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Noise rock (sometimes noise punk) is a diverse style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing from no wave, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extreme levels of distortion through the use of electric guitars, and less frequently, electronic instrumentation, either to provide percussive sounds or to contribute to the overall arrangement. Some groups are tied to song structures, such as Sonic Youth. Although they are not representative of the entire genre, they helped popularize noise rock among alternative rock audiences by incorporating melodies into their droning textures of sound, which set a template that numerous other groups followed.

History

While the music had been around for some time, the term "noise rock" was coined in the 1980s to describe an offshoot of punk groups with an increasingly abrasive approach. An archetypal album is the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat (1968). Treblezine's Joe Gross credits the "cult classic" with being the first noise rock album, accordingly, "perhaps it’s an obvious starting point, but it’s also the starting point. Period." Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore explained: "Noise has taken the place of punk rock. People who play noise have no real aspirations to being part of the mainstream culture. Punk has been co-opted, and this subterranean noise music and the avant-garde folk scene have replaced it."

Starting in the 1990s, noise punk developed mostly as a form of party music, with the band Lightning Bolt serving as key players in the 2000s noise punk scene in Providence, Rhode Island.

List of artists

• Big Black
• The Birthday Party
• Boredoms
• The Butthole Surfers
• Les Rallizes Denudes
• Lightning Bolt
• Thurston Moore
• Lou Reed
• Sonic Youth
• The Stooges
• Swans
• The Velvet Underground

References

1. ^ Felix 2010, p. 172.
2. ^ Osborn, Brad (October 2011). "Understanding Through-Composition in Post-Rock, Math-Metal, and other Post-Millennial Rock Genres*". Music Theory Online. 17 (3).
3. ^ Terich, Jeff. "Hold On To Your Genre : Noise Rock". Treblezine.
4. ^ "Noise Rock". AllMusic. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
5. ^ Blush 2016, p. 266.
6. Gross, Joe (April 2007). "Noise Rock Essentials". Spin. 23 (4).
7. ^ Sisario, Ben (December 2, 2004). "The Art of Noise". Spin.

Sources

• Blush, Steven (2016). New York Rock: From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-08361-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Felix, Stanford (2010). The Complete Idiot's Guide Music Dictionary. DK Publishing. ISBN 978-1-101-19809-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Punk rock genres
• Alternative rock genres
• Noise music
• Words coined in the 1980s