Industrial music is a complex genre of music with a history dating back at least to the 70's and a origins dating as far back as the origins of electronic music itself. With the marketing which has been given to artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, KMFDM and Chem Lab as "industrial artists" or "the industrial revolution" it is easy to see industrial music as the most recent craze of Industrial music radio. Seemingly a straightforward fusion of speed metal and techno. This viewpoint totally loses what industrial music is about because it is founded on the artists who seek promotion in the mainstream of alternative rock music.
Most will agree the origin of the term Industrial Music came in 1976 when Throbbing Gristle founded Industrial Records as a vendor for deviant artists including themselves, Monte Cazzazza, William S. Burroughs, ClockDVA, & Cabaret Voltaire. Monte Cazzazza continued the thought using a slogan "industrial music for industrial people." The notion of industrial music was intended as a joke aimed at corporate rock, mass pressing of music in factories, records being synonymous with files, etc. The name industrial became a category for deviant musicians and artists connected and influenced by the artists on Industrial Records.
The vision that comes to mind from the term industrial music influenced artists like Einstruzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and SPK together with TG and ClockDVA to explore factories and machines as musical instruments, atmospheres and performance art. Although there are surely forerunners at least as far back as John Cage and musique concrete, Neubauten may be thought to have started one part of industrial music. Including found sound, the usage of junk, and especially the use of heavy machinery and scrap metal in performance and composition of music, Einstruzende Neubauten have on occasion been called the "godfathers of industrial music." TG and Cabaret Voltaire among others have also investigated William S Burroughs' & Brian Gysan's cut up theory as applied to sound. Due to these experiments they were inventing their own samplers and keyboards in the 70's before digital sampling became common in either synthesized pop music or in rap music.
TG broke up into three different projects that continued investigating new types of music. Psychic TV went from noise to dark soundscapes to cut up theory to psychedelic rock to acid house to techno and made the Guinness Book of records for putting out the most albums over a time period. Genesis P-Orrige, the TG member who formed Psychic TV, additionally created (and destroyed) a cult known as the Temple Ov Psychic Youth. Before it's destruction TOPY directly influenced the techno job The Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia among many other experimental musical endeavors. Chris Cosi, formed from Chris Carter and Cosi Fani-Tuti of TG, investigated exotic music and subliminal messages among other paths. Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson (who in the opinion of the writer possesses artistic and technical genius on par with John Cage, William Burroughs, Hank Shocklee and Brian Eno) joined John Balance in the formation of Coil, participated in Steven Stapleton's experimental proj ect Nurse With Wound (the same could also be said here) and has directed videos (for Coil, Nine Inch Nails, The Synthetic Dream Foundation, Ministry, Van Halen, Rage Against The Machine, and Front 242 among others) and short films. Both Coil and Nurse With Wound are very distorted and technically inventive endeavors that sounds unlike any other band out there and change how they create music always. Though the work wasn't used for the film, Clive Barker originally requested Coil do the score for Hellraiser, but the producers rejected Coil due to Mr. Barker describing them as "the band whose records I've to take off because they get my bowels churn." The scores have since got better reviews compared to the movie they were intended for.
