WTF is Industrial?

Throbbing Gristle, 1981

"Industrial" - Besides "gothic" this is probably the most controversial and widest used term within the realm of dark subculture(s). Having a look at the music that clubs and DJs offer it often appears that it hardly has any meaning of its own but is bound to be mentioned besides other genres such as "EBM" or "Electro" (whatever this is supposed to be). Apparently "Industrial" has to be mentioned if electronic music genres are the topic?

Having a look at YouTube may sometimes clear things up, but not in this case. Apparently "Industrial" is more of a dancing style? I see some of those cyber people throwing their limbs around in a manner that reminds me of 90's techno - and the music to which they dance is very fitting (fans might lable it "Hellectro" or "Aggrotech" or something along these lines). Very much "Loveparade" for me, but I don't want to be mean - it looks pretty exhausting and I don't think I'd be able to dance in this way. Not that I wanted to.

Confusing? Certainly, but who takes the time to do just a little online research will soon discover how little any of this has to do with Industrial.
Like so many thing it all started in the alternative music scene of 1970's England...


People were experimental and avantgard and began creating accoustic tapestries by sound collages that didn't have much in common with conventional definitions of music. Provocation and pushing boundaries were essential and often people regarded themselves not so much as musicians but as performance artists who also made use of drastic imagery, film projection and even smell and intentionally claustrophobic experiences.
Creating something danceable was not among the criteria, but much rather the creation of any kind of experience along the limits and boundaries of conventional definitions, taste and morals. Often this was expressed by pure noise - Richard Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire e.g. believes it's possible that his music was an expression of his surroundings - having grown up near the grey industrial area of Sheffield which was then still full of ruins of WW2, hearing the mechanical thumping noises of the factories day and night.

All of this evolved alongside the more rock music inspired scenes that were also regarded as extreme and outraging, and often both were labeled Punk. Only as the folks of Throbbing Gristle created their own record lable called Industrial Records was the term Industrial used of everything I have talked about above, the term Punk being pretty much reserved for everything we now call so. At first it wasn't even meant as a genre name, but was just descriptive in the way that bands like SPK or Leather NUN were Industrial bands because their records were published on a lable called Industrial and that used the slogan "industrial music for industrial people".

As an example of this early phase I would like to present a live recording of Throbbing Gristle themselves. Rumour has it that on this concert they had the doors locked after the audience was inside the hall, creating the kind of experience I mentioned earlier.

Generating sound electronically was of course important but it had nothing to do with modern, programmed electronic music. The main ingredients rather were tampered tapes and noise produced by feedback and other kinds of usually unwanted phenomena of live electronics, but also traditional and accoustic instruments that were often played in completely non-traditional ways like being smacked upon or broken in some way.
Later, in the 1980's, the noise was often handmade by banging upon trash and material off construction sites or plainly using construction tools, but there was also a lot of crossover with other genres as New Wave, Neofolk or other kinds of Avantgard, and later also Goth and Metal, so that from some time in the 1980's onward we should probably rather be talking about Post-Industrial (but I leave it up to the reader to decide where to draw the line).
Frank Tovey aka Fad Gadget may be mentioned as an important example who in his more or less synthpop creations made use of construction tools as well as a regular accoustic double bass. In the song "Collapsing New People" I would like to present here he was accompanied to some extend (not in the video) by the Berlin band Einstürzende Neubauten (i.e. "collapsing new buildings"), who I would also like to present with their 1989 song "Haus der Lügen" (i.e. "house of lies") which rely on recitational vocals, thrashed guitars and a lot of trash and construction noise.
Lastly I would like to mention the traditional goth band Alien Sex Fiend who at some time around 1990 had also developed a more industrial-influenced sound.

More recent genres like Industrial Rock, EBM, Dark Ambient or Industrial Metal naturally came along quite quickly then, but all of them were more rhythmic and more adapted to mainstream audiences and are thus quite correctly hardly ever labeled Indutrial anymore.
But of course the influence of classical Industrial never completely ceased and there is still an actual underground for industrial music, but they are hardly ever encountered at electro "goth" parties, because uninspired commercial disco music and a strictly defined dancing style (i.e. establishing and selling of conventions) is exactly what Industrial is not.