Bodies, Noise and Power in Industrial Music (Pop Music, Culture and Identity)

This edited collection delves into the industrial music genre, exploring the importance of music in (sub)cultural identity formation, and the impact of technology on the production of music. With its roots as early as the 1970s, industrial music emerged as a harsh, transgressive, and radically charged genre. The soundscape of the industrial is intense and powerful, adorned with taboo images, and thematically concerned with authority and control. Elemental to the genre is critical engagement with configurations of the body and related power. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this collection analyses the treatment of subjects like the Body (animal, human, machine), Noise (rhythmic, harsh) and Power (authority, institutions, law) in a variety of industrial music’s elements. Throughout the collection, these three subjects are interrogated by examining lyrics, aesthetics, music videos, song writing, performance and audience reception. The chapters have been carefully selected to produce a diverse and intersectional perspective, including work on Black industrial musicians and Arabic and North African women’s collaborations. Rather than providing historical context, the contributors interpret the finer elements of the aesthetics and discourses around physical bodies and power as expressed in the genre, expanding the ‘industrial’ boundary and broadening the focus beyond white European industrial music. Contents 6 Notes on Contributors 8 List of Figures 11 Chapter 1: Introduction: Assemblages and Interventions 12 First Plateau 12 Second Plateau 13 Third Plateau 14 Fourth Plateau 16 Fifth Plateau 17 Bodies, Noise, Power 18 Works Cited 29 Chapter 2: “My Body Disgusts Me”: Swans, Biopolitics, and the Hangman’s Noose of Success 30 Works Cited 45 Chapter 3: Nafada: Industrial, Hip-Hop, and the Diasporic Condition 47 Industrial Music and Its Aesthetic 51 The Influence of Hip-Hop 53 The Diasporic Condition and Resisting Hegemony 56 Hip-Hop and Muslim Identities 57 Rewriting MENA Identities 60 Works Cited 61 Chapter 4: “The Odds of the Body”: Clipping. and Escaping the Power Hold on the Black Body 65 Works Cited 79 Chapter 5: All Too Human: Industrial Bodies and Anti-bodies in the Time of AIDS 81 Anti-human Biopower 85 Coil’s Tainted Love 90 Works Cited 95 Chapter 6: Chance Meeting: Disembodied Voices in the Work of Nurse with Wound and Cabaret Voltaire 97 Premonition 97 A Precise History of Industrial Music 98 The Dadda’s Intoxication 99 Ghostalk 100 (I Don’t Want to Have) Easy Listening 102 Messages Received 104 The Power (of Their Knowledge) 105 Double Vision 107 Scissor Rock Bicycle Revelation 109 The Continuous Accident 111 From Another Source 112 Works Cited 114 Chapter 7: The Last Attempt at Paradise: Early Industrial Culture in Kansas 118 The Tragedy of Princess the Poodle: Short-Term Memory 124 LARD: The Ambience of Everyday Life 128 Schloss Tegal: The Failed Exorcism 132 Works Cited 136 Chapter 8: Industrial Music and Inner Experience: Aural Abrasion as a Window to Post-Subjectivity 137 The Abandonment of the Lyric 140 Arrhythmia 144 The Advent of the Aural Posthuman 148 Works Cited 149 Chapter 9: The Occultural Side of Industrial: From Its Origins to Industrial Black Metal 151 Works Cited 167 Chapter 10: “Happiness in Slavery,” or Industrial Erotic 171 Works Cited 183 Works Cited 184 Index 201 Offers a multi-disciplinary perspective on the key aspects of industrial music. The book includes analysis and interviews with artists, bands and video makers involved in the scene. First book on industrial music and culture to address explicitly intersectional elements on race, gender and sexualityTable of contents (10 chapters)Introduction: Assemblages and InterventionsElizabeth Potter, Jason WhittakerPages 1-18“My Body Disgusts Me”: Swans, Biopolitics, and the Hangman’s Noose of SuccessJames McCreaPages 19-35Nafada: Industrial, Hip-Hop, and the Diasporic Condition Rachael Gunn, Susie Khamis, Steve CollinsPages 37-54“The Odds of the Body”: Clipping. and Escaping the Power Hold on the Black Body Daniel GillespiePages 55-70All Too Human: Industrial Bodies and Anti-bodies in the Time of AIDSJason WhittakerPages 71-86Chance Meeting: Disembodied Voices in the Work of Nurse with Wound and Cabaret VoltaireRupert LoydellPages 87-107The Last Attempt at Paradise: Early Industrial Culture in KansasFrancis X. ConnorPages 109-127Industrial Music and Inner Experience: Aural Abrasion as a Window to Post-SubjectivityJay FraserPages 129-142The Occultural Side of Industrial: From Its Origins to Industrial Black Metal M. Cecilia Marchetto SantorunPages 143-162“Happiness in Slavery,” or Industrial EroticElizabeth PotterPages 163-175