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The term Industrial Music refers to quite a range of musical styles. I consider "Industrial" to be a top-level categorisation of music in the same way that "Metal" and "Goth" are. All have multiple sub categories. Some of the major subcategories in industrial, as I use them, are:

Metal Industrial
Guitars with drum-based rhythms. Vocals can be anything from sweet goth-style ambience to chanting and shouting. Die Krupps, Ministry, Razed In Black, Second Skin, some NIN

EBM/industrial
A cross between industrial, techno and pop. Sweet synth lines with samples, industrial dance beats, less emphasis on guitar work and very electronic. Front Line Assembly, Sneaky Bat Machine, :Wumpscut:, VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, Icon of Coil, Covenant. Most the Industrial you here in goth and fetish night clubs will be EBM industrial. I also place Ultraviolence here, although they don't really sound much like the others.

Ambient Industrial
A hard to classify genre, is like sweet rolling dance with eerie samples, smoothed out drum machines and non-harsh (non-metal) vocals. Haujobb, Nine Inch Nails (kind of). Most Industrial and EBM albums contain one or more ambient industrial tracks.

Traditional Industrial
The original industrial bands have been listed as 'My life with the Thrill Kill Kult', 'Skinny Puppy', 'Godflesh', 'Ministry', 'Throbbing Gristle' and 'Coil'. I would also add Boyd Rice/NON to that list.

Power Noise
High distortion, high noise, dance orientated, no vocals, extreme. Eg, Converter, Noisex, :Wumpscut:

Futurepop
This is one of the latest developments in industrial and alternative dance music. VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, Assemblage 23 recently have all produced highly pop-influenced albums. Sometimes it is difficult to still classify these albums as Industrial, but there is no other suitable genre for them to fall under. Epitomized by sweet synth lines and drum machines, with clear singing and techno style layers.

The changing over time of the word "Industrial" so that it no longer means only the traditional industrial bands:

"Goth" was originally Siousxie sioux, etc, but over the time the definition changed and bands such as Specimen are now called "Trad Goth" and the term 'goth' refers to more than just the traditional goth bands. With industrial the term has widened in this way too. Rather than try to stop the evolution of terms (which is inevitable) we have to accept it... otherwise we grow to be old, tired, annoying people that sound more like our parents "You call that music?" than someone who listens to music no matter what genre people classify it as.

We now have traditional goth, metal goth, goth industrial, lots of types of Goth music including Bleepy Bloopy goth (not an official term...).

We also have different types of industrial. Personally I just go with the flow and accept these changes. One moment I'm listening to synthpop, or EBM, or darkwave, the next I'm listening to FuturePop. I don't care what people call it, but in order to enjoy the music and the scene if the definitions change accepting it does me more good than resisting.

We have traditional, original Industrial (such as the bands as 'Industrial' originally applied to). But also EBM (which some Americans and Trad Industrial purists call synth-pop... I wouldn't classify synth-pop to be the same as EBM though), noise, power noise, power electronics, metal industrial and even ambient industrial. Notably German, North European and English, the sounds associated with the word "Industrial" have come in this day and age to mean more than they did when the only Industrial bands were the original innovators.

It's acceptable for you to call it "Real/True Industrial" or "Original Industrial"... in other genres (Black Metal and Goth are two I know to have followed this route too) the same has happened. The term "Black Metal" has expanded so now the original, true black metal is defined as a subcategory of the music genre it itself inspired. Industrial is no exception... although fans of the "traditional" bands of most genres frequently state that they don't accept the new types, it's tough, that's the way it goes.

That's how I see it anyway. I don't care what music is called (there's not much point arguing against me personally because I'm simply not responsible for classifying music, I merely learn the "labels" applied to music I like, I have no personal attachment to the words themselves, just the music) because I love the music.


By Vexen Crabtree 2002 Oct