Industrial
Located in 2 routes
Industrial is the original abrasive art-music form built from tape manipulation, found sound, noise electronics, non-rock performance and hostile repetition. The sound favors damaged machines, sirens, metal, spoken provocation, crude synthesis and anti-pop structure, often making the recording feel like an installation or document of action. Its rhythms can be primitive or absent, but its best recordings make environment, ideology and physical impact feel inseparable.
History
The term was crystallized by Industrial Records, the label founded around Throbbing Gristle's slogan "industrial music for industrial people." Early groups drew from Dada, performance art, musique concrète, punk and occult or political transgression, then seeded EBM, noise, power electronics, industrial rock and dark ambient. Later industrial often became more rhythmic, but the root style remains exploratory, confrontational and anti-slick.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- The New Yorker on Genesis P-Orridge
- Wired review of Industrial Revolution
- Double J classic industrial tracks
- Discogs industrial style notes