History of Industrial

[Zed Melkor]

Hi there,

Some of my friends have been hanging around me long enough to become curious about industrial. I'm trying to come up with a "history of industrial" as part a way to introduce people to the musical style. I think it's interesting, because industrial is one of the few 20th century popular musical genre that doesn't have direct or overt links back to American blues. That really makes the genre stand apart from other musical styles of that time.

(aside: it could be argued that Throbbing Gristle was an offspring of the punk movement, as Genesis P. Orridge had said many times. But the punk influence on industrial was related to the "punk attitude", rather than a direct musical influence).

Anyway, in trying to define the history of industrial, and I wanted to get some feedback. Obviously, I could not put every single band on the list, but I tried to put as many key bands (and some personal favorites) as I could. I stopped keeping up with what was happening with industrial in the early 00's, because it seemed like everything coming out was really extreme (either really harsh noise experiments or really wussy dance music).

I came up with the time periods and sub-genre definitions reading several books, articles, and artist interviews about the genre.

Please let me know what you think, if you notice any glaring omissions, or if you think I got anything wrong.
-=J

Pre-industrial (experimental composition - cited as inspiration my many of the early bands):
John Cage - Music of Changes (1951)
Stockhausen - Work for piano and tape Kontakte No12 (195 cool
Kagel - Transicion II (195 cool

Pre-industrial (rock/dance/synth):
Kraftwerk - Autobahn (1974)
Suicide - Suicide (1977)
DEVO - (stiff records releases) (1974)
DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (197 cool
Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army (197 cool

“Real” Industrial:
Throbbing Gristle - Second Annual Report (1977)
Cabaret Voltaire - Mix-up (197 cool
Clock DVA - White Souls in Black Suits (1980)
Einsturzende Neubauten - Kollaps (1981)
Laibach - Rekapitulacija (1980)
SPK - Information Overload Unit (1981)
Test Dept - Ecstasy Under Duress (1982)

Industrial - Second Wave Bands (post-punk/post-industrial):
Killing Joke - Killing Joke (1980)
Die Krupps - Stahlwerksymphony (1981)
Psychic TV - Force the Hand of Chance (1982)
Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain? (1983)
Coil - Scatology (1984)
(Jim) Feotus - Hole (1984)
Current 93 - Nature Unveiled (1984)
Swans - Cop - (1984)

Industrial - Third Wave Bands (dance/EBM):
Front 242 - Geography (1981)
Skinny Puppy - Remission/Bites (1984/1985)
KMFDM - What Do You Know Deutschland? (1985)
Nitzer Ebb - That Total Age (1987)
Front Line Assembly - The Initial Command (Oppression Breeds Violence) (1987)

"Pop" Industrial - Fourth Wave Bands (Dance/Metal Industrial):
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey (198 cool (<-yes I know they have earlier albums)
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
Meat Beat Manifesto - Storm in the Studio (1989)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife (1990)
Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1990)
Pigface - Gub (1991)
Lords of Acid – Lust (1991)
The Electric Hellfire Club - Burn Baby, Burn (1993)


new EBM/Dance Industrial/Darkwave/Aggrotech/Industrial Metal - Fifth Wave Bands:
Project Pitchfork - Dhyani (1991)
Leather Strip - Penetrate the Satanic Citizen (1993)
:wumpscut: - Dried Blood of Gomorrha (1994)
Suicide Commando - Critical Stage (1994)
Fear Factory - Demanufacture/Remanufacture (1995/1996)
Velvet Acid Christ - Church of Acid (1996)
Funker Vogt - We Came to Kill (1997)
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Delux (199 cool
Rammstein - Sehnsucht (199 cool

Power Noise/Digital hardcore:
Atari Teenage Riot - Burn, Berlin, Burn! (1997)
Imminent (Starvation) - Human Dislocation (1997)
P.A.L. - M@rix (1997)
H.P.P. - Horse p***s Pants (1999)

Futurepop (weepy, gothy, crying, techno, cross-over style):
VNV Nation - Empires (1999)
Apoptygma Berzerk - The Apopcalyptic Manifesto (199 cool
Assemblage 23 - Contempt (1999)  

[Captain Coldwave]

Nice... but mine's better talk2hand

We got to look to Luigi Russolo who wrote "The Art of Noises" or something back in 1911, then he built some bigass machines that produced weird noises. There's about 20 minutes worth of stuff from those machines left.

Then, yeah, you got some guys in there, also Satie and the Electro-acoustic peoples, Silver Apples, and Delia Derbyshire.

Gristle DID put out stuff before 77... so did Cabaret Voltaire, and that Clock DVA is really more like Experimental Rock or... experimental something, but not quite Industrial.

Then you mess up big time. There is no real second wave of Industrial, everything else you have up past "Real" Industrial is all part of the big ole Post-Industrial shebang! though, I'm not sure how Killing Joke really fits in there, Post-Punk yes, Post-Industrial? Synths don't make something Industrial... neither does Martin Atkins, two strikes for Killing Joke dramallama

Also.... 1st, second, and 3rd wave all at the same time?! Come on, there's something seriously wrong there.

I'm willing to bet people were making Noise for YEARS! before anyone really took it seriously enough to record it and sell it. However... I forget when Lou Reed put out "Metal Machine Music"... I can't remember if it was the early 80s or early 70s, but by the late 70s we had some bone fide Noise musicians artists startin up. When the 80s came screaming around, it was all set and split. Industrial's expansion pretty much finished with Industrial, something more harsh, Noise, and something truely tapping into the deepest darkest parts of the human mind, Power Electronics. Industrial Records ended in 81... kinda... and that's when Post-Industrial began... and I still wouldn't agree with at least 1/4 of the s**t you have ******** off with your Fear Factory, Rammstein, (possibly Lords of Acid, they sound like bad, cheesy electro to me, but I haven't heard a whole lot from them, and I don't know much about Electro... but I do know Industrial, and they ain't any form of it at all), Pretty much... completely ******** off with your fifth wave s**t, and your Futurepop.

Regarding Ministry... "Twitch" and the 12" singles were closer to "Industrial Pop", I prefer to call it General Post-Industrial, along with NIN's "Pretty Hate Machine", KMFDM's "Opium" (possibly others), and PIG's "A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick" (and possibly the next release or two). However, "The Land of Rape and Honey" and Godflesh were the start of American Coldwave (I suppose maybe you could call Fall of Because's work the start of it... they were Godflesh before it was Godflesh... not to mention a number of older bands, SPK included who made songs that could easily be called Coldwave)... I'd mention Bile for pretty much reinventing Coldwave in 94 with "Suckpump", most modern Coldwave bands have some sort of Bile influence whether direct or indirect... or at least they draw from a similar idea.... but I'm a Bile fanboy.

I guess I'll post my srsly incomplete Post-Industrial first post and we can have a fun debate with that, my specialty lies with American Coldwave (tr00 "Industrial Rock", "Industrial Metal", and "Metal Industrial" dramallama )

While you'd have more ignorant twats behind you, and you have much nicer documentation. You completely missed what REALLY happened to Industrial music and latched directly onto what only took influence from that mid to late 70s stuff.

How's that for ******** 2:30 - 2:55 in the ******** morning biggrin  

[Zed Melkor]

Thanks for the reply and the input!

There's a lot there, so please forgive me if it takes me a little while to come up with a response wink  

[Captain Coldwave]

Zed Melkor

Thanks for the reply and the input!

There's a lot there, so please forgive me if it takes me a little while to come up with a response wink

Yeah, I think we could make a pretty decent history of Post-Industrial thing put together.

Don't take too much offense to any harsh language I used... towards you.  

[La Veuve Zin]

I don't think you can really call something a "wave" until the first "wave" has subsided. They may be different spinoffs of "original" industrial, but they're not different chronologically.

And that "futurepop" stuff doesn't even need to be mentioned... talk2hand