93 were inspired by amphetamines and LSD. J. G. Thirlwell, a co-producer with Coil, developed a version of black comedy in industrial music, borrowing from lounge as well as noise and film music. In the early 1980s, the Chicago-based record label Wax Trax! and Canada's Nettwerk helped to expand the industrial music genre into the more accessible electro-industrial and industrial rock genres.

Characteristics and history

The birth of industrial music was a response to "an age the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power." At its birth, the genre of industrial music was different from any other music, and its use of technology and disturbing lyrics and themes to tear apart preconceptions about the necessary rules of musical form supports the suggestion that industrial music is modernist music. The artists themselves made these goals explicit, even drawing connections to social changes they wished to argue for through their music.

The Industrial Records website explains that the musicians wanted to re-invent rock music, and that their uncensored records were about their relationship with the world. They go on to say that they wanted their music to be an awakening for listeners so that they would begin to think for themselves and question the world around them. Industrial Records intended the term industrial to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation, with previous music being more agricultural: P-Orridge stated that "there's an irony in the word 'industrial' because there's the music industry. And then there's the joke we often used to make in interviews about churning out our records like motorcars —that sense of industrial. And ... up till then the music had been kind of based on the blues and slavery, and we thought it was time to update it to at least Victorian times—you know, the Industrial Revolution".

William S. Burroughs, a conceptual inspiration for the industrial musicians

Early industrial music often featured tape editing, stark percussion and loops distorted to the point where they had degraded to harsh noise, such as the work of early industrial group Cabaret Voltaire, which journalist Simon Reynolds described as characterized by "hissing high hats and squelchy snares of rhythm-generator." Carter of Throbbing Gristle invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played by Christopherson, which comprised a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds.

Traditional instruments were often played in nontraditional or highly modified ways. Reynolds described the Cabaret Voltaire members' individual contributions as " Watson's smears of synth slime; Mallinder's dankly pulsing bass; and Kirk's spikes of shattered-glass guitar." Watson custom-built a fuzzbox for Kirk's guitar, producing a unique timbre. Carter built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle. Tutti played guitar with a slide in order to produce glissandi, or pounded the strings as if it were a percussion instrument. Throbbing Gristle also played at very high volume and produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies in an attempt to produce physical effects, naming this approach as "metabolic music."

Vocals were sporadic, and were as likely to be bubblegum pop as they were to be abrasive polemics. Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder's vocals were electronically treated.

The purpose of industrial music initially was to serve as a commentary on modern society by eschewing what artists saw as trite connections to the past. Throbbing Gristle opposed the elements of traditional rock music remaining in the punk rock scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music." Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse, such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience.

Industrial groups typically focus on transgressive subject matter. In his introduction for the Industrial Culture Handbook (1983), Jon Savage considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music." Furthermore, an interest in the investigation of "cults, wars, psychological techniques of persuasion, unusual murders (especially by children and psychopaths), forensic pathology, venereology, concentration camp behavior, the history of uniforms and insignia" and Aleister Crowley's magick was present in Throbbing Gristle's work, as well as in other industrial pioneers. Burroughs's recordings and writings were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in the cut-up technique and noise as a method of disrupting societal control. Many of the first industrial musicians were interested in, though not necessarily sympathetic with, fascism. Throbbing Gristle's logo was based on the lightning symbol of the British Union of Fascists, while the Industrial Records logo was a photo of Auschwitz.

Electro-industrial group Front Line Assembly

Expansion and offshoots (late 1980s and early 1990s)

See also: List of industrial music genres

As some of the originating bands drifted away from the genre in the 1980s, industrial music expanded to include bands influenced by new wave music, hip hop music, jazz, disco, reggae, and new age music, sometimes incorporating pop music songwriting. A number of additional styles developed from the already eclectic base of industrial music. These offshoots include fusions with noise music, ambient music, folk music, post-punk and electronic dance music, as well as other mutations and developments. The scene has spread worldwide, and is particularly well represented in North America, Europe, and Japan. Substyles inspired by industrial music include dark ambient, power electronics, Japanoise, neofolk, electro-industrial, electronic body music, industrial hip hop, industrial rock, industrial metal, industrial pop, martial industrial, power noise, and witch house.

Mainstream success (1990s and 2000s)

Ministry's Al Jourgensen and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor

In the 1990s, industrial music broke into the mainstream. The genre, previously ignored or criticized by music journalists, grew popular with disaffected middle-class youth in suburban and rural areas. By this time, the genre had become broad enough that journalist James Greer called it "the kind of meaningless catch-all term that new wave once was". A number of acts associated with industrial music achieved commercial success during this period including Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and Orgy.

Marilyn Manson and his band, Orgy, and Rob Zombie prominently used elements associated with industrial music in their albums.

Through the 1990s, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson had several albums and EPs certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), including Nine Inch Nails' Broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), and Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical Animals (1998).

See also

Footnotes

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  5. "Industrial". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
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  46. Reynolds 2005, pp. 243–244.
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  49. RE/Search #6/7, pp. 68–81.
  50. RE/Search #6/7, pp. 50–67.
  51. Torreano, Bradley. "Maurizio Bianchi Biography". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
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  54. ^ Reynolds 2005, p. 486.
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  57. Reynolds 2005, p. 489.
  58. Reynolds 2005, p. 487.
  59. Monroe, p. 96.
  60. Slavoj Žižek, "Why Are Laibach and NSK Not Fascists?," M'ARS 3–4, 1993, pp. 3–4.
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  62. Reynolds 2005, pp. 474–475.
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  80. Ford, 8.10
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