In the mid 1970s a group of artfags got together and formed a music group from the ashes of their performance art project "Coum transmissions". Shitting and pissing on each other in public while walking over glass wasn't edgy enough and didn't gather enough attention so they decided music would be a better platform to transmit their social agenda onto the masses. They chose the name "Throbbing Gristle" which is British slang for "erect penis" and rented out a space in an old building which they would call "The Death Factory", later on they would meet a kindred spirit by the name "Monte Cazazza" who would come up with the phrase "Industrial music for Industrial people" and thus Industrial records was born. The group Throbbing Gristle was based around similar provocative and transgressive themes as their previous art project "Coum transmissions", they would incorporate elements of noise, music concrete and punk (though not to be connected to the punk rock genre in any way) and from their experimentations in the Death Factory Industrial music came to be. Over time they would come to meet other bands such as SPK and Cabaret Voltaire and release some of their music through their "Industrial Records" label, though these bands have nothing to do with the genre "Industrial music" itself. Industrial music is the most bastardized and confused genre to have ever come to be, it is explicitly a form of experimental electronic noise music but overtime came to be confused with New Wave, electronic rock, EBM and clingclang art music, none of which are Industrial. The name itself causes a ton of confusion as people hear the term "Industrial music" and automatically assume it has something to do with construction sites and jackhammers, rather the term "Industrial music" was a reference to the alienated and dehumanized commercial society of the late 20th century.
The sonic characteristics of Industrial music are discordant and atonal, it is basically the sound of a schizophrenic senile alcoholic in their 90s listening to free jazz made entirely using electronic equipment and an old broken guitar.
And that folks is Industrial music.
The next time you see some punk with an Einsturzende Neubauten t-shirt talking shit about bands like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy and trying to sound elitist about Industrial music, slap him across the face and remind that poser that he doesn't even know what the genre is in the first place!
