Industrial music
Industrial music is a loose term for a number of different styles of electronic and experimental music. First used in the mid-
1970s to describe the then-unique sound of
Industrial Records artists, a wide variety of labels and artists have since come to be called "Industrial". This definition may include
avant-garde performance artists such as
Throbbing Gristle,
Einstürzende Neubauten,
Coil and
Laibach;
noise projects like
Merzbow or
Whitehouse;
electronic body music/elektro acts such as
DAF,
Front 242,
Front Line Assembly, and
Nitzer Ebb;
Industrial rock acts like
KMFDM,
Nine Inch Nails or
industrial metal acts like
Ministry or
Godflesh; or writers like
William S. Burroughs and
J.G. Ballard.
The 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,
Peter Christopherson of Industrial Records once remarked, "the original idea of Industrial Records was to reject what the growing
industry was telling you at the time what music was supposed to be."
Early influences
Luigi Russolo'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
Pierre Schaeffer and
musique concrète, 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.
Also important in the development of the genre was the
Dada art movement, and later the
Fluxus art movement. Such an antecedent, maybe only by name, was
Erik Satie terming his second set of
Furniture music Sons industriels ("Industrial sounds",
1920).
Edgard Varèse was also a major pioneer in electronic music. His composition
Poème électronique, for example, debuted at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair in and around the
Atomium.
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 musical offshoot of performance art group
COUM Transmissions).
Early industrial
performances would often involve
taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as
mutilation,
sado-masochistic elements and
totalitarian imagery or symbolism.
The first wave of this music appeared in 1977 with
Throbbing Gristle and
NON, and 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
bubblegum pop as they were to be abrasive polemics.
Bands like
Cabaret Voltaire,
Clock DVA,
Factrix,
Autopsia,
Nocturnal Emissions,
Esplendor Geometrico and
SPK soon followed. Blending electronic
synthesisers, guitars and early samplers, these bands created an aggressive and abrasive music fusing elements of rock with experimental electronic music. Like their punk cousins, they enjoyed the use of shock-tactics including explicit lyrical content, graphic art and
Fascist imagery. Industrial Records experienced a fair amount of controversy after it was revealed that it had been using an image of an
Auschwitz crematorium as its logo for a number of years.
In the rest of Europe, particularly in Italy, the roots were planted by the non-musician/artist
Maurizio Bianchi/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" LP's).
Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In
San Francisco, shock/performance artist
Monte Cazazza (often collaborating with
Factrix and
Survival Research Labs/SRL) began working with harsh atonal noise.
Boyd Rice (aka
NON) released several more albums of
noise music, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds. In
New Zealand, experimental / art rock groups sprouted from the underground such as
The Skeptics,
Hieronymus Bosch (NZ),
Fetus Productions, Ministry of Compulsory Joy and
The Kiwi Animal. In Germany,
Einstürzende Neubauten were performing daring acts, mixing metal percussion, guitars and unconventional "instruments" (such as
jackhammers) in elaborate stage performances that often damaged the venues they were playing.
It should be mentioned that there is much disagreement within the industrial scene as to the current state of industrial, to the extent that some are of the belief that there is no "current state of industrial", saying that industrial music ended with the demise of Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records and that the idea of genre is antithetical to industrial music, while others use 'industrial' to refer to music having the industrial aesthetic such as
noise/power electronics/death industrial,
power noise and
ambient industrial or as an umbrella term for genres that combine elements of the original wave of industrial music with other genres, such as
electronic body music/elektro,
industrial metal,
industrial rock and
industrial techno. The terms
post-industrial and
alternative electronic have also been used to describe genres spawned or influenced by the original industrial music movement.
*
Cassette culture*
Martial music*
Neofolk*
No Wave*
Post-punk*
Schaffel beat*
Side-Line Magazine - popular industrial music magazine*
The rec.music.industrial usenet group FAQ file*
industrial.org: Providing an exhaustive industrial culture resource since 1994.*
Industrial Music Library: On-line repository for documents chronicling the origins of industrial music*
Page by music professor, includes several articles and copy of a PhD written about industrial music*
The Unacceptable Face of Freedom: Totalitarian imagery & industrial music*
Discover In Depth Reviews and Interviews of Industrial Music at Heathen Harvest*
Kunsthaus Promotions Official Website: London clubnights focusing on all aspects of Industrial Music
