The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 914: The Post-Punk Explosion part 3: Industrial music
By the time we got to the mid-70s, rock had become sufficiently organized so that there were rules. You did things THIS way and not THAT way. Then came punk.
One of the great gifts of punk rock was a reminder that you didn’t have to follow the rules. Once this attitude took hold, things began to fragment, metamorphosize, metastasize, and mutate at an increasingly rapid rate.
The stratification and segmentation were astonishing. Once punk began to cool, the fallout coalesced into what became known as New Wave, an approach that redefined that mainstream rock could sound like. Then New Wave itself began to fragment thanks to technology.
The new, cheaper, portable, and more powerful synthesizer was a godsend. You really didn’t have to know much about music to operate one. You just fiddled with the controls until you found some cool sounds and then organized everything into a song.
As with the original punks, attitude and a willingness to put your music out there were more important than any musical ability–except that instead of using guitars, you did it with this new technology. This was the foundation of what became known as techno-pop which blew up at the end of the 80s.
The momentum was unstoppable. It didn’t take long for techno-pop to separate into different strands which appealed to different people. Some burned out quickly as new variants emerged and then disappeared. But there were also mutations that turned into something so robust and enduring that they still exist today.
This episode is about one such strand that has survived from the post-punk era to today. We call it industrial music.
Songs heard on this program:
- Nine Inch Nails, Head Like a Hole (Slate)
- Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express
- Public Image Ltd, Death Disco
- Cabaret Voltaire, Yashar
- Depeche Mode, Everything Counts
- Ministry, Over the Shoulder
- Skinny Puppy, Dig It
- Front 242, Headhunter
Need a playlist? Here you go courtesy Eric Wilhite.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
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- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
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- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
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- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown The show runs at 11 am Sunday. This, by the way, is a great option for American listeners who are prevented from listening to the show live because of geo-blocking,
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
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Just listened to parts 1,2 and three of your ‘post-punk’ episodes. I am truly confused as to how you could ignore Joy Division, and New Order in relation to electronic music. I don’t know if you are planning to use them later, but Joy Division are considered by many to be ‘the’ post-punk band.
Patience.