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Noise rock
Experimental rock music mixed with noise From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Noise rock is a rock music genre that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Artists fuse rock music to noise, while utilizing extreme levels of distortion through the use of electric guitars.
Notable acts include Sonic Youth, Big Black, Swans, Flipper, Cows, Scratch Acid, No Trend and the Jesus Lizard.[2][3][4]
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Noise rock is a term that can refer to two distinct styles[5], each stemming from different influences and stylistic origins. In the early 1980s, music critic Robert Christgau coined the term "pigfuck" to describe Sonic Youth[6], the label later took a life of its own encompassing artists like Big Black, the Jesus Lizard, Flipper, Cows, Scratch Acid and No Trend who were more rooted in the post-hardcore and post-punk scenes and often associated with labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go.[7][8] The other strain of the genre originated in the late 1960s with more art-based influences, aligning itself with avant-garde music and psychedelic rock, pioneered by bands like the Velvet Underground and Les Rallizes Dénudés and later Fushitsusha and Boredoms.[9] Bands like Sonic Youth incorporated both the genre’s punk rooted origins as well as its art-damaged sound, by including the use of alternate tunings and unconventional techniques, such as playing guitar with drumsticks.
Sonic Youth are the only noise rock band to achieve commercial success with the single "100%" from their album "Dirty" reaching #4 on the US charts[10] with frontman Thurston Moore[11] stating:
"Noise has taken the place of punk rock. People who play noise have no real aspirations to being part of the mainstream culture. Punk has been co-opted, and this subterranean noise music and the avant-garde folk scene have replaced it."
Additionally, the no wave scene helped further develop the sound of noise rock, with the compilation album "No New York" serving as a pivotal influence. Subsequently, bands like Sonic Youth and Swans, emerged out of the scene as key noise rock artists, drawing inspiration from no wave composers Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham.[12]
Noise rock fuses rock to noise, usually with recognizable "rock" instrumentation, but with greater use of distortion and electronic effects, varying degrees of atonality, improvisation, and white noise.
While noise rock has never had any wide mainstream popularity, the raw, distorted and feedback-intensive sound of some noise rock bands had an influence on shoegaze, which enjoyed some popularity in the 90s, especially in the UK, and grunge, the most commercially successful with Nirvana's final studio album In Utero produced by Steve Albini and generally taking influences from bands like Big Black, Wipers, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr.[13] and the Jesus Lizard. The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was a major influence, particularly on the early work of Soundgarden.[14] Other influential acts were Wisconsin's Killdozer, Chicago's Big Black, and most notably San Francisco's Flipper, a band known for its slowed-down, murky and sludgy sound.
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History
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Forerunners (1960s)
During the mid-to late 1960s, the use of guitar feedback and distortion in rock music was becoming further incorporated by garage and acid rock bands, with its predominance being primarily pioneered by artists such as the Who, the Yardbirds, the Monks,[15] Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead whose guitar playing and techniques were beginning to border on noise.[16]
In 1968, the Velvet Underground released White Light/White Heat, which was later widely recognized as the first noise rock album, with Spin magazine deeming it the genre's "ur-text".[17][18] Guitarist Lou Reed drew influence from free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, incorporating feedback as well as a discordant approach to electric guitar.[19] Although, some contemporaneous underground experimental and psychedelic rock groups were later recognized by music critics as early pioneers of what would become noise rock such as Michael Yonkers,[20] Cromagnon,[21] Pärson Sound, the Godz,[22] Fifty Foot Hose, the Sperm and Nihilist Spasm Band.[23][24] Most notable of these groups would be Les Rallizes Denudés, formed in Kyoto, Japan in 1967, who drew inspiration from the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat, and later influenced several artists in the early Japanese noise and acid rock scene.[25]
Additionally, U.S. experimental music groups would also prove influential, such as the Residents who released a noisy version of "Satisfaction" in 1976,[26][27] and Half Japanese, whose 1977 EP Calling All Girls later influenced Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain.[28]
Origins (1970s-1980s)
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The term "noise rock" was coined on July 22, 1972 by writer Nat Freedland in an issue of Billboard magazine, the article outlined the influence of Germany's krautrock scene on English rock bands like Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, which was then followed by Freedland stating, "Is America the next step for teutonic noise rock?"[29] During the late 1970s to early 1980s, the term "noise rock" became associated with an offshoot of punk groups that showcased an increasingly abrasive approach.[17]
By the late 1970s, the advent of punk rock and post-punk, inspired bands in adopting a more abrasive approach to rock music, some of these early artists included San Francisco's influential acid-punk band Chrome[30] (later covered by the Jesus Lizard), as well as art-punk group MX-80 Sound who influenced Steve Albini[31][32] and Sonic Youth.[33] However, most notable of these artists were Nick Cave's experimental post-punk band the Birthday Party. Inspired by the Pop Group,[34] they went on to influence "a generation of US noise-rock groups, from Sonic Youth to Big Black and the Jesus Lizard".[35] Other influences include This Heat,[36] Swell Maps, Wire, the Fall and Pere Ubu.[37] In addition, "Weird Noise E.P." the British DIY punk various artists 7" single released in 1979 was the earliest noise rock compilation album.
Guitarist Steve Albini of noise rock band Big Black stated in 1984 in an article that "good noise is like orgasm". He commented: "Anybody can play notes. There's no trick. What is a trick and a good one is to make a guitar do things that don't sound like a guitar at all. The point here is stretching the boundaries."[38] He said that Ron Asheton of the Stooges "made squealy death noise feedback" on "Iggy's monstruous songs".[38] Albini also mentioned John McKay of Siouxsie and the Banshees, saying: "The Scream is notable for a couple of things: only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs".[38] Albini also said that Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd had this "ability to make an excruciating noise come out of his guitar".[38] Additionally, Andy Gill of Gang of Four would incorporate drawn-out abrasive guitar feedback on their song "Love Like Anthrax".
In an article about noise rock, Spin wrote that the US compilation album No New York, produced by Brian Eno and released in 1978 was an important document of the late '70s New York no wave scene that acted as an influence to bands like Sonic Youth and Swans. It featured several songs of Lydia Lunch's first band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks along with material of other groups Mars, DNA and James Chance and the Contortions,[39] other bands who were not featured on the compilation such as Theoretical Girls, Suicide, the Notekillers, Red Transistor, the Static and Jack Ruby[40] were also influential to the scene.
1980s
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In the 1980s, Big Black, Sonic Youth and Swans were the leading figures of noise rock with becoming Sonic Youth the first noise rock band to get signed by a major label in 1990.[41] Other influential groups were Scratch Acid, Oxbow, Barkmarket, the Dead C and No Trend. Noise rock bands like Ruins and Bitch Magnet began drawing influences from math rock. Subsequently, Japan would also contribute with influential bands such as High Rise, Boredoms, Zeni Geva and Mainliner. Later notable bands of the noise rock scene included Cows, Brainbombs, Steve Albini's Rapeman, Season to Risk[42] and Unsane.[43]
1990s-2000s
Subsequently, as genres like post-hardcore developed into the early 1990s, noise rock bands such as Mclusky, U.S. Maple, Polvo, Unwound, Drive Like Jehu, Today Is the Day and Cherubs began further incorporating these influences into the noise rock genre whilst bands like Helmet infused influences indebted to heavy metal, and most notably Brainiac who merged post-hardcore with synth-punk. Steve Albini formed the influential noise rock band Shellac in 1992, further proliferating the genre, while the Jesus Lizard emerged in the early 1990s as a "leading noise rock band" in the American scene with their "willfully abrasive and atonal" style.[44]
Later on in the 1990s, the term "noise punk" began developing with the band Lightning Bolt serving as key players in the 2000s noise punk scene in Providence, Rhode Island centered around the Fort Thunder art music venue, although Brian Gibson, the band's bassist, is dismissive of the noise punk label, stating "I hate, hate, hate the category "noise-punk" I really don't like being labeled with two words that have so much baggage. It's gross."[45][46] Other noise punk artists include Arab on Radar, Liars, Boris, the Flying Luttenbachers, Zs, Laddio Bolocko, Hella, Royal Trux and Harry Pussy. In Japan, notable noise rock bands began to emerge out of the Japanoise scene, such as Fushitsusha, EX-Girl, Destroy 2 and Space Streakings.
Notable noise rock bands that emerged in the early 2000s were Daughters, Japandroids, METZ, the Goslings and Death from Above 1979. As well as poppier acts such as Pissed Jeans, Dope Body and Karp.[5]
2010s-2020s
During the early 2010s, noise rock artists such as Gilla Band, Whores and Mannequin Pussy emerged onto the scene. London's Windmill scene pioneers Black Midi's debut album was referred to as noise rock by Rolling Stone.[47] In 2018, Daughters released You Won't Get What You Want, which became a critically acclaimed noise rock album.[48][49][50][51]
Subsequently, bands like Sprain[52] and Chat Pile[53] would later follow, gaining prominence as noise rock groups.
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Related genres
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Pigfuck
Pigfuck is a noise rock microgenre coined by music critic Robert Christgau in the early 1980s,[54] the term was originally used to describe the caustic sounds of emerging noise rock band Sonic Youth (similar to another term he coined "skronk" as a descriptor for jagged and noisy guitar music).[55] Later taking on a life of its own, pigfuck became associated with the sounds of post-hardcore adjacent bands like Big Black, Butthole Surfers, Cows, Scratch Acid, No Trend and Flipper as well as artists on labels such as Touch and Go Records and Amphetamine Reptile Records.[56]
Noisecore
Noisecore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and noise music which emerged in the mid-1980s. Notable acts include Melt-Banana, Gore Beyond Necropsy, Fat Day and the Gerogerigegege.
Shitgaze
Shitgaze is an early internet microgenre coined[57] in the early 2000s by the Midwestern rock band Psychedelic Horseshit who pioneered a brand of noise rock they dubbed "shitgaze". Notable acts include the Hospitals, No Age,[58] Times New Viking[59], early Wavves, Grave Babies, Sic Alps[60], Vivian Girls[61], Sealings, early Best Coast[62][63][64], Meth Teeth, Pink Reason, the Bitters, Eat Skull and P.H.F.[65][66][67]
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