Genre story · Experimental
Noise
Sound that rock and pop usually try to remove becomes the main musical material.
Noise music includes Experimental work centered on distortion, feedback, saturation, static and deliberately unruly sound. Its roots reach back through twentieth-century artistic and electronic experiments, while post-industrial and underground scenes developed much harsher approaches. Japanese musicians including Merzbow helped make a particularly extreme form, often called harsh noise, widely known to experimental listeners in the 1980s and 1990s. The word describes a family of practices rather than one stable instrumentation.
Distortion without a rock song
A noise piece may contain continuous feedback, rapidly changing electronic signals or textured sounds made from physical objects. There may be no beat, harmony or recognizable song structure. Elsewhere, pulses or repeated gestures become central. Close listening reveals changes in density and frequency, even when the overall volume appears constant.
Not the same as Noise Rock
Noise Rock generally places abrasive sounds inside some version of a rock-band framework. Noise music does not require guitars or a rhythm section. Industrial and experimental electronic music can share tools with noise, while having different histories and intentions. Those distinctions help Explain why Merzbow and The Jesus Lizard should not simply inherit the same genre tag.
Listening landmarks
- 1975Lou ReedMetal Machine MusicAn influential and divisive early rock-associated wall of guitar feedback, included as a precursor.
- 1981WhitehouseErectorA confronting early power-electronics recording.
- 1996MerzbowPulse DemonA frequently cited example of relentless Japanese harsh noise.