i've been around the sun 19 times and that's about it
i've been around the sun 19 times and that's about it
Industrial music patron saint Cosey Fanni Tutti.
In 1975, Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti consumed blood, semen and piss onstage in the UK. Government officials labeled them “the Wreckers of Civilization.” A female sex worker, Cosey examined “how men and women interact in a sexually charged/volatile manipulated situation” by fearlessly, shockingly putting her body on display. This was the beginning of industrial music, a genre rooted in taboo and transgression.
The tradition continued. In 1985, Coil’s cover of Tainted Love addressed the AIDS crisis at a time when huge stigma still surrounded the discussion. The release of the single constituted the first AIDS benefit in music history.
In 1988, Skinny Puppy spoke out passionately about animal rights through a series of live shows that involved animal blood and graphic, distressing portrayals of vivisection.
During the Siege of Sarajevo in 1995, Laibach’s NSK diplomatic passports literally saved lives by enabling people to escape from the war zone at a time when Bosnian passports weren’t considered valid. The giants of industrial used subversive tactics to challenge audiences and create new awareness.
But something happened. Once industrial music had fully transitioned from avant-garde venues into nightclubs, the stench of Axe body spray began to dominate the subculture as a certain douchey, bro-tastic vibe emerged. Where the goth/industrial scene had once existed as a safe haven for artists, weirdos, outcasts, geeks, dreamers and rebels, a disturbing trend of sexism, racism and anti-intellectualism is driving people out.
Industrial music was the progeny of a nonbinary trans person, a female sex worker, and a gay man who were collectively pissed off at the world and the way it is and decided to use art as a weapon against anything they felt like targeting. Industrial, noise, power electronics, goth rock, etc. used to be all about using disturbing, confrontational, violent, graphically sexual, and overall shocking visual and musical content to purposely make audiences pay attention to what the hell is going on around them. Industrial was a portal for critical thought and a platform for conveying complex messages through heavily symbolic means.
Somewhere along the line, probably in the mid-90s, things started getting cheap. The complexity of imagery and need for critical thought within industrial was largely eradicated and only the shock value remained. Shocking imagery and controversial usage of media is only as good as the person or persons handling it. Shocking people just for the sake of making them upset or for 3edgy5m3 purposes devalues the artistic medium and genre in question. This is how industrial went from being music for everyday people who liked to think about something beyond their front door to being music for mallgoths and dudebros.
Thankfully there seems to be a resurgence in industrial artists who are using their music to convey deeper messages and complex themes again, and I hope this trend continues. When a genre dumbs down, it dies. Industrial was, and perhaps still is, too intelligent of a genre to die out before its time.
