Industrial music
In 1913, Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo published The Art of Noises. This manifesto argued that the sounds of a modern industrial society should become music. Russolo built machines called intonarumori to create these new sounds in his Milan studio. He worked with assistant Ugo Piatti to develop devices that mimicked factory noise and mechanical clatter. Their work laid the sonic groundwork for what would eventually be called industrial music.
Other early experiments followed Russolo's lead. Parade premiered at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris on the 18th of May 1917. Jean Cocteau conceived this performance while Pablo Picasso designed it. Eric Satie provided the music using extra-musical materials like dynamo motors and typewriters. Arseny Avraamov conducted Symphony of Factory Sirens in Baku during 1922. Navy ship sirens and artillery guns filled the air as part of this noisy composition.
Arthur Honegger created Pacific 231 in 1923 to imitate a steam locomotive. George Antheil wrote Ballet Mécanique in 1924 featuring sixteen pianos and airplane propellers. John Cage began exploring found sounds in 1937 when he distinguished between musical tones and environmental noise. His Imaginary Landscape #1 used variable speed turntables to capture static and radio interference. These composers rejected traditional melody in favor of capturing the atmosphere of machinery.
Artist Monte Cazazza coined the term "industrial music" in 1976. He applied it to his own recordings and adopted it as the strapline for Industrial Records. Throbbing Gristle founded this label shortly after forming in Yorkshire. The group emerged from COUM Transmissions, a psychedelic rock band that had rebranded itself as performance art to secure Arts Council grants.
COUM included Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Peter Christopherson joined in 1974 while Chris Carter arrived the following year. They renamed themselves Throbbing Gristle in September 1975. Their first public performance took place in October 1976 alongside an exhibit titled Prostitution. This show featured pornographic photos of Tutti and used tampons as props. Conservative politician Nicholas Fairbairn condemned the event as wrecking civilization.
Throbbing Gristle declared their work anti-music to oppose punk rock structures. They developed homemade instruments like the Gristle-izer device invented by Chris Carter. Peter Christopherson played this one-octave keyboard connected to cassette machines triggering pre-recorded sounds. The group produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies intended to create physical effects on listeners. They labeled this approach metabolic music.
Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking elements such as mutilation or sado-masochistic imagery. Throbbing Gristle aimed high-powered lights at audiences during shows to cause discomfort. Whitehouse intended to play the most brutal and extreme music of all time. William Bennett coined the term power electronics for this style of static, screeching feedback.
Cabaret Voltaire members created unique timbres using custom-built equipment. Chris Watson built a fuzzbox for Richard H. Kirk's guitar while Cosey Fanni Tutti pounded strings like percussion. Artists drew inspiration from modernist literature including works by William S. Burroughs. His cut-up technique disrupted societal control through noise and re-contextualized ambient recordings.
Many first industrial musicians explored controversial topics like concentration camp behavior and venereology. Throbbing Gristle's logo featured the lightning symbol of the British Union of Fascists. Their Industrial Records logo displayed a photo of Auschwitz. These choices reflected an interest in totalitarian imagery and psychological techniques of persuasion found in their work.
Following the breakup of Throbbing Gristle in the 1980s, industrial music splintered into diverse offshoots. Journalists began using the word industrial as a catch-all term similar to how they used blues. Genesis P-Orridge stated that the genre had become broad enough to include many styles.
Chicago record label Wax Trax! became a central hub during the late 1980s. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher started this label which released albums by Front Line Assembly and KMFDM. Canada's Nettwerk signed Skinny Puppy to expand the genre further. Subsequent post-industrial styles included dark ambient, electro-industrial, EBM, and industrial hip hop.
Einstürzende Neubauten mixed metal percussion with unconventional instruments like jackhammers and bones. Their Concerto for Voice and Machinery performance at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in January 1984 sparked a riot. The group drilled through the floor causing front-page news coverage in England. Test Dept toured to support the UK miners' strike while Laibach practiced agitprop using Stalinist imagery.
In the 1990s, industrial music broke into the mainstream through acts like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. These bands achieved commercial success with platinum-selling records certified by the Recording Industry Association of America. Nine Inch Nails released Broken in 1992 followed by The Downward Spiral in 1994. Marilyn Manson issued Antichrist Superstar in 1996 and Mechanical Animals in 1998.
The genre grew popular among disaffected middle-class youth in suburban areas. Journalist James Greer called it a meaningless catch-all term similar to new wave. Rammstein and Orgy also joined these successful acts during this period. Wax Trax! Records continued releasing albums by Front 242 and Sister Machine Gun throughout the era.
Psychic TV signed to a major label after Throbbing Gristle disbanded. Their first album was more melodic than usual industrial styles but included hired trained musicians. Later work returned to noise elements while borrowing from funk and disco. Stevo of Some Bizzare Records managed their commercial aspirations alongside releases for Einstürzende Neubauten.
Laibach emerged as a Slovenian group when Yugoslavia remained a single state. They became controversial for iconographic borrowings from Nazi, Titoist, and Stalinist imagery. Slavoj Žižek defended them arguing that their overidentification with authority produced subversive effects. The group practiced agitprop widely utilized by punk artists on both sides of the Atlantic.
Swedish act Leather Nun signed to Industrial Records in 1978 as the first non-TG/Cazazza release. Their singles received significant airplay in the United States on college radio. Sleep Chamber and Inner-X-Musick experimented with powerful noise in Boston. Maurizio Bianchi shared this aesthetic at the beginning of the 1980s in Italy.
Blixa Bargeld originated Die Genialen Dilettanten inspired by Antonin Artaud and amphetamines. His hissing scream became particularly well known. Z'EV cited Christopher Tree and John Coltrane among influences alongside Tibetan and Balinese music. These global acts expanded industrial music beyond its British and American origins while maintaining provocative political stances.
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Common questions
Who coined the term industrial music and when?
Artist Monte Cazazza coined the term industrial music in 1976. He applied it to his own recordings and adopted it as the strapline for Industrial Records.
What did Luigi Russolo publish in 1913 regarding noise?
In 1913, Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo published The Art of Noises. This manifesto argued that the sounds of a modern industrial society should become music.
When did Throbbing Gristle form and what was their first public performance date?
They renamed themselves Throbbing Gristle in September 1975. Their first public performance took place in October 1976 alongside an exhibit titled Prostitution.
Which record label became central to industrial music in the late 1980s?
Chicago record label Wax Trax! became a central hub during the late 1980s. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher started this label which released albums by Front Line Assembly and KMFDM.
How did Nine Inch Nails achieve mainstream success in the 1990s?
Nine Inch Nails released Broken in 1992 followed by The Downward Spiral in 1994. These bands achieved commercial success with platinum-selling records certified by the Recording Industry Association of America.