| Industrial | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Industrial |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early-to-mid-1970s, United Kingdom, United States, and Germany |
| Subgenres | |
| Regional scenes | |
| |
| Other topics | |
| Electronic music |
|---|
| Experimental forms |
| Popular styles |
| Other topics |
Industrial music (or simplyindustrial) is asubgenre ofexperimental music inspired bypost-industrial society, initially drawing influences fromavant-garde and earlyelectronic music genres such asmusique concrète,tape music,noise andsound collage.[1] The term was coined in 1976 byMonte Cazazza andThrobbing Gristle, with the founding ofIndustrial Records. Other early industrial musicians includeNON andCabaret Voltaire. By the late 1970s, additional artists emerged such asClock DVA,Nocturnal Emissions,Einstürzende Neubauten,SPK,Nurse with Wound, andZ’EV, alongsideWhitehouse who coined the subgenre "power electronics".
During the 1980s, industrial music splintered into a range of offshoots collectively labelled "post-industrial music", these included,EBM,futurepop,new beat,[2]hard beat,dark ambient,neofolk,power noise,industrial dance,electro-industrial,dark electro,aggrotech,industrial rock,industrial metal,cyber metal,Neue Deutsche Härte,martial industrial,industrial hip-hop,industrial techno,witch house anddeconstructed club.[3] By the 1990s, elements of industrial music were made accessible to mainstream audiences through the popularity of acts such asNine Inch Nails,Ministry,Rammstein, andMarilyn Manson, all of whom released platinum-selling records.
According to theOxford English Dictionary, the genre was first named in 1942 whenThe Musical Quarterly calledDmitri Shostakovich's 1927Symphony No. 2 "the high tide of 'industrial music'."[4] Similarly, in 1972,The New York Times described works byFerde Grofé (especially 1935'sA Symphony in Steel) as part of "his 'industrial music' genre [that] called on such instruments as four pairs of shoes, two brooms, a locomotive bell, a pneumatic drill and a compressed-air tank".[5] 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.Italian FuturistLuigi Russolo laid the groundwork for industrial music with his book and workThe Art of Noises (1913), which aimed to reflect "the sounds of a modernindustrial society".[6]
Industrial music was a response to "an age [in which] the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power,"[7] defined primarily as a musical reflection ofpost-industrial society, with its rampant use of contemporary technology and incorporation of unconventionalmodernist lyricism and themes not commonly found inpopular music. Industrial artists drew influence frommodernist literature,art,philosophy andavant-garde music,[7] rejecting formalrock music conventions, withIndustrial Records wanting to use the term "industrial" to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation. ArtistGenesis P-Orridge stated:[8][9]
[...] there's an irony in the word 'industrial' because there's themusic industry. And then there's the joke we often used to make in interviews about churning out our records likemotorcars, that sense of industrial. And [...] up till then the music had been kind of based on theblues andslavery, and we thought it was time to update it to at leastVictorian times—you know,the Industrial Revolution.
Early industrial music made by groups such asCabaret Voltaire andThrobbing Gristle, featured tape editing, stark percussion, vocal effects and loops which were distorted.[10][11] Throbbing Gristle opposed traditional rock music structures associated with thepunk rock scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music."[12] Early industrial performances often involvedtaboo-breaking, provocative elements, such asmutilation,sado-masochistic elements andtotalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms ofaudience abuse,[13] such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience.[14][9][15][16][17]
Artists often played in non-traditional ways, incorporating the use of homemade instruments, such asChris Carter of Throbbing Gristle who invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played byPeter Christopherson, which consisted of a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds.[18] Cabaret Voltaire'sChris Watson custom-built afuzzbox forRichard H. Kirk's guitar, produced a uniquetimbre.[19][10] Carter built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle.[20]Cosey Fanni Tutti played guitar with a slide in order to produceglissandi, or pounded the strings as if it were a percussion instrument.[12] Throbbing Gristle also played at very high volume and produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies in an attempt to produce physical effects, labelling this approach as "metabolic music".[21]AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion ofrock andelectronic music".[1]
Industrial groups typically focus ontransgressive subject matter. In his introduction for theIndustrial 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."[13] Furthermore, an interest in the investigation of "cults, wars, psychological techniques of persuasion, unusual murders (especially by children andpsychopaths),forensic pathology,venereology,concentration camp behavior, the history ofuniforms and insignia" andAleister Crowley'smagick was present in Throbbing Gristle's work,[22] as well as in other industrial pioneers.William S. Burroughs' recordings and writings were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in thecut-up technique and noise as a method of disrupting societal control.[23] Many of the first industrial musicians were interested in, though not necessarily sympathetic with, fascism.[24] Throbbing Gristle's logo was based on thelightning symbol of theBritish Union of Fascists,[25] while the Industrial Records logo was a photo ofAuschwitz.[26]
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In 1913,Italian FuturistLuigi Russolo laid the groundwork for industrial with his manifestoThe Art of Noises (1913) which aimed to reflect "the sounds of a modernindustrial society".[6] Around the same time, the utilisation offound sound as a musical resource was starting to be explored. An early example isParade, a performance produced at the Chatelet Theatre, Paris, on May 18, 1917, that was conceived byJean Cocteau, with design byPablo Picasso, choreography byLeonid Massine, and music byEric Satie. The extra-musical materials used in the production were referred to astrompe l'oreille sounds by Cocteau and included adynamo,Morse code machine, sirens, steam engine, airplane motor, and typewriters.[27]Arseny Avraamov's compositionSymphony of Factory Sirens involved navy ship sirens and whistles, bus and car horns, factory sirens, cannons, foghorns, artillery guns, machine guns, hydro-airplanes, a specially designed steam-whistle machine creating noisy renderings ofInternationale andMarseillaise for a piece conducted by a team using flags and pistols when performed in the city ofBaku in 1922.[28]
In 1923,Arthur Honegger createdPacific 231, amodernist musical composition that imitates the sound of a steam locomotive.[29] Another example isOttorino Respighi's 1924 orchestral piecePines of Rome, which included thephonographic playback of a nightingale recording.[27] Also in 1924,George Antheil created a work titledBallet Mécanique with instrumentation that included 16pianos, 3airplane propellers, and 7electric bells. The work was originally conceived as music for theDada film of the same name, byDudley Murphy andFernand Léger, but in 1926 it premiered independently as a concert piece.[30][31]
In an essay written in 1937,John Cage expressed an interest in using extra-musical materials[32] and came to distinguish between found sounds, which he called noise, and musical sounds, examples of which included: rain, static between radio channels, and "a truck at fifty miles per hour". Essentially, Cage made no distinction, in his view all sounds have the potential to be used creatively. His aim was to capture and control elements of the sonic environment and employ a method of sound organisation, a term borrowed from Varese, to bring meaning to the sound materials.[33] Cage began in 1939 to create a series of works that explored his stated aims, the first beingImaginary Landscape #1 for instruments including two variable speed turntables with frequency recordings.[34]
In 1964,John Cale recorded the track "Loop" which consisted solely of audio feedback in alocked groove, it was released in 1966 as a single credited tothe Velvet Underground, who were later noted as influential to industrial music.[35]AMM, formed in 1965, were later retroactively recognized byAllMusic as precursors to industrial, writing that the "experimentation in sonic assault, noise, andchance sound (includingtransistor radios)" on their debut albumAMMMusic (1967) would "reach the rock fringes in the work of industrial groups likeTest Dept".[36] Additionally,Cromagnon's albumOrgasm (1969) has been cited byAllMusic's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing industrial with the track "Caledonia" resembling "aMinistry orRevolting Cocks recording from 1989".[37]
Other contemporaneous developments include the work ofunderground andpsychedelic acts such asthe Mothers of Invention,Intersystems,Musica Elettronica Viva,[38][39]Red Krayola,[40] andFifty Foot Hose.[41] In 1968,the Beatles'The White Album incorporated influences frommusique concrète on track "Revolution 9", alongsideGeorge Harrison'sElectronic Sound andJohn Lennon's avant-gardecollaborations withYoko Ono who had been a part of theNew York Fluxus scene.[42]
Subsequently, Germany'skrautrock scene would also be recognized as influential, the 1970 albumKlopfzeichen byKluster recorded in 1969 has been retroactively recognized as an early precursor of industrial music,[43] alongside the early works ofkosmische musik bandCluster, which XLR8 magazine described as having "a profound impact on industrial music’s brainier practitioners".[44] Writer Alexei Monroe argues thatKraftwerk were particularly significant in the development of industrial music, as the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into nonacademic electronic music."[45]
Additionally, New York bandSuicide, formed in 1970, byAlan Vega andMartin Rev, were retroactively described bythe Guardian as "equally influential on the industrial music [...] scenes that followed."[46][45][47][48]The New York Times retroactively described the Americanavant-garde bandthe Residents, who formed in 1966, as having "presaged forms of [...] industrial music".[49]
Early industrial musicians drew influence frommodernist art andliterature. SPK appreciatedJean Dubuffet,Marcel Duchamp,Jean Baudrillard,Michel Foucault,Walter Benjamin,Marshall McLuhan,Friedrich Nietzsche, andGilles Deleuze, as well as being inspired by the manifesto of the eponymousSocialist Patients' Collective.[50] Cabaret Voltaire took conceptual cues fromWilliam S. Burroughs,J. G. Ballard, andTristan Tzara.[51]Whitehouse andNurse with Wound dedicated some of their work to theMarquis de Sade; the latter also took impetus from theComte de Lautréamont.[52][53] Artists drew influences from avant-garde and abstract art movements such asDada,Fluxus, andViennese Actionism.[20]
Subsequently, musicians cited as inspirations includethe Velvet Underground,Joy Division, andMartin Denny.[54] Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle had a cassette recording library bythe Master Musicians of Joujouka,Kraftwerk,Charles Manson, and William S. Burroughs.[55] P-Orridge also credited 1960s rock such asthe Doors,Pearls Before Swine,the Fugs,Captain Beefheart, andFrank Zappa in a 1979 interview.[56] Germany's krautrock scene which included groups likeFaust andNeu! was also noted as an influence on industrial artists,[57][58] alongside John Cage who was an initial inspiration for Throbbing Gristle.[59]
Chris Carter also enjoyed and found inspiration inPink Floyd andTangerine Dream.[20]Boyd Rice was influenced by the music of '60sgirl groups andtiki culture.[60]Z'EV cited Christopher Tree (Spontaneous Sound),John Coltrane,Miles Davis,Tim Buckley,Jimi Hendrix, and Captain Beefheart, among others together withTibetan,Balinese,Javanese,Indian, andAfrican music as influential in his artistic life.[61] Cabaret Voltaire citedRoxy Music as their initial forerunners, as well as Kraftwerk'sTrans-Europe Express.[62] Cabaret Voltaire also recorded pieces reminiscent ofmusique concrète and composers such asMorton Subotnick.[63]Nurse with Wound citeda long list ofobscure music as recommended listening.[52]23 Skidoo borrowed fromFela Kuti and Miles Davis'On the Corner.[64] Many industrial groups, includingEinstürzende Neubauten, took inspiration fromworld music.[65]
The term "industrial music," in the context of analternative music scene was originally coined by artistMonte Cazazza in 1976 as"Industrial Music for Industrial People," which became the strapline for the record labelIndustrial Records, founded by Throbbing Gristle.[66][67] The first wave of industrial music music began with Throbbing Gristle, formed inYorkshire;Cabaret Voltaire, fromSheffield;[68] andBoyd Rice (recording under the nameNON), from the United States.[69] Their production was not limited to music, but includedmail art,performance art,installation pieces and other art forms.[70]
Throbbing Gristle first performed in 1976,[71] and began as the musical offshoot of theKingston upon Hull-basedCOUM Transmissions.[72] COUM was initially apsychedelic rock group, but began to describe their work asperformance art in order to obtain grants from theArts Council of Great Britain.[59] COUM was composed of P-Orridge andCosey Fanni Tutti.[59] Beginning in 1972, COUM staged several performances inspired byFluxus andViennese Actionism. These included various acts of sexual and physical abjection.[20]Peter Christopherson, an employee of commercial artistsHipgnosis, joined the group in 1974, with Carter joining the following year.[72] The group renamed itself Throbbing Gristle in September 1975, their name coming from a northern English slang word for an erection.[72] The group's first public performance, in October 1976, was alongside an exhibit titledProstitution, which included pornographic photos of Tutti as well as used tampons. Conservative politicianNicholas Fairbairn declared that "public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society" and blasted the group as "wreckers of civilization."[73][74]
By the late 1970s, industrial music acts such asClock DVA,[75]Nocturnal Emissions,[76]Whitehouse,[77]Nurse with Wound,[78] andSPK[79] soon followed. Whitehouse intended to play "the most brutal and extreme music of all time", a style they eventually calledpower electronics.[74] An early collaborator with Whitehouse, Steve Stapleton, formed Nurse with Wound, who experimented with noise sculpture and sound collage.[80] Clock DVA described their goal as borrowing equally fromsurrealist automatism and "nervous energy sort of funk stuff, body music that flinches you and makes you move."[64] 23 Skidoo, like Clock DVA, merged industrial music with African-American dance music, but also performed a response to world music. Performing at the firstWOMAD Festival in 1982, the group likened themselves to Indonesiangamelan.[81] Swedish actLeather Nun were signed to Industrial Records in 1978, being the first non-TG/Cazazza act to have an IR-release.[67] Their singles eventually received significant airplay in the United States oncollege radio.[82]
Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In San Francisco, performance artistMonte Cazazza began recordingnoise music.[84] Boyd Rice released several albums of noise, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds.[85] In Boston,Sleep Chamber and other artists fromInner-X-Musick began experimenting with a mixture of powerful noise and early forms ofEBM. In Italy, work byMaurizio Bianchi at the beginning of the 1980s also shared this aesthetic.[86] In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten mixed metal percussion, guitars, and unconventional instruments (such asjackhammers and bones) in stage performances that often damaged the venues in which they played.[87]Blixa Bargeld, inspired byAntonin Artaud and an enthusiasm foramphetamines, also originated an art movement called Die Genialen Dilettanten.[88] Bargeld is particularly well known for his hissing scream.[88]
In January 1984, Einstürzende Neubauten performed aConcerto for Voice and Machinery at theInstitute of Contemporary Arts (the same site as COUM'sProstitution exhibition), drilling through the floor and eventually sparking a riot.[89] This event received front-page news coverage in England.[89] Other groups who practiced a form of industrial "metal music" (that is, produced by the sounds of metal crashing against metal) includeTest Dept,[90]Laibach,[91] andDie Krupps, as well as Z'EV and SPK.[65] Test Dept were largely inspired byRussian Futurism and toured to support the1984-85 UK miners' strike.[92]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.[93] Laibach, aSlovenian group who began whileYugoslavia remained a single state, were very controversial for their iconographic borrowings fromStalinist,Nazi,Titoist,Dada, and Russian Futurist imagery, conflating Yugoslav patriotism with its German authoritarian adversary.[94]Slavoj Žižek has defended Laibach, arguing that they and their associatedNeue Slowenische Kunst art group practice an overidentification with the hidden perverse enjoyment undergirding authority that produces a subversive and liberatory effect.[95] 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 foundedPsychic TV and signed to a major label.[96] Their first album was much more accessible and melodic than the usual industrial style, and included hired work by trained musicians.[97] Later work returned to the sound collage and noise elements of earlier industrial.[98] They also borrowed from funk anddisco. P-Orridge also foundedThee Temple ov Psychick Youth, a quasi-religious organization that producedvideo art.[99] Psychic TV's commercial aspirations were managed by Stevo ofSome Bizzare Records, who released many of the later industrial musicians, including Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and Cabaret Voltaire.[100]
Around 1983, Cabaret Voltaire members were deeply interested in funk music and, with the encouragement of their friends fromNew Order, began to develop a form of dark but danceableelectrofunk.[101] Christopherson left Psychic TV in 1983 and formedCoil withJohn Balance. Coil made use of gongs and bullroarers in an attempt to conjure "Martian," "homosexual energy".[102]David Tibet, a friend of Coil's, formedCurrent 93, alongsideDouglas P. ofDeath In June,Steven Stapleton and Fritz Catlin of23 Skidoo; both Coil and Current 93 were inspired by amphetamines and LSD.[103]J. G. Thirlwell, a co-producer with Coil, developed a version ofblack comedy in industrial music, borrowing fromlounge as well as noise andfilm music.[104] In the early 1980s, the Chicago-based record labelWax Trax! and Canada'sNettwerk helped to expand the industrial music genre into the more accessibleelectro-industrial andindustrial rock genres.[66]
Following the disbanding of Throbbing Gristle in the 1980s, industrial music splintered into a range of offshoots collectively labelled "post-industrial music".[105] While the original industrial sound was rooted in avant-garde and experimental music, post-industrial offered more accessible and diverse offshoots, with the incorporation of traditional pop songwriting, and influences from a variety of genres. Artists incorporated influences fromnew wave,rock,pop,heavy metal,hip hop,jazz,disco,reggae,ambient music,folk music,post-punk,EDM, andnew age music.[106][105]
Chicago record labelWax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music later received. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, and became a central hub for the emergingindustrial rock genre during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Wax Trax! released albums by artists such asFront 242,Front Line Assembly,KMFDM, andSister Machine Gun.[107][108] Subsequent post-industrial styles includeddark ambient,power electronics,power noise,Japanoise, industrial rock,neofolk,electro-industrial,EBM,industrial hip hop,industrial metal,industrial pop,martial industrial, andfuturepop.[105]
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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 journalistJames Greer called it "the kind of meaningless catch-all term that new wave once was".[109] A number of acts associated with industrial music achieved commercial success during this period includingNine Inch Nails,Marilyn Manson,Rammstein andOrgy.
Through the 1990s, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson had several albums and EPs certified platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), including Nine Inch Nails'Broken (1992),[110]The Downward Spiral (1994)[111] andThe Fragile (1999)[112], and Marilyn Manson'sAntichrist Superstar (1996)[113] andMechanical Animals (1998).[114]
| Post-Industrial | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1980s; United Kingdom and United States |
| Derivative forms | |
| Subgenres | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Other topics | |
| Japanoise | |
Post-Industrial is asubgenre of industrial music that originally emerged in the early 1980s, as a catch-all for several industrial music inspired styles, subgenres and fusions that followed the disbanding of Throbbing Gristle. While the original industrial sound was rooted inavant-garde andexperimental music, post-industrial offered more accessible, commercial and diverse offshoots, with the incorporation of traditional pop songwriting, and influences from a variety of genres, which later led to the mainstreaming of several popular acts during the 1990s. Artists incorporated influences fromnew wave,rock,pop,heavy metal,hip hop,jazz,funk,disco,reggae,ambient music,folk music,post-punk,EDM, andnew age music.[106][115]
Chicago record labelWax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music later received. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, and became a central hub for the emergingindustrial rock genre during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Wax Trax! released albums by artists such asFront 242,Front Line Assembly,KMFDM, andSister Machine Gun.[107][108] Another prominent label was Canada'sNettwerk which signedSkinny Puppy. Notable post-industrial styles includeddark ambient,power noise, industrial rock,neofolk,electro-industrial,EBM,industrial hip hop,industrial metal,industrial pop,martial industrial, andfuturepop.[115]
Power electronics was originally coined byWilliam Bennett of Britishnoise actWhitehouse.[116] It consists of static, screeching waves of feedback, analogue synthesizers making sub-bass pulses or high frequency squealing sounds, and screamed, distorted, often hateful and offensive lyrics. Deeplyatonal, there are no conventional melodies or rhythms.[117][118]Death industrial is a subgenre of power electronics associated with groups such as The Grey Wolves,[119] but the term first referred to artists such asBrighter Death Now.[120] The Swedish labelCold Meat Industry issued the releases in this subgenre.[120]
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