Industrial Music for Industrial People: the History and Development of an Underground Genre Bret D
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 Industrial Music for Industrial People: The History and Development of an Underground Genre Bret D. Woods Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC INDUSTRIAL MUSIC FOR INDUSTRIAL PEOPLE: THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNDERGROUND GENRE By BRET D. WOODS A thesis submitted to the College of Music In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Bret D. Woods All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Bret Woods defended on June 6, 2007. ________________________________ Frank D. Gunderson Professor Directing Thesis ________________________________ Michael B. Bakan Committee Member ________________________________ Jane Piper Clendinning Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to mention Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), who wrote several of my favorite stories, including Blade Runner, and H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), who wrote the Cthulhu mythos, among other works, both of whose works inspire me greatly. In addition, I thank the committee, Dr. Frank D. Gunderson, Dr. Michael B. Bakan, and Dr. Jane Piper Clendinning, for their critical eyes, wonderful hearts, and intelligent brains as well as their willingness to see this project unfold. I thank the industrial music community for providing me with an interesting topic as well as many years of fun listening to and participating in music. I especially thank my friend and informant Paul Vermeren, who also wished to see this project realized; I hope it is good FGM reading. Finally, but primarily, I thank three immensely important people, Lyndsey Thornton, Kathryn, and Meredith, who make my life whole. I am appreciative of their love, support, insight, and counsel in my academic and other life endeavors. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES vi ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION Brief definitions 1 What is industrial music? 3 Purpose and significance 4 Background 6 Literature review 10 CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT Theoretical issues 16 Methodology 18 Problematic terms 19 Unpacking and discussing text 21 CHAPTER 2: INDUSTRIAL RECORDS AND BEYOND: EARLY INFLUENCES AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF STYLE A new genre: Industrial Records 27 Industrial culture and bourgeois society leading to May 1968 32 Electronic music, experimental music 35 Further background: The Futurists 38 Historiography: The history of industrial music since its inception 39 Further historical influences, artists, and contributions 41 Changes in industrial style 45 CHAPTER 3: ISSUES OF TEXT Dystopian embrace 57 Industrial music in the contemporary mind: How is the term “industrial” used? 59 Issues in communicating about the music: Intertextuality 64 Re-interpretive moves through instruments, images, and the concern for authenticity 67 The analysis of a work and its impact on genre 77 CHAPTER 4: ISSUES OF CONTEXT The industrial aesthetic 84 Community, acceptance and catharsis: The application of the industrial aesthetic 87 Social, historical, and cultural contexts 89 Production and reception 91 iv Industrial people for industrial music: Ethnographic interviews and analysis 92 CONCLUSION Traditional genre theory, structuralism and definitions 99 Genre, communication, and conceptualization 104 The paradox of genre 105 Why debate genre? 107 APPENDICES A: Industrial Records discography 111 B: Political art and the founders of industrial culture 113 C: A century of electronic musical instruments, 1876 – 1976. 123 D: Futurist manifesto 128 E: Album art, film art 130 F: Dystopian images 139 G: Most used interview questions 144 H: Select interview transcripts 146 Interview 1: Paul Vermeren 146 Interview 2: Livejournal industrial community 161 Interview 3: Industrial community questionnaire 172 Interview 4: The Castle, Tampa, FL 180 I: Sound examples 185 J: Human subjects board waiver 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 194 v LIST OF FIGURES 1. COUM transmissions, advertisement flyer. 28 2. COUM transmissions, Cease to Exist 4. 28 3. Front 242 Poster. 49 4. Varying rivethead style. 50 5. The development of industrial music. 55 6. The communicative versatility of the generic title. 56 7. Potential cognitive genre placement of industrial music and related genres. 62 8. A model of formal features of a contemporary industrial music text. 62 9. The cover of the movie Gunhed. 70 10. Poster for the movie Blade Runner. 71 11. The cover of 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Throbbing Gristle. 72 12. The cover of The Second Annual Report by Throbbing Gristle. 72 13. The cover of The First Annual Report by Throbbing Gristle. 73 14. The cover of Solipsik by SPK. 73 15. The cover of Odio Bajo El Alma by Hocico. 74 16. The cover of the self-titled album Feindflug by Feindflug. 74 17. The prototypical minor 1-6-5(-3) pattern. 78 18. Repeating rhythm part in “Awaken the Ghost” by Tactical Sekt. 81 19. An industrial music text situated within context. 90 20. The role of genre in linking a text between its producers and interpreters. 102 vi ABSTRACT Industrial music was born in 1976 in London, England with the creation of Industrial Records. Originally, “industrial music” referred to the musical output of the label, which included a variety of experimental, electronic, often noise-oriented compositions, altered instruments, and music-accompanied performance art. The first artists that recorded at Industrial Records were Throbbing Gristle, Non (Boyd Rice), Cabaret Voltaire, The Leather Nun, Surgical Penis Klinik, and Clock DVA; each sharing a similar anti-bourgeois rejection of mainstream culture and social order. Since those early days (often deemed the “first wave,” 1976–c.1982) industrial music has come to represent any underground electronic music either directly tied to or influenced by Industrial Records as well as those musicians who share in the cultural and musical aesthetic of industrial. In the second decade as the genre grew in relative popularity (referred to as the “second wave,” c.1982–c.1990), several sub-genres emerged and many bands began to change the shape, sound, and style of the genre as the fan base became more populous and diverse. This thesis examines the elements that comprise this broadly-encompassing music genre, the influence it has had throughout history, and its current concepts and practice in order for a well-informed and contextually working definition to become evident. What follows is a look into the history of industrial music since its inception three decades ago, as well as a genre-based approach to music. The focus of this study is three-fold. First, the ambiguity of industrial music will be addressed by discussing the history and development of the genre. Second, the textual versus contextual aspects of industrial culture, and of the music itself, will be explored. Lastly, the nature of genre in music will be addressed. This thesis will look at genre in the theoretical sense, as it represents communication in culture. In communication about music–stylistic elements, genre classification, influences, history, and sound–generalized speech become part of a dialogue which consists of shared understanding about issues of text and context concerning the music. In industrial culture we can see an example of how these issues can generate debate regarding the nature of genre, as well as how genre studies can reveal an understanding of the music not only through its purely musical features, but through communicative elements of culture. vii INTRODUCTION Even though many people rightly quote punk as a turning point in late seventies music, important in its own way was the “Industrial Revolution” that came along in its wake. The Cabs and [Throbbing Gristle] were forward-looking, creating a music that reflected the technological disassociation and dislocation of its age. It was a homegrown movement. Industrial music started out as essentially a British phenomenon. There wasn’t a hint of anything American about it. No recycling of blues or R & B riffs. It saw the world as a mess of sound; a harsh, bleak landscape. In effect the reality that many people had to live with every day, particularly through the eighties. It wasn’t escapist or full of the frills or trappings of rock ‘n’ roll. Bands like the Cabs, Clock DVA and TG held a mirror up to British life, and a lot of what was reflected wasn’t very pretty. With their noises, cut-ups, walls of sound, ethnic strains and synthesized bleeps, the early industrial groups were awash with the flotsam and jetsam of modern life. A snapshot in time. It wasn’t that different from the Dadaists and surrealists of the twenties who had jumbled up and reassembled their version of reality. Or, in the late fifties when Burroughs and Gysin had stumbled across cut-up writing as a way of peeking into the future. TG and the Cabs opened up a similar schism. The fact that many others have produced more musically adept and proficient ways of saying the same thing is to miss the point. It is probably better to learn from those who have kicked down the stable door, than from the horses that bolt out of it. Of course, it is just a fact of life that the horses will always earn more money and achieve greater acclaim.1 Brief definitions Industrial music exists in a nebulous realm to those who concern themselves with thinking about it. As a genre of music that has never pervaded the charts of popular music, industrial is often overlooked by scholars and casual listeners alike. In addition, the notion of the overall soundscape of industrial–what the music sounds like–is not as accessible as it is in other genres, and this contributes to the ambiguity of its classification.