Industrial Music

    The dawn of Industrial music started in the 70's and 80's along side when Goth and Punk lurched out of the shadows, rampaged through the underground scene, then clawed and ripped the sweet walls of pop stardom's broders. Bands took a turn into a darker and/or agressive feel and sound, from there, music kept evolving. Industrial originated in the late 70's (ex: Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, & Nitzer Ebb) and the early 80's (ex: Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode) when music really kicked-off with rebellion. Industrial was mainly from the U.K., Germany, Canada, and the U.S.A. The birth of Industrial music was  a response to "an age in which the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power." At its birth, the genre of industrial music was different from any other music, and its use of technologyand disturbing lyrics and themes to tear apart preconceptions about the necessary rules of musical form supports the suggestion that industrial music is modernist music. The artists themselves made these goals explict, even drawing connections to social changes that they wished to argue for through music. The Industrial Records website explains that musicians wanted to "re-invent Rock music with content, motivation and risk." and that their records were "a combination of files on our relationship with th world and a Newspaper without censorship.' They go on to say that they wanted their music to be an awakening for listeners so that they would begin to think for themselves and question the world around them.
    Industrial music is a style of experimental and electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was in the mid - 1970s to desribe Industrial Records artists. In general, the style is harsh and challenging. The Allmusic website defines industrial as the "most abrasive and argessive fusion of rock and electronic music"; "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments (tape music, musique concrete, white noise, synthesizers, sequencers, etc.) and punk provocation". The first industrial artists experimented with noise and controversial topics. Their production was not limited to  music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms. Prominent industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Boyd Rice, Cabaret Voltiare, and Z'EV. The precursors that influenced the development of the genre included acts such as techno act Kraftwerk, experimental rock group The Velvet Underground, psychedelic rock artists such as Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix, writers such as as William S. Burroughs, and philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzche.
    While the term was initially self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records in the 1970s, it broadened to include artists influenced by the original movementor using an "industrial" aesthetic. These artists expanded the genre by pushing it into noisier and more electronic directions. Over time, its influence spread into and blended with styles including folk, ambient, and rock, all of which fell under the post-industrial music label. The most notable hybrid genres were industrial rock and industrial metal, which include bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, who both released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s. The Industrial music genre has and still is an underground genre. As stated by Bret D. Woods in "Industrial Music for Industrial People: The History and the Development of an Underground Scene" (1), 'as a genre of music that has never pervaded the charts of popular music, Industrial is often over-looked by scholars and casual listeners alike, In addition, the Notion of overall sound of Industrial is not as accessible as it is in other genres, and this contributes to the ambiguity of its classification. Despite its seeming anonymity, Industrial has profound impact on many genres of music throughout its history to the present.' (http://www.scribid.com/)
     There is a mass amount of sub-genres derived from Industrial, such as:

•  EBM (Electronic Body Music)
•  IDM (Industrial Damce Music)
•  Aggrotech
•  Dark Wave
•  Electro-Industrial
•  Glitch
•  Industrial Rock
•  Industrial Metal
•  Electro
•  Futurepop
•  Synthpop
•  Industrial Dance
•  Dark Electro
•  Dark Ambient
•  Power Noise
•  Ambient
•  Neofolk
•  Japannoise
•  Terror EBM
•  Hellektro
•  Ultraviolence
•  Industrial

    Most of Industrial songs were created on violence, fetish, sexual deviance, and/or just about being anti-government (Bringing similarity to Punk). During the 1980s, Industrial music progressed from being an obscure, experimentalist style, to a position striaght-ahead for a growing audience unenthused by limp-wristed alternative music. In the 1990s, Industrial had split along a guitar/electronics divide, with the latter usually carrying on the tradition of EBM. America's Cleopatra Records featured the most industrial acts including Leather Strip, Spahn Ranch, and Die Krupps as well, in the 90s.