Industrial music: Difference between revisions
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|other_topics=[[List of industrial music artists|Notable artists]] - [[List of noise musicians]] - [[List of post-industrial music genres and related fusion genres]]}} |
|other_topics=[[List of industrial music artists|Notable artists]] - [[List of noise musicians]] - [[List of post-industrial music genres and related fusion genres]]}} |
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'''Industrial music''' is a loose term for a number of different styles of electronic and experimental 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. Since then, a wide variety of labels and artists have since come to be called "Industrial." |
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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. ''[[Industrial Culture Handbook|Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook]]'', 1983.</ref> |
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. ''[[Industrial Culture Handbook|Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook]]'', 1983.</ref> |
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Revision as of 16:29, 13 July 2007
| Industrial | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Musique concrete, Fluxus movement , Performance art, Electronic art music, Krautrock, Noise music |
| Cultural origins | Early 1970s; United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, United States |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer - Drum machine - Tape loops - Drums - Guitar - Found objects - Modified electronics (in latter incarnations were added Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler) |
| Derivative forms | EBM - Aggrotech - Industrial Metal - Industrial Rock - Ambient Industrial - Coldwave - Techno - IDM - Trance - Synth pop - Futurepop - Glitch |
(complete list) | |
| Other topics | |
| Notable artists - List of noise musicians - List of post-industrial music genres and related fusion genres | |
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. Since then, a wide variety of labels and artists have since come to be called "Industrial."
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.[1]
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.
Terminology
Industrial was a term 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."[citation needed]
History
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.
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 the Philips Pavilion.
Industrial Records
Industrial Music for Industrial People was originally coined by Monte Cazazza[2] 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).
The first wave of this music appeared in 1977 with Throbbing Gristle and NON. 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 bubblegum pop as they were to be abrasive polemics.
Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism.
Swedish rock act The Leather Nun, 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.[citation needed]
Bands like Test Dept, Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, Factrix, Autopsia, Nocturnal Emissions, Esplendor Geometrico, Whitehouse, Severed Heads 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. Artists often used shock-tactics including explicit lyrical content, graphic art and Fascistic imagery; at the forefront of this were Croc Shop and Laibach. 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.
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 the rest of Europe, particularly in Italy, work by 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" LPs).
In France, early artists influenced by Industrial Records included Vivenza, Art&Technique, Pacific 231, Étant Donnés, Le Syndicat and Die Form.
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 in.
Post-industrial developments
Throughout the early to mid 1980s, the post-industrial 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.
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 Ministry, Acumen Nation, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Die Warzau. 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.
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 Nine Inch Nails' comparatively commercially-structured "Pretty Hate Machine," released in 1989. NIN performances began breaking the style into mainstream rock culture at that point. Nine Inch Nails' influence on the newer incarnations of the genre has led to controversy from those who feel that Nine Inch Nails 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 genre enjoyed relatively popular mainstream attention throughout the mid 1990's. Thanks to the charting success of albums such as Ministry's "Psalm 69" and Nine Inch Nails' Broken, eventually leading to the multi-million selling releases of Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral" and even Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar", 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 Pendragon, 21st Circuitry and Energy Records. 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.
Once again, most likely attributed to the influence of Nine Inch Nails, a number of bands took industrial's abrasive electronics and incorporated them into a mainstream metal or hard-rock format, thus artists such as Filter, Stabbing Westward, Econoline Crush and Gravity Kills 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.
Post-industrial genres
Over the years, the term 'post-industrial' has come to refer to music having the industrial aesthetic such as noise/power electronics, neofolk, death industrial, martial industrial, dark ambient, and occasionally old school EBM. [3] [4]
References
- ^ V.Vale. Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook, 1983.
- ^ TG CD I liner notes. P. Orridge states: "Monte Cazazza suggested our business slogan should be INDUSTRIAL MUSIC FOR INDUSTRIAL PEOPLE." [1]
- ^ Thomas Seibert. Industrial music for Industrial people - The history of Industrial music, Part III: Post-industrial, BLACK Music Magazine, Page 50, Issue 20/2000.
- ^ Dirk Hoffmann. The Industrial History, Part IV: Post-industrial, ZILLO Music Magazine, Page 48, Issue 12/1996.