Before Nine Inch Nails: How Industrial Became Pop

What is Industrial? In its original form it was an aggressively mechanistic and uncompromising sound formed of tape-loops, samples, often self-made synths and electronics. Bands like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Nurse With Wound and Einstürzende Neubauten produced avant garde noise that thumbed its nose at pop music as a production line and made sounds from the literal tools of production. But how did it get from its pipe-bashing, static-cloaked anti-music guise to the music soundtracking in the club scenes in The Matrix? What were the essential steps along the way? And how did Nine Inch Nails force Industrial into the charts? This is How Industrial Became Pop. #nineinchnails #industrialmusic #musicdocumentary Fact-checking and Additional Writing by Serenity Autumn and Chad Van Wagner. 00:00 Introduction 00:44 Musique Concrete, Tape Loops & Noise 04:09 1977- Punks, David Lynch & Metall Auf Metall 06:48 Daniel Miller, The Normal & Mute 08:08 Throbbing Gristle & The Birth of Industrial 11:20 Nurse With Wound & Whitehouse 13:36 Cabaret Voltaire & Clock DVA 16:48 Post-Punk Fusing With Industrial 19:05 DAF 20:58 Einstürzende Neubauten 23:54 Some Bizarre Records 28:16 Depeche Mode & Industrial in the Charts 30:39 Skinny Puppy & Electro-Industrial 33:11 Industrial Goings-On Elsewhere 37:30 Nitzer Ebb & Electronic Body Music 38:58 The Beginnings of Industrial Hip-Hop 42:20 Ministry & Wax Trax! Records 46:31 Nine Inch Nails & Industrial Becoming Pop Bibliography Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music by Alexander S Reed, 2013, Oxford University Press Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds, 2006, Faber & Faber Other Like Me The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle (2021) dir. Marcus Werner Hed & Dan Fox Transformer: The Lou Reed Story by Victor Bockris, 1994, Harper Synth Britannia (2009) dir. Ben Whalley The Delian Mode - Delia Derbyshire Documentary (2009) dir. Kara Blake “Front 242 Interview“ by Paul Moore, Technology Works, date unknown “Whitehouse: The Second Coming“ BY Scorpio, Alternative Press, 1990 “Meet the Beat“ by Steve Cogan, Music Technology, Jan 1991 “Hard as Nails“ by Neil Perry, Select, Mar 1991 “Last Rites for Skinny Puppy“ by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1996 “Cabaret Voltaire“ by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, Feb 2000 “Children of God Swans Review“ by Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork, Jul 2003 “The Story Of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop“ by Steve Marshall, Sound on Sound, Apr 2008 “From Skinny Puppy To Stomp: How Industrial Music Was Built“ by Soundcheck, Jun 2013 “10 Essential Industrial Hip-Hop Albums“ by Treble Staff, Treble, Jan 2014 “80s Essentials – Industrial Revolution: The New Soul Of An Old Machine“ by Last Rites Staff, Last Rites, Mar 2014 “Classic Tracks: Throbbing Gristle ‘Hamburger Lady’“ by Tom Doyle, Sound on Sound, Aug 2015 “10 Essential ’80s Industrial Tracks“ by Treble Staff, Treble, Oct 2015 “Cult heroes: DAF – electro brutalists using hedonism as heroism“ by Paul Lester, The Guardian, Jan 2016 “INDUSTRIAL HISTORY“ by Tim Naylor, Record Collector, Feb 2016 “How Skinny Puppy Changed Metal“ by Alec Chillingworth, Metal Hammer, Nov 2016 “David Gahan reveals stories behind Depeche Mode’s biggest hits“ by Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly, 2017 “Revisiting Eraserhead’s haunting, industrial soundtrack“ by Selim Bulut, Dazed, Mar 2017 “Big Black on ‘Songs About F–king’ at 30: ‘We Wanted to Make Filthy Music’“ by Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, Sep 2017 “Retrospective: Thirty Years of Big Black’s “Songs About F--king”“ by Joseph Schafer, Decibel, Sep 2017 “Metal Machine Music Lou Reed Review“ by Mark Richardson, Pitchfork, Dec 2017 “The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s“ by Pitchfork Staff, Pitchfork, Sep 2018 “The return of... Nitzer Ebb: ‘There was always a lot of sexual energy’“ by Luke Turner, The Guardian, Jan 2019 “The 33 Best Industrial Albums of All Time“ by Pitchfork Staff, Pitchfork, Jun 2019 “Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine at 30“ by Ed Power, Independent, Oct 2019 “Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine Turns 30: 7 Musicians Celebrate Trent Reznor’s Influential Debut Record“ by Chris Harris, Spin Magazine, Oct 2019 “’They’d greet us with fire extinguishers!’: the wild times of Blixa Bargeld“ by Daniel Dylan Wray, The Guardian, May 2020 “A History of Industrial Music in 45 Songs“ by Treble Staff, Treble, Oct 2021 “200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time“ by Jon Dolan, Julyssa Lopez, Michaelangelo Matos & Claire Shaffe, Rolling Stone, Jul 2022 “Pretty Hate Machines: A Beginner’s Guide To Industrial Music“ by Nisha Gopalan, Udiscovermusic, Mar 2023 Soundtrack Luar - Citrine () Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present Luar - Anchor () You can also follow me here: Twitter: Facebook: Or support me on Patreon: