All the better that we write about it then!
Some of the best art is made by disaffected young people in their garages, and it seldom gets the attention it deserves. Lots of really awesome music has fallen into obscurity because of how much easier it is to create, than promote. As far as we're concerned, the more obscure the band, the better! Our only requirement is that some artifact of the band exists somewhere. As long as they recorded music, and we can listen to it today, we're happy to write about them.
If the material isn't readily available online, but you have a copy and would like help getting it out there, please get in touch!
If you'd like your band removed from the site, please get in touch, and we'll help you as soon as possible.
If you'd like to join the editing team here at industrialmusic.org, please get in touch! We'd love the help!
Some band entries have incomplete member lists, or no members listed at all. industrialmusic.org aims to be informative, rather than exhaustive. Some groups, such as Revolting Cocks, and Psychic TV featured a revolving door of interesting characters over their careers. Listing them all would be an exhausting exercise, so we sometimes list only the significant or original members. We're also biased towards listing members associated with other industrial bands.
If you think that we've left something important out of an entry, please get in touch!
Despite often sharing similar textures, aesthetics, and artistic philosophies, most (Capital-N) 'Noise music' is not (Capital-I) 'industrial music'. Noise is a large and diverse genre, encompassing a wide variety of different aesthetics and artistic approaches. From the early, experimental Musique concrète movement, to the modern rhythmic noise characteristic of the Ant-Zen label. The latter we consider Industrial Music, the former we don't.
Don't get us wrong. This isn't to make a value judgement on Noise Music; We love Noise. Noise music has made some serious cultural contributions, and had considerable influence on industrial. The intent of this rule is to restrict the scope of the site for the sake of being informative, and maintainable.
See also this FAQ entry.
We consider 'industrial' to be an aesthetic, and broad philosophical and technological approach to art. Because of this, it can be difficult to draw a single definitive boundary around what is and isn't Capital-I Industrial Music on paper. Despite this, we know Industrial Music when we hear it. The definition might have drifted considerably since the early days of Industrial Records, but there does exists a general consensus on what is and what isn't Industrial Music.
Consider the following: If you were listening to Noise/Neofolk/Hyperpop, or another genre influenced by Industrial Music, and someone asked: 'Is this industrial?', the answer could potentially be 'Yes', but if they asked 'Is this Industrial Music?', the answer is nearly always 'No'.
This site includes 'Industrial Rock' bands like Skrew, and Machines of Loving Grace. Even though this sub-genre shares little in common with other sub-genres of industrial like Aggrotech, they share a clear common lineage, express broadly similar cultures, and are mostly enjoyed by the same people.
This site isn't here to debate definitions, or make value judgements. Our aim is to provide a platform for documenting and discovering industrial music.
Music directory sites that feature user-created content, like Metal Archives, require a prohibitively large investment of time to moderate. After considerable thought, we decided that the burden of protecting the site against vandalism, hacking, and offensive or illegal content is too large to be worthwhile. All things considered, we think a curated directory offers the best experience.
We don't intend to gatekeep: We think it's great that sites like Metal Archives allow people to catalogue obscure artists, and we intend to do the same here. If you think we've forgotten someone, or have a great band to suggest to us, please get in touch!